TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF PREHISTORIC NATIVE HERITAGE IN MISSISSAUGA

INTRODUCTION

People have lived along the north shore of Lake Ontario and in the area we now know as Mississauga for at least 10,000 years. For most of this vast time period, the peoples living here were Native North Americans; Euro-Canadian history in this region began only a few hundred years ago. The Native tradition prior to the arrival of European newcomers is termed 'prehistoric' because we have no written, historical records and we must rely on archaeology for most of our information. This tradition was not, however, ahistorical, in the sense that it was primitive or unchanging. It included a wide variety of highly successful communities and lifeways, ranging from the small, temporary camp sites of early hunter-gatherers to the semi-permanent horticultural villages of more recent Iroquoian groups. Nearly 100 years of archaeological research has produced a substantial body of data on the Native peoples of southern Ontario, and on-going investigation adds to our knowledge almost daily. That being said, our understanding of the Native heritage of the Mississauga area is quite limited, for archaeology has simply scratched the surface in terms of data recovery, interpretation and dissemination.

In this chapter we will review the nature and results of archaeological research on Native heritage in the Mississauga area before the arrival of Europeans. A glossary of archaeological terms is included at the end of the text. We will begin with a brief discussion of how archaeology is conducted in southern Ontario, but the primary focus will be an overview of what we know about the Native tradition. This overview will necessarily be in the form of a summary. For those readers who are stimulated to delve more deeply into our past, two volumes are recommended as a beginning. J.V. Wright's Ontario Prehistory: An Eleven Thousand Year Outline (Wright 1972) is written for the lay reader, while The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to AD 1650 (Ellis and Ferris 1990) is intended for more serious students. The latter work includes an excellent bibliography.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN MISSISSAUGA

As is the case in all of southern Ontario, interest in our archaeological heritage has a long history in Mississauga, although systematic research was relatively sporadic until recently. The incorporation of the city and its development as an urban centre has added an urgency to concern about archaeological resources. Rapid growth of industry, housing and infrastructure has had an unprecedented destructive impact on heritage sites. Because of this, archaeologists are attempting to work in partnership with development agencies, whether private or public, to rescue and/or salvage what we can, and to promote preservation where possible. This aspect of archaeological activity, along with the complimentary activities of other cultural/historical disciplines, is called cultural resource management (CRM). Cultural resources include both human-made and natural physical features associated with human activity. They are unique and non-renewable resources, and can include sites, structures and artifacts significant in history and/or archaeology. CRM is the application of management skills to preserve important parts of our cultural heritage for the benefit of the public and future generations. The crux of CRM is cooperation between those members of a community who have a vested interest in heritage resources or will be impacted in some way by such an interest.

At present, CRM work in Mississauga is conducted through four sectors: the provincial government, academic institutions, private consulting agencies and avocational interest. The provincial government provides the guidelines and controls. For example, there are several pieces of legislation that deal directly or indirectly with heritage resources. The most direct is the Ontario Heritage Act, which provides some protection for all heritage resources and requires that licenced individuals and agencies conduct their investigation. Less direct (but just as important) are the Planning Act and the Environmental Protection Act that encourage developers to take heritage resources into account at the planning stage. In addition, the Cemeteries Act covers all forms of burials, including those considered of archaeological concern. Universities and museums provide the academic setting for interest in local prehistory and archaeology. For example, the Department of Anthropology at Erindale College (University of Toronto at Mississauga) has several faculty members, such as myself, who work in Mississauga and the surrounding regions. We instruct and encourage students as well as conducting original research. The Peel Regional Museum in Brampton houses collections of artifacts from sites throughout Peel Region, including many from Mississauga, and provides a number of programs that encourage and facilitate interest in local prehistory. In the present day, private consulting agencies do the bulk of archaeological field research in Mississauga, much of which is driven by public and private development. An excellent example of the work and contributions of this field is provided in the chapter by Williamson and Pihl in this volume. Finally, there is a broad-based avocational interest in Mississauga's heritage among the general public, facilitated by organizations such as the Ontario Archaeological Society, the Mississauga Heritage Foundation and the Peel Regional Museum.

The most complete inventory of sites available is the database maintained by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation (OMCzCR), which records all work done under licence in the province. The data in this registry constitute a very useful tool for summarizing prehistoric native occupation. One significant problem with the database is directly related to the scale and rate of archaeology being conducted in the region: new information and updates are submitted continually but do not find their way into the registry immediately. The OMCzCR database is the source for most of the data summarized in this chapter, supplemented with updated information on some sites solicited directly from the researchers involved.

There are currently 166 sites registered for Mississauga in the OMCzCR database. There are 26 Euro-Canadian sites and 140 native sites. Of the latter, 137 are prehistoric native and four are historic Mississauga. Four of the prehistoric sites are classed as multi-component, meaning that they were occupied by more than one group of people at different times (a component refers to a single occupation at one point in time). In total, then, there are 141 prehistoric native components registered for Mississauga; these serve as the data base for this paper.

The state of archaeological investigation in Mississauga ranges from very cursory examination to complete site excavation. Unfortunately, the cursory outweighs the extensive, and 93 of the 141 registered components have no more information recorded for them than that they are prehistoric native. The geographic distribution of the 137 prehistoric sites recorded in Mississauga is illustrated in Figure 1; red circles indicate a site for which cultural affiliation is not known, while green circles indicate the 47 components for which we have at least some data on time period.

NATIVE PREHISTORY OF MISSISSAUGA

The archaeological sites in Mississauga represent all site ages and categories in Ontario's prehistory, from Paleo-Indian and Archaic hunting camps to horticultural Iroquoian villages, although some periods and site types are better represented than others. A summary of the prehistoric chronology for the Mississauga region is provided in Figure 2. This chronology is divided into three main periods: Paleo-Indian, Archaic and Woodland, which will be described, each in turn, below. The cultural affiliation for the 47 components for which we have more complete information is presented by major period in Figure 3.

Palaeo-Indian Period (9,000 - 8,500 BC)

Sites dating to the Palaeo-Indian period are not well represented in Mississauga. Only one site is registered in the provincial database (see the red square in Figure 3), although there is oral reference to other unregistered components at two multi-component sites (pers.comm. J.A. Bursey 1998). This raises a significant question: is this paucity a result of very limited human occupation at this time, or have we simply not found the sites? I suspect that, although there may be more sites, the lack reflects some level of reality. That being said, there was a Palaeo-Indian presence in Mississauga, however minimal. Unfortunately, the site data available at present allows us to say very little about the Palaeo-Indian occupation of Mississauga specifically, and we must rely on information from other areas.

Documentation of Palaeo-Indian sites and interpretation of data from elsewhere in southern Ontario provides us with a picture of a very small population, perhaps in the range of a few hundred, living in an environmental setting decidedly different from that of today. This environment is described elsewhere in this volume. In summary, there was a succession of climatic stages as the glacial ice-sheet retreated to the north. Following immediately after the glacial conditions was a tundra-like environment that lasted from xx to xx BC This environment was probably somewhat similar to that of today's high Arctic, although it would have ameliorated by its much more southerly latitudes. For example, the palaeo-faunal record shows that the ancient tundra supported a relatively large biomass of large animals such as mammoth, mastodon and caribou. In addition, the drainage system of 10,000 years ago had little semblence to that of the modern-day. The Lake Ontario shore-line has changed considerably, for example; the lake was, in fact, much smaller during Palaeo-Indian times than it is at present. Thus, the location of the sole Palaeo-Indian site in Mississauga on a modern tributary of the Credit River is most likely coincidental.

The Palaeo-Indian Period is divided into Early and Late subperiods on the basis of a suite of projectile point forms (see Plate 1). The specific types are summarized diagrammatically in Ellis and Deller (1990:40, Figure 3.1) and will not be presented here. The Early Palaeo-Indian subperiod (9,000 - 8,500 BC) is distinguished by fluted points, one of the most distinctive projectile point forms to be found in all of North America. Fluted points are characterized by channels (flutes) on one or both sides of the artifact (see Plate 1:a). The sole registered Palaeo-Indian site so far found in Mississauga dates to the Late Palaeo-Indian subperiod (8,500 - 7,500 BC), which is represented by less distinctive, unfluted styles. The site yielded a single projectile point of the Hi-Lo type (Plate 1:b). Ellis and Deller document Late Palaeo-Indian site clusters distributed throughout southern Ontario (1990: Figures 3.3,3.10 & 3.11), although their maps show no sites in the Toronto region. Mississauga's one Hi-Lo site, taken together with two other such components reported in Peel outside Mississauga, constitutes another cluster, thus adding to our knowledge Late Palaeo-Indian spatial distribution.

Palaeo-Indian economic practices were most likely based on a relatively specialized hunter-gathering lifestyle. The size of sites and the paucity of artifacts recovered from them suggests that they were short-term camps occupied by very small groups of people who ranged seasonally over huge areas. Thus, the Late Palaeo-Indian sites in the Peel region likely represent stations occupied at specific times of the year during an annual cycle that covered a territory much larger than the local confines of the Mississauga region.

We can say very little about Palaeo-Indian society and ideology. If we take contemporary specialized hunter-gatherers such as the traditional Inuit as ethnographic analogues, we can suggest that Palaeo-Indian societies were organized at the band level. This means that they lived in groups of 15 - 100 people, within which social relations were relatively egalitarian. Even less can be inferred about symbolic systems. It has been suggested that the diagnostic fluting of projectile points during early Palaeo-Indian times was likely related to ease of hafting (Ellis and Deller 1990:xx). Although this may be the case, if function was the primary factor it is unlikely that the practice of fluting would have disappeared at the end of the early Palaeo-Indian period. Fluting may also have been symbolic of membership in a wider society, or of a rite of passage for the manufacturers (i.e., attaining the skill indicated adulthood).

Archaic Period (8,000 - 1,000 BC)

By 8,000 BC, the most dramatic of the post-glacial climatic successions were over, and the transition to an essentially modern biotic community was complete. Today, Mississauga is situated at the northeastern corner of the Deciduous Forest zone, also known as the Carolinian Biotic province (Rowe 1972; McAndrews 1994). Prior to European clearance, beech-maple climax forest and associated Carolinian flora and fauna dominated this zone.

Spanning 7,000 years, the Archaic in southern Ontario is the longest and, in many ways, the most stable of the prehistoric periods. During this time span, however, there were a number of pervasive changes in native lifeways that formed the basis for the more complex cultural transitions that occurred in the subsequent Woodland Period. The Archaic is characterized by a number of traits, including a much expanded repertoire of material culture. There was a succession of stylistic changes in projectile point forms (Plate 1:xx-xx), although the sophistication of manufacture of these items appears to decline, especially in comparison to Palaeo-Indian. Ground-stone artifacts, made by grinding and polishing rocks such as granite and slate, were introduced (Plate 2). These include a variety of forms, such as celts employed for wood-working, manos and metates used for grinding nuts and grains, and decorative / symbolic artifacts such as gorgets, birdstones and bannerstones (see Plate 2). Bone tools in large quantities made their appearance for the first time, although this may be as much a matter of better preservation than increased use of bone as a resource. Finally, tools and other items of native copper make their first appearance during the Archaic, as well as exotic goods that indicate wide-spread trade networks.

The Archaic Period is divided into Early, Middle and Late subperiods, all of which are represented in Mississauga (Figure 4). Each subperiod is marked by specific styles of projectile points (see Ellis, Kenyon and Spence 1990:72, 97). Considering that the Archaic Period as a whole extends over seven thousand years and each of the subperiods some thousands, the material culture of these food foragers was remarkably conservative.

There are many more Archaic than Palaeo-Indian sites in southern Ontario (and in Mississauga), reflecting the longer time span of the Archaic, but also a significant increase in population. Instead of a few hundred there were likely thousands of people inhabiting the province as a whole. In Mississauga, the 23 known Archaic sites are concentrated in the western half of the region in the Credit River and Cooksville Creek drainage systems (Figure 4). This distribution is likely the result of survey bias in areas of recent municipal development; archaeological survey in the Etobicoke and Mimico Creek drainages is woefully inadequate.

The increase in Archaic populations is a consequence of both the increased carrying capacity of the primarily deciduous forest and a subsistence strategy that took advantage of a much broader range of resources, especially plants. The Archaic subsistence economy was based on a seasonally scheduled round activities that took advantage of different resources in different places at different times of the year. For example, in the spring and early summer, Archaic bands would congregate at the mouths of rivers or at river rapids to catch fish during spawning runs. A major stream like the Credit River was most likely the focus of intensive activity at this time of the year. In the late summer and fall, smaller groups would move to areas such as wetland margins to harvest nuts and, perhaps, wild rice. During the winter months, single family groups would migrate to upland environments to hunt for deer. The affect of such a pattern would be to produce a scatter of Archaic sites over the landscape, with some sites on waterways and some in the interior. This is exactly what we see during the Archaic period in Mississauga (see Figure 4).

Despite the archaeological information we have from hundreds of excavations on Archaic sites in Ontario, it is difficult to interpret Archaic social and ideational patterns. The egalitarian band continued to be the basis for social organization, but it appears to have become larger and more complex. The seasonal subsistence pattern of congregation and dispersal also affected the size and nature of the social group. During the fall and winter, group size was small, possibly only 15-30 people in one or two nuclear families. During the spring and early summer, these groups congregated at particular places such as fish runs, and group size may have risen to between 100 and 200 people. Most foraging bands are exogamous; that is, they must look for marriage partners outside their immediate kin group. Thus, the spring-summer period of congregation would have been the ideal time to seek out marriage partners and to form marriage alliances between families. Kinship connections, both by blood and by marriage, were the primary links between individuals and families in band level social organization.

There are no cemeteries among the known Archaic sites in Mississauga; it is certain, however, that Archaic burials have simply escaped detection. People were here in significant numbers during the Archaic, and we know from other areas of Ontario that Archaic communities paid a great deal of attention to burial customs. The little we know about Early and Middle Archaic mortuary practices suggest that limited material expression accompanied interment of the dead. By Late Archaic times, however, much more attention was paid to particular kinds of mortuary ceremonial. Large cemeteries with many grave offerings appear for the first time during the Late Archaic. These seem to be associated with the spring-summer congregations, when communal burial of those who died during the previous year served to cement social relationships within and between groups. There is no evidence, however, that any one individual or family received more elaborate burial than others did, thus demonstrating the egalitarian relationships within the band.

Woodland Period (1,000 BC - AD 1650)

The Woodland Period is the most complex of the three prehistoric periods in south-central Ontario; see Figure 5 for a summary of Woodland cultural chronology. It is also the best understood of the periods because the sites are more substantial, preservation of material is better, and Woodland sites have generally received more archaeological attention than those from earlier times. The Woodland Period is well-represented in Mississauga; of the 47 prehistoric native components of known time period, 23 are attributed to the Woodland (Figure 6). As is the case with earlier components, and likely for the same reason (inadequate survey), all of the known Woodland components in Mississauga are situated in the central and western sections of the city.

The beginning of the Woodland period is somewhat arbitrary because there were no abrupt changes to mark the transition. Most often the introduction and development of ceramic technology is used as a marker, but in many ways what we have are Late Archaic societies adding pots to their tool kits. A number of trends evident in the Late Archaic persist. The accelerating-upward population increase continued. There was increasing complexity and variety of artifact assemblages, but the basic tool kits remained largely the same. The broad-based, seasonally scheduled food foraging economy lasted for some time (at least 1500 years). The band level of social organization also remained in place throughout the Early and Middle Woodland, albeit with somewhat larger groups. There was a continued investment in interregional trade in exotic materials and even finished products. With these continuities in mind, however, there are indications of change and innovation in economic, social and symbolic aspects of culture. There was growing emphasis on elaboration of mortuary rituals, such that some archaeologists have characterized the Early Woodland period in terms of 'cults of the dead'. There is also evidence for increasing and more profound external influence, although there are few signs of intruding populations.

In general, there are four kinds of material evidence that mark the Woodland Period as a time of transition:

1. There were shifts in styles of existing artifacts such as projectile points and bifaces.

Early Woodland Cultures (1,000 - 400 BC)

There are four Early Woodland sites registered in Mississauga (Figure 6), but all of these are find spots. Thus, we know very little about Early Woodland here, except that it was present.

Early Woodland in other parts of southern Ontario is characterized by a wide array of artifacts, some of which appear on both cemetery and habitation sites. Many of the artifacts are both functionally and stylistically very similar to the Late Archaic, showing a direct continuity from earlier times. Pottery, however, was new. The earliest pottery found in Ontario was made by coil construction and is a thick and relatively crude ware, called Vinette 1 (Plate 3). The introduction of pottery is important because it demanded a whole new technological regimen. Whereas the raw materials used in other classes of artifacts are not changed, pottery is synthetic; that is, firing clay alters the physical-chemical composition of the clay. In addition, the plastic nature of clay as a medium allows the ceramicist much more control over the final product and encourages the expression of stylistic traits to a degree not found in artifacts made from stone, bone, or even wood. Whether ceramic manufacture was invented independently or the idea diffused remains unclear, but I lean toward the latter. Distinctive Early Woodland chipped lithic artifacts include distinctive Meadowood projectile points (Plate 4) and cache blades. The latter are roughly formed bifaces that are often found in clusters (or 'caches') that may number in the dozens.

Early Woodland socio-economic patterns remained very similar to those of the Late Archaic. The seasonally scheduled round of foraging activities continued, with the same broad range of floral and faunal resources being exploited. Band structure remained the same, and the seasonal pattern of spring-summer congregation and fall-winter dispersal also continued. Early Woodland population levels do not appear to have been much greater than those of the Late Archaic. Spence et al. (1990:xx) argue, however, that Early Woodland societies engaged in a process of 'packing' that led to greater relative population densities in particular areas. Early Woodland burial practices continued to be as elaborate as they were in Late Archaic times, if not more so. Cemeteries appear to have been used by the same groups of people for many years, and many of the burials included grave goods such as projectile points, copper beads, and ground slate objects. A cemetery may have been the focus of seasonal communal burial ceremony that emphasized group integration and signaled a community's identification with a particular region.

Middle Woodland Cultures (400 BC - AD 800)

There are only three Middle Woodland sites registered for Mississauga (Fig. 6), but one of these, the Scott-O'Brien site, was subject to intensive investigation in the early 1990s. Scott-O'Brien is a multi-component site situated on the banks of the Credit River not far from its mouth. It was occupied first during the Middle Woodland sub-period, then again in the Initial Late Woodland, and finally during the Early Ontario Iroquoian stage (see Chap xx, this volume). Thus, the Scott-O'Brien is a remarkable site that provides a record of native habitation on the Credit River during Middle and Late Woodland times.

In southern Ontario three Middle Woodland complexes have been identified: Couture in the extreme southwest from about London to Windsor, Saugeen in the southwest from London to the Grand River, and Point Peninsula from the Grand River east. The Middle Woodland sites in Mississauga are identified as Point Peninsula. Changes in pottery and lithic styles, and the appearance of distinctly 'Hopewellian' artifacts, usually in small quantities, mark this complex. , Point Peninsula pottery shows evidence of greater sophistication in ceramic art than its Early Woodland antecedents, which is rather crudely made and decorated. Although pottery continued to be coil-manufactured throughout the Middle Woodland, the paste and temper is finer, and new decorative techniques, such as dentate and 'pseudo-scallop-shell' stamping, were introduced (Plate 3). The Middle Woodland chipped lithic industry, like its Archaic antecedents is characterized by a focus on production of formal tools that generally described as functional and somewhat nondescript (Plate 4).

Hopewell is a remarkable cultural florescence that occurred south of the Great Lakes between c. 300 BC and AD 300. It is characterized by widespread exchange in exotic goods, some of which made their way into southern Ontario. Examples of Hopewellian items found in Ontario are platform pipes, copper or silver panpipe covers, and shark's teeth. < xx Hopewellian materials at Scott-O'Brien? > The influence of Hopewell demonstrates an important characteristic of this time period: Middle Woodland peoples in southern Ontario were in contact with groups well outside the lower Great Lakes area, and engaged in long-distance trade for materials such as exotic chert.

From the evidence that we have to date, Middle Woodland subsistence practices were limited solely to food foraging in Ontario, although Middle Woodland groups south of the Great Lakes (including Hopewell) were engaged in limited cultivation of domesticated crops by this time. Point Peninsula people continued the well-established pattern of seasonally scheduled hunting, gathering and fishing. The Scott-O'Brien site, for example, is thought to be a relatively large encampment where bands congregated in the spring and early summer to take advantage of fish spawning runs. The band-level social organization of Point Peninsula may have become somewhat more complex than was the case during Early Woodland times. Spence and his colleagues argue that the focus of social organization was the 'macro-band', estimated to have a population that ranged from 50 to 100 people (Spence et al. 1984). Although the macro-band likely dispersed into micro-bands in the winter, it remained together for the rest of the year. This suggests a trend toward greater sedentism and integration within the macro-band group. There is some evidence from burial contexts that the Point Peninsula macro-band may have been divided into two groups based on ascribed status. The elite consisted of a macro-band leader (most likely male in a patrilineal society) and his immediate family. This elite may have enjoyed some hereditary privileges, but evidence to support this is limited.

Late Woodland Cultures (AD 500 - 1650)

Of all the prehistoric periods and sub-periods represented in Mississauga, we know the most about the Late Woodland. Fifteen of the 47 components of known cultural affiliation date to the Late Woodland. The Late Woodland is sub-divided into four stages or phases: Princess Point, Early Ontario Iroquoian, Middle Ontario Iroquoian, and Late Ontario Iroquoian (Figure 5). All but the latest of these is well represented in Mississauga; indeed, it is something of an anomaly that there are no Late Ontario Iroquoian sites in the Peel region. At least one major component from each of the Princess Point, Early Ontario Iroquoian and Middle Ontario Iroquoian stages in Mississauga has been the subject of intensive archaeological excavation and analysis.

The Late Woodland subperiod is signaled by the appearance of characteristic artifact styles, changes in subsistence practices and settlement patterns, and variations in influence and interaction among cultural groups. The changes in artifact styles generally apply to pottery (Plate 5), smoking pipes (Plate 6)) and to modifications in chipped lithic production. The latter included the likely introduction of bow-and-arrow technology for the first time, and an accompanying increase in numbers of small, symmetrical projectile points (true 'arrow-heads') (Plate 7). Change in settlement patterns is complex, but can be summarized as the emergence of village life. Changes in subsistence practices are marked by the archaeologically recognizable beginnings of food production with the appearance of both local and exotic cultigens. The variations in influence and interaction reflect evidence of more wide-ranging and intensive social contacts between groups than was the case in previous periods. The Late Woodland throughout eastern North America was a period of relatively rapid cultural change. The most important of these changes are the introduction of crop cultivation, the development of semi-permanent villages, and the transition from the band to the tribal level of social organization.

The earliest of the Woodland stages, Princess Point (AD 500-1000), is represented by three components in the Credit River valley. One of these, Scott-O'Brien, was excavated in the 19xxs, and is reported in more detail in Chapter xx of this volume. Princess Point has been the subject of a major research project based in the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, of which the author is co-director with Gary W. Crawford (Crawford and Smith 1996; Smith and Crawford 1995; 1997).

The Princess Point region stretches from Long Point and the Grand River valley in southwestern Ontario, to the Credit River at its eastern limit. Princess Point is distinguished by a number of features. One of these is a distinctive pottery style, characterized by paddle as opposed to coil manufacture, and decoration with a stick wrapped in a cord (Plate 5). Another is a change from a chipped lithic industry that focused on manufacture of formal tools to one that emphasized informal flake tools. Formal tools were still produced, however, and these include the distinctive triangular Levanna projectile point (Plate 7), scraper, drills and burins. Ceramic smoking pipes also appear in Ontario in noticeable numbers for the first time during the Princess Point period (Plate 6).

The Princess Point settlement system was oriented toward major stream valleys and wetlands, and settlements are much less dispersed than was the case in Early and Middle Woodland times. Princess Point people were also responsible for introducing maize cultivation to southern Ontario (Crawford, Smith and Bowyer 1997; Smith 1997). The specific origins of the corn are unclear, but it diffused into North America from Mexico by 1000 BC, and made its way north to southern Ontario over the next 1500 years. Whether it diffused from group to group or was brought into Ontario by migrants is a matter of some debate; the question remains unresolved at present (see Snow 1995; Williamson et al, this volume).

In any case, Princess Point people were not full-scale agriculturalists. They may best be described as food foragers who began experimenting with maize cultivation. Their settlement-subsistence pattern appears to be a modified form of that practiced by earlier cultures. They retained some seasonal mobility, but seem to have become more focused on particular locations, where they may have spent much of the year. The Scott-O'Brien and Maracle sites in the lower Credit River valley are typical Princess Point components. Both are focused on the river and alluvial soils that were easy to cultivate, Scott-O'Brien on a terrace and Maracle on a river bar in the flood plain. They may have been used for hundreds of years, but neither of these sites is considered to be a fully sedentary, permanently occupied village.

The nature of social organization in initial Late Woodland times is a matter of some debate. The band level of social organization that characterized Point Peninsula culture gave way between AD 500 and 1000 to the tribal level of the Ontario Iroquoian Tradition (discussed below). Thus, Princess Point is clearly transitional between the two, but the timing and rate of change is a matter that requires much further research.

The Ontario Iroquoian Tradition (AD 1000 - 1650)

At the end of Princess Point times and the beginning of the Early Ontario Iroquoian stage (c. AD 950-1050), another major cultural transition occurred in southern Ontario, a change that is clearly manifested in Mississauga. This was the appearance of formal, semi-sedentary villages, which heralded the beginning of the Ontario Iroquoian Tradition. Emerging out of Princess Point, there evolved a number of societies, distinct from one another, but all sharing in the same cultural matrix. It is fairly clear that this development led to the historic Iroquoian groups in southern Ontario (the Neutral, Petun and Huron) that were first contacted by Europeans in the late 1500s and early 1600s.

The Ontario Iroquoian Tradition (OIT), defined in the 1960s by James V. Wright (1966), consists of Early, Middle and Late Stages, each of which is further subdivided into branches, substages or divisions. The Early Ontario Iroquoian (EOI) stage (AD 1000 - 1300) is divided spatially into the western Glen Meyer and eastern Pickering branches; the division between the two is vague, but is roughly defined by the Niagara Escarpment. Pickering is distinguished from Glen Meyer primarily on the basis of pottery decoration; the former favoured dentate stamp (Plate 5), while the latter used cord-wrapped stick and linear impressions. The Middle Ontario Iroquoian (MOI) stage is divided chronologically into the Uren (1300-1350) and Middleport (1350-1400) substages. Its primary distinguishing features are larger villages, pottery styles that are remarkably homogeneous over much of southern Ontario, and the florescence of smoking pipes during the Middleport substage. The Late Ontario Iroquoian (LOI) stage (AD 1400-1650) is spatially divided between the Neutral branch in the west and the Huron branch in central Ontario; the Huron branch is further separated into southern and northern divisions. The EOI and MOI stages of the OIT are very well represented in Mississauga (8 sites), whereas the LOI is not represented at all. This anomaly may be explained by the congregation of tribal communities into fairly well-defined 'homelands' that occurred in the LOI stage; Mississauga falls into the frontier area between the Neutral and the southern division Huron.

Iroquoian communities were organized at the tribal level. Like the band, a tribal community is characterized by egalitarian social relations, but is distinguished from a band by a number of factors. Whereas the band has no formal leadership role, a tribe has defined leaders who may act to redistribute food and perform ceremonies, but who have no coercive power and no privileged access to resources. In addition, a tribal community is generally larger than a band; for example, Iroquoian communities ranged in size from 200 to 1500, while band size during the Middle Woodland is generally estimated at 15 to 100. Traditional Iroquoian family structure is also quite different from that found in band-level hunter-gatherer-fisher societies. The latter generally consists of a nuclear family (a man, a woman, and their children) and is patrilineal (i.e., descent is traced through the male line). The Iroquoian family, on the other hand, is extended and focused on the female line. It is matrilineal (i.e., descent is traced through the mother's family only), matrilateral (i.e., the family is composed of people related through the female line or married to the female members) and matrilocal (i.e., at marriage, the husband leaves his natal home to live with his wife's mother's family). An extended family consists of several nuclear families representing three or more generations; a matrilaterally extended family is defined by consanguineal kin relations ('blood' kin) traced through the women. Thus, a hypothetical Iroquoian longhouse could be home to a set of elderly sisters and their husbands, their unmarried sons, their daughters and the daughters' husbands, and the children of the married daughters. The size of an Iroquoian extended family varied extensively through time and space, and sometimes within the same village. Estimates range from 25 to 200 people; there seems to be no 'average' Iroquoian extended family size.

Each tribe was an economically self-sufficient and politically autonomous community with a semi-permanent village site as its home base. Subsistence depended on a mixed economy of horticulture supplemented by foraged resources. The basic food crops were maize, beans, squash and sunflower grown in fields surrounding the village. Tobacco was also grown for both ceremonial and secular purposes. An Iroquoian village consisted of longhouses, 'cigar-shaped' structures that housed extended families. It was often surrounded by a single- or muli-rowed palisade, which served as a defensive boundary. Although the village was the primary settlement centre, there were also farming hamlets and fishing camps that were used on a seasonal basis. The village site was not intended to be occupied forever. It was used until soil nutrients in the fields were depleted, firewood in the surrounding area was used up, and village maintenance became too arduous. The community then moved to a pristine location, usually within a few kilometres of the previous site. The length of time that a village was occupied seems to have decreased through time, beginning with 50 to 100 years in the EOI stage, and falling to between 20 to 30 years in MOI times.

No Iroquoian burial sites are recorded in Mississauga. Elsewhere in Ontario, EOI and MOI burial patterns are variable, and include both individual burials and true ossuaries. Although there are specific variations in local areas, the trend is toward increasing use of communal burial. Such mortuary practices emphasize family and community integration.

There are five EOI sites situated in Mississauga, all of which are ascribed to the Pickering branch. The Lightfoot site, located on the Credit River near Mississauga's border with Brampton, is the only village yet discovered in Mississauga. Three of the other EOI sites are find spots, while the latest component at Scott-O'Brien is interpreted as a Pickering camp-site. Lightfoot was subjected to rescue excavations in the mid-1980s, and provides one of the few examples of what a Pickering village looked like. It is about one hectare in size and is situated on a terrace above the Credit River. Fairly extensive midden deposits were found on the banks of the terrace. The village consisted of from four to six relatively poorly defined longhouses spread out over a considerable space. It gives the impression of being the home base of a relatively small community (probably no more than two to three hundred people) for up to 100 years. The pottery features a predominance of dentate stamp decoration; the smoking pipes are plain, functional, and few in number.

The EOI component at Scott-O'Brien yielded only a few features with diagnostic Pickering pottery < xx and fish bone? > (see Pihl and xx, this volume). This, plus its situation on a terrace of the Credit River near the mouth, suggests that it was most likely a seasonal fishing camp, used by people coming out in the spring from a village such as Lightfoot.

The MOI stage is also very well represented in and around Mississauga. There are three MOI sites within the boundaries of Mississauga. One of these, the Antrex site, is a totally excavated MOI village. The other two MOI sites are classed as camps, and very little is known about them. In addition to the sites within Mississauga, there are two MOI villages (the River and Pengilley sites) situated on the Credit River just outside the city limits (see Fig. 6). These two sites have also undergone recent, intensive excavations and will be included in my discussion of MOI below.

The Antrex village site is situated on a tributary of Cooksville Creek (Fig. 6). This site underwent complete rescue excavation between 1990 and 1993, and is one of the most interesting (and puzzling) MOI villages in Ontario (see Williamson and xx, this volume). The excavations revealed xx longhouses and xx middens. Because of rebuilding and shifting, it is difficult to determine how many of the longhouses were occupied simultaneously, but the settlement consisted of at least xx structures at any one point in time. The assemblage of cultural material recovered from the site is very rich, and the state of preservation is remarkable. Sherds representing at least xx pottery vessels, nearly 230 smoking pipes, and xx projectile points were recovered, among many other artifacts of various classes. I supervised an Erindale College field school at the Antrex site in the fall of 1992, and vividly recall not only preserved carbonized maize kernels, but whole cobs and even husks from one of the middens. AMS radiocarbon dates on some of the maize kernels place the occupation of the site in the late thirteenth century.

As noted above, the MOI stage is chronologically divided into two substages: Uren (AD 1300-1350) and Middleport (AD 1350-1400). Elsewhere in Ontario, Uren villages vary considerably in the area they cover, although they are usually larger than earlier villages such as Lightfoot (??Dodd et al. 1990:xx). Population estimates of Iroquoian villages, however, cannot be tied directly to simple geographic size; internal village layout and the size of longhouses are just as important. Uren longhouses tend to be no more than about 30 metres in length, and many are not well defined (suggesting long-term repair and movement of the structures). Like EOI longhouses, Uren structures tend to be spread out and unevenly distributed. Longhouses in Middleport villages are well-defined and many are, indeed, very long; one Middleport longhouse at the Coleman site near Kitchener is over 100 metres in length. They also tend to be packed more tightly within the confines of the village, with more concern for alignment of structures. In general, therefore, Middleport villages appeared to have been occupied by larger groups of people for a shorter period of time than happened during the EOI stage or Uren substage.

Pottery and smoking pipe styles also distinguish Uren and Middleport from each other (see Plates 5 and 6). Uren pottery features a predominance of horizontal lines of decoration on the exterior rim. Middleport pottery assemblages include horizontal lines of decoration, but vertical or oblique lines, usually in combination with horizontal lines, become much more common. Uren smoking pipes are rather plain and occur in relatively small numbers; they are, in fact, undistinguishable from those of the EOI stage. Middleport pipes provide a startling contrast with earlier assemblages. Ceramic smoking pipes are one of the defining material hallmarks of the Middleport substage, and the changes in pipes that occurred in MOI times represent one of the most remarkable stylistic florescences in all of Ontario prehistory. The bowls of earlier pipes were cylindrical or barrel in shape, and decoration was generally unpretentious (Plate 6). They were, in other words, plain and functional; they were also not very common in comparison to other artifacts. This simple smoking pipe assemblage remained unchanged for 800 years through the initial Late Woodland, the EOI stage and the Uren substage. Middleport assemblages saw the introduction of conical and trumpet shaped bowls and much more attention paid to manufacture and decoration (Smith and Major 1999). In addition, many more pipes were produced; the assemblage from the Antrex site contains more than 220 pipes (the largest yet recovered in Ontario). My explanation for this florescence is that a cultural shift occurred in which smoking became a much more important social activity than it was before, and the pipes themselves became as important as the act of smoking.

The MOI sites in and around the Credit River valley, and the Antrex site in particular, pose a fascinating problem for the general definition and chronology of the MOI stage. The anomaly is that, although the Antrex dates place the site at the beginning of the Uren period and the settlement pattern is reminiscent of other Uren sites, the pottery and pipes recovered from Antrex are decidedly Middleport in nature. In fact, there are no Iroquoian sites in Mississauga (or in the whole of the Peel region, for that matter) that have yielded a Uren artifact assemblage. The River and Pengilley sites, located in Brampton on the Credit River just outside of Mississauga, are both examples of later Middleport villages that yielded artifact assemblages very similar to that of Antrex. Thus, Antrex is not simply some odd form of outlier; there are other MOI villages in the general vicinity. The significance for such an early occurrence of Middleport pottery and pipes in the Credit Valley remains to be determined.

CONCLUSION

The discussion of the native archaeology of Mississauga presented in this chapter raises two issues that I want to highlight briefly here. First, Mississauga has an extraordinarily rich archaeological heritage, in which all of the periods of native history in northeastern North America are found. Archaeological sites, many of which have been impacted by the development of the modern city, but many of which remain to be investigated, preserve this heritage. This leads to the second issue, the need for further archaeological research and conservation. The 47 components of known cultural affiliation that provided the foundation for the cultural summary represent only a third of all the archaeological components registered in Mississauga, and only those on which a minimum of research has been conducted.

I would like to end this chapter with a comment about the relevance of archaeological inquiry. From the archaeological perspective, we have the benefit of hind-site when we study our heritage; we can, in fact, know more about past societies than they knew about themselves, as future generations will know more about certain aspects of our society than we do. We have a decided advantage over any past society, because we can look into its future. Developing the skills to do so will aid us in looking into our own future. A 'civilization' that simply bulldozes away its archaeological heritage for economic expedience is not truly civilized, and we should consider, if not the judgment, then the needs of future generations.