Living Archaeological Sites: Documenting and Uplifting 2,700 Years of Cultural-Ecological Heritage in Sts’ailes Territory, SW British Columbia

Abstract

This study advocates for shifting archaeological praxes to ones that include ecological heritage—biotic features of a landscape that hold cultural, educational, and historical significance. Historically, archaeologists have tended to overlook ecological heritage, such as “living sites,” emphasizing built heritage and manufactured tools and features over ecosystems shaped and stewarded by people. We bring together archaeological, ecological, and archival data, combined with the memories of Sts’ailes Elders and knowledge holders, to document the long-term history of one anthropogenic landscape in Sts’ailes territory of southwestern British Columbia. Our data show that people shaped and enhanced local vegetation processes over time, resulting in forest garden ecosystems that continue to grow both within and outside of other archaeological evidence of past lives lived. By tracing the historical ecology of a single locale over three millennia, we consider the extent to which ecological heritage such as forest gardens can be documented, analyzed, reimagined, and revitalized in community contexts as continuously living and used sites.