Biomolecular archeology is a growing field of study that revived material culture research and unveiled a range of perishable organic products once inaccessible to archaeologists. The extraction and characterization of organic molecules deposited by human activity on the surface or inside ancient ceramics, for example, allow unprecedented possibilities for the reconstruction of foods and foodways in the past. In this presentation, some basic principles of lipid residue analyses applied to archeology are discussed through two case studies. The first sheds light on the motivations behind the adoption of pottery in Early Woodland northeastern North America, while the second reveals variability in Late Woodland culinary traditions. These two studies illustrate not only the contributions and promises of biomolecular archaeology, but also its limits and the challenges that this emerging field of archaeometry will face in the years to come.

More than a century of archaeology in Ontario has produced a massive quantity of archaeological collections and associated data sets, a large proportion of which have been subject to relatively limited analyses. For several years, we have been working to (re-)analyze legacy faunal collections and to pull together legacy faunal data that have resulted from past research and compliance archaeology activities. Drawing on this growing database of newly generated and legacy zooarchaeological data, our collaborative research team has been turning to large-scale, GIS-based meta-analyses to explore broad trends across various aspects of the archaeology and historical ecology of the Lower Great Lakes region through roughly the past 1000 years. In this paper, we examine both the vast potential of such an approach and some of the challenges we have been faced with, and continue to grapple with, in our ongoing attempts to meaningfully synthesize and interpret faunal data of varying resolution and quality. Despite these challenges, our research is already providing fascinating insights into past human interactions with high-trophic-level fishes (salmonids and Sander) and the now-extinct passenger pigeon, highlighting the potential of large-scale meta-analyses to more broadly contribute to our understanding of human–animal and landscape interactions in the Northeast.

Plus d'un siècle d'archéologie en Ontario a produit une quantité significative de collections archéologiques et d'ensembles de données associés, dont une grande partie a fait l'objet d'analyses relativement limitées. Au cours des dernières années, nous nous sommes intéressés à (ré)analyser des collections fauniques découvertes il y a longtemps. Le but était de rassembler des données sur la faune issues des recherches et d’activités de gestion des ressources culturelles passées. En s'appuyant sur cette base de données zooarchéologiques nouvellement générées et obtenue par ces collections, notre équipe de recherche collaborative s'est tournée vers des méta-analyses à grande échelle, basées sur un SIG, pour explorer les grandes tendances de divers aspects de l'archéologie et de l'écologie historique de la région des Grands Lacs qui se sont déroulés depuis environ les 1000 dernières années. Dans cet présentation, nous examinons à la fois le vaste potentiel d'une telle approche et certains des défis auxquels nous avons été confrontés, et continuons à être confrontés, dans nos tentatives de continuer à synthétiser et d'interpréter de manière significative des données fauniques de quantités et de qualités variables. Malgré ces défis, nos recherches fournissent déjà des informations fascinantes sur les interactions des humaine du passé avec les poissons de niveau trophique élevé (salmonidés et Sander) et avec le pigeon voyageur, aujourd'hui disparu, soulignant ainsi le potentiel des méta-analyses à grande échelle pour contribuer plus largement à notre compréhension des interactions homme–animaux et paysage dans le Nord-Est.

Abstract coming soon!

In 2014, ASI reached an agreement with Charles Garrad to assume curatorial responsibility for his archaeological collections, which represent his life’s work as an avocational archaeologist in the Collingwood area of Ontario. The collections are derived from 47 Tionontaté sites that date roughly from the 1450s to 1650. In the fall of 2017, a volunteer project was undertaken by ASI staff to document the ceramic assemblages within Garrad’s collections. The ceramic collections were previously broken down by typology, but a detailed analysis of all the ceramic artifacts had never been done. Our new work is revealing subtle changes in how Tionontaté potters decorated their vessels over time, and the large selection of sites is providing a new appreciation of these trends. Working with legacy data on this scale has its challenges, but it is helping us to refine our ideas about how ceramics evolved from early Tionontaté migration to the Collingwood area to the approximate arrival of Samuel de Champlain.