The following recommended readings in Ontario prehistory have been separately listed for southern and northern Ontario and have also been segregated by time period and cultural group.
In a number of instances where publications directly referring to the province are not available, reports from adjacent provinces or states are recommended, as they reflect a basically similar cultural development. An attempt has been made to list only reports that have a broad scope or that present a detailed examination of a major archaeological site. The bibliography is not only restricted but is somewhat erratic in its specific coverage. Numerous pertinent references, however, can be readily obtained from bibliographies included in the recommended books.
GENERAL
Wright, J.V., Ontario Prehistory; an Eleven-Thousand Year Archaeological Outline (Toronto: Van Nostrand Reinhold and the National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada, 1977).
Southern Ontario
Kennedy, Clyde C., The Upper Ottawa Valley (Pembroke: Renfrew County Council, 1970). Contains a brief and well illustrated outline of the local prehistory, from the Laurentian Archaic to the Iroquois and Algonkian.
Kenyon, Walter A., "The Inverhuron Site," Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Occasional Paper 1 (1957). Description of a site on Lake Huron containing Archaic period to Iroquois occupations.
Ritchie, William A., The Archaeology of New York State (New York: Natural History Press,1965). A detailed study beginning with the Palaeo-Indian period and ending with the historic Iroquois. Many of the developments that took place in New York prehistory are basically similar to developments in Southern Ontario.
Northern Ontario
Ridley, Frank, "The Frank Bay Site, Lake Nipissing, Ontario," American Antiquity 20:1 (1954). Description of a site containing Shield Archaic to historic Algonkian occupations.
Wright, J.V., "An Archaeological Survey Along the North Shore of Lake Superior," National Museum of Canada, Anthropology Papers 3(1963). A short general statement beginning with the Palaeo-Indian period (Plano) and ending with the Terminal Woodland period (Algonkian) .
_________. "The Boreal Forest (Prehistory of Hudson Bay)," in Science, History and Hudson Bay, edited by C.S. Beals and D.A. Shenstone, volume 1 (Ottawa: Dept. of Energy, Mines and Resources, 1968). A general description of the prehistory of the forested region flanking Hudson Bay.
PALAEO-INDIAN PERIOD
General
MacDonald, George F., "Debert, a Palaeo-Indian Site in Central Nova Scotia," National Museum of Canada, Anthropology Papers 16 (1968). A detailed description of a Palaeo-Indian period (Clovis) site.
Northern Ontario
Lee, Thomas E., "The Antiquity of the Sheguiandah Site," Canadian Field Naturalist 71:3 (1957). A description of a Palaeo-Indian period to Archaic period quarry site on Manitoulin Island.
MacNeish, Richard S., "A Possible Early Site in the Thunder Bay District, Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 129 (1952). A description of a Palaeo-Indian period (Plano) quarry site on the north shore of Lake Superior.
ARCHAIC PERIOD
Southern Ontario
Johnston, Richard B., 'Archaeology of Rice Lake, Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Anthropology Papers 19 (1968). Description of Laurentian Archaic and later materials.
Kennedy, Clyde C., Preliminary Report on the Morrison's Island-6 Site," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 206 (1966), pp.100-125. A description of a Laurentian Archaic village site and cemetery in adjacent Quebec.
Northern Ontario
Ridley. Frank, "Archaeology of Lake Abitibi, Ontario-Quebec," Anthropological Journal of Canada 4:2 (1966). Description of a number of sites, mostly Shield Archaic but also including Initial and Terminal Woodland components.
Wright. J.V., "The Shield Archaic," National Museums of Canada, Publications in Archaeology 3 (1972). Detailed description of the Shield Archaic.
INITIAL WOODLAND PERIOD
Southern Ontario
Johnston Richard B., "The Archaeology of the Serpent Mounds Site," Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Occasional Paper 10 (1968). Detailed examination of a large ceremonial and village site of the Point Peninsula culture.
Levesque, RenÄ, F. Fitz Osborne, and J.V. Wright, "Le gisement de Batiscan," MusÄe national du Canada, âtudes anthropologiques 6 (1964). A report on a Meadowood culture village site.
Spence, Michael W., "A Middle Woodland Burial Complex in the St. Lawrence Valley," National Museum of Canada, Anthropology Papers 14 (1967).
_________ and J. Russell Harper, "The Cameron's Point Site," Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Occasional Paper 12 (1960). Description of a Point Peninsula culture village and burial site.
Wright, J.V., "The Laurel Tradition and the Middle Woodland Period," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 217 (1967). Detailed description of the Laurel culture and its Initial Woodland period neighbours.
_________ and J.E. Anderson, "The Donaldson Site," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 184 (1963). Detailed description of the archaeology and physical anthropology of a Saugeen culture site.
TERMINAL WOODLAND PERIOD
General
Wright, J.V., "The Application of the Direct Historical Approach to the Iroquois and the Ojibwa," Ethnohistory 15:1 (1968). Iroquois (Huron-Petun) and Ojibwa culture history is traced from the historic period to 900 A.D.
Southern Ontario (Ontario Iroquois)
Emerson, J.N., "Understanding Iroquois Pottery in Ontario," Ontario Archaeological Society, Special Publication 2 (1956). An introduction to the use of pottery by archaeologists to reconstruct Iroquois culture.
_________. "The Payne Site: An Iroquoian Manifestation in Prince Edward County, Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 206 (1966), pp.126-257. A description of an Iroquois site with clearly explained methods of artifact analysis.
Kenyon, Walter A., "The Miller Site," Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Occasional Paper 14 (1968). Description of a ninth-century palisaded Pickering culture site.
MacNeish, Richard S., "Iroquois Pottery Types," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 124 (1952). The original study that demonstrated the local development of Iroquois culture in its historic homeland based upon the use of pottery types. A synthesis of general Iroquois cultural development.
Ridley, Frank, Archaeology of the Neutral Indians (Islington, Ont.: Etobicoke Historical Society, 1961). A study of the Neutral Iroquois based upon excavation and information from private collections.
Trigger, Bruce G., "The Strategy of Iroquoian Prehistory," Ontario Archaeology 14 (1970). An historical examination of the various theories of Iroquois origins.
White, Marian E., "Iroquois Culture History in the Niagara Frontier Area of New York State," University of Michigan, Anthropological Papers 16 (1961). A detailed study of a number of village sites belonging to the Neutral-Erie cultural development.
Wintemberg, W.J., "Uren Prehistoric Village Site, Oxford County, Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 51 (1928). A detailed examination of an early fourteenth-century Iroquois village site.
_________. "Lawson Prehistoric Village Site, Middlesex County, Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 94 (1939). A detailed examination of a mid-sixteenth-century Neutral Iroquois village site.
__________. "The Sidney-Mackay Village Site," American Antiquity 11:3 (1946). A detailed examination of an early historic Petun village site.
_________. "The Middleport Prehistoric Village Site," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 109 (1948). A detailed examination of an early fifteenth-century Iroquois site.
Wright, J.V., "The Ontario Iroquois Tradition," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 210 (1966). A general synthesis of the prehistoric development of the Huron-Petun and the Neutral-Erie.
________ and J.E. Anderson, "The Bennett Site," National Museums of Canada, Bulletin 229 (1969). A detailed study of the archaeology and physical anthropology of a late Pickering culture site.
Southern Ontario (St. Lawrence Iroquois)
Pendergast, James F., "Three prehistoric Iroquois components in eastern Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 208 (1966). A detailed examination of three St. Lawrence Iroquois sites.
Wintemberg, W.J., "The Roebuck Prehistoric Village Site, Grenville County, Ontario," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 83 (1936). A detailed examination of a St. Lawrence Iroquois site.
Northern Ontario
MacNeish, Richard S., "An Introduction to the Archaeology of Southeast Manitoba," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 1 57 (1958). A study ranging from the Archaic period to the Terminal Woodland period but of pertinence to adjacent northern Ontario.
Wright, J.V., "A Regional Examination of Ojibwa Culture History," Anthropologica, n.s. 7:2 (1965). An attempt to trace Algonkian culture history back to 900 A.D.
_________. "The Pic River Site," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 206 (1966), pp. 54-99. A detailed examination of a western Algonkian site.
_________. "The Michipicoten Site, Ontario," National Museums of Canada Bulletin 224 (1968), pp. 1 -85. A detailed examination of an eastern Algonkian site.
________. "Cree Culture History in the Southern Indian Lake Region," National Museums of Canada, Bulletin 232 (1968), pp. 1 -31. An examination of Northern Algonkian sites in Manitoba with pertinence to northern Ontario.
HISTORIC PERIOD
General
Kinietz, W. Vernon, "The Indians of the Western Great Lakes, 1615-1760," Occasional Contributions from the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan 10 (1940).
Thwaites, Reuben Gold, editor, Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland: Burrows Bros., 1896-1901). A paperback version with selections is edited by S.R. Mealing, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: A Selection (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963; The Carleton Library no.44).
Southern Ontario
Cartier, Jacques, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, edited by H.P. Biggar (Ottawa: Publications of the Public Archives of Canada, number 11, 1924). Specific reference to the Stadaconans and Hochelagans (St. Lawrence Iroquois).
Champlain, Samuel de, The Works of Samuel de Champlain, edited by H.P. Biggar (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1922- 1936; University of Toronto Press,1971).
Jones, Arthur Edward, "'Bendaken ehen' or Old Huronia," 5th Report of the Bureau of Archives, Province of Ontario (1908).
Sagard-Theodat, Gabriel, The Long Voyage to the Country of the Hurons, edited by G.M. Wrong (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1939; Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1968).
Tooker, Elisabeth, "An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649," Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 190 (1964).
Trigger, Bruce G., The Huron Farmers of the North (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).
MISCELLANEOUS
Rock Paintings and Problematical Structures
Dewdney, Selwyn and Kenneth E. Kidd, Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes (Toronto: Published for the Quetico Foundation by University of Toronto Press,1962).
Noble, W.C., "Vision Pits, Cairns, and Petroglyphs at Rock Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario," Ontario Archaeology 11 (1968).
Vastokas, Joan Marie and Romas K., Sacred Art of the Algonkians; a Study of the Peterborough Petroglyphs (Peterborough: Marsard Press, c1973).
Radiocarbon Dates
Wilmeth, Roscoe, "Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon dates," National Museums of Canada, Bulletin 232 (1969), pp. 68-127. Contains a current list of all archaeological radiocarbon dates in Ontario as well as the rest of the country.
Physical Anthropology
Anderson, J.E., "The People of Fairty," National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 193 (1963), pp. 28-129. A detailed physical anthropological study of a late fourteenth-century Huron ossuary.
________. "The Serpent Mounds Site Physical Anthropology," Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Occasional Paper 11 (1968). A detailed physical anthropological study of both Initial and Terminal Woodland burials from the Serpent Mounds site.
1993 UPDATE
ONTARIO PREHISTORY
J.V. Wright
The central purpose of Canada's Visual History as a teaching aid demanded a very abbreviated and simplified outline of the more than 11,000 years that people occupied the province prior to the arrival of Europeans in the early seventeenth century. As a result, many aspects of the archaeology were either omitted or collapsed into a form more readily comprehended by an audience unfamiliar with the subject. For example, Ontario Prehistory states that the Archaic Period extends from 5000 to 1000 B.C. when, in fact, Archaic cultures had penetrated Southern Ontario by 8000 B.C. To have explained this apparent 3,000-year difference would have required more space than was allotted. Also, archaeology is a dynamic discipline, and much new information has been acquired since the publication appeared in 1981. As a brief summary of Ontario archaeology, rather than an in-depth statement, however, the basic validity of the outline still stands.
For readers requiring greater detail, other points of view, or a national.perspective, the following supplementary publications are recommended.
Cole, Harris, R., ed., and Geoffery J. Matthews, cartographer designer. Historical Atlas of Canada. Vol. 1, From the Beginning to 1800. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. The 69 maps or plates and the accompanying text in this volume place Ontario archaeology in a national context.
Dawson, K.C.A. Prehistory of Northern Ontario. Thunder Bay: The Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, 1983. This relatively short, clearly written synthesis is important, since the archaeological history of Northern Ontario and the Canadian Shield, in general, is distinctly different from that of the Lower Great Lakes-St.Lawrence region of Southern Ontario.
Ellis, Chris J., and Neal Ferris, eds. The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650. Occasional Publication of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, no. 5. This major work is a detailed archaeological synthesis of that portion of Ontario to the south of a line running approximately from the Ottawa River to Georgian Bay. A clear understanding of most of the articles does require some familiarity with technical terms and concepts. An extensive bibliography is provided.
