Ancestral human remains have been discovered near Dallas Road during archaeological activities connected to work on the region’s wastewater treatment project, the Capital Regional District said.
The remains were found Monday near the intersection of Dallas Road and Eberts Street, where a 1.9-kilometre pipe will link to the Clover Point pump station from the east.
Construction in the area where the remains were found is on pause while the CRD works with the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, Elizabeth Scott, deputy project director for the core area wastewater treatment program, said in a statement. Construction continues in other areas.
The CRD is in compliance with the Heritage Conservation Act, which facilitates the protection and conservation of heritage property in the province, Scott said.
The CRD did not say exactly what had been found.
“Out of respect we won’t be providing more information at this time,” Scott said in the statement.
David Jack lives near the site and walks past it most days, often chatting with people working on the project. On Monday, when he walked his dog past the site around Dallas Road and Eberts Street, he saw a group of people gathered around something, and one worker told him they had found some bones and that an archaeologist had been called.
The next day, he noticed a large hole had been dug on the water side of Dallas Road, and he saw someone in the hole who appeared to be using a brushing tool on something. A worker told Jack they had found a human skeleton.
Florence Dick, who has been working on the wastewater treatment project with the CRD as a First Nations liaison representing the Songhees Nation, said the remains appear to come from more than one person, and they’re awaiting an archaeological analysis to determine how old they are.
This is not the first time ancestral remains have been discovered during the four-year project, she said. When the project is complete, the Songhees and Esquimalt nations are planning a traditional reburial of all remains found.
Artifacts, some up to 400 years old, have also been found and turned over to the Lekwungen peoples, said Dick, who did not want to share details about what kinds of artifacts have been found, because elders and other members have not yet seen them.
“We’re waiting for this project to wrap up and we’re going to — when COVID lets us gather again — going to bring that together to show our members what artifacts were found,” she said.
Dick said she would like to create a small exhibit of the artifacts, and several municipalities in the region have expressed interest in displaying the collection.
The Lekwungen peoples used Dallas Road as a defensive site because in the past, its steep bank dropped straight into the ocean, preventing people from gaining access to the area by boat.
First Nations people were buried on the outskirts of Ross Bay Cemetery, because they were excluded from the cemetery, Dick said. The site of the remains found Monday is about a block from the western edge of the cemetery.
