NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI VISIBILITY ANALYSIS OF THE RICE LAKE BURIAL MOUNDS AND RELATED SITES A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada > Copyright by Jeffrey Bryan Dillane 2009 Anthropology M. A. Graduate Program January 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53559-2 Our We Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53559-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada ABSTRACT Visibility Analysis of the Rice Lake Burial Mounds and Related Sites Jeffrey Bryan Dillane Visibility analysis and particularly Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based viewshed analysis is a relatively new avenue of interest in archaeology. This study applies viewshed analysis to the burial mounds constructed on Rice Lake during the Middle Woodland period of Southern Ontario, to determine whether visual relationships between the mounds and their surrounding landscapes were factors for site selection. Viewsheds to and from these mound sites are generated and compared to viewsheds for contemporaneous nearby non-mound Middle Woodland sites as well as sites from the Early Woodland and Archaic periods. Comparisons are also made between Rice Lake site viewsheds and a randomly generated sample. Site groups are compared statistically and through the use of descriptive analysis. Through these analyses I conclude that visibility was a factor in the placement of mound sites and that the selection of these site locations relates to territorial and ideological interests of the mound builders. Keywords: Ontario Archaeology, Burial Mounds, Rice Lake, Viewsheds, Visibility, Geographic Information Systems, GIS, Environmental Modeling, Landscape Archaeology, Middle Woodland, Point Peninsula, Serpent Mounds, Territoriality, Ideology, Site Selection n Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. James Conolly, for suggesting this topic to me over three years ago and for his assistance in designing and implementing the methodology for this thesis. Additionally, the lab facilities and equipment he has provided for my analysis have made much of this research possible. I wish also to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Susan Jamieson and Dr. Marit Munson. Dr. Jamieson's feedback and advice have been invaluable for the interpretations of my analysis. Dr. Munson's edits and suggestions have provided a valuable perspective for this thesis. I wish also to thank the external committee member, Dr. David Smith, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. A number of funding sources made this research possible. External funding for this thesis was generously provided through an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Internal funding was provided by Trent University's graduate funding, as well as an entrance scholarship bequeathed by the family of Eugene Kuzmin, to whom I wish to extend my thanks. A great deal of thank is also owed to Elizabeth Sonnenburg, Doctoral candidate, Department of Earth Sciences, McMaster University, for her willingness to share and exchange data of the Rice Lake area. Her bathymetric models of the lakebed have provided a highly accurate model for comparison with my own lake level model. I wish also to thank Kate Dougherty, Department Demonstrator, Trent University, for sharing with me her Masters thesis on the skeletal analysis of Mound C at Cameron's Point. I also wish to express my gratitude for the many conversations we have had about iii the Middle Woodland occupation of Rice Lake, and for letting me barge into her office whenever a new idea popped into my head. Brent Stonefish, former manager of Serpent Mounds Provincial Park, and Peter Burnett, current Tourism Operations Manager of the park, have been incredibly helpful and supportive, allowing us to conduct surveys around the Serpent Mounds site. While the particular application of those surveys was dropped from this research it will certainly be very useful for future research and analysis of the mounds site. I wish also to extend my thanks to Cathy Schoel, former secretary, Department of Anthropology, Trent University, for all of her support and assistance. I wish also to thank Kristine Williams, graduate secretary, Department of Anthropology, Trent University, who not only provided administrative support in getting myself and my fellow grad students through the Masters program, but was also willing to listen to us complain when things were not unfurling as they should. Thanks are owed to everyone who has assisted with my field research over the past three years, Chelsee Arbour, Jarret Boyd, Chris Carlton, James Conolly, Carrie Dennett, Kate Dougherty, Jordan Downey, Patrick Hoskins, Zach Knox, Caylanne Lyall, Mike Stringer and Elaine Young. I wish to thank my family for their constant encouragement and support, particularly my parents Jim and Shelia. I would especially like to thank my father Jim for the use of his canoe, and my mother Shelia for lending her editorial expertise to my thesis. All of my colleagues in the graduate program have been very supportive providing their opinions and insights regarding my thesis work, and in particular I would iv like to express my gratitude to Zach and his partner Laura and Teresa and her partner Dave for their friendship over the past two years. I wish also to thank my friends, especially Mike and Mary, who have ensured I have not gotten too stressed over the past two years. Finally I wish to thank Elaine for all of her love and support. I could not have done this without her. v Table of Contents Abstract /ii Acknowledgements /iii Table of Contents / vi List of Tables / viii List of Figures /ix Chapter 1 Introduction / 1 1.1 Purpose /1 1.2 Hypothesis / 2 1.3 Region of Study/ 3 1.4 Overview of Sample and Methodology / 5 1.5 Chapter Breakdown /10 Chapter 2 Landscape and Visibility in Archaeology / 12 2.1 Landscape Archaeology /12 2.2 Visibility in Archaeology /14 2.2.1 Analytical and GIS Approaches to Landscape Visibility / 17 2.2.2 Experiential Approaches to Landscape Visibility / 22 2.3 Problems In Approaching Visibility Archaeologically / 26 2.3.1 Pragmatic Issues / 27 2.3.1.1 Changes in the Palaeoenvironment / 28 2.3.1.2 Object Background Clarity and Temporality / 29 2.3.1.3 Presumed View Reciprocity / 30 2.3.2 Procedural Issues / 31 2.3.2.1 Abstraction/31 2.3.2.2 Robustness and Sensitivity / 32 2.3.2.3 Edge Effect/32 2.3.3 Theoretical Issues / 33 2.3.3.1 Visualism/33 2.4 Burial Sites as Territorial Markers / 33 2.5 Ideology and Landscape / 37 Chapter 3 Cultural Background / 39 3.1 The Middle Woodland Period in Southern Ontario / 39 3.2 The Middle Woodland Occupation at Rice Lake / 40 3.2.1 Chronology of Middle Woodland Sites in the Rice Lake Region 3.2.2 Settlement and Subsistence / 42 3.2.3 Population Estimates and Social Structure / 47 3.3 The Rice Lake Burial Mounds / 48 3.3.1 History of research / 48 3.3.2 The Mound Groups / 52 3.4 The Hopewell Connection and the Rice Lake Burial Mounds / 63 3.5 Ideology, Symbolism and Death in the Eastern Woodlands / 65 3.5.1 Symbolism, Death, Fertility, and Ideology / 67 vi Chapter 4 Methodology / 71 4.1 The Initial Analysis of Visibility of the Rice Lake Mounds / 71 4.2 Constructing the Palaeoenvironment of Rice Lake / 72 4.2.1 Rebuilding the Original Lake Levels / 73 4.2.2 Constructing Palaeovegetation / 76 4.2.3 Considerations of Past Settlement in the Landscape / 82 4.3 Sample Used for Study / 84 4.4 Visibility Analysis of the Burial Mounds and Other Sites Across Rice Lake / 85 4.4.1 Visibility From Rice Lake / 87 4.4.2 Viewsheds From the Mound Sites / 89 4.4.2.1 Quantitative Analyses / 90 4.4.2.2 Descriptive