Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

Table 5.1. Summary of Artifacts from the Grand Banks Site by Percentage (%) of Total Number and Weight.
Area A (%) Area B (%) Area C (%) Total
No. Wt (g) No. Wt (g) No. Wt (g) No. Wt (g)
Pottery 55 55 31 38 14 7 29,763 30,001.0
Chipped Stone 44 14 23 66 33 20 26,440 3897.9
Other Stone 8 4 12 21 81 75 26 932.2
Historic 100 100 19 92.8
Total 50 49 27 40 23 11 56,248 34,923.9
Table 5.2. Summary of Artifacts from the Grand Banks Site as Number and Weight per Square Meter.
Area A Area B Area C Total
No. Wt (g) No. Wt (g) No. Wt (g) No. Wt (g)
Pottery 908 915 550 668 90 48 372 375
Chipped Stone 648 30 354 151 194 18 331 49
Other Stone - 2 - 12 - 15 - 12
Historic - 2 - 1
Total 1,556 947 904 831 284 83 703 437
likely dates to about two hundred years ago. The
Cayuga Iroquois settled on the Grand Banks flats
during the late eighteenth century (Faux 1985).
Lone Pine (AfGx-113)
The Lone Pine site was discovered in 1989 by F.
Moerschfelder, a local avocational archaeologist. It is
situated at the forks of a tributary of the Grand River,
about 2 km from the Grand and the same distance from
the Grand Banks site. It lies on a low plateau surrounded
on three sides by creek banks. The artifact
bearing deposits are distributed over about 0.5 ha, and
generally consist of only 15 cm of clay-loam over a base
of very heavy Oneida clay. Because the overburden is
so thin, artifacts have been fragmented by frost and
roots. The site has never been ploughed and has otherwise
been subjected to very little modern cultural disturbance
and no looting. As a consequence, artifacts are
clearly visible on the surface of the forest floor.
The strategy of investigation at Lone Pine was
directed toward discovering as much about the type of
site and the nature of cultural deposits without a huge
investment of time and labor. To begin, a grid was
established over the entire area of the plateau and 1 m
test squares were excavated at 5 m intervals (Figure
5.4). This testing demonstrated that artifacts are distributed
over an area of approximately 5,000 sq. m. We
also discovered that settlement data, especially post
molds, would be extremely difficult to discern in the
heavy clay without opening up very large areas. We
decided to take advantage of the thin overburden and
undisturbed nature of the site by experimenting with
surface collection of the forest floor. Controlled surface
pickup of artifacts was conducted in 1 m wide transects
(see Figure 5.4). This experiment was highly successful.
It demonstrated clearly that surface artifacts were distributed
variably over the whole extent of the site; several
loci of more densely concentrated material were
identified. Surface collection was then expanded in
areas where surface-collected artifacts were densest.
Subsequent excavation in four of these loci (Figure 5.4)
confirmed that surface density reflected subsurface
density.
Chapter 5 Recent Developments in the Archaeology of the Princess Point Complex in Southern Ontario 105