Archaeology in the city

On the west end of Edworthy Park, along the banks of the Bow River, Faculty of Arts students are working to discover clues to the area's past.

The students from the University of Calgary's Department of Anthropology and Archaeology have joined with residents, Indigenous community members and Knowledge Holders on this dig into history.

With funding from both the City of Calgary and the Archaeological Society of Alberta, UCalgary’s Public Archaeology Program expanded in 2026, creating more than 100 spaces for interested Calgarians to work alongside a student field school in archaeological excavations.

Finding a fit with Calgary Parks

The long-running field school started its partnership with the city and moved within city limits in 2024. The program was designed to advance public education, Indigenous engagement and archaeological goals of both the city and UCalgary.

A public excavation, in the city, was an important consideration for Dr. Lindsay Amundsen-Meyer, PhD, an assistant professor with Anthropology and Archaeology. When she approached the city about hosting the annual field school, she was looking to build on the already collaborative nature of the program.

“Bringing people together creates an educational opportunity. People come out of it with an understanding of Indigenous world views, of the history of places like Edworthy Park, of archaeology,” says Amundsen-Meyer, BA’09, PhD’14. “I think a lot of what we do with our public education pieces aligns with the city’s goals.”

One of those goals is conserving and celebrating historic sites, which can be challenging when history is buried underground.

“As you can imagine, it's pretty hard to celebrate archaeological resources,” says Laureen Bryant, a cultural landscape planner with Calgary Parks and Open Spaces. Bryant hopes that, by working with students on an active excavation site, Calgarians will gain an appreciation of the area’s past.

In the field, but close to home

The urban site offers a unique advantage for a UCalgary field school. Edworthy Park is a rich archaeological landscape, with layers of history, located just minutes from campus.

The Public Archaeology Program helps bring attention to archaeological finds, like the recently uncovered projectile points dating back more than 2,000 years, or the remnants of a brick feature believed to be from the historic Brickburn hamlet. It serves as an opportunity to educate citizens on the importance of not disturbing artifacts.

“We can't learn from these sites if they're disturbed,” Amundsen-Meyer says. “When we lose context, we lose our ability to learn about what was happening here in the past.”

Creating citizen stewardship

For the City of Calgary, this program transforms parks into living classrooms, giving members of the public a chance to engage and connect with the layers of history beneath their feet.

“The more citizens that we can get involved in stewarding and keeping an eye on these places, the better,” says Bryant. “This is the perfect opportunity to have citizens working alongside students to learn about the depth of history in their park spaces.”

Including Indigenous perspectives

Beginning and ending in Indigenous-led ceremony, the field school includes an archaeology training program for Indigenous youth and provides opportunities to learn from local Elders and Traditional Knowledge Holders who help guide the work.

Taren Healy Crowchief first joined Amundsen-Meyer's team through the youth training program held on the Siksika Nation in 2022. Now, working as an archaeological research assistant with the university, he recalls how an early experience of finding a grooved maul, a cultural belonging similar to a hammer head, helped change his view of the history of the land.

“I like being back at home, walking through the fields, looking at stuff and seeing bones on the ground,” Crowchief says. “Now I have more of an understanding and I can really think about back then.”

In classrooms and in the field, his personal connection to the work is an asset. Recently, Crowchief shared his experiences with students at the same Siksika high school he attended.

Says Amundsen-Meyer: “It was really impactful. The students could actually see someone who looks like them doing archaeological work. That's really powerful to see yourself represented in a discipline that traditionally has had an under-representation of Indigenous people.”

Back to the lab

The excavation officially wrapped up on June 12, at which time the work moved on to campus to the Heritage Project Lab, where artifacts like the projectile points will be further examined.

Furthering UCalgary’s commitment to community engagement, Amundsen-Meyer and students from the Heritage Project Lab will set up temporary lab spaces in late August at the City of Calgary’s Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and at Telus Spark. Calgarians will have the opportunity to see archaeological analysis in action and assist with cataloguing finds from this year’s excavation.