Research in Ontario Archaeology

Current Projects:

My current research focus is primarily on Late Archaic to Early Woodland societies in Ontario dating to about 2500-4500 years ago (e.g., 2009c, 2010b, 2011e below) and has been centered on refining our chronological controls and in turn examining the implications of the refined sequences for assessing settlement-subsistence/seasonality models. A major focus is to evaluate our current, largely untested, ideas derived from progressive theoretical models of culture change that conclude the Late Archaic represents a time of reduced residential mobility/increasing sedentism. This research has included a SSHRCC funded field project over some 32 weeks from 2008 to 2010 at the Davidson site on the Ausable River near Parkhill, Ontario, probably the only pure research archaeology field project in southern Ontario in those years. Surface collections, gradiometer/magnetometer surveying, coring, soil probing and the excavations have revealed a large (ca. 3 ha) site occupied during the Broad Point and Terminal (Small Point) Archaic. We have recovered literally tens of thousands of artifacts and exposed many types of large, complex and overlapping features. That work has resulted in the discovery of some of the oldest known true garbage dumps or middens and housing ever found in Ontario (directly dated at 3800-2800 RCYBP; calibrated to ca. 2400-1000 BC; e.g., 2010c, 2011e below). Through our work at this site we have almost doubled the number of definitive houses known for the Late Archaic of the Great Lakes area and the houses are substantial including three pithouses and a structure outlined by a wall trench. Extrapolating from the small area excavated to the overall area of most intensive occupation, there may be as many as 150+ structures at this site and in total 1000s of major features. These finds, along with some large storage pits, certainly suggest reduced settlement mobility was characteristic of that era and notably, during the colder months as indicated by pithouses, storage facilities and probably by the tons of fire-cracked rock -- for more information about this most recent project click here. There are numerous opportunities for graduate thesis research associated with this project. More general summaries of some of the Archaic sites/research projects I have worked on over the years can be found by clicking here.

Much of my earlier research centered on the the very earliest human occupations dating in excess of 11,000 calendar years ago (Paleoindian societies). I have worked extensively in Ontario but also have had the privilege to work on Paleoindian stone artifact assemblages from adjacent areas (e.g. 2003, 2004, 2011a below). Extensive, non-technical summaries of Ontario Paleoindian sites I have investigated, including site views and representative artifacts, and links to a bibliography and other websites dealing with early sites in North America, can be found by clicking here. I continue to do some work in that area. My attention has focused most recently on: a) documenting and understanding the variability seen in Paleoindian stone tool caches and what caches can tell us not only about mundane questions such as the management of tool inventories, but also the belief systems of these early peoples (e.g. 2009a, 2009b, 2011d); and b) synthesizing and relating data on site distributions and Late Pleistocene environments in order to better understand patterns of Paleoindian land use including how these may or may not have differed from ethnographic norms (e.g., 2011b, 2011c, 2011f below). Moreover, I continue to work on producing detailed published site reports on the many Paleoindian sites I was involved in excavating (1975-1997), which is the ethical responsibility of every academic based archaeologist with an active field program. We recently published a report on a site test excavated in 1979 (2010a), a new monograph on another extensive Paleoindian site investigation, Crowfield, just appeared (2011d) and others are in progress. Nonetheless, I do have other unanalyzed Paleoindian collections in my lab, notably Hi-Lo ones, that could provide the basis for graduate student research projects.

 

Select Recent Publications (for a more complete list of publications click here)

2011f Evidence for Changing Toolstone Source Use and Range Mobility during the Paleoindian Occupation of the Great Lakes/Northeast. Current Research in the Pleistocene 28: forthcoming.

2011e (with J. R. Keron) A Preliminary Report on a 3000 Year Old “Wall Trench” Structure from the Davidson Site (AhHk-54). Kewa 11(2):1-10.

2011d  (with D. B. Deller, J. R. Keron and R. H. King and a foreword by H. T. Wright) The Crowfield Site (AfHj-31): A Unique Paleoindian Fluted Point Site from Southwestern Ontario.  Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan No. 49. Ann Arbor, Michigan. xiii + 209 pages.

2011c (with D. H. Carr and T. J. Loebel) The Younger Dryas and Late Pleistocene Peoples of the Great Lakes Region. Quaternary International 242(2):534-545.

2011b Measuring Paleoindian Range Mobility and Land-Use in the Great Lakes/Northeast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(3):385-401.

2011a Lithic/Stone Technology of the Debert Site (Discussion paper and discussion transcript). In Ta’n Wetapeksi’k: Understanding Where We Come From, Proceedings of the 2005 Debert Research Workshop, Debert, Nova Scotia, Canada, edited by Tim Bernard, Leah M. Rosenmeier, and Sharon Farrell, pp. 91-109.  Eastern Woodland Print Communications, Truro, Nova Scotia.

2010c (with E. Eastaugh and J. R. Keron) A Preliminary Report on a Late Archaic Pithouse from the Davidson Site (AhHk-54). Kewa 10(6-7):1-12.

2010b (with K. Snarey) Evidence for Bow and Arrow Use in the Smallpoint Late Archaic of Southern Ontario. In The Compleat Archaeologist: Papers in Honor of Michael W. Spence, edited by Chris J. Ellis, Neal Ferris, Peter Timmins and Christine D. White, pp. 21-38. London Chapter Ontario Archaeological Society, Occasional Paper No. 9 (co-published as journal Ontario Archaeology 85-88).

2010a (with D. B. Deller) Some Sites and Artifacts I have Known: The Weed (AfHl-1) Early Paleoindian Site. Kewa 10(1-2):1-13.

2009c (with P. Timmins and H. Martelle) At the Crossroads and Periphery: The Archaic Archaeological Record of Southern Ontario. In Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Andrew C. Fortier and Dale McElrath, pp. 787-839. State University of New York Press, Albany, New York.

2009b The Crowfield and Caradoc Sites, Ontario: Glimpses of Palaeo-Indian Sacred Ritual and World View. In Painting the Past with a Broad Brush. Papers in Honour of James Valliere Wright, edited by David L. Keenlyside and Jean-Luc Pilon, pp. 319-352. Mercury Series Archaeology Paper 170. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau.

2009a (with D. B. Deller and J. R. Keron) Understanding Cache Variability: A Deliberately Burned Early Paleoindian Tool Assemblage from the Crowfield Site, Southwestern Ontario, Canada. American Antiquity 74(2):371-397.

2008 The Fluted Point tradition and the Arctic Small Tool tradition: What’s the Connection? Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27:298-314.

2004 Understanding "Clovis" Fluted Point Variability in the Northeast: A Perspective from the Debert Site, Nova Scotia. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 28(2):205-253.

2003 (with J. Tomenchuk and J. Holland) Typology, Use and Sourcing of the Late Pleistocene Lithic Artifacts from the Hiscock Site. In The Hiscock Site: Later Pleistocene and Early Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State, edited by Richard S. Laub, pp. 221-237. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37.

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