The Early Woodland Archaeology of the Peace Bridge Site

Williamson et al. Early Woodland Archaeology of the Peace Bridge Site 39 Life and Death at the Quarry: The Early Woodland Archaeology of the Peace Bridge Site Ronald F. Williamson, David A. Robertson, Martin S. Cooper, Robert I. MacDonald, Shaun J. Austin, and Robert H. Pihl In the past several decades, archaeologists have while hunting and gathering were important eco- made gradual progress in understanding life dur- nomic activities, the Niagara Meadowood har- ing the Early Woodland period in New York State vesting calendar would not have been complete and Ontario (Ferris and Spence 1995: 89-97; without the seasonal catches of fish from lakes and Granger 1978a; Ritchie 1980; Ritchie and Funk rivers. While fishing occurred throughout the year, 1973; Spence and Fox 1986; Spence et al. 1990). spawning runs significantly increased the potential Recent investigations by Archaeological Services yield in spring and fall. Inc. (ASI) of the Peace Bridge site, located on the In the immediate Fort Erie area, this settlement- Canadian side of the international bridge linking subsistence system may have involved deer hunt- Fort Erie, Ontario with Buffalo, New York (Figure ing and nut collecting locations being situated in 1), have provided opportunities to augment this the interior as groups were unlikely to have spent understanding, at least for the Niagara Frontier the late fall and winter on the exposed shores of (ASI 1993, 2001, 2004a, 2004b, 2005; Williamson Lake Erie. At least one large Meadowood settle- and MacDonald 1997, 1998; Williamson et al. ment (��Hamlin ��AfGs-52��),�� which exhibits evi- 2006). That this region was home to Early dence of an extensive lithic industry, has been Woodland populations was documented in detail identified in the interior on the Crystal Beach by Joseph Granger (1978a), who defined the Early Moraine, which once overlooked the Point Abino Woodland Meadowood Phase (ca 2800 – 2400 wetland, now a wetland forest that has been BP) in western New York State�� in terms of a com- reduced substantially in size over the past two plex pattern of settlement, inter-regional exchange centuries. During the Early Woodland period it and mortuary ceremonialism. His excavations at may even have been associated with a shallow the large Riverhaven site complex on Grand Island embayment of Lake Erie although the site would and the nearby Sinking Ponds site revealed dense have been in a protected location (Cooper 1985). and varied artifact assemblages relating to resource The Peace Bridge site represents another facet of exploitation and stone tool manufacturing. He the Meadowood settlement-subsistence system in organized these and many other sites into local the Niagara frontier — that of the lithic quarry- territories, arguing that each was populated by a related campsite. The site locale is a major source small band, which in turn was involved in local of Onondaga chert. Investigations over the past and distant inter-regional interaction. fifteen years at the site have yielded considerable Granger proposed a regional settlement-subsist- evidence of stone tool making and caching as well ence system focused on hunting, fishing and gath- as other economic pursuits such as fishing and ering wild plant foods, involving small, spring and hunting. These activities have left behind many of summer fishing camps situated near marshes that the diagnostic artifacts of the Meadowood phase were formerly shallow embayments of Lake Erie, (Spence et al. 1990:128-129), including Vinette 1 along with large macroband fall and winter occu- ceramic vessels, caches of exquisite preforms made pied settlements, located on large streams and from Onondaga chert, as well as ground stone lakes and situated strategically to exploit deer and objects such as a pop-eyed bar birdstone and other animal and plant resources. He argued that trapezoidal-shaped gorgets. 40 Ontario Archaeology No. 85-88/London Chapter OAS Occasional Publication No. 9 Figure 1. The location and extent of the Peace Bridge site within the Town of Fort Erie. Also common throughout northeastern North Flint Ridge chalcedony evincing a direct link to America, and at the Peace Bridge site, was the the Adena heartland in the Ohio Valley. Moreover, application of symbolically important red ochre a blocked-end stone tube pipe, made of Ohio (ground iron hematite) to human remains and limestone and also diagnostic of this period, was grave offerings of objects that required consider- found with one of the Peace Bridge site burials. able time and skill to make. Moreover, the nature While there is only limited evidence of and variety of these grave goods, including those Middlesex period occupation of the site, there made from ��exotic materials��, suggest that mem- appears to have been substantial use of the site by bers of the community outside of the immediate Meadowood populations. As it is one of the larg- family of the deceased provided mortuary offer- est and most densely occupied sites of its kind, it ings, implying relatively broad social or com- likely functioned as a central manufacturing and munity ties. These trends are evident during both distribution centre from which objects, particu- Meadowood and the subsequent Middlesex phase larly those made of Onondaga chert, were circu- (Ritchie 1980; Spence et al. 1990), although this lated to Early Woodland bands throughout the later phase is almost entirely known in Ontario Great Lakes region. This paper is intended to for its elaborate mortuary complex. Adena phase summarize the evidence for Early Woodland projectile points, diagnostic of this period, are occupation of the site and to explore briefly the found throughout the Niagara area and on the socio-political implications of such a site func- Peace Bridge site, sometimes manufactured from tion. Williamson et al. Early Woodland Archaeology of the Peace Bridge Site 41 The Archaeology of the Peace Bridge Site The first sustained investigation of the Peace Bridge site occurred in July of 1964, when work- The first archaeological investigations conducted men uncovered human bone and associated cul- in the Fort Erie area occurred in the late 1800s tural material while grading a portion of the first and early 1900s and are known primarily from terrace adjacent to the Niagara River near the museum accession records from institutions in intersection of Forsyth Street and Niagara Buffalo and Toronto. While David Boyle, the Boulevard in downtown Fort Erie (Figure 1). father of Canadian archaeology (Killan 1983), Known as the Orchid site (AfGr-1), the find visited the area in 1887, during his initial season generated immediate international interest as as Provincial Archaeologist for Ontario, the first archaeologists came to investigate it from Buffalo focused research in the region was undertaken by and from the National Museum of Canada in Frederick Houghton of the Buffalo Museum of Ottawa. The site consisted of a large Iroquoian Science, who compiled a list of sites in the ossuary containing over 300 burials, as well as a Niagara Frontier for the Buffalo Society of secondary burial area, both of which were situ- Natural Sciences (Houghton 1909). Among ated in an extensive, buried, organic palaeosol. other sites, he identified “a continuous occur- The excavations produced Late Archaic, Early rence of cultural debris extending along the bank Woodland, Transitional Woodland, Late of the Niagara River” (Houghton 1909:320). He Woodland and historic Iroquoian artifacts in also identified a specific site between the village addition to fourteenth and seventeenth-century of Fort Erie and the ruins of Old Fort Erie, along Iroquoian burials (White 1966; Granger 1976; the banks of the Niagara River, where he again ASI 2001). referred to the beach as “one continuous refuse In the spring of 1965, a second locality within heap.” Almost seventy years later, Joseph Granger the Peace Bridge site, was accidentally uncovered, (1976) described this feature as the Niagara River 250 metres to the south of the Orchid compo- sheet midden, extending from one end of Fort nent, during renovations to the Queens Hotel, Erie to the other and representing the accumu- formerly located at the corner of Queen Street lated refuse of many cultural groups over thou- and Niagara Boulevard. Known as the Surma site sands of years. The presence of this feature is due (Figure 1), the subsequent excavations there were to the relative accessibility of chert, which out- directed by J. Norman Emerson of the University crops extensively on most of the north shore of of Toronto, assisted by William Noble. Cultural Lake Erie from Fort Erie to Nanticoke. In these material and burials, representing the Archaic to locations, Onondaga chert would have been early Late Woodland periods, were recovered available in abundance to aboriginal peoples. The (Emerson and Noble 1966). Many of the burials Peace Bridge site represents a primary quarry area contained long distance trade goods such as colu- within this outcrop. While Onondaga chert was mella shell beads, platform pipes and slate gor- a key raw material in the flaked stone industries gets. The site also contained a major Late Archaic of southcentral Ontario and western New York (Broadpoint) component (ca. 3800 BP), includ- throughout prehistory, it was favoured by ing one of the largest concentrations of Genesee Meadowood groups to such a degree

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