UNEARTHING NORTH AMERICA’S FIRST FRENCH COLONY

Unearthing North Unearthing North America’s First America’s First French Colony French Colony

In 1541, France established In 1541, France established Fort Charlesbourg-Royal Fort Charlesbourg-Royal in what is now Québec City. in what is now Québec City. Two years later, it was abandoned. Two years later, it was abandoned. The site was discovered in 2005, The site was discovered in 2005, and archaeologists are trying to and archaeologists are trying to understand what took place at the settlement. understand what took place at the settlement.

By Hannah Hoag By Hannah Hoag Photos by Liam Maloney Photos by Liam Maloney

On a forested outcrop at the western limit of Québec City, Gilles Samson makes his way across an archaeological site quilted with sheets of plywood and plastic. The coverings protect 16th-century stone walls from the sometimes harsh Canadian elements. He grips the edge of one of the boards and lifts, revealing a strip of neatly stacked grey stones. “We’re following the walls to get a clearer picture of the fort,” he says.

Samson is in the midst of uncovering one of Canada’s most important archaeological discoveries: the charred remains of the first French colony in North America. The walls and other artifacts the archaeologists have unearthed are the remnants of Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, a settlement established by Jacques Cartier in 1541 and occupied by JeanFrançois de la Rocque de Roberval from 1542 to 1543, along with several hundred colonists.

An archaeologist with Québec’s National Capital Commission and the project’s co-director, Samson reasons that the site ranks with Jamestown, the first English colony in the New World. Cartier-Roberval (as it is now called, after its founders) predates Samuel de Champlain’s founding of Québec City and New France and England’s establishment of Jamestown by more than 60 years.

Somewhat surprisingly, Cartier-Roberval remained hidden until 2005. According to historical documents, Cartier built two forts—an upper and a lower—on Cap-Rouge, a peninsula bordered by the St. Lawrence River to the south and Cap-Rouge River to the west. Presumably, the site was picked because it offered great lookouts, protection from attacks, and a harbor. The forts were later burned

to the ground, and the site remained unoccupied until 1823, when brothers William and Henry Atkinson acquired the land and built an estate. The land changed hands during the late 1800s, until the Trans-Continental Railway purchased it in 1906 and erected a long steel trestle bridge that is still in use today.

Archaeologists had been looking for the site for more than 50 years. (In 1923 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recognized Cap-Rouge as the site of Fort Charlesbourg-Royal although no artifacts had been found.) Then in 2005, archaeologist Yves Chrétien was asked to do a survey of the promontory prior to the construction of a belvedere. He dug 16 test pits near the southeastern edge of the promontory and exposed the burned wooden remains of the upper fort.

The find was kept secret until it could be confirmed. “I had some doubts about it when I first came to the site,” says archaeologist Richard Fiset, the project’s other co-director, who is also employed by Québec’s capital commission. “There was some evidence, but not enough to say, ‘This is it.’” But his doubts were put to rest in 2006, when Fiset and Samson were hired to confirm the site of the fort. The archaeologists found strata of burned soil, more charred wood, ceramics, pottery, glass beads, nails, and a colorful fragment of 16th-century pottery from Faenza, Italy. Radiocarbon testing of charcoal samples dated the site to the middle of the 16th century. “At that moment you are happy and you realize you are doing something real,” says Fiset. Another team of archaeologists is searching for the lower fort and thus far they haven’t found it.

A painting of Jacques Cartier done by Théophile Hamel in 1847.

The Cartier-Roberval project is a remarkable undertaking, with a budget of $7.7 million Canadian provided by the provincial government. Samson and Fiset oversee a multidisciplinary team whose expertise covers such fields as geoarchaeology, archeobotany, and anthrocology—the study of carbonized wood. The researchers have unearthed about 5,000 artifacts. During the summer of 2008, as the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Québec City were underway, the site was open to the public. It proved so popular that tours were scheduled every 30 minutes on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays to groups of 20. “We are going so deep into our history that it is a story with lots of public interest,” says Fiset.

Charged by Francois I to look for gold and diamonds and a passage to Asia, Cartier undertook voyages in 1534, 1535, and 1541 to Canada. On his third and final voyage, he set to sea with five ships in May, and he established a settlement on Cap-Rouge at the end of that summer to lay claim to part of the New World. However, in January of 1541, the King put Roberval, a friend and nobleman, in charge of the colony, and after several delays Roberval set off to join Cartier in 1542. They met in Newfoundland, and despite orders to the contrary, Cartier returned to France, slipping away one night in June, claiming to have found his precious gems. Roberval continued to Cap-Rouge with three ships, arriving in late July.

According to his descriptions, the upper fort contained two main buildings, a well, and two towers, one of which was a great tower. Samson says the great tower may have been three stories high, with a ground floor, a middle level containing Roberval’s quarters, and an upper level for defensive operations. “That is a classic function for a great tower, but for now, it’s still speculation,” he says. The lower fort, according to historical documents, included another dwelling, which made up part of a two-story tower, and two buildings where provisions and all the other goods they had brought from Europe were stored.

When Cartier left Canada, he took many of the supplies with him. Roberval rationed the items he had, and most of the colonists—a collection of noblemen, tradesmen, prisoners, and several women—survived the winter of 1542. But

This is the route Cartier took on his third and last voyage to, and from, Canada. Roberval may have taken the same route.

The researchers have exposed the remnants of a stone structure (foreground) that may have been a passageway linking the northern and southern sections of the fort.

These are a small sample of the artifacts recovered by the archaeologists. They’ve also found beads and rings that the French may have used to trade with the Iroquois, as well as lead balls that were shot from arquebuses.

the settlement was short-lived. Roberval returned to France in 1543, and some historians think that he burned the forts as he departed so that the Iroquois and the Spanish, who were spying on him, couldn’t use them. While there are maps and plans for other French settlements, there are none for Fort France-Roi (Roberval renamed the fort once he arrived), so details of its shape are unknown.

That fire has made it easier for archaeologists to interpret the remains, because, strangely enough, it preserved a good deal of the contents. The fire carbonized the hulls of seeds and pits and other organic items, and metal objects that were buried in the ash were protected from severe oxidation.

Julie-Anne Bouchard-Perron, a doctoral student at Laval University in Québec City, specializes in the analysis of botanical remains. Since 2006, Bouchard-Perron has sifted through huge amounts of excavated soil from Cartier-Roberval using an on-site flotation tank that isolates tiny bits of carbonized organic materials. “Whatever is organic will float, and whatever is mineral will sink,” she says. By analyzing the charred remains, the archaeologists are learning about the settlers’ eating habits and how they lived.

Bouchard-Perron has found thousands of carbonized seeds of grapes, bread wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, and mustard, as well as olive pits, all of which came from Europe. “Olives, grapes, dates, and barley can all be easily dried and american archaeology 15

can be kept for long periods of time,” she says. But still, she finds the predominance of European species surprising. “It could indicate a reluctance to eat local foods,” BouchardPerron says.

She has also found local species such as corn and sunflower, albeit in small amounts. She found only eight corn kernels, for example. “They clearly had contact with the native people. There was some kind of exchange going on,” Bouchard-Perron says. She acknowledges that it is possible that the local foods were stored somewhere else on the site that has yet to be found. “Maybe we’ll be surprised if we find the other fort.”

The evidence the archaeologists have uncovered suggests that France-Roi was unlike other French New World forts of that general time period, which were triangular or quadrangular. “Ours, for the moment, doesn’t fit any of these shapes,” Samson says. Much of the focus of this year’s work has been on the structure of the fort, including how it was planned, what architectural and military components it incorporated, and the sources of the materials that were used in its construction. The archaeologists have divided the site into a number of excavation areas. One, at the edge of the southern cliff, contains a stone foundation, the remnants of a small, unidentified building. They suspect that as much as 15 feet of the cliff has eroded and may have taken some of the building with it.

To the west is an area that is rich in wood, charcoal, and fired clay. The ground has a thick layer of debris that presumably accumulated after a great deal of wood, which might have been used to construct a building, was burned. It includes a circle of stones that would have once held a tall vertical post. This evidence, along with the area’s strategic position on the promontory, suggests a tower, probably the great tower, once stood here. “It is still very early to say, but that is our feeling,” says Samson. “It’s in the most strategic place.”

Another area lies to the north of the tower site. There, Samson and Fiset have found a 30-foot-long wall composed of sandstone and dirt that, at one end, angles off to the southeast. One section of the wall was buried about 27 inches

below the surface, which, based on knowledge of other forts from that period, suggests that it was an exterior, defensive wall approximately nine-feet high. Behind it is another wall that may have been part of a building.

The angled section of the wall is less substantial. “We’ve been working on understanding the connection between these two parts for a long time,” he says. The archaeologists suspect the less substantial portion of the wall was built behind a sturdier defensive wall that hasn’t been uncovered; or it may be that its proximity to the great tower, which would have allowed the colonists to spot invaders long before they reached this part of the wall, is the reason for its insubstantiality.

Isabelle Duval, the project’s geoarchaeologist, has analyzed rock samples taken from the site’s walls and foundations and compared them with nearby sources. The archeologists want to know if the French used certain types of stone for the construction of FranceRoi, or if they quarried rocks

from the closest sources. Duval’s geochemical and petrological analysis of the stone artifacts shows that all the walls, foundations, and stone remains were constructed primarily with green sandstone, quarried from an outcrop near the site. “We know that there were different areas they could have taken the sandstone from, but they chose one that was a bit further away, perhaps because it was of a better quality,” says Samson. Shale, which made up some of the foundations, also had local origins. Duval has also found quartz and pyrite (fool’s gold) nearby. The latter was probably one of the sources of the gold Cartier claimed to have found.

In her analysis of the charred wood, Barbara Godbout, the project’s anthracologist, has identified 16 species of trees. She uses a microscope to look at the structural details of the wood—the size and orientation of the fibers—to identify the species, all of which still grow in the area with the exception of walnut. The vitrification of many of the samples suggests that they were still humid when they were burned. “I believe that most of the wood was green—it was newly harvested and not dried out,” says Godbout. Though some historians believe Roberval burned the forts, there is no mention of that in his accounts. He did, however, write that he built two forts, which leads other historians to suspect that it was Cartier who destroyed the forts before he returned to France. Samson says that Roberval’s account could be hyperbole, and that he merely improved, rather than built, the forts. It’s also possible that the Iroquois burned the forts shortly after Roberval abandoned them, or perhaps they were burned years later.

The archaeologists are trying to solve this mystery. The fact that the wood from the upper fort was vitrified, or glasslike, indicates the time between the cutting of the trees and the destruction of the fort was insufficient for the wood to dry. This leads them to surmise it was burned when Roberval and the colonists departed, or shortly thereafter, presumably by the Iroquois. They hope that further analysis by Godbout will answer the question whether or not Roberval set it aflame.

Another of the project’s objectives is to find out if the settlers had specific uses for certain types of wood. In France, castles were built primarily of oak, and the archaeologists wondered if the colonists would maintain this tradition. “We wanted to know if they had a preference for building the walls, roofs, or floors with a particular wood,” says Samson. “But it doesn’t look like they did.” Although they have found an abundance of beech, the diversity of trees used in the fort’s construction is representative of the forest when Cartier arrived. When the settlers arrived at Cap-Rouge, they may have been forced to move quickly, using whatever wood was

The archaeologists have recovered numerous Iroquoian sherds (top) as well as green-glazed French (middle) and Italian majolica (bottom). The Iroquoian sherds indicate the natives and the colonists were exchanging goods.

A researcher documents a piece of timber (center) that was exposed by the excavators. The timber was part of a tall building.

available. Samson points out that much of the wood they have found consists of unworked logs. “That also indicates that they were pressed for time,” he says, noting the importance of having the fort built by winter.

Part of the difficulty in analyzing the wooden components of the fort is that some woods burn more completely than others. “We know that there is a lot of pine in the area and we have some in our samples,” says Godbout. “But pine burns very quickly and leaves only ashes, so even if pine represents 25 percent of our sample, we’re pretty convinced that there was a lot more used in the construction—but we’ve lost track of it.”

Thousands of artifacts from Cartier-Roberval are housed in the basement of the Québec Conservation Center, where archaeologist Helène Côté, is studying the collections. There are musket balls, locks, fishhooks, abacus tokens, keys and rings, thimbles, and a checker piece. The items offer a peek at the colonists’ lives. Many of them were the goods of the upper class, reinforcing the idea that the upper fort housed Roberval and the noblemen.

Among the most interesting discoveries are a chip of Italian pottery—brightly enameled with yellows, oranges, and blues—several pieces of colored glass from windows, and a piece of green glass with a folded edge that was possibly part of a tassa, a bowl often used for religious purposes. Colored glass was rare at the time, and it was used mostly in castles and cathedrals. “We figure that it belonged to someone with a high rank,” says Samson.

The archaeologists have also found Native American pottery decorated with lines and circles. The pottery, along with the corn kernels, offers evidence that Roberval maintained a more amicable relationship with the Iroquois than Cartier had. (During his second voyage to Canada in 1536, Cartier had kidnapped several Iroquois, including Chief Donnacona, and taken them to France, where most of them died. When he returned in 1541, he was met with hostility by the natives.) “You don’t bring that into the fort if you don’t have a good relationship with them,” says Samson.

After three years of excavations, the Cartier-Roberval dig concluded so that the archaeologists could focus on analyzing their discoveries. They have planned trips to France and northern Italy to study the fort architecture and the sociocultural order of the 16th century as well as the preceding medieval period, which could have influenced the design and social order of Fort France-Roi. By the early 16th century, the feudal system was giving way to a new sociopolitical system in France, and a better understanding of that transition could help Samson and Fiset interpret the site’s evidence, revealing the details of France’s initial attempt to colonize the New World.