Louisbourg Archaeology

There are an estimated five million artifacts in the Louisbourg collection. All are documented artifacts. With its mobile storage system, Louisbourg has the most organized and accessible archaeology lab in the world.

There are two main storage categories:
Dormant storage: accessibility requirements are less frequent for the simple reason that these artifacts are not needed on a regular basis.
Open storage: referred to as the active collection. This type of storage is much more accessible and the information is stored in three different locations. It is accessible for research groups worldwide.

Each artifact is stored under a Provenience* system with an event code**.

*The Provenience System - i.e.: 3L 2B1.1
3 - site number
L - site letter
2 - operation number
B - sub operation letter
1 - lot number
.1 - catalogue number
A provenience can have more than one event.

**Event Code - i.e.: 3 A 1
3 - site number
A - property letter
1 - event number
From the event number, you can link into many proveniences. This number is used to refer to a spectific action that was made and perhaps the date this action was taken.

The more common artifacts of the Louisbourg collection are glass, ceramics, cloth, leather, wood, copper alloys, pewter, lead (often in the form of shot), and silver (usually in the form of buckles or coinage).

Louisbourg, itself, is a very rich archaeological site with a reconstruction directly in the middle. The reconstruction of the Fortress of Louisbourg would not have been possible without the information that was gathered from the archaeological research. Through records which were held in France and the investigation of excavated artifacts and their surroundings, archaeologists were able to discover how people lived, what their occupations were and what tools they used for their work. Although there was enough research done to be able to reconstruct one fifth of the fortress with accurate information, there still remain many huge areas without inventories done on the artifacts.

There are approximately 1 000 identified archaeological surface sites in Louisbourg that have not yet been excavated. There are thousands more that remain beneath the surface as well. It is because of the richness of the archaeological sites in the area that Louisbourg is the only region with its own on-site archaeological staff.