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

(Crawford et al. 1997a). The same is likely true for
Cayuga Bridge, and also for the Princess Point component
at the Middleport site (Jamieson 1986). In addition,
sample sizes for most sites are statistically small.
Unfortunately, the pottery assemblages recovered from
Grand Banks, Young 1 and Lone Pine do little to remedy
this situation. The test excavations at Young 1 yielded
only 2 rim sherds, and only 26 were recovered from
Lone Pine. Grand Banks yielded a much larger sample,
but it is now clear that this site was occupied for an
extended period of time, perhaps for five hundred
years. Little of the Grand Banks pottery can be limited
to any particular point in time. The assemblage of
roughly six to eight pots from Feature 210, now undergoing
analysis, is an exception, and provides us with
an interesting “snapshot” of pottery dating from the
early eleventh century A.D. This sample is, however,
too small to allow valid generalizations.
Ceramic smoking pipes are present on Princess
Point sites, but their frequencies are low. (Fewer than
10 pipes have been recovered from pre-A.D. 900
Princess Point components to date.) Pipe bowls are, as
a rule, either barrel or cylindrical in shape, stems are
either round or D-shaped, and elbows are both rightand
obtuse-angled. About half the pipe bowls are plain
and the other half are decorated with rows of punctates
or incised motifs. These pipes can be characterized as
fully functional, if unelaborate. Since tobacco seeds
have not been recovered from any Princess Point site to
date, what was smoked in these pipes is unknown.
The frequency of smoking pipes at the Lone Pine site
is surprising; there are more pipes from Lone Pine
(nine) than for all the previous Princess Point sites
combined. This anomaly is discussed elsewhere (Smith
1996a; Smith and Crawford 1995); suffice it to say here
that this florescence may relate to increasing use of
smoking pipes as a social mediator in villages or protovillages.
It may also accompany the first introduction
of tobacco to Ontario, although evidence to support
this association is generally lacking at present.
Flaked lithics are generally the most numerically
common artifacts from Princess Point sites. The lithic
assemblages include all aspects of chipped stone manufacturing:
cores, shatter, primary flakes, core trimming
flakes, biface trimming flakes, informal utilized
flakes and formal tools. The latter include projectile
points, bifaces, drills, and scrapers. The chipped lithic
artifacts from Lone Pine and Grand Banks have been
analyzed in detail (Ormerod 1994; Shen 1997). One of
the most important general characteristics to emerge
from these studies is that Princess Point lithic assemblages
are dominated by informal flake tools, with
curated formal tools forming a small subset. As part of
our examination of the relationship between technology
and the emergence of the Iroquoian mixed economy,
use-wear analysis is playing an important role.
Shen’s study includes a comparison of use-wear
between a Middle Woodland lithic sample and a sample
from Grand Banks. This comparison documents a
significant increase in the variety of use-tasks performed
by lithic tools from Middle Woodland to
Princess Point, and a decrease in the proportion of tools
devoted to meat-preparation and/or butchering as
opposed to plant-working (Shen 1997:273). Because of
Muller’s suggestion that the bow and arrow played a
critical role in the transition to the Late Woodland in
the Midwest (1987), we have paid close attention to
projectile points. So far, we have not been able to confirm
that the bow and arrow played an important role
at this time in Ontario, because the evidence points to
all but three of the projectile points in the Princess
Point assemblages having been used as generalized
bifacial tools (Shen 1997).
Unfortunately, bone preservation on the four
Princess Point sites we have been excavating is
extremely poor. This anomaly cannot be explained at
present, and will require future clarification. A range of
taxa is represented in the small collection, and the most
abundant elements appear to belong to fish.
Rigorous examination of the Princess Point settlement
system is still in its infancy. Interpretation
depends on ongoing analyses of animal bone, plant
remains, site functions, materials procurement and site
chronology. We have offered our evaluation of the status
of settlement system interpretation elsewhere,
based on the archaeological record as we currently
understand it (Crawford and Smith 1996; Crawford et
al. 1997b; Smith and Crawford 1995). We caution basing
Princess Point settlement models on unsubstantiated
Middle Woodland patterns. Furthermore, the particulars
of riverine geomorphology must be worked
out before concluding that specific natural cycles such
as periodicity of flooding helped determine scheduling
decisions on the part of Princess Point peoples. In addition,
crop production logistics need to be properly factored
into any proposed Princess Point settlement system.
Resource procurement must also take into account
other raw materials such as clay and stone. So far we
have concentrated on chert extraction and have identified
numerous outcrops of Onondoga and Bois Blanc
cherts within a 40 km radius of Cayuga, Ontario. This
study is in its early stages but there is a clear emphasis
on Onondoga cherts, probably from the north shore of
Lake Erie (Quin 1996). As a result, we are questioning
Chapter 5 Recent Developments in the Archaeology of the Princess Point Complex in Southern Ontario 111