Papers by Lawrence J . Jackson
Profile, Newsletter of the Toronto Chapter Ontario Archaeological Society, 1984
A 1983 discovery of a vessel sherd with a partial "sunburst" motif is described from the 14th cen... more A 1983 discovery of a vessel sherd with a partial "sunburst" motif is described from the 14th century Gibbs site. This presumed village site is located atop the Oak Ridges Interlobate Moraine overlooking the Ganaraska River watershed in Northumberland County, south-central Ontario. This short article, stereotypical of the 1980s, discusses the motif only in the context of :"Iroquoian" ceramics of the Ontario Iroquois Tradition (Wright 1967). Many researchers now view the OIT concept as outdated and detrimental to our ability to objectively consider the participation of Algonquian speakers in just about everything Iroquoian from about A.D. 1300 to 1650, including co-habitation in villages. The neglected recognition of the Algonquin and Huron Alliance (Migizi 2018 Sioui and Labelle 2014) is leading to a re-evaluation and replacement of the OIT concept with simply the Ontario Woodland Tradition. Woodley (2022) discusses the Gibbs site sunburst motif using only the Middle Ontario Woodland identifier. Gibbs is now AMS dated on maize primarily to the 14th century A.D. but with evidence of site uses in both Uren and Middleport periods. Located beside a hilltop spring with arable land nearby, Gibbs has also produced some Middle Woodland ceramics. The presence of some bipolar lithic industry on the site is generally a hallmark of the presence of Algonquian speakers in south-central Ontario (Ramsden 2016) and some ceramics in the main site area have what appear to be typically Algonquin decoration of small, low collared vessels.
Excerpts from volume in preparation, 2023
A 2014 article by Georges Sioui and Kathryn Labelle frames the concept of the “Algonquian-Wendat ... more A 2014 article by Georges Sioui and Kathryn Labelle frames the concept of the “Algonquian-Wendat Alliance”, a significant 17th century indigenous alliance which may have existed for 250 years in southern Ontario. In 2018, Gidigaa Migizi (Doug Williams), published “Michi Saagiig Nishnabeg: This is our Territory” which chronicles Algonquin oral tradition in southern Ontario since about 1,000 A.D. In this short article, I will explore some of the facts of the Algonquin and Huron alliance drawn from oral history, ethnohistory and archaeology. Ontario archaeologists need to adapt their reconstructive methodologies and include oral tradition if they wish to properly understand the true indigenous relationships of New France and the multi-ethnic nature of Late Woodland village life.
Presentation to AGM, Ontario Association of Professional Archaeologists, 2018
A review of evidence for Algonquin (Anishinabek) cultural presence in southern Ontario over the p... more A review of evidence for Algonquin (Anishinabek) cultural presence in southern Ontario over the past four centuries as well as prior to European contact. Archaeological constructs and terminology used in Ontario Iroquoian archaeology are contrasted with the absence of such constructs and terminology for Ontario Anishinabek archaeology. Statements of ethnicity, linking living peoples with archaeological constructs based on material culture, are questioned as unlikely to have validity.
From Rageneau's account of the Algonquin Missions in the Jesuit Relation of 1648-1649, Chapter X: "On the south shore of this fresh-water sea, or Lake of the Hurons, dwell the following Algonquin tribes: Ouachaskesouek, Nigouaouichirinik, Outaouasinagouek, Kichkagoneiak, and Ontaanak, who are all allies of our Huron With these we have considerable intercourse, but not with the following, who dwell on the shores of the same Lake farther toward the West, namely: the Ouchaouanag, who form part of the Nation of fire; the Ondatouatandy and the Ouinipegong, who are part of the Nation of the Puants".
Association of Professional Archaeologists (Ontario). Occasional Papers in Ontario Archaeology, No. 3, 2019
This paper proposes that the Rice Lake region of south-central Ontario had substantial Early to ... more This paper proposes that the Rice Lake region of south-central Ontario had substantial Early to Middle Archaic occupations (circa 8,900-7,500 RCYBP)-using evidence, from comprehensive regional surveys conducted in the 1980s and largely unpublished site excavation data from the 1970s. These occupations were contemporaneous with gradual Holocene flooding of the Rice Lake basin due to isostatic rebound. Two projectile point "horizons" are documented: 1) a late Early Archaic bifurcate base horizon, (typically on small triangular bladed, eared corner-notched points with deep basal concavity); and 2) an early Middle Archaic corner-notched/stemmed horizon (with small, triangular bladed points varying from corner-notched to straight stemmed and eared, but lacking base bifurcation). Projectile point data is presented from 14 sites on or near Rice Lake and the Trent River. These sites suggest that widely distributed late Early Archaic bifurcate and early Middle Archaic stemmed point horizons existed during a lengthy period of cool and wet climate. A hypsithermal warm and dry interval began about 6,560 RCYBP after the early Middle Archaic (Yu and McAndrews 1994). Detailed water level mapping in relation to site locations indicates a significant focus on wetlands which were being constantly created by incremental flooding of the Rice Lake basin and also much wetter than modern interior valley environments near streams, headwaters, and artesian springs. The juxtaposition of riverine, estuarine, lacustrine and marshland environments on island and palaeo-shoreline Rice Lake sites would have presented considerable ecodiversity and resource exploitation opportunities to Archaic populations.
APA Occasional Papers available online by student, associate or professional membership in Association of Professional Archaeologists or one-time fee download..
Northeastern Archaeological Associates Occasional Papers in Southern Ontario Archaeolog No. 1, 2024
This six chapter book, released in October of 2024 by major booksellers, examines Ontario Woodlan... more This six chapter book, released in October of 2024 by major booksellers, examines Ontario Woodland Tradition archaeology in the context of archaeological statements of ethnicity and their reliability in the interpretation of the archaeological record. It focuses on southern Ontario in the period circa 1300 to 1650 A.D. - the time of the Algonquin and Huron Alliance (Sioui and Labelle 2014). Evidence is provided for a highly interactive multi-cultural landscape in which Algonquian-speaking peoples did not disappear with the rise and spread of Iroquoian village life. Instead they were part of a regionally unique ethnogenesis, at different times and places, with Iroquoians. Examination of historical records, Indigenous oral tradition and archaeological sites and artifacts suggests a much different pre-contact reality than the preferred narratives of southern Ontario archaeology currently suggest. A unique ethnogenesis of new cultural forms arising from the close interaction of two powerful language groups, Algonquin and Iroquoian, has remained unappreciated. When it is examined through the lens of Indigenous oral tradition and history, balanced with archaeological evidence and ethnohistoric narratives, a more vibrant picture emerges of lower Great Lakes societies both pre- and post-contact with Europeans.
Ontario Association of Professional Archaeologists Newletter, 2024
This short paper outlines the history of engagement by the Association of Professional Archaeolog... more This short paper outlines the history of engagement by the Association of Professional Archaeologists (Ontario) with Six Nations, HDI and the Williams Treaties Anishinabek First Nations. It chronicles APA involvement with setting up some of the first archaeological training schools for First Nations in Ontario and graduating a large number of Indigenous archaeological liaisons. The paper also touches on APA's professional investigations of issues of archaeological site protection and misplaced blaming of archaeologists in highly charged political situations. Two such investigations resulted in extensive documentation of widely misunderstood events at the sites of Skandatut and also Allandale in southern Ontario. It is important that Ontario archaeologists look beyond superficial explanations which can serve other agendas.
Ontario Public Register of Archaeological Reports, 2020
Report prepared by Patty Morrison and Lawrence Jackson
A Stage 1 archaeological assessment was re... more Report prepared by Patty Morrison and Lawrence Jackson
A Stage 1 archaeological assessment was requested by the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation to cover all reserve lands. This work was carried out by Northeastern Archaeological Associates Ltd. in 2017 and 2018 and identified areas of high archaeological potential and provided a detailed background history of the reserve lands.
Rediscovering Our Past: Essays on the History of American Archaeology, Worldwide Archaeology Series, edited by Jonathan Reyman, 1992
Worldwide Archaeology Series 1992
Archival research into the circumstances of the original Folsom... more Worldwide Archaeology Series 1992
Archival research into the circumstances of the original Folsom site discovery in 1926 clearly demonstrates that paleontologists from the Colorado Museum of Natural History were actively looking for associations of ancient humans and extinct fauna. Their documentation of the Folsom site was critical to its acceptance by archaeologists. In 1989, the authors rediscovered a lost 1926-1928 field journal of Folsom crew member Carl Schwachheim in Raton, New Mexico. This journal documents a well-informed and deliberate search for extinct fauna and human associations.
Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 2000
Lawrence Jackson, Christopher Ellis, Alan V. Morgan and John H. McAndrews
This article investiga... more Lawrence Jackson, Christopher Ellis, Alan V. Morgan and John H. McAndrews
This article investigates changing lake levels in the late Pleistocene eastern Great Lakes in order to gain insights into the Early Palaeo-Indian occupations. Significant new information bearing on lake level history is provided, notably the first well-documented deposits of a high water level above modern in the ca. 11,000–10,300 B.P. period in the southern Lake Huron basin. The lake level information, along with paleoenvironmental and site data, reinforces site age estimates to the 11th millennium B.P.; suggests significant numbers of sites have been inundated by rising water levels; provides specific information on the setting of archaeological sites such as placing the Parkhill site adjacent to a large lake estuary ;indicates reasons for the attractiveness of shorelines to Palaeo-Indians including persistence of more open areas conducive to higher game productivity; and points to ideal areas for future archaeological site survey, particularly in the Lake Erie drainage
Worldwide Archaeology Series, 1997
Ontario Paleo-Indian site situation in regions dominated by proglacial sediments, on or near lake... more Ontario Paleo-Indian site situation in regions dominated by proglacial sediments, on or near lake-edge features (strands), adjacent to strand-dissecting tributaries, and within major interior river valleys with lacustrine associations, implies selectivity reflecting a primary hunting adaptation.This pattern extends to other areas of the Northeast and is also characteristic of Southwestern and Great Basin fluted point sites found along the shores of now-extinct lakes (Davis and Shutler 1969; Judge 1973). Survey strategies have only recently attempted to evaluate how strand sites are representative of larger Paleo-Indian settlement and adaptive patterns.
A single radiocarbon date from an unattributed ossuary excavated near Cobourg, Ontario is re-exam... more A single radiocarbon date from an unattributed ossuary excavated near Cobourg, Ontario is re-examined in the light of known problems with the calibration curve in the period 1500 to 1600 A.D. Originally reported by McKillop and Jackson (1991), the Poole-Rose burial site was not given a cultural affiliation due to a complete absence of artifacts but was determined to have an ossuary pattern comparable to descriptions in the Jesuit Relations accounts of the Feast of the Dead. A 2011 media account (Ormsby 2011) claimed the site was Huron-Wendat when no such determination was possible. Representatives for the Deceased in the case of this site excavation were the Anishinabek treaty holders of Alderville First Nation. Alternative explanations are offered in this paper for both possible cultural affiliations and dating of the site prior to European contact. Designations of ethnicity are considered beyond any available archaeological evidence which raises larger questions about cemeteries regulations requiring statements of cultural affinity.
Strata, Newsletter of the Ontario Chapter of the OAS, Vol. 13:29-33, 2023
To honour the memory of Gidigaa Migizi-ban (Doug Williams), Elder of the Michi Saagiig of Curve L... more To honour the memory of Gidigaa Migizi-ban (Doug Williams), Elder of the Michi Saagiig of Curve Lake, Ontario, Julie Kapyrka and the Peterborough Chapter of the OAS put together a volume of reminiscences by friends and archaeologists. My contribution is to look at how Doug changed our perceptions in the little world of Ontario archaeology and opened our eyes to the meaning and use of oral tradition in constructing archaeological views of the past. Doug's major published work (2018) Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg: This is our Territory, has triggered a re-evaluation of the Anishinabek presence throughout Ontario's past. He records the true and meaningful relationships between groups of Indigenous peoples (specifically The Algonquin and Huron Alliance) prior to and during European contact. Doug spent his life conveying the teachings of his Elders and ensuring that the Michi Saagiig did not remain forgotten in the time archaeologists determined to be that of the Ontario Iroquois Tradition.
Ontario Association of Professional Archaeologists Newsletter, 2020
This paper summarizes recent research into perceptions of ethnicity in southern Ontario archaeolo... more This paper summarizes recent research into perceptions of ethnicity in southern Ontario archaeology which have tended to regard the 17th century Algonquin presence as invisible. Specific accounts in the Jesuit Relations and in later 17th century French documents make it clear that Algonquins were widely present across the landscape of southern Ontario at the same time as the Iroquois. And that they shared material culture with the Iroquois and had their own tradition of ossuary burial as the Algonquin Feast of the Dead/ Michi Saagiig Elder Doug Williams recounts that the Iroquois were invited into southern Ontario to grow corn and that there developed a mutually beneficial centuries long alliance between Algonquins and Iroquois. Although the exact timing of the beginning of this alliance is unknown it could have been as early as the end of what we call the Middle Woodland period. The in situ theory of cultural development in Ontario tends to disregard the presence of Algonquin peoples. What we have from a First Nation Elder account is an alternative view, not in situ, not migration, but invitation and alliance.
Some thoughts are also presented on how perceptions of village ethnicity fail to account for the diversity of survivor populations in a time of contact, widespread disease, and warfare. It is suggested that researchers increase their efforts to recognize Algonquin sites and that the overwhelmingly dominant Ontario Iroquois Tradition concept be replaced with the simple alternative of the Ontario Woodland Tradition - which does not presume ethnicity, an elusive archaeological concept.
Ontario Association of Professional Archaeologists Newsletter, Spring 2022(1):6-9, 2022
This paper discusses a new series of four AMS dates for the Early Woodland Vinette 1 site of Daws... more This paper discusses a new series of four AMS dates for the Early Woodland Vinette 1 site of Dawson Creek on the north shore of Rice Lake in south-central Ontario. Focusing on the presence of distinctive, smoothed-over cord-marked Vinette 1 with incipient punctationin Feature 14, we present evidence for its us use in the latter half of the Hallstatt Plateau circa cal. 800 to 400 B.C. Nearly of the Early Woodland dates at the site fall within the Hallstatt Plateau and have multiple intercepts with the radiocarbon curve - something not considered in most discussions of Early Woodland radiocarbon dates in the Northeast.. This plateau is the infamous :"radiocarbon disaster" of European archaeology. The Dawson Creek AMS dates typically have probabilities for at least 3 or 4 different intercepts and significantly raised sigma variation. They nevertheless fall consistently within the Plateau and give us our first good fix on the age of Vinette 1 in Ontario. We are currently preparing a review of 23 new AMS dates for the Dawson Creek site.
Museum of Anthropology Memoirs No. 32, 1998
Currently available from University of Michigan Press, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, Mem... more Currently available from University of Michigan Press, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, Memoir 32 Approximate cost $26 U.S.
With Foreword by Henry T. Wright and Phytolith Analysis by Anita Buehrle
A comprehensive study of the Gainey phase in the Rice Lake region of Ontario, with focus on the Sandy Ridge logistical and Halstead residential sites. Each site produced evidence of a small suite of subsoil hearth and pit features, associated with tools on Collingwood chert, and provides a template for recognition of small and medium size Gainey phase sites where fluted point production was not a dominant activity.
Paleoindian Archaeology - A Hemispheric Perspective, J. Morrow and C. Gnecco, Eds., 2006
Junius Bird's work at Fell's Cave, Chile in 1936 and 1937 established the presence of Early Paleo... more Junius Bird's work at Fell's Cave, Chile in 1936 and 1937 established the presence of Early PaleoIndian peoples using "fish tail" fluted points in southernmost South America. Compiling data from various researchers, including numerous radiocarbon dates, it appears that South American "fish tails" are co-eval with Folsom. Other discoveries, including an unpublished fluted point recorded by Bird, are good Clovis analogues.
Annual Archaeological Report Ontario, 1991
Christopher Ellis, D. Brian Deller and Lawrence Jackson This report describes excavations at th... more Christopher Ellis, D. Brian Deller and Lawrence Jackson This report describes excavations at three small interior Early Paleoindian sites in southwestern Ontario carried out in 1990. Small sites can offer more distinct views of activity area patterning and site function.
Arch Notes, Newsletter of the Ontario Archaeological Society, 1994
This short study published three conventional radiocarbon dates for the Ontario Woodland Traditio... more This short study published three conventional radiocarbon dates for the Ontario Woodland Tradition Gibbs site in south-central Ontario. At that time the dates suggested a late Middleport occupation. Recent AMS dating of carbonized maize shows site use may span from late Pickering to the end of Middleport. ( if we continue to use OIT stage terminology from Wright 1966) during the time of the Algonquin and Huron Alliance (Sioui and Labelle 2014). Pooled mean calibrated ages for three maize AMS samples, run in 2022 and 2023, fall in the early , middle and late 14th century A.D. Samples are from controlled excavation contexts and have SPD age distributions that are typically bimodal.
Smith (2021), in a review of available southern Ontario radiocarbon dates, places Pickering, traditionally dated 1000 to 1300 A.D., from OxCal estimations at A.D. 990 +- 50 to 1380 +- 35 A.D.
Arch Notes, Newsletter of the Ontario Archaeological Society, 1979
A brief research note providing description and drawing of an Early Archaic bifurcate based proje... more A brief research note providing description and drawing of an Early Archaic bifurcate based projectile point found at the Morrow site on the Trent River, south-central Ontario. The point closely resembles examples referred to as Le Croy bifurcate base.
Kewa, 2019
Co-authored with Donna Morrison
A research note highlighting some lithic materials excavated at t... more Co-authored with Donna Morrison
A research note highlighting some lithic materials excavated at the Jerseyville Estates property Smith site (AhHa-11) near Ancaster, Ontario in the 1990s. Bifurcate base and Narrow Points (Lamoka) from Area E are briefly discussed. Local ravine topography suggests a game ambush site, likely for large cervids, used from late glacial to recent times.
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Papers by Lawrence J . Jackson
From Rageneau's account of the Algonquin Missions in the Jesuit Relation of 1648-1649, Chapter X: "On the south shore of this fresh-water sea, or Lake of the Hurons, dwell the following Algonquin tribes: Ouachaskesouek, Nigouaouichirinik, Outaouasinagouek, Kichkagoneiak, and Ontaanak, who are all allies of our Huron With these we have considerable intercourse, but not with the following, who dwell on the shores of the same Lake farther toward the West, namely: the Ouchaouanag, who form part of the Nation of fire; the Ondatouatandy and the Ouinipegong, who are part of the Nation of the Puants".
APA Occasional Papers available online by student, associate or professional membership in Association of Professional Archaeologists or one-time fee download..
A Stage 1 archaeological assessment was requested by the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation to cover all reserve lands. This work was carried out by Northeastern Archaeological Associates Ltd. in 2017 and 2018 and identified areas of high archaeological potential and provided a detailed background history of the reserve lands.
Archival research into the circumstances of the original Folsom site discovery in 1926 clearly demonstrates that paleontologists from the Colorado Museum of Natural History were actively looking for associations of ancient humans and extinct fauna. Their documentation of the Folsom site was critical to its acceptance by archaeologists. In 1989, the authors rediscovered a lost 1926-1928 field journal of Folsom crew member Carl Schwachheim in Raton, New Mexico. This journal documents a well-informed and deliberate search for extinct fauna and human associations.
This article investigates changing lake levels in the late Pleistocene eastern Great Lakes in order to gain insights into the Early Palaeo-Indian occupations. Significant new information bearing on lake level history is provided, notably the first well-documented deposits of a high water level above modern in the ca. 11,000–10,300 B.P. period in the southern Lake Huron basin. The lake level information, along with paleoenvironmental and site data, reinforces site age estimates to the 11th millennium B.P.; suggests significant numbers of sites have been inundated by rising water levels; provides specific information on the setting of archaeological sites such as placing the Parkhill site adjacent to a large lake estuary ;indicates reasons for the attractiveness of shorelines to Palaeo-Indians including persistence of more open areas conducive to higher game productivity; and points to ideal areas for future archaeological site survey, particularly in the Lake Erie drainage
Some thoughts are also presented on how perceptions of village ethnicity fail to account for the diversity of survivor populations in a time of contact, widespread disease, and warfare. It is suggested that researchers increase their efforts to recognize Algonquin sites and that the overwhelmingly dominant Ontario Iroquois Tradition concept be replaced with the simple alternative of the Ontario Woodland Tradition - which does not presume ethnicity, an elusive archaeological concept.
With Foreword by Henry T. Wright and Phytolith Analysis by Anita Buehrle
A comprehensive study of the Gainey phase in the Rice Lake region of Ontario, with focus on the Sandy Ridge logistical and Halstead residential sites. Each site produced evidence of a small suite of subsoil hearth and pit features, associated with tools on Collingwood chert, and provides a template for recognition of small and medium size Gainey phase sites where fluted point production was not a dominant activity.
Smith (2021), in a review of available southern Ontario radiocarbon dates, places Pickering, traditionally dated 1000 to 1300 A.D., from OxCal estimations at A.D. 990 +- 50 to 1380 +- 35 A.D.
A research note highlighting some lithic materials excavated at the Jerseyville Estates property Smith site (AhHa-11) near Ancaster, Ontario in the 1990s. Bifurcate base and Narrow Points (Lamoka) from Area E are briefly discussed. Local ravine topography suggests a game ambush site, likely for large cervids, used from late glacial to recent times.
From Rageneau's account of the Algonquin Missions in the Jesuit Relation of 1648-1649, Chapter X: "On the south shore of this fresh-water sea, or Lake of the Hurons, dwell the following Algonquin tribes: Ouachaskesouek, Nigouaouichirinik, Outaouasinagouek, Kichkagoneiak, and Ontaanak, who are all allies of our Huron With these we have considerable intercourse, but not with the following, who dwell on the shores of the same Lake farther toward the West, namely: the Ouchaouanag, who form part of the Nation of fire; the Ondatouatandy and the Ouinipegong, who are part of the Nation of the Puants".
APA Occasional Papers available online by student, associate or professional membership in Association of Professional Archaeologists or one-time fee download..
A Stage 1 archaeological assessment was requested by the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation to cover all reserve lands. This work was carried out by Northeastern Archaeological Associates Ltd. in 2017 and 2018 and identified areas of high archaeological potential and provided a detailed background history of the reserve lands.
Archival research into the circumstances of the original Folsom site discovery in 1926 clearly demonstrates that paleontologists from the Colorado Museum of Natural History were actively looking for associations of ancient humans and extinct fauna. Their documentation of the Folsom site was critical to its acceptance by archaeologists. In 1989, the authors rediscovered a lost 1926-1928 field journal of Folsom crew member Carl Schwachheim in Raton, New Mexico. This journal documents a well-informed and deliberate search for extinct fauna and human associations.
This article investigates changing lake levels in the late Pleistocene eastern Great Lakes in order to gain insights into the Early Palaeo-Indian occupations. Significant new information bearing on lake level history is provided, notably the first well-documented deposits of a high water level above modern in the ca. 11,000–10,300 B.P. period in the southern Lake Huron basin. The lake level information, along with paleoenvironmental and site data, reinforces site age estimates to the 11th millennium B.P.; suggests significant numbers of sites have been inundated by rising water levels; provides specific information on the setting of archaeological sites such as placing the Parkhill site adjacent to a large lake estuary ;indicates reasons for the attractiveness of shorelines to Palaeo-Indians including persistence of more open areas conducive to higher game productivity; and points to ideal areas for future archaeological site survey, particularly in the Lake Erie drainage
Some thoughts are also presented on how perceptions of village ethnicity fail to account for the diversity of survivor populations in a time of contact, widespread disease, and warfare. It is suggested that researchers increase their efforts to recognize Algonquin sites and that the overwhelmingly dominant Ontario Iroquois Tradition concept be replaced with the simple alternative of the Ontario Woodland Tradition - which does not presume ethnicity, an elusive archaeological concept.
With Foreword by Henry T. Wright and Phytolith Analysis by Anita Buehrle
A comprehensive study of the Gainey phase in the Rice Lake region of Ontario, with focus on the Sandy Ridge logistical and Halstead residential sites. Each site produced evidence of a small suite of subsoil hearth and pit features, associated with tools on Collingwood chert, and provides a template for recognition of small and medium size Gainey phase sites where fluted point production was not a dominant activity.
Smith (2021), in a review of available southern Ontario radiocarbon dates, places Pickering, traditionally dated 1000 to 1300 A.D., from OxCal estimations at A.D. 990 +- 50 to 1380 +- 35 A.D.
A research note highlighting some lithic materials excavated at the Jerseyville Estates property Smith site (AhHa-11) near Ancaster, Ontario in the 1990s. Bifurcate base and Narrow Points (Lamoka) from Area E are briefly discussed. Local ravine topography suggests a game ambush site, likely for large cervids, used from late glacial to recent times.
See: Gidigaa Migizi 2018 Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg: This is Our Territory. Arp Books. Winnipeg
The Blezard II site had previously produced a large number of isolated projectile points of multiple time periods from surface collection of the southern sand ridge running parallel to Plainville Stream.
Excavations in 2016 and 2017, see Linton Springs paper in drafts section, documented an Early Palaeo-Indian Parkhill phase, multiple Early and Late Archaic, Middle Woodland, and historic Euro-Canadian occuaptions.
ETHNICITY IN THE ONTARIO WOODLAND TRADITION is now available in hard and soft cover editions, October 2024, through major book sellers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Indigo/Chapters, etc.
https://www.icbookstore.ca:10400/earlypalaeoindianoccupation May also be ordered at apaontario.ca, go to online store.
This paper focuses initially on the 2005 discovery of a small Early Palaeo-Indian site along the Otonabee River in the northeast part of the city of Peterborough and broadens to discuss the regional context of occupation in the south Kawartha Lakes/Otonabee River and Rice Lake watersheds based on 40 years of intermittent survey and excavations. The Waverly Heights site (BcGn-13) was found during a shovel test survey with a single positive shovel test leading to a full Stage 4 excavation. The site is on the gentle north slope of a small glacial drumlin between two branches of the Otonabee River. Assigned to time period on the basis of distinctive channel flakes from the manufacture of fluted points, the site had a small hearth with bifacial debitage, a projectile point basal ear and calcined mammal bone. The calcined bone from the site indicates not just the hunting of large cervids but also consumption of fish. Proximity to a possible caribou water crossing of the glacial Otonabee River is raised. Channel flake width measurements suggest a Parkhill or later phase Palaeo-Indian occupation, perhaps Holcombe at the end of the Early Palaeo-Indian fluting tradition.
Waverly Heights provides new information on small resource extraction sites and indicates there may be much larger regional networks of small Early Palaeo-Indian site types, originally predicted from comprehensive survey work in the Rice Lake region 20 km to the south (Jackson1990). More than a dozen Early Palaeo-Indian sites in the western Rice Lake area include logistical game processing, hunting ambush, and multi-purpose residential camps. Significantly, reconstruction of palaeogeographic landscapes indicates that the entire western lake bed of Rice Lake would have been a mosaic of small wetlands and dry land in the late glacial period circa 12,000 to 10,000 years B.P. Multiple discoveries of fossil caribou remains from later Holocene contexts at Rice Lake, circa 6,000 to 3,000 years B.P. strongly indicate that caribou was a persistent resource for human occupants of the area. It is highly likely that many early Palaeo-Indian sites are currently inaccessible below the now flooded western Rice Lake basin because of the Holocene effects of isostatic rebound.
WITH A FOREWORD BY HENRY T. WRIGHT AND PHYTOLITH ANALYSIS BY ANITA BUEHRLE.
As an Addendum to help with raw material comparisons, I have added colour photos of select artifacts from Sandy Ridge and Halstead where lithic assemblages are dominated by use of Collingwood chert (also known as Fossil Hill)
Covers, Abstract, Preface, Dedication, Table of Contents
This volume of 13 articles dealing with Late Palaeo-Indian archaeological sites and environments in the Great Lakes region offers a detailed overview of this little understood time period. ... The contributions included in this volume cover both cultural and historical aspects of this critical time in the Great Lakes region, as well as issues dealing with the dynamic nature of the landscape.
Updated Information: Recent AMS dating of charcoal from Feature 25 places it, and a diagnostic Meadowood point with bifacially reworked drill tip, directly in the early part of the Early Woodland period (cal. 1170 +- 130 B.C. at two sigma variance).
Dating of maize kernels from Feature 11 by Eric Beales (2014) as part of his Trent University Master's thesis, determined these charred remains were not associated with the Middle Woodland feature charcoal date but rather with some event circa 1450-1700 A.D. Bioturbation of upper Feature levels is suspected.