Abstract

Interpreting the early contact archaeology in southern Ontario usually begins with the assumption that contact with Europeans was an entirely unique experience to Aboriginal people, the impact of which exacerbated by a "profound localism" assumed previously during the Late Woodland. Central to these contact era interpretations of Aboriginal archaeology has been the assumed dominance of European interests and motivations on events and Aboriginal behaviours. Yet these are assumptions that emerge from a distinct conceptual filter: one that sees archaeology interpreted through history. A revised conceptual filter that sees history interpreted through archaeology - archaeology being an oppositional dataset to written records rather than an assumed compliment to them - leads to a very different understanding of the archaeological record. This shift in emphasis and reorientation leave the concept of "contact" to be an oxymoron, and demonstrates archaeological patterns and Aboriginal behaviours to be remarkably consistent with the patterns and behaviours seen archaeologically in previous - and subsequent - centuries.