Friday, March 1, 2013
Rob
MacDonald,
Ontario
Archaeological
Society
Paul
Karrow
is
a
frequent
writer
for
What
on
Earth,
we
congratulate
him
on
his
award,
presented
by
Rob
MacDonald.
It
is
awarded
occasionally,
“to
an
outstanding
Ontario
non-professional
archaeologist
whose
work
has
been
consistently
of
the
highest
standard,
who
has
made
an
exceptional
contribution
to
the
development
of
Ontario
archaeology
and
who
has
earned
acclaim
for
excellence
and
achievement.
It
is
the
highest
honour
the
Society
can
bestow.”
Paul Karrow receiving the award from Rob MacDonald. Photo courtesy of Rudy Fecteau
As
a
specialist
in
Quaternary
geology
and
paleoecology,
Paul
Karrow
has
always
held
a
very
broad
view
of
his
field,
one
which
very
much
includes
an
interest
in
human
prehistory
and
the
contributions
that
his
efforts
might
offer
to
the
field
of
archaeology.
These
efforts
have
not
been
restricted
to
research,
however.
In
1959,
while
living
in
Toronto,
Paul
joined
the
newly
formed
Ontario
Archaeological
Society
(OAS),
and
was
twice
elected
to
the
position
of
Vice-President,
in
1961
and
1962,
respectively.
In
1962
he
was
also
appointed
chair
of
the
society’s
publications
committee,
and
in
that
role
he
successfully
petitioned
the
Ontario
government
for
on-going
financial
support
to
establish
the
peer-reviewed
journal
Ontario
Archaeology.
In
OAS
Special
Publication
No.
9,
“The
Presidents
Remember:
Forty
Years
of
the
Ontario
Archaeological
Society”
(1990),
Paul
recalls
doing
the
paste-ups
for
the
first
issue
of
Ontario
Archaeology
in
his
hotel
room
while
doing
geological
fieldwork
in
Guelph.
This
coming
January
will
mark
the
50th
anniversary
of
Paul’s
election
as
President
of
the
OAS
in
1963,
and
although
a
move
to
Waterloo
and
new
academic
responsibilities
eventually
curtailed
his
executive
involvement,
he
has
maintained
his
membership
and
interest
in
the
OAS
up
to
the
present.
His
interest
in
human
history
is
not
restricted
to
the
archaeological
record,
however,
as
he
has
been
on
the
Board
of
Directors
of
the
Waterloo
Historical
Society
since
1989,
serving
as
the
society’s
president
from
2000
to
2002.
In
1963
Paul
joined
the
engineering
faculty
of
the
University
of
Waterloo
where
he
was
instrumental
in
setting
up
the
Department
of
Earth
Sciences
in
1965,
serving
as
its
founding
chair
until
1970.
He
attained
the
rank
of
full
professor
in
1969,
and
he
was
awarded
the
distinction
of
Distinguished
Professor
Emeritus
in
2001.
Paul
has
continued
to
teach
and
pursue
an
active
program
of
research,
including
field
investigations,
since
his
official
retirement
in
1999.
Over
the
course
of
his
academic
career,
Paul
Karrow
has
distinguished
himself
as
a
pre-eminent
international
scholar
of
Quaternary
science.
He
has
been
elected
to
fellowships
by
the
Geological
Society
of
America
and
the
Geological
Association
of
Canada,
and,
amongst
all
his
other
accolades,
in
1995
he
was
awarded
the
Canadian
Quaternary
Association’s
most
meritorious
honour,
the
W.A.
Johnston
medal
for
professional
excellence
in
Quaternary
research.
One
does
not
acquire
the
professional
stature
that
Paul
Karrow
has
achieved
without
a
substantial
body
of
significant
research
to
show
for
one’s
efforts,
and
this
is
where
Paul’s
extraordinary
contributions
to
knowledge
are
most
evident.
Although
he
has
conducted
research
and
published
on
Quaternary
topics
throughout
North
America,
the
main
focus
of
his
studies
has
been
the
Quaternary
geology
and
paleoecology
of
the
Great
Lakes
region.
As
one
reviews
the
more
than
260
books,
book
chapters,
monographs,
peer-reviewed
articles,
maps,
and
conference
papers
that
he
has
produced
or
co-authored,
it
is
hard
to
imagine
pursuing
any
significant
paleoecological
research
in
the
Great
Lakes
basin
which
would
not
owe
an
intellectual
debt
to
his
work.
From
1967
until
his
retirement
in
1999,
Paul
Karrow
organized
an
informal
Quaternary
discussion
group
at
the
University
of
Waterloo,
hosting
guest
speakers
from
all
aspects
of
Quaternary
science,
including
archaeology.
In
1987,
he
was
instrumental
in
developing
this
interdisciplinary
network
into
a
more
formal
organization,
the
Quaternary
Sciences
Institute
(QSI).
The
very
first
publication
of
QSI
was
a
short
monograph,
co-authored
by
Paul
Karrow
along
with
uWaterloo
colleagues
and
QSI
members
Dr.
Barry
Warner
(Earth
Sciences)
and
Dr.
Chris
Ellis
(Anthropology)
along
with
Region
of
Waterloo
archaeologist
John
MacDonald,
which
detailed
the
geological
and
archaeological
history
of
the
Regional
Municipality
of
Waterloo.
In
1990,
QSI
hosted
the
first
joint
meeting
of
the
American
and
Canadian
Quaternary
Associations,
and
in
1991
QSI
organized
a
symposium
entitled
“Great
Lakes
Archaeology
and
Paleoecology:
Exploring
Interdisciplinary
Initiatives
for
the
Nineties.”
Paul
Karrow
contributed
single-
and
co-authored
papers
to
both
of
these
conferences,
including
revised
versions
for
the
1994
peer-reviewed
published
proceedings
of
the
latter
symposium.
In
1999,
forty
years
after
Paul
first
joined
the
Ontario
Archaeological
Society,
QSI
hosted
the
annual
OAS
symposium
at
the
University
of
Waterloo.
Paul’s
contributions
to
the
1991
QSI
symposium
were
not
the
first
of
his
publications
specifically
addressing
the
archaeological
implications
of
paleoecological
data.
In
1986
he
contributed
a
paper,
co-authored
with
Dr.
Barry
Warner,
to
the
first
Smith
Symposium,
an
interdisciplinary
conference
which
examined
the
early
results
from
the
excavation
of
the
Hiscock
site
in
western
New
York.
In
2001,
Dr.
Karrow
was
invited
back
as
a
session
discussant
for
the
second
Smith
Symposium,
and
his
commentary
was
published
in
the
2003
proceedings
of
that
conference.
In
the
interval
between
these
events,
he
co-authored
with
Barry
Warner
the
lead-off
paleoecology
paper
in
the
OAS
London
Chapter’s
1990
seminal
volume,
The
Archaeology
of
Southern
Ontario
to
A.D.
1650,
edited
by
Chris
Ellis
and
Neal
Ferris.
More
recently,
he
has
assisted
in
the
investigation
and
been
a
co-author
on
two
conference
papers
dealing
with
the
geo-archaeology
of
the
Peace
Bridge
site,
and
he
contributed
a
chapter
to
the
2004
Archaeological
Survey
of
Canada
Mercury
Series
volume
The
Late
Palaeo-Indian
Great
Lakes:
Geological
and
Archaeological
Investigations
of
Late
Pleistocene
and
Early
Holocene
Environments,
edited
by
Lawrence
Jackson
and
Andrew
Hinschelwood.
Paul
Karrow
has
been
doing
geo-archaeology
since
long
before
that
term
came
into
existence.
Moreover,
as
his
long-time
Earth
Sciences
department
colleague,
Alan
Morgan,
has
noted,
Paul
has
always
gone
out
of
his
way
to
solicit
input
from,
and
interact
with,
the
widest
possible
array
of
Quaternary
scientists
whenever
the
opportunity
allowed.
Clearly,
in
the
current
milieu
of
scientific
specialization,
he
is
one
of
those
increasingly
rare
scientists
who
has
always
endeavoured
to
keep
an
eye
on
the
“big
picture.”
Writing
about
his
early
involvement
in
the
field
of
archaeology,
Paul
has
stated:
“Although I was an amateur archaeologist, I was a professional scientist. I was dismayed and saddened by the then-present gulf between the amateur and professional archaeologist, with competition present instead of cooperation” (OAS Special Publication No. 9, 1990).
It
is
clear
from
this
statement,
and
from
the
example
of
his
career,
that
Paul
has
always
viewed
intellectual
boundaries—whether
within
or
between
academic
disciplines—as
counterproductive
to
the
larger
scientific
enterprise.
Indeed,
he
is
very
fond
of
quoting
the
popular
aphorism,
“Don’t
mistake
the
edge
of
your
rut
for
the
horizon.”
In
conclusion,
I
trust
you
will
join
me
in
extending
heartfelt
appreciation
for
the
extraordinary
contribution
that
Dr.
Paul
Karrow
has
made
to
the
OAS
and
the
archaeology
and
paleoecology
of
the
Great
Lakes
area,
his
leadership
in
promoting
interdisciplinary
Quaternary
science,
and
his
record
of
service
to
the
professional
and
avocational
archaeology
communities
and
beyond,
as
we
bestow
upon
him
the
highest
honour
of
the
Ontario
Archaeological
Society,
the
J.
Norman
Emerson
Silver
Medal.
Response to award of the J. Norman Emerson Silver Medal:
This is an occasion for thanks. First of all, thanks to the Ontario Archaeological Society and certain of its members who acted to create this occasion. I thank you very much. I have to say, as I have passed through my living days, the reasons for thanks continue to accumulate. My parents raised me to enjoy and appreciate nature, and to enjoy the fruits of education. My wife, Beth, chose to give up her professional career to stay at home and raise four marvelous children and also to create an attractive and comfortable home in which to live. I am also grateful to the medical profession that cared for me in numerous hospitalizations and patched me up so I could get back on my horse and continue my ride.After shopping around a bit, I chose to specialize in Quaternary geology. That reinforced my generalist nature and I have enjoyed its breadth and the many opportunities to interact with specialists in other fields, including archeology. Some of my fellow geologists feel I am overspecialized, having specialized in only the last two million years of Earth history. But just as it is relatively short, it is so broad. I regard any field of science that considers in any way its historical context, and more should, fair game for interaction with Quaternary geology. I thank Nelson Gadd, and his associates Jaan Terasmae and Frances Wagner for introducing me to the richness of Quaternary studies.Quaternary geology embraces history up to the present, and forms a platform for considering the future. In southern Ontario, thoroughly glaciated as it was, our physical substrate is glacial deposits. The story of ice retreat explains our landforms. An important part of that story is the evolution of the Great Lakes through their complex glacial and postglacial events, including Lake Iroquois, Lake Algonquin, and the Nipissing phase. Therein lies the interaction with human history and archeology.The people who created this occasion will not know that the location for this event is particularly appropriate. It was the birthplace where my wife grew up and I regret she is unable to attend because of illness. Five years of my childhood were spent in Amherstburg, not far south of Windsor, and is the site of Fort Malden. I remember the fort as ruins, before their restoration as a tourist attraction, because its earthworks created the only hill in town suitable for winter sleighriding. Much of Essex county is former lake bottom and is described as “flat”.It may be of interest to some to know that the Ontario Geological Survey in now engaged in the publication of the final report by Tom Morris on the Quaternary geology of Essex County. As the plans for a new bridge are carried out in the near future, it can be anticipated that a rich treasure of archeological record will be encountered as it is another “crossing place” in the Great Lakes chain, as has so well been documented at Sarnia and Fort Erie. There is much to look forward to. Have fun!And finally, I’d like to mention our youngest son Tom, who couldn’t be here, has returned to school for his Master’s degree in studies archeology-related, and a grandson, Stuart, who is here, is in second year Anthropology at the University of Waterloo, so the archeology link will continue.Thank you all.Paul Karrow