Persistent Places in the Late Archaic Landscape

Abstract

My aim in this study is to identify Late Archaic persistent places—places of continued importance throughout the long-term occupation of a region—within the lower Grand River Area of what is now southern Ontario. I accomplish this through the use of kernel density estimation applied to datasets containing the locations of Late Archaic (4000-2800 RCYBP) sites within this study area which were discovered through cultural resource management (CRM) survey and excavation. Areas identified as persistent places were investigated with regard to landscape features and environmental affordances that could have structured their consistent re-use throughout the Late Archaic, with particular attention paid to the hypothesis that persistent places may have developed around the riverine spawning grounds of spring-spawning fish. Two places with particularly intense concentrations of diagnostic materials dating to successive periods of the Late Archaic were identified: one surrounding Seneca Creek near Caledonia, and one near D’Aubigny Creek south of Brantford. The results show that the persistent use of these places would likely have been structured by the presence of landscape features which would have made these areas particularly rich in many different seasonal resources during the Late Archaic. Perhaps most significantly, both areas are located in close proximity to areas identified as walleye spawning grounds. The contributions of this thesis include the synthesis of the results of many years of CRM survey of the Grand River Area, evidence for the existence of Late Archaic riverine fishing sites related to the spawning runs of walleye, and an improved understanding of Late Archaic subsistence-settlement systems.