Iroquoian Pottery at Lake Abitibi: A Case Study of the Relationship Between Hurons and Algonkians on the Canadian Shield

Journal Article

Iroquoian Pottery at Lake Abitibi: A Case Study of the Relationship Between Hurons and Algonkians on the Canadian Shield

François Guindon
Canadian Journal of Archaeology/Journal canadien d'archéologie 33(1):65-91 (2009)

Abstract

This work sheds new light on the problems of interpreting the historical and cultural aspects of Iroquoian-like pottery in the Canadian Shield. Within this region, the Lake Abitibi case is unusual because the archaeological sites of the area exhibit an unusually high frequency of Iroquoian-like ceramic vessels compared to other areas of the Shield. For this reason, it has attracted the attention of archaeologists since research began in the Abitibi area in the 1950s. A corpus of 143 vessel equivalents, all relating to the Ontario Iroquois Tradition and coming from six sites plus one private collection from Lake Abitibi were analysed in the course of this research. The main result of this work as well as its implication for the understanding of the nature of this ceramic manifestation at Lake Abitibi, and the development of the possible relationship between the Algonkians of the area and the Iroquoians of southern Ontario are presented in this paper.

Résumé

Ce travail apporte un éclairage nouveau sur la poterie iroquoïde présente dans le Bouclier Canadien. à l?intérieur de cette grande région, le cas du lac Abitibi se démarque par le nombre de ces poteries qui est relativement élevé. Pour cette raison, cette céramique a su attirer l?attention des archéologues travaillant dans le secteur depuis les années 1950. Un ensemble de 143 équivalents de vases reliés à la Tradition iroquoienne de l?Ontario et provenant de six sites ainsi que d?une collection privée du lac Abitibi ont été analysés dans le cadre de cette recherche. Les résultats principaux de ce travail ainsi que ses implications pour les relations entre les Iroquoiens du sud de l?Ontario et les Algonquiens du lac Abitibi sont ici présentés.

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