Anthropological Services Ontario

Patterned roof tiles in Hillier, Ontario

The new owner of a lot with early 20th century farm buildings in Prince Edward County performed roof repairs on a slate-shingled shed in the summer of 2006. He discovered that the undersides of many of the slate-tiles carried a variety of patterrns, coarsely chipped into the soft stone with a pointed metal tool.

Slate rock and split layers recovered on the property. Such rocks potentially contain fossils. © I. Henschen (2006)		Artifacts under recovery and assessment during 2006 excavation campaign. © I. Henschen (2006)
Samples of slate dust prepared for mineralogical assessment. © I. Henschen (2006)		Artifact discovered by owner when reroofing 19th century barn. Silhouette of a pony chipped into the slate with a metal tool (nail?). © I. Henschen (2006)

ASO was commissioned to perform a systematic recovery and assessment of these artefacts and among a total of 49 shingles with markings we found 7 rather striking animal images, one of which is shown here. No systematic arrangement of images and patterns could be determined to date; we cannot state at this time whether the relationship of 7 animal images among 7² shingles in total has any significance. A publication will be forthcoming in 2009.