Mapping T.O.’s Indigenous roots
Artifacts from dozens of digs are in the hands of archeologists, museums or in storage, somewhere. Together, they paint a picture of the city's past. Here’s a guide.
Ancient settlements
1. Clovis people, around 11000 BC: Archeologists haven’t found any evidence that Clovis, the precursors of most of North America’s Indigenous people, lived in Toronto after the glaciers retreated, but archeologist Ron Williamson believes it is possible. A fluted Clovis stone point has been found as close as the Rouge River in Markham and bones of mastodons, the elephant-like animals they most likely hunted, have been found near Christie Pits and during excavations for the Eaton’s department store at College and Yonge Sts. The Clovis are a prehistoric people whose tools were first uncovered near Clovis, N.M., in the 1920s and ’30s. 2. Spear point, around 8000 BC: The city’s oldest artifact, a Holcombe point — named for a beach in Michigan where similar stone tools were first found — was discovered by an elementary student here in the 1970s. The spear point, which dates from 8400 to 8000 BC, would have been used by some of the area’s earliest Indigenous people, who hunted small mammals and migratory caribou. The point, flaked from a sedimentary rock known as chert, is rare in the Toronto region. It’s at the ROM. 3. Withrow, at least 5,000 years old: In the late 1800s, archeologist David Boyle examined an Indigenous cemetery disturbed during roadwork on a high point of land overlooking the Don River. The remains of 30 people were apparently buried in one area, and more in another. A newspaper story reported Boyle found a handful of artifacts including a stone axe, chisel and knife and pottery fragments, and recovered a number of skulls and other bones. Boyle was appointed by the Canadian Institute Museum as the country’s first full‐time professional archeologist in 1888. His collection of 50,000 artifacts, including a 7,000-year-old slate point from Withrow, was transferred to the ROM in 1914. 4. James Gardens, around 2000 BC: 4,000-year-old spearheads and stone tools were discovered in the 1920s in a homeowner’s backyard. Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) examined the objects in 2007, after the man’s grandson read a story about similar objects in the Star, and dated the spearheads. The other tools were from the Woodland period, about 1000 BC to AD 1000. All items were returned to the family.
5. Ancient occupation and burial site, around 800 BC: In the early 1970s, an ancient cemetery site near Grenadier Pond was documented by an archeologist. A second rumoured site called Bear Mound, next to High Park’s Grenadier Restaurant, was investigated by an archeological firm, which found no evidence to support it.
Huron-Wendat villages
The Huron-Wendat were committed farmers who typically exhausted the fertility of surrounding soils before moving on to a different site. Partial excavations at a number of sites in Toronto, dating from around 1300 to 1500, have revealed evidence of longhouses surrounded by fences, called palisades, made of wooden stakes, as well as human remains. Thousands of artifacts have been recovered including stone and animal bone tools and fragments of ceramic vessels and pipes, which were believed to contain spirits. Many of the sites have been subject to test excavations only in the ’50s and ’60s, so there is little known about them. More is known about:
6. Alexandra, 1350: Discovered during an archeological assessment in 2000, detailed excavations by ASI showed evidence of 16 longhouses and thousands of fragments of vessels and pipes, stone tools and shaped bone
tools. The pattern of the houses suggest there were phases of occupation of the site. One of the semi-subterranean sweat lodges on the site had portions of a woven mat on its floor.
7. Parsons, 1500: One of the most-studied villages is a 1.2-hectare site that was first excavated in the 1950s by U of T students as part of a field school run by the Ontario Archaeological Society. It was excavated again in the late 1980s by ASI. The village was twice as large as other sites due to the amalgamation of smaller communities who joined for protection. Excavations showed evidence of longhouses and subterranean sweat lodges surrounded by a defensive palisade. Pottery and pipe fragments found here, similar to other sites in southern Ontario, suggest groups across a large geographic area were in contact with each other. ASI’s collection from Parsons is housed at the University of Waterloo. The Huron-Wendat nation is currently exhibiting material from Parsons in Quebec City.
Huron-Wendat ossuaries
8. Moatfield, 1300: A village — and ossuary containing the remains of about 90 people — was discovered here during the expansion of a soccer field in 1997 when a fence post was driven into the centre of the burial site.
9. Tabor Hill, 1300: The burial site, on the summit of a hill overlooking Highland Creek, contained the remains of 472 people associated with the Thompson site, although researchers say more than one community may have been buried here.
Seneca villages
10. Baby Point, around 1670 to 1690: A Seneca village called Teiaiagon existed here, surrounded by the three sisters — fields of corn, bean and squash — and fortified by the steep banks of the Humber Valley. The vantage point allowed control of the fur trade on the Humber River, which was part of the Carrying Place trail, a main trade route. The land was bought by James Baby in 1820. Archeological investigations in the 1880s yielded artifacts and many burials.
11. Ganatsekwyagon (1660s-80s): This is a rare intact Seneca village situated near the mouth of the Rouge River within the boundaries of Rouge Valley Park that has never been fully excavated. The palisaded site was first reported in the late 19th century and archeological excavations to date have turned up glass beads, ceramic smoking pipes and European gunflints. It was listed as a National Historic Site by Parks Canada in 1991.
Mississauga village
12. Mississauga settlement, around 1700: In the late 19th century, archeologists examining Baby Point also found remnants of a village that they believe belonged to the Mississauga, an Anishinaabe people whose descendants are the Mississauga of the New Credit First Nation. The Mississauga moved here from the north shore of Lake Huron in the 1690s, driving out the Seneca. They traded with the British and the French. Mississauga leader Tequakareigh negotiated peace with Britain after the country won control of Lake Ontario from the French. The British eventually negotiated a land deal with the Mississauga, buying up most of modern-day Toronto for some money and goods. The federal government settled a land claim with the group for $145 million in 2010.
In the GTA
There are dozens of sites outside the city’s borders, including:
SEED-BARKER
The 16th-century ancestral Huron-Wendat village is on the bank of the East Humber River on land owned by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in Vaughan. Since 1983, students in a joint TRCA and York University field school have excavated the area and have found evidence of seven longhouses and 13 other structures, and have retrieved about a million artifacts. But the village hasn’t been fully analyzed because artifacts found in the early and middle parts of the last century are in a number of hands including the Canadian Museum of History, the ROM, U of T and Sustainable Archaeology, as well as the TRCA. The conservation authority is working to consolidate the known research on Seed Barker as well as retrieve artifacts from the site that they stored decades ago at the ROM.
MANTLE SITE
The 16th-century ancestral Huron-Wendat community in Whitchurch-Stouffville was excavated between 2003 and 2005. The 3-hectare village had multiple palisades and 95 longhouses built during different phases. About 1,800 people inhabited the village, which was surrounded in every direction by fields of corn. More than 100,000 artifacts were retrieved including 20 ceramic vessels with sculptures of mythological “corn-husk” figures, believed to contribute to fertile fields and abundant crops. Ceramic pipe bowls were shaped as woodpeckers, owls and turtles, all of which were regarded by the Wendat as “beings.” The site is now covered by housing. The artifacts are at the Canadian Museum of History.