Hello readers, its been a while! This is Robyn Lacy, 2022 president of the NLAS. Since our last blog post and AGM, our board members have taken a much-needed break, and have been working hard behind the scenes to get the NLAS ready for the 2022 season. We had our second meeting of the year with the board, and have a lot of really exciting things in the works for the upcoming year! It’s getting warmer outside, archaeologists are itching to pick up their trowels and shovels, and we hope you’ll join us for some cool events!

NLAS x Admiralty House Dig

We have teamed up with Admiralty House Communications Museum in Mount Pearl this year! Our board member Elsa Simms is the museum director there, we are planning a small survey and excavation to take place on the grounds of the museum. The NLAs hasn’t directed an excavation in many years, and we are really excited to undertake this project in such a public setting, and give visitors to the museum the chance to see archaeology in action, while finding out a little more about the museum property. This excavation is TBD, but we are hoping it will take place in May/June, with more news coming soon (watch our socials for information as it comes). The Admiralty House grounds are free to visit for the public, so there will be no admission fee to watch our archaeologists excavating and recording artifacts…and maybe even get you hands dirty too!

F.A.B.S. Talks: Ferryland & More!

We are finally getting the FABS (Friday Afternoon Beer Sessions) series rolling again for the springtime. We are within the 400th anniversary year of the founding of the Colony of Avalon at Ferryland, and are tailoring our FABS talks this year to have many speakers who research and work at the site. Last summer, we did a field trip with our members to Ferryland, with lunch at Ferryland Picnics, and had an amazing time! We’re setting up our spring/summer FABS schedule right now, and I’ll be posting it as soon as dates and speakers are finalised. Talks will include graveyards, the famous ‘Colony Cook-off’ and working in the historic kitchen, and industry at the site. It’s not just Ferryland, and we hope that you’ll join us for some interesting talks from researchers in the province.

1st Annual Mount Pearl Renaissance Fair

We at the NLAS are so excited to be participating in the 1st annual Mount Pearl Renaissance Fair, to be held on August 27-28th, 2022, at the rugby field on Ruth Ave, Mount Pearl. This two-day weekend event will be family friendly, and involve medieval story lines arcing over the weekend, sword fighting, food and vendors, and archaeology! We’ll have a tent with our Edukit, artifacts, and hopefully some demonstrations of tool making and other historic skills. We invite you to stop into the tent and learn about archaeology in our province. Costumes are encouraged!

New Logo Rollout & Upcoming Merch!

Finally, we are so pleased to formally announce the new NLAS logo! Created by local artist and illustrator, Mike Feehan, our new logo features some elements of the original design in the form of the font choice, the onion bottle, and the harpoon head, as well as many other images that reflect the vibrant and varied archaeology present in the province. From top centre, moving clockwise, we have: historic nails, onion jug, a beaker, bird tracks, harpoon head, lead cod jigger, oyster shell, heart-shaped locket, human tooth, bone comb, fish skeleton, kaolin clay pipe, the classic trowel, an ulu, and a projectile point.

This new logo represents the cultures and peoples across Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as many aspects of archaeology, from Indigenous to historical, zooarch to labratory analysis, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

The NLAS is currently working with a printer to get new merch underway, in the form of tshirts, potentially hoodies, and tote bags…and mugs were in the discussion at last night’s meeting as well!

It’s going to be an exciting year for the NLAS, as we find new ways to engage with you, our members. If you attended our AGM last fall you’ll know that we have had some issues with our banking, which have nearly been sorted. If you have been trying to email us through our old email regarding membership dues, or pay your dues for 2022, please hold off at the moment until we announce that our online banking is up and running. And please reach out if you have any ideas or events you’d like to see us involved in, or ways you’d like to join us to learn more about the archaeology in this incredible province. We look forward to connecting with you!