Middle and Late Iroquoian Occupations in the Middle Trent Valley Region

Abstract

This thesis consists of an analysis of Middle and Late Iroquoian sites located within the Middle Trent Valley region of south-central Ontario. Comparsions between the assemblages from these sites suggests that Iroquoian culture developed in situ in this area, and was not the result of migrations from the south. Several interrelated Middle to Late Iroquoian foci inhabited the interior areas of this region . until atleast the end of the fifteenth century, when the Middle Trent Valley was abandoned. Two sites in particular, the late Middleport Wilson site and the early Late Iroquoian Bark site, are discussed in detail. The Bark site is a small mid-fifteenth century Huron village with close socio-cultural ties to contemporary Huron groups in the Upper Trent Valley. The Wilson site is a large Middleport village dating to the end of the fourteenth century. It is suggested that the Bark site inhabitants represent a portion of the earlier Wilson site occupants, who returned to the area of the Wilson site to take advantage of their abandoned fields.