James Tuck (archaeologist)

James A. Tuck, ONL, FRSC is a New York-born archaeologist whose work as a faculty member of the Memorial University of Newfoundland is focused on the early history of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Career

Tuck was born in 1940; he received a doctoral degree from Syracuse University.^[1] He subsequently began teaching and practicing archaeology as a faculty member at Memorial University of Newfoundland.^[2] Since the late 1960s, Tuck has focused his archaeological work in Newfoundland and Labrador.

His early work included unearthing the Maritime Archaic burial ground at Port au Choix. From 1977 until the late 1980s he excavated the sixteenth century Basque whaling station at Red Bay Labrador.

Starting in 1969 he led teams that excavated and desecrated Inuit graves on Rose Island which is now in Torngat Mountains National Park.^{[3] [4]} The remains of 113 Inuit – 100 from Rose Island and 13 from Upernavik Island were repatriated and reburied in 1995. A further 11 Inuit remains were repatriated in a special ceremony on August 16, 2011 attended by the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunatsiavut President Jim Lyall.^[5]

The remains of 113 Inuit are buried here.

Since the late 1980s, Tuck has worked on unearthing the Province of Avalon located at Ferryland. To date the dig has found and catalogued over two million artifacts from the 4-acre (16,000 m²) site.

Awards

• 1982 elected to fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada
• 2000 awarded the Manning Award for Excellence in the Public Preservation of Historic Places by the Historic Sites Association
• 2003 awarded the Heritage Award by the Newfoundland Historical Society
• 2003 appointed to the Henrietta Harvey Chair at Memorial University of Newfoundland
• 2004 awarded the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador^[2]

References