An open-air gallery of ancient art, St. Victor Petroglyphs are Saskatchewan's largest rock art site, with over 360 rock carvings (photo: Friends of St. Victor Petroglyphs)

By NC Raine

Ancient Artifacts

2,100 year-old artifact found at the St. Victor Petroglyphs in southern Saskatchewan

Aug 26, 2026 | 10:04 AM

Unearthed during an archaeological dig in 1990, pieces of bone at the St. Victor Petroglyphs Provincial Historic Park remained undated until the Friends of the St. Victor Petroglyphs Cooperative Ltd recently sent the bones for carbon dating.

“We were just hoping to find if there were some dates that would match the pottery that was found in a washout nearby,” said David Munro, President and tour guide at the Friends of St. Victor Petroglyphs.

“When the results came back, they were quite different from what the pottery was suggesting.”

Pottery and artifacts found at the site generally date from 300 AD – 1750 AD. One bone came back within this range, about 900AD. But the other bone, found about 50 centimetres deeper into the ground, came back dated at 120 BC.

“It’s really interesting,” said Munro. “It helps us date who was here at that moment of time. It gives this site a time. Before that, it was all guesswork as to when it might have been.”

Friends of St. Victor Petroglyphs Interpretative Centre is open during the summer months, and was first established in 1992 (photo: Friends of St. Victor Petroglyphs)

The St. Victor Petroglyphs Provincial Historical Park, located in south-central Saskatchewan in Treaty 4 territory, was designated as a historical site in the 1960s and became a provincial park in 1986. The park features over 360 petroglyphs (ancient rock engravings) on a large sandstone outcrop.

They are the largest concentration of pre-contact rock art in Saskatchewan, with most other petroglyph sites contain from one to 20 engravings. They are the only known horizontal petroglyphs on the Canadian Prairies.

“When you can put a date to something, it improves the picture of when people were here. To find something intact, undisturbed, giving you an exact date, makes it more tangible,” said Munro. “Now we can put up a sign saying that between 900 AD and 120 BC, this site has had occupation in this one location.”

Munro and the Friends of the St. Victor Petroglyphs Cooperative Ltd started an interpretive centre in St. Victor over 30 years ago. For decades, Munro has been providing guided tours of the site – sharing knowledge on petroglyphs which depict artistic designs of faces, skulls, animals, human hands, feet, and a complete person.

496128333_10163011127439728_1112422681339665310_n — Carvings found at the St. Victor Petroglyphs

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But Munro said the site is slowly deteriorating. As sandstone is highly porous, moisture or a hard frost can cause fracturing of the rock. Additionally, Munro said lichens have embedded their root system into the sandstone, which also causes it to break down.

He said it’s a slow deterioration – it has survived for 1,500-2,000 years already, but nothing is currently being done to help preserve the site.

“We’re just a non-profit. The (preservation) is up to the Heritage and Provincial Parks,” said Munro. “We’ve not heard that the government is willing to do anything about it.”

Passionate about sharing the rich history of the site, Munro leads small group tours who are invited to get close to the carvings and look at them from different angles. He said he would like to connect more with school groups, as they only had one last year, and one this year.

Plant growth in the cracks and crevices of the sandstone, causing natural breakdown of the stone (photo: Friends of the St. Victor Petroglyphs)

Munro said they’d also like to connect more with First Nations, both from around Saskatchewan and outside of the provincial borders, to share more knowledge about the history and culture found out the site.

“Maybe we can look through other files and history to come up with a closer idea of which tribe might be the ones who designed it. Or determine if it’s a multi-grouped site,” he said. “We would even like (Indigenous groups) to help our wording as to what to tell people.”

Collaborating with First Nations and Indigenous communities might bring more interest, and more attention, to one of Saskatchewan’s most historic ancient art sites.

“Maybe we could give more of a timeline to First Nations as to when their ancestors were here,” he said. “To work together would just be a wonderful thing to have happen.”

by NC Raine

2,100 year-old artifact found at the St. Victor Petroglyphs in southern Saskatchewan

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