Archaeologists will be sifting and digging their way through the history at The Forks in Winnipeg this summer in the largest site they've looked at yet.

Archeologist Sid Kroeker and his crew will be turning over the site that is intended for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Kroeker, who is no stranger to digs at The Forks, said the site is one of the "five, maybe 10 best archaeology sites in Canada, if not North America."

The Forks, located in downtown Winnipeg where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet, has a rich history that includes the fur trade, the construction of the railway, waves of immigration and the Industrial Age. 

Between 1989 and 1994, a series of archaeological digs were carried out at The Forks proving camps of aboriginal bison hunters flourished there over 6,000 years ago, according to The Forks' website.

The scale of this latest dig is expected to produce an even better picture of life in the area over hundreds, and possibly thousands of years, revealing more information about who lived there, the types of materials they used and the food resources they processed, Kroeker said.

"I guess a good analogy would be the whole living room rather than just … little spots and locations within the room. So we'll be able to get a better picture of how people organized their life," he said.

"Then we talk with the elders and they can tell us why they were there, and what has been passed down through oral tradition in the aboriginal history line."

None of this was a surprise to backers of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The dig, Kroeker said, is in compliance with provincial and federal heritage site legislation and was always part of the construction plan for the museum.

The museum's backers have raised about $212 million of the $265 million needed to get the project off the ground. Construction of the building is expected to take about three years.