The Petawawa Small Sites Report
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20 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY NO.15 B. M. MITCHELL, D. A. CROFT, P. J. BUTLER, R. J. CAWTHORN (Accepted May 1970) THE PETAWAWA SMALL SITES REPORT ABSTRACT In the Petawawa River Valley, a large drainage system in east Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, 13 small sites of aboriginal occupation have been located. These pertain to Archaic, Middle Woodland, Pickering, Iroquoian and Algonkian groups. Among the Middle Woodland ceramics are sherds which may be attributable to Laurel and Saugeen. INTRODUCTION Discovery of Middle Woodland and other materials at Montgomery Lake (Mitchell, Butler, Ford and Lance: 1966; Mitchell: 1969), led to the investigation of adjacent waterways. A type one survey (Ruppe: 1966) of the Petawawa River, upstream from this lake was conducted during the 1964-1966 high water seasons. The Petawawa River system is a major drainage system in Algonquin Provincial Park, flowing southeast and draining about 1800 square kilometers (Anonymous: 1968). All material recovered from this survey is deposited with the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests. THE SITES This report describes 13 small sites found on the shores of the series of lakes and intercon- necting rapids extending 80 kilometers between Montgomery and Cedar Lakes, most of which lies within Algonquin Provincial Park (Figure 1). The sites are described consecutively from east to west. Except for C1 and C2 which were exposed on the surface, all other sites were discovered by test pitting. Subsequent excavation was done on a 1.5 meter grid pattern oriented north-south. As the sites under discussion were small, they were completely excavated. Eleven of the sites lie on sandy flats at the water's edge, generally 1.3 to 3.1 meters above water level, and usually within 90 meters of a rapids. Other locations were available as most of the lakes are 1.6 kilometers or more in length, but testing did not produce other artifact concentrations. Borden (1952) designations for the sites are as follows: M2, Mc1, Mc2 (BIGj); WI, W2, W3 (B1Gk); Coveo (CaGk); TL1, TL2 (BIGm); RA1, RA2 (B1Gn); C1 (BIGo); C2 (CaGp). THE MONTGOMERY LAKE 2 SITE (M2) A partially disturbed site on a south shore sand flat, 2.1 meters above the waters of Mont- gomery Lake, accommodated the users of the material described below. A sand spit extends Mitchell: PETAWAWA SMALL SITES 21 2 2 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY NO.15 northwards into the lake from the site. Most of the artifacts recovered pertain to a Middle Woodland occupation, but archaic, Iroquoian and Historic materials were also present, separable on a typological basis only. Iroquoian pottery ranged from the surface to a depth of 33 cm. Middle Woodland material ranged from 7.8 to 25 cm. in depth, averaging 15 cm., while Archaic material lay between 10 and 23 cm. from the surface, with an average depth of 18 cm. FEATURES Celt flint Cache: An interesting feature was the arrangement of a banded slate, ground and polished celt (Plate 4; Figure 24), which occurred at 30 cm. in sterile sand. The celt lay flat with the long axis oriented so that the broad sharpened end faced southeast. It was placed symmetrically across and 1.3 cm. vertically above a 20 cm. diameter circle composed of 10 flint cores, each about 48 x 35 x 19 mm. In a compact group in the center of this circle, but 2.5 cm. deeper, lay another six flint cores, making a total of 16 similar sized pieces of brown mottled flint arranged horizontally below the celt. Post Moulds: Twelve possible post moulds were plotted, 10 to 15 cm. in diameter, reaching 20 to 60cm. below ground level. They generally began at a level of 10 to 13 cm. One exception was a post mould 15 cm. wide, which showed up at 40 cm. and reached 80 cm. Patterns attributable to particular structures were not discernable. Hearths and Pits: Eight hearths, characterized by voluminous grey ash are suspected, but ac-curate measurements are precluded by disturbance and overlap. Middle Woodland hearths appeared to go 20-25 cm. in depth and as much as a 15 cm. in diameter. The single Iroquois hearth appeared as a 15 cm. deep shallow circular feature about 1.2 meters in diameter, with a central pit depression 30 cm. wide, reaching a total depth of 0.6 meters from the surface. Quartz Layers: This site produced many fragments of quartz, predominantly of the massive variety but some crystalline fragments did occur. These ranged from 15 to 53 cm. in depth, but averaged 38 cm. and as such were deeper than the principal artifact bearing floors. While some appear to have been chipped, it was not possible to establish artifact types. We can state that, for the average square, fragments of massive quartz were more numerous at a level of 38 ± 8 cm., other than those in the cultural floors. CERAMICS Middle Woodland Ceramics: 8 rims, 36 body sherds. Ceramics are described throughout this report according to decorative technique and motif in the manner established by Wright and Anderson (1963). In the following descriptions Vessel 3 is represented by 2 lipless sherds which by virtue of their curvature and diminishing thickness are thought to be rims whose lips have broken off. They have been identified by Dr. W. C. Noble as Laurel pieces. Rim thicknesses are shown in Table 1. Vessel 1: 4 rims, 1 body sherd (Plate 1, Figure 5). Technique: Dentate stamp. Teeth p.5 to 1.5 mm. square, spaced 0.5 to 1.5 mm. Exterior Motif: Obliques above 8 horizontal lines above obliques, occupying 12, 20 and 12 mm. of vertical space respectively. Interior Motif: Uneven horizontal wiping impressions. Mitchell: PETAWAWA SMALL SITES 23 Lip: Oblique dentate stamp, which on one rim strayed off the pinched lip onto the interior. Profile: Mildly everted near lip (see Plate 1). Body Sherd: The single plain body sherd was 10.1 mm. thick. Vessel 2: 4 rims (not illustrated). Technique: Plain. All surfaces are devoid of decoration. Thickness: See Table 1. Profile: Collarless and outflared. Lip round to flat. Vessel 3: 2 Near rims, 10 body sherds (Plate 1; Figure 6). Technique: Pseudo Scallop Shell and Drag Stamp. Exterior Motif: One horizontal row of criss cross pseudo scallop shell impressions above closely spaced 6 to 8 mm. wide, vertical columns of toothed drag stamp. Interior Motif: Horizontal channelling. Lip: Missing. Punctates: Circular interior punctates, 4 mm. diameter by 9 mm. deep, and spaced at 27 mm., cause incipient nodes on the exterior surface at the point where the vertical columns begin to descend. Body sherds aver-age 9.9 mm. in thickness, ranging from 8.9 to 10.5 mm. All are interior channelled and display drag stamped exteriors. Vessel 4: 1 Rim, 25 body sherds (Plate 1, Figure 2). Technique: Rocker Stamp. Exterior Motif: This single 20 mm. high rim shows one horizontal band of close, toothed, vertical rocker stamp but associated lipless sherds are decorated with similar bands. Interior Motif: Exfoliated. Lip: Closely spaced, oblique pseudo scallop shell impressions. Body sherds; the associated body sherds — 17 rocker stamped, 5 plain and 3 pseudo scallop shell — average 7.2, 8.7 and 7.6 mm. thick respectively and are all interior channelled. Vessel 5: 1 rim (Plate 1; Figure 3). Technique: Pseudo Scallop Shell Exterior Motif: A horizontal band of criss cross pseudo scallop shell impressions. Interior Motif: Criss cross pseudo scallop impressions produced by a less angular application of the toothed stamp, than was the exterior, but still not directly enough to be a dentate stamp. Lip: Vertical pseudo scallop shell. Thickness: See Table 1. Iroquoian Ceramics: Type: Ontario Horizontal (MacNeish, 1952; 16) (Plate 3, Figure 9). A single rimsherd corresponding to the Ontario Horizontal type occurred on the surface. Although not associated, 5 body sherds were recovered. These averaged 4.7 mm. thick. 24 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY NO.15 LITHICS Projectiles (Plate 4; Figures 11 to 16): Among the six points recovered were 2 tanged specimens, 3 notched specimens and the proximal portion of a lanceolate point, with a straight, thinned base. All were made of lint. Di- mensions are shown in Table 3. Scrapers (Plate 4; Figures 8 to 10 and 17 to 23) Thirty-four scrapers have been classified as long form (10), retouched flake (9), short form (9) and large (over 25 mm. on the retouched edge) (6). In each category, a group with only one edge sharpened predominates. Table 4 shows the remaining sharpening patterns, along with the material of construction and average measurements. Bifaces (Plate 4; Figures 1 to 7) Flint (5), quartzite (5) and slate (1) were used to form 11 bifaces, two of which may be centre sections from broken projectiles and one of which is probably a mini-drill or graver (Figure 7). Fine grained white quartzite blades, of isosceles triangular outline, (Figures 2, 4 and 6) sharpened all around, constitute a major sub form (4) and another large blade appears to constitute the rounded end of a leaf-shaped blade. The others have random outlines. Dimensions are shown in Table 7. Celt (Plate 4; Figure 24) The polished and ground, banded slate implement discussed under "features" presents a trapezoidal outline in plan, 71 x 206 x 36 x 20 mm. and has a maximum thickness of 26 mm. The long edges are multi-bevelled from each face, presenting 3 to 4 flats per edge, thus producing an ovoid rather than rectanguloid cross-section. The 71 mm. wide end has been symetrically ground from each face to produce a straight, sharp edge. The opposite end has been partly ground and partly pecked to a sharp but irregular edge.