The Brock Street Burial Finding human remains from over 2,000 years ago
When you walk by the parking lot on Brock Street between Aylmer and George Streets in Peterborough, there is a plaque by the road on a granite boulder, with indigenous prairie grass around it, and a narrow stone pathway marking the boundary. The plaque was installed on November 8, 1962. It marks the site where the complete skeletal remains and 30 associated artifacts of a man, believed to have lived in the Trent River System over 2,000 years ago, were found while excavating the lot on December 6, 1960. Archaeologist Walter Kenyon of the Royal Ontario Museum described it as an important find. He said in a newspaper article, ‘The Indian chief in the Brock St parking lot probably lived before Christ was born on the other side of the world’. After extensive research, officials concluded the skeleton belonged to a Point Peninsula Native, 45 to 50 years of age, and that group lived all through this region. The remains were reinterred at Curve Lake First Nation Reserve on May 30th 1991. So you may ask, as I did, where were the remains for the 36 years between finding them, and interring them? In the 1960s, the remains were on display in museums around the world. This was normal practice for that time period. They were at the ROM, and the last place that they were displayed was at Peterborough Museum and Archives. The remains and the grave goods were on display until approximately 1983, where the Curator at Peterborough Museum and Archives advised that it was no longer appropriate. Even though the Brock Street Burial has been removed from public viewing, it was not until 1988 that Museum staff, with the consent of the Board of Museum Management, decided that the skeletal remains should be removed from the collection. On May 30th 1991, the morning of the burial, a sweet grass ceremony was held at the Museum to purify Museum staff, the route to be taken, the burial containers, and the vehicle. A sweet grass ceremony was started at Curve Lake when the remains left the museum. For the reburial to Curve Lake First Nation Reserve, an informal Feast of the Living was held at Curve Lake Community Centre. Chief (at the time) Jacobs described it, “So the feast began, all formed a circle with
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Large plaque for the remains from 1960 at the front of Brock Street Parking Lot (photos courtesy of Peterborough Museum and Archive)
