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

e
Bull's
Point
C o o t e s
P a r a
Sassafras Point
d i s
Princess Point
Cattail marsh
Shallow water
N
0 1000 m
J. Skiba
Figure 5.5. Cootes Paradise.
seems the most reasonable interpretation at present. Its
geographic situation is typical of later Iroquoian village
sites, and atypical of known Princess Point components.
The radiocarbon dates for Lone Pine and its seriation
later than Porteous suggest that Lone Pine could
be considered a Glen Meyer site. On the other hand,
the pottery styles from both Porteous and Lone Pine
have clearer affinities with Princess Point than with
later Glen Meyer ceramics. We will return to this
thorny issue later in the paper.
Young 1 (AfGx-6)
The Young 1 site was discovered during Stothers’
survey of the lower Grand River Valley. It is a small site
located on a terrace above the Grand River, on the edge
of a knoll about 400 m from the river and about 0.5 km
from the Grand Banks site. It is heavily plough disturbed
except for a fencerow running over the knoll,
and is underlain by heavy clay. The plowing has
brought heavy clay through to the surface, making
excavation exceedingly difficult and screening nearly
impossible. Nevertheless, a number of shovel test pits
were excavated as well as two 1 sq. m test squares in
1993. A very small and fragmentary artifact sample
was recovered, including cord-wrapped stick marked
rim sherd and a limited number of flakes. Young 1 may
be a short-term seasonal camp, perhaps a spring refuge
from minor flooding for inhabitants of the Grand
Banks site, but data are too limited to be definitive.
Cootes Paradise
Cootes Paradise is a sizable wetland at the western
tip of Lake Ontario (Figure 5.5). Until about one hundred
years ago, it was apparently a true marshland
dominated by cattail and sedge. Modification through
canal construction and the introduction of carp produced
the present body of shallow open water (Figure
5.5). Excavations were conducted at the Princess Point
type site by Stothers and Kenyon in 1968, and by Noble
in 1969 (Stothers 1969). Also in 1969, Stothers conducted
an archaeological survey around the periphery of
Cootes Paradise and found an additional six Princess
Point sites (Stothers n.d.). The Old Lilac Gardens site
underwent mitigative excavation in 1984 to rescue a
portion of it from impact by the construction of
Highway 403 (Knight 1984). Smith directed two
University of Toronto archaeological field schools, one
in 1995 and another in 1996, in the Royal Botanical
Gardens area of Cootes Paradise (Smith 1996c).
The Princess Point occupation of Cootes Paradise is
represented by a variety of settlement locations and
sizes, although estimates of site dimension for most of
these is hampered by a lack of extensive investigation.
Both the Princess Point (AhGx-1) and Sassafras Point
(AhGx-3) sites are situated on low-lying peninsulas
and appear to be the largest occupations at Cootes
Paradise. The Old Lilac Gardens site (AhGx-6), is located
on a peninsula higher above the water and is smaller
than either Princess or Sassafras Point. The
Chapter 5 Recent Developments in the Archaeology of the Princess Point Complex in Southern Ontario 107