Let’s check out an impressive work of native art discovered in 1961 by John Trevitt while he was digging at a house construction site in Beach Grove.
The stone object is 21 centimetres high and is about 2,000 years old.
The object is described by Roy Carlson in Prehistoric Art of the Lower Fraser Region as a human head mortar sculptured in red granite.
“This head mortar is one of the more impressive works of art from the the Marpole phase,” he wrote. "The most startling aspect of this sculpture is the huge thick-lipped, wide-open, almost circular mouth, a feature which strongly suggests that the figure is represented as shouting or singing.”
The object was in a private collection but is now apparently lost, according to the Delta Archives.
Many artifacts from Coast Salish First Nations peoples have been discovered in Delta over the years.
Archaeological evidence shows that Aboriginal people had seasonal settlements near the present-day Alex Fraser Bridge at the Glenrose and St. Mungo cannery sites over 8,000 years ago.
Other Aboriginal settlement sites, on the west side of the Beach Grove golf course and along the shores of the Strait of Georgia, date back 4,000 years.
