CAMPBELL & CAMPBELL: LITTLE ICE AGE 13 The Little Ice Age and Neutral Faunal Assemblages Celina Campbell and Ian D. Campbell The Neutrals and their immediate ancestors lived in faunal use; however, this possibility is difficult to southwestern Ontario from ca. AD 1100 to 1650, a period analyze due to the paucity of ethnohistoric data on which saw a global climatic cooling episode known as the Little the Neutrals. This paper will focus only on the Ice Age (LIA), beginning ca. AD 1450. Neutral faunal possible ecological explanations, on the assump- assemblages at this time show a decrease in the relative frequencies of field-dwelling species (mainly woodchuck), tion that "people were not entirely selective in their while forest-dwellers (mainly deer) and dog increase. We animal food choices" (Crawford 1984). suggest two explanations for this shift. One is that the LIA increased the frequency of poor crop years, thus making Neutral Subsistence horticulture a less reliable subsistence strategy and compelling the Neutrals to rely more on meat. The other is Daillon (1866) records that the Neutral diet con- that population increases resulted in the creation of more sisted primarily of maize, beans, and squash, abun- field-edge environments, thus in-creasing the habitat dantly supplemented by fish, deer, beaver, and available for deer. The decline in woodchuck may have been wapiti. According to Sagard (1939) deer were more caused by the increase in dog, bred both for food and crop- abundant in Neutralia than in Huronia. The Neutral protection. These two hypotheses are not mutually diet is said to have been similar to that of the exclusive. Hurons, differing mainly in the species of fish which were available to them and the greater con- Introduction sumption of fruits and nuts in Neutralia (Daillon The Little Ice Age (LIA) (Lamb 1977; Bernabo 1866). The ethnohistoric dietary record cor- 1981; Gajewski 1987; McAndrews 1988), a period responds well with the archaeological evidence of of cooler climate extending from ca. AD 1450 to historic Neutral faunal assemblages (Prevec and 1850, has received little archaeological attention in Noble, 1986). southern Ontario. Our aim is to document and A cross-cultural comparison of faunal as- explain changes in prehistoric subsistence patterns semblages should reflect cultural differences. in southwestern Ontario which may have been re- Prevec and Noble (1986) note the abundance of lated to climatic change. The Neutrals were chosen deer, racoons and squirrels on historic Neutral sites, for this study for three reasons: (1) they and their whereas the contemporary Petun faunal as- direct ancestors lived both before and during the semblages are notable for a paucity of deer and an LIA, allowing a before and after comparison, (2) abundance of beaver, woodchuck and black bear. they lived near the northern border of the temperate The differences in assemblages are believed to deciduous forest province in southwestern Ontario, reflect mainly the Petun role in the Georgian Bay an ecotone in which we would expect to see the fur trade (Prevec and Noble 1986). ecological consequences of small climatic fluctua- tions (Noble 1984; McAndrews and Manville The Climatic History of Ontario 1987) (Fig. 1) and (3). Twenty-seven faunal analyses of Neutral and pre-Neutral sites were After AD 1000 available to provide data for our study. Oguntoyinbo (1986) notes that climatologists are increasingly finding "teleconnections", that is, If there are statistically significant changes strong correlations of climatic phenomena in widely through time in Neutral faunal assemblages, this separated geographical areas. The practice of would require explanation. We offer two: (1) that inferring paleoclimates in areas which lack good subsistence strategies changed due to climatic records by correlation with nearby regions is gain- change, or (2) that they changed due to increasing ing credence with paleoecologists and human impact on the environment. A shift in cul- paleoclimatologists. tural preferences could have resulted in a change in 14 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY NO. 49 Southwestern Ontario is one of the most fertile Mississippian regime. Dincauze and Hasenstab areas in Canada, with the mildest climate in the (1989) suggest that Iroquoian development was in eastern part of the country. Most of this area part encouraged by the LIA, which, they suggest, receives between 760 and 1,014 mm of precipitation caused the decline of Cahokia, and allowed more annually, and mean annual temperatures range peripheral regions to develop independently. between 6.4° - 9.3°; the frost-free period runs from Borehole temperature logs taken in the region of 129 to 198 days (Environment Canada 1982 a,b,c). Hearst and Kapuskasing in northern Ontario indi- The area lies in the transition zone between the cool cate a short period of warm climate from AD 900 to temperate Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest province 1250, followed by a gradual cooling of about 2°C and the temperate deciduous forest province lasting until about AD 1800, after which the climate (McAndrews and Manville 1987). rapidly warms to modern values, which are similar Griffin (1961) noted the probable impact of the to those of the period from AD 900 to 1250. Al- deteriorating climate of the LIA on the Oneota and though these climatic fluctuations are of small mag- other groups in eastern North America, yet sug- nitude, their effect on the vegetation in some gested that the Iroquois did not suffer from the LIA locations is quite significant. Most estimates agree due to the ameliorating effects of the Great Lakes. that the LIA in the northern hemisphere represented a This suggestion was based on the lack of any ob- cooling of between 1 ° and 2° C. Although this servable cultural deterioration in Iroquois prehistory sounds like a small difference, temperatures at the during the LIA and may have led to an assumption end of the Wisconsin glaciation are estimated to on the part of many investigators that the LIA had have been only 5° - 6° colder than at present (West, no influence on cultures in southern Ontario. 1979). Baerreis and Bryson (1965) and Baerreis et al. Pollen diagrams from Crawford Lake, Ontario (1976) amplify Griffin's work in the Upper (McAndrews, 1988), Marion Lake, Michigan (Ber- FIGURE 1 Locations of sites used in this paper. 1: Dewaele, a Glen-Meyer site. 2: Cooper (Glen-Meyer). 3: Force (Glen-Meyer). 4: Gunby (Late Pickering). 5: Collins (Glen-Meyer and/or Uren). 6: Perry (Middleport). 7: Moyer (Middleport/Early Neutral). 8: Pound (Middleport/Early Neutral). 9. Winking Bull (Middleport/Early Neutral). 10: Harrietsville. 11: Morriston (formerly Ivan-Elliott). 12: Chypchar (formerly Billie Goat's Gruff). 13: Wolfe Creek. 14: Raymond Reid. 15: Macpherson. 16: Knight-Tucker. 17: Cleveland. 18: Brown. 19: Christianson. 20: Sherk-Sahs. 21: Thorold. 22: Bogle 1.23: Bogle 2.24: Hood. 25: McIntosh. 26: Walker. 27: Hamilton. CAMPBELL & CAMPBELL: LITTLE ICE AGE 15 FIGURE 2 Pollen diagrams of selected taxa from Crawford Lake, Marion Lake, and Gignac Lake. Redrawn from McAndrews (1988), Bernabo (1981), and Burden et al. (1985) 16 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY NO.49 FIGURE 3 Calibrated pollen climate transfer curve for Michigan. Redrawn from Bernabo (1981). nabo, 1981), and Gignac Lake, Ontario (Burden et to even a slight cooling of the climate. There is little al., 1986) are sufficiently detailed to show small doubt that the suddenness of the increase in oak and climatic fluctuations over the last 1,000 years (Fig. pine following the arrival of maize is due to forest 2). McAndrews and Boyko-Diakonow (in press) clearance and field abandonment (McAndrews and analyzed annually laminated sediments from Craw- Boyko-Diakonow, in press). However, the failure ford Lake, in southern Ontario. The resulting record of the forest to return to its previous beech- extends back to AD 1000, at which time the pollen dominated assemblage following field abandon- record is dominated by beech, maple, elm, oak and ment may be due either to ecological inertia or to a birch (Fig. 2). Hemlock is also common but its climatic deterioration which occurred in the interim paleoclimatic significance is unclear at this time. (McAndrews, 1988). This mixed hardwood forest yields to a mixed The Gignac Lake diagram (Fig. 2) from Awenda pine-oak-birch forest ca AD 1400, a change which Provincial Park, on the south shore of Georgian McAndrews and Boyko-Diakonow attribute in part Bay, also shows the effect of Indian horticulture to Indian clearing of the forest and to old field (Burden et al., 1986). Maize pollen appears in small succession. After AD 1850, this forest in turn yields quantities in subzone 3d (the same zonation is used to European agricultural fields, which show up in in McAndrews and Boyko-Diakonow, in press). the diagram as a dramatic increase in grass and However, as with Crawford Lake, beech begins its ragweed, and a decrease in oak and pine. However, decline prior to the subzone 3c/3d transition, which beech is already in decline by AD 1200, well before represents the onset of local Indian horticulture. the first appearance of maize pollen at Crawford Lake in AD 1360. This cannot be explained by the Bernabo (1981) does not discuss the possible effects of local Indian horticulture, as no other taxa effects of Indian horticulture in Michigan, but does show an appreciable decline at this time and herb note that "beech pollen undergoes a protracted pollen does not rise. Very large portions of the decline at each site from AD 1200 to 1600, generally surrounding region would have to have been af- hitting its lowest levels about AD 1450" (Bernabo, fected by man for pollen transport from long dis- 1981). He further develops a calibrated pollen- tances to account for the changes in relative climate transfer function, and applies it to the fossil importance of the tree taxa.