The discovery of ‘extremely unusual’ of Wampum Beeds in Ferryland is considered to be the first of the province

Archaeologists made a rare discovery before this summer at the East Coast of Newfoundland when they discovered what the first vempum beads found in the province are considered.

Memorial University Archaeology Graduate Student Calum Bridan crossed seven beads, while digging in the colony of Avallon in Ferryland, which is the site of the early settlement of Newfoundland’s early settlement, which was Baron George Calvert of Baltimore, Baltimore.

Breedon said, “It was a very clear thing,” Breedon said, “First, he was not completely certain what he dug.”

“I had a part that felt that it is a shell beed and it had not just clicked enough … I was not really thinking that I would be one to find them. So, took me a second.”

Vampum is of white and purple tubular beads made from Quahog and Whailk balls. They were used by indigenous people on the continental northeast North America for decorative and formal purposes, and they were woven into belts as menmonic devices to record traditions, historical events, diplomacy and laws.

He was also used as a currency and for trading, and how a group of archaeologists working in Ferryland believe that they arrived in Avallon’s colony.

Breedon said, “English traders or Dutch traders might have traded with indigenous people, acquired them … and then brought them to Ferland and again traded them here.”

While Avallon’s colony is considered one of the best protected and most important early European settlements in North America, it is one of the worst documents, according to Barry Galton, Professor of Archeology at St. John Campus of Memorial University.

He said that the discovery of Wampam is important for the understanding of researchers of life in the 17th century colony, which was established as a place for Roman Catholics to avoid religious harassment in England.

“You think of Ferryland as a small isolated fishing village in the 1600s, but the people of Ferryland were trading, communicating with various people in different parts of North America and Continental Europe,” Gaulton said.

“So, these pieces are actually a solid reminder of those connections.”

About two million artifacts have been found on the site, as the excavation began in 1992 under a community-university research partnership, including gold coins and a copper cross.

Galton said that new artifacts are added to every excavation season, sometimes on a weekly basis. This is the result of a careful procedure-after which the soil is dropped with the help of a wet screen.

Nevertheless, this heat has been “extraordinary”, Galton said, changed many unexpected discoveries.

He said, “We found some pieces of small gaming made from slate that were produced locally in Ferryland in the 1620s. Therefore, it tells you a little about some craft activities and holiday activities of the people here,” he said.

“We found some new structural remains this year that we did not expect, so it replaces our interpretation of colony and layout and the buildings here.”

One of the areas where a new infrastructure was found, where Bridan came across Vampam – in the cold storage area, known as butter, also discovered the first hidden walls.

This is such a discovery that is something special for him to work in the colony of Avallon.

“Most sites that we get, I think, in the Atlantic Canada, most of the people from this time are usually going to be wooden places. You are not going to these big stone structures,” Breedon said.

“Apart from this, only the amount of artifacts, their conservation is really only incredible … it is very unique in that regard.”

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