When the compilation volume The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 volume was published nearly 30 years ago, three distinct Middle Woodland complexes were discussed in detail, but the authors of that article (myself included) provided a proviso that “…we expect a picture to emerge of a series of localized complexes extending across the southern part of the province, each only marginally different from its neighbours but more easily distinguishable from its more distant contemporaries”. We are apparently still wrestling with the notion of Middle Woodland archaeological cultures today, i.e., what constitutes Point Peninsula vs Saugeen, or Princess Point vs Sandbanks:  this paper will examine this issue from the prospective of the Hogsback site (AjGv-3), a newly excavated site on the lower Credit River, and two nearby and related sites, Scott-O’Brien (AjGv-32) and Stavebank Road (AjGv-74). Results from detailed ceramic analyses of these sites document a process for studying and interpreting local and regional Middle Woodland sites across southern Ontario.

   In 2018, Curve Lake First Nation, in partnership with Northeastern Archaeological Associates, operated an archaeological training program for Michi Saagiig students on a small complex of Middle Woodland camps on the east side of White's Island, Rice Lake, Ontario.  Test excavations under a research licence to Dr. Lawrence Jackson produced a robust sample of Middle Woodland vessel rims and associated features.  This paper describes ceramics from six partially reconstructed vessels, some associated with features and radiocarbon dates,  to begin building a picture of temporal context for Middle Woodland decorative traits.  We accept the broad divisions of Point Peninsula culture in this region outlined by Curtis (2002) with earliest Trent phase followed by Rice Lake phase and ending with Sandbanks phase.  We suggest some modifications to the time frame with Trent Phase, and pseudo-scallop shell dominant ceramics, beginning after the end of Meadowood.  On Rice Lake, a mean calibrated age for four young Meadowood feature dates gives a mean calibrated age of 611 B.C. +- 242 at two sigma. New dates from White's Island confirm a shift to Rice Lake phase after 1 A.D. and Rice Lake Phase duration to perhaps 600 A.D.  C14 dates on ceramics include a late Trent Phase PSS vessel at cal. 5 B.C. +- 87 and a Rice Lake Phase complex dentate vessel at cal. 365 A.D. +- 108.

Recent advances in the archaeological application of architectural energetics (ie detailed estimates of labour for the construction of architecture) from a number of different temporal periods and cultural contexts have resulted in a number of insights into both the amount and nature of labour required to construct ancient buildings and earthworks and the societies that constructed these pieces of architecture. This paper seeks to examine the feasibility of applying these techniques to Middle Woodland earthen architecture (mounds) from Ontario and nearby areas (particularly New York State and Minnesota) and seeks to draw some initial insights into the amount of labour that was required to construct these mounds and what this tells us about the societies that created them. This method is being applied as a chaine operatoire that seeks to provide both labour estimates but also yield insights into social organization of the societies that built the mounds through a step by step analysis of the labour processes involved in construction and the procurement of materials. In addition, these insights will be contextualized through comparisons to the better understood and roughly contemporary mounds of Ohio, where energetics studies have been conducted.

The Middle Woodland was long perceived as a bland period of transition between the more sophisticated cultural developments of the Early and Late Woodland periods. However, research conducted during the past 20 years have highlighted the Middle Woodland origins of some of the most salient features of the Woodland cultures in the Northeast. This paper will explain how this lead to a reinterpretation of the Middle Woodland period in the Quebec portion of the St. Lawrence River valley. It will also show how the Middle Woodland populations of this area were as well connected with regional and interregional groups then those who lived there before and after.