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

Figure 6.11. Southwestern Ontario showing Late Woodland 1 components
known prior to 1999 and 2000.
to horticulture but admits that his findings need further
testing (2001:171). Shen explores lithic production
associated with the shift to food production around the
world and feels that there is a “plausible relationship
between the establishment of generalized lithic production
and the emergence of food production during
the Princess Point period in the study region”
(2001:175).
The first empirically modeled Princess Point settlement
system is presented in the second dissertation
(Dieterman 2001). The system is contrasted with local
Middle Woodland and Late Woodland systems.
Dieterman’s approach is to “present an explanatory
model of settlement by building on the evaluative
nature of predictive and potential models” (2001:272).
Clearly, Middle Woodland and Late Woodland Glen
Meyer peoples interpreted their landscapes in a different
manner from Princess Point (2001:290). The former
(Middle Woodland) in Ontario is a foraging group,
while the latter (Glen Meyer) is a food-producing
group with substantial dependence on maize, sunflower,
and cucurbit. Princess Point appears to occupy
a place on a continuum between local foragers and
food producers; it is an intermediate phase (Dieterman
2001:290).
Della Saunders (2001) employs multiple lines of evidence
to explore the interrelationships between plants
and Princess Point people. She relies on flotation sample
data but has also been experimenting with pottery
residue and phytolith analysis. Unfortunately, the pottery
in the Princess Point assemblage is relatively clean,
with little in the way of encrustations that contain phytoliths.
Phytoliths have been recovered from cores
taken in Cootes Paradise. Very little information is
forthcoming from chemical analysis of residues
because little is present in the pottery. The flotation
sample analysis builds on previous work (Crawford et
al. 1997) and research done on the immediately subsequent
Glen Meyer (Ounjian 1998). Maize continues to
be present in a variety of contexts dating from the sixth
through the tenth centuries A.D. (Table 6.1). Density of
plant remains at Princess Point sites is about half that
128 Crawford and Smith