RADIOCARBON DATING EARLY TRADE AND WORLD SYSTEM EXPANSION IN IROQUOIAN SOUTHERN ONTARIO, CANADA, AD 1550-1650

Summary

This dissertation establishes a new timeframe for Indigenous participation in world-system expansion in southern Ontario, Canada ca. AD 1550–1650, by investigating how and when people living in three different Indigenous Nations in southern Ontario engaged with the expanding European world-system. This will be accomplished by: 1- Establishing an absolute timeframe for the initiation and development of Indigenous-European interaction through Bayesian chronological modeling of high-precision AMS radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites occupied by the Wendat, Tionontate, and Attiwandaron Nations in southern Ontario ca. AD 1550–1650; and 2- investigating both the local and regional spatial distribution of trade goods of European manufacture in these Nations through diversity and evenness analysis of assemblages from Iroquoian sites in southern Ontario AD 1550–1650. Results support the hypothesis that Indigenous people living within different site relocation clusters and different Nations engaged in world-system expansion at different times and in different ways. In particular, Tionontate and Wendat groups at the Western and eastern ends of Lake Ontario, respectively, were involved in the fur trade by the mid-sixteenth century, but with evidence suggesting that Pretty-Mad River Tionontate played a supplier role, while Trent Valley Wendat may have acted as intermediaries. Broadly, this research contributes to debates surrounding the historical development of world-systems, including the degree to which Indigenous agency and differing concepts of value impact the tempo of social change and continuity during the process of colonialism.

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1500 to 1650 (approximate)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Megan Conger

Notes

General Note: This project was PhD dissertation research conducted between 2016-2022 by Megan Conger at the University of Georgia. Funding support came from many sources, including: National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award #1954093, The University of Georgia Graduate School (Graduate School Assistantship, Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant, Dean’s Award), the University of Georgia Willson Center for Humanities and Arts (Graduate Research Award), the University of Georgia Department of Anthropology (Robert E. Rhoades Pre-Dissertation Travel Award, Brian Daniel Gumbert Archaeological Graduate Research Award), the University of Georgia Center for Applied Isotope Studies (Norman Herz Small Grant for Student Research), the Society for American Archaeology (Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship), and the University of Pennsylvania McNeil Center for Early American Studies (Friends of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies Dissertation Fellowship). Completed dissertation, and more detailed information about data collection, can be found in: Conger, Megan Anne, 2022, Radiocarbon Dating Early Trade and World System Expansion in Iroquoian Southern Ontario, Canada, AD 1550-1650, PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.

Source Collections

Attiwandaron collections at Sustainable Archaeology McMaster, Tionontate collections at Canadian Museum of History (currently as of 2023; Tionontate collections were held at ASI Toronto at time of research)