15-2024, tome 121, 3, p.573-602 - Catherine Losier, Grégor Marchand, Cédric Borthaire — Archéologie, réseaux et saisonnalité dans l’archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon sur le temps long

Archéologie, réseaux et saisonnalité dans l'archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon sur le temps long

Catherine Losier, Grégor Marchand, Cédric Borthaire

Résumé : L'archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon se compose de trois îles principales situées à environ vingt kilomètres au sud de l'île de Terre-Neuve au Canada. Malgré son éloignement de la métropole, sa petite superficie et le faible nombre d'habitants par rapport à d'autres territoires d'outre-mer, il serait erroné de le considérer comme un cul-de-sac. Les notions de centralité et de périphérie prennent tout leur sens dans un contexte relationnel, et en l'occurrence, cet archipel est constamment connecté à l'île de Terre-Neuve, voire au Labrador à la période précoloniale, ainsi qu'à toutes les côtes atlantiques au cours des périodes moderne et contemporaine. Les réseaux et la saisonnalité sont au coeur de l'existence des populations de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon depuis son peuplement initial, avec des motivations et des moyens techniques variés selon les groupes et les époques. Cet article a un double objectif. D'une part, il vise à dresser un bilan des données archéologiques récemment acquises dans l'archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, au cours d'une période marquée par une intensification notable de la recherche. D'autre part, il s'attache à analyser les réseaux et la saisonnalité, qui sont des concepts essentiels pour comprendre les occupations de l'archipel au cours des cinq derniers millénaires.

Mots-clés : Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, historiographie, réseaux, saisonnalité, période précoloniale, période moderne.

Abstract: The Saint-Pierre and Miquelon archipelago consists of three main islands located approximately twenty kilometers south of the island of Newfoundland in Canada. Despite its remoteness from mainland France, its small size, and low population compared to other overseas territories, it would be incorrect to consider it a dead-end. The notions of centrality and periphery gain significance in a relational context, and in this case, the archipelago is consistently connected to Newfoundland, and even to Labrador in the precontact period, as well as to all Atlantic coasts during the modern and contemporary periods. Networks and seasonality have been central to the existence of the populations in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon since their initial settlement, with motivations and technical means varying across groups and epochs.

This article has a dual objective. Firstly, it aims to provide a historiography of the archaeological data recently acquired in the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon archipelago, during a period marked by a notable intensification of research. We are at a point in the history of the development of archaeological practice in the archipelago where it is still possible to take stock of all the projects that have been conducted and to identify the key players who have contributed to the genesis of this discipline in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. The first archaeological site, Anse à Henry, a pre-contact indigenous settlement, was identified in the 1980s, and in the same decade, an important survey of the archaeological potential of the archipelago was conducted. However, the beginning of organized archaeological projects in the archipelago occurred only in the early 2000s, with a project at Anse à Henry focusing on indigenous occupation and another at Roche à la Biche (Miquelon) aiming to document the European occupation of the archipelago. Archaeological research continued sporadically until 2016, when there was a genuine acceleration in research. Today, thirteen sites (precontact and associated with European occupation) are known, this is excluding seventeen farm sites of Miquelon and Langlade which consist of a particular data set. The diversity of archaeological projects demonstrates that all facets of human occupation in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon can be explored through archaeology (settlement patterns, lithic material extraction, fishing, agriculture, coastal occupations, and maritime activities), and that archaeological methods can document the lives of the men and women who settled in the archipelago from the earliest moments of settlement, or during periods for which archival records are sparse, such as the First Colonial Empire.

Secondly, this paper aims to position networks and seasonality as two essential concepts for understanding the archipelago's occupations over the last five millennia. Regarding the connected nature of the archipelago, it would be a grave mistake to conceptualize Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon as a closed island, ignoring the exchange networks and mobility associated with the archipelago during the precontact period and after European expansion.

Networks and mobility were necessary in the past, as they are today, because the archipelago's resources could not allow groups to be completely autonomous. Therefore, it is essential to consider that groups were mobile, and that local, regional, or even transatlantic networks enabled them to supply the local population. The second essential concept influencing life in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is the seasonality of occupations. It is easier to discuss seasonal cycles for pre-contact hunter-fisher-gatherer populations than for populations of European descent, where the Judeo-Christian ideal associates nomadism and/or non-pastoral transhumance with vagabonds and other undesirables. However, when considering life in the North Atlantic, we must recognize that places of activity and residence varied throughout the year, and that sedentariness is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the case of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, there is a clear link between animal migrations, particularly marine animals, and human mobility. This is true for both the pre-contact period and the era of European expansion in the North Atlantic. It must be considered that the season of activity for Indigenous groups in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon likely spanned from June to October, when marine resources converged towards the North Atlantic. The implication of this observation is that the presence of pre-Inuit and Native groups in the archipelago can only be understood by taking into account the seasonal cycle, which probably includes winter settlements on the island of Newfoundland. Therefore, similar to the distribution networks that supply materials from Newfoundland and even Labrador, the pre-contact occupations of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon can only be conceptualized by considering the seasonal cycle that brought groups to various locations within a vast region, including Newfoundland. The emergence of the cod-fishing industry from the early 16th century onwards led to the movement of populations and resources across the Atlantic world, establishing global networks from fishing stations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This mobility is characterized by a seasonality closely linked to the migration of marine species, notably capelin, cod, and various types of whales. Thus, seasonal mobility was fundamental to the exploitation of North Atlantic marine resources and their distribution throughout the Atlantic world. Seasonality drives the mobility of European populations and is expressed on various scales : transatlantic, regional, and local. The chronological overview of the development of the archaeological discipline in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon presented in this article is the result of a significant increase in research since the late 2010s and emphasizes the fact that for at least 2,500 years (up to 5,000 years), human occupation of the archipelago has been closely connected to Newfoundland and, later, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and all shores of the Atlantic world. Additionally, at all times, human occupations follow seasonal rhythms linked to animal migrations and seasonal climate.

Keywords: Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, historiography, networks, seasonality, precontact period, modern period.