This archaeological site could prove humans lived in northern Sask. earlier than we thought [Video]

On a river bend in the boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan, archeaologist Andrea Freeman is chipping away hardened soils thousands of years old. She places a small piece of charcoal in a test tube, to be taken back to a lab and radiocarbon-dated. 

“Once we analyze the samples, we can get a sense of what plants and animals were available on the landscape for these people,” she said.

Freeman is part of a team of archaeologists studying a site near Prince Albert, Sask., which researchers believe could prove Indigenous people lived in the region potentially about 1,000 years earlier than current historical evidence shows. The first humans are believed to have moved into the area some time after the receding of glaciers about 10,000 years ago, although there is currently no precise timeline on when they arrived.

Archaeologists from the University of Calgary and the University of Saskatchewan are now …