Mantle Site

The Mantle Site south of the Canadian province of Ontario , with an area of 4.2 hectares, the largest and most complex so far discovered settlement of the Wyandot , and the largest in the area north of the Great Lakes. The early 16th century settlement is in Whitchurch-Stouffville, northeast of Toronto . The population is estimated to be at least 2,000.

The Mantle Site was surrounded by three rows of palisades and had a large main square. At least 40,000 tree trunks were used for the palisades and the houses. What is unusual is the fact that residents of several villages came together here to found a common village. The new large village was the only settlement on the so-called eastern Rouge trail , which connected Lake Ontario in the south with Lake Simcoe in the north.

Maple Syrup Making Demonstration, Bruce's Mill Conservation Area, Stouffville

Around 1500 at least some of the residents probably came from the village, later known as the Draper Site , which was about 5 km southeast of the Mantle Site. It is believed that soil depletion and declining game stocks forced the settlement to move, and that at least part of the Wyandot moved to the Orillia-Georgian Bay region. In any case, after about two to three decades, the large village was abandoned. Probably the residents moved to what is known as the Ratcliff Site , possibly also to the Aurora Site , also known as the Old Fort site .

Of the more than 90 long houses, at least 50 were constantly inhabited. They were on average 7 m long and 14 m wide, and almost 7 m high. One of the matrilineal groups lived in each house ; the men moved into the woman's family, as was and is customary with all Iroquois , to which the Wyandot in the broader sense belong.

Several hundred to a few thousand hectares of cultivated land were needed to feed the village; the corn fields , half of which provided the food requirement, extended several kilometers into the surrounding area. In addition, the oldest known sewer system in eastern Canada was discovered in the village.

It was known in the area since at least 1906 that there was an archaeological site on Lot 33, Concession 9 . It was rescued in 2003 at the start of a settlement on Stouffville Creek in the course of an emergency excavation. More than 100,000 artifacts could be saved. Some of the artifacts are very similar to finds from New York State .

After the discovery of the village, the Archaeological Services Inc. , founded in 1980, was commissioned to assess the site. On this basis, it was decided to put 5% of the site under protection, an area that mainly ran along the stream. The finds should be brought to the appropriate institutes at McMaster University and the University of Toronto .

The excavations took place from 2003 to 2005 under the direction of the archaeologist Ron Williamson. In 2004 members of the surrounding First Nations , who consider the site to be a village of their ancestors, met for ceremonies. To avoid vandalism and robbery, the site was kept secret in 2007.

After the excavations were over, construction continued, with only a small cemetery remaining due to the protection provisions of the Ontario Funeral Act. Usually, the bones of the Wyandot were excavated in a ceremony after ten years and reburied in a mass grave. However, this could not be found in the case of the Mantle Site. In 2010, the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville planned further construction measures immediately south of the site.

In 2007 the Whitchurch-Stouffville Council recognized the Mantle Site as "one of the most significant Huron ancestral villages in Southern Ontario" and committed to working with the Wyandot to name the waterways, streets and paths of their choosing. However, this commitment was not honored until 2011.

In 2009, the local museum in Vandorf integrated the findings from the excavation into a program called Discover First Nations .

literature

• Jennifer Birch: Coalescent Communities in Iroquoian Ontario , Unpublished PhD Thesis, McMaster University, Hamilton, 2010.
• Jennifer Birch: Coalescence and Conflict in Iroquoian Ontario , in: Archeological Review from Cambridge 25.1 (2010) 29-48.

Web links

• Dunsmere Pipe , Toronto Museum Project.
• Mantle Site , Archaeological Services Inc. website with a map of the site.
• Township of Markham , Illustrated historical atlas of the county of York and the township of West Gwillimbury & town of Bradford in the county of Simcoe, Ont , Toronto: Miles & Co. 1878.

Remarks

1. ↑ Million pieces turned up ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Stouffville Tribune, August 24, 1978. 
2. ↑ Stouffville's Archeological Treasure ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Stouffville Sun-Tribune , March 29, 2007, p. 14. 
3. ↑ Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Council Public Hearing Agenda , March 23, 2010, Agenda Item Reports 4.1.
4. ↑ Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Huron Ancestral Village Resolution (C10-C0 & R00) , June 17, 2007.

Coordinates: 43 ° 57 ′ 49 ″  N , 79 ° 14 ′ 13 ″  W.