Last fall, as archeologist Yves Chrétien was supervising a team digging at the site of a future hockey rink northeast of Montreal, a mini excavator unearthed pieces of cut stone.
Formed under an ancient sea, the stones bore marks made by indigenous people somewhere between 6,150 and 8,200 years ago. The discovery, found below the site of a former Shell distribution centre and 18th and 19th century farms, could help shed light on the region’s little-known prehistoric period.
In a recent interview, Chrétien said the stones discovered at the future rink in Sorel-Tracy, Que., were excavated from an ancient marine sediment—the stratified layers of which allowed him to calculate the approximate period they came from….