Introduction
This tour through the Museum Gallery will take you on a journey into Ontario's prehistoric past. The museum's Archaeologists have traced the development of southwestern Ontario's Native People through the long and patient study of over 200 site excavations throughout southwestern Ontario during the last 22 years. These excavations represent all periods of Native occupation, from their nomadic beginnings in a frozen land 11,000 years ago to a settled village life, living as the early European explorers found them just 450 years past.
The archaeological and other scientific evidence gathered becomes a blueprint of how people lived. Artifacts, ranging from pottery vessels to smoking pipes and from arrowheads to harpoons, start to draw the picture. Garbage becomes a gold mine of information. Middens (garbage dumps) reveal animal bone, plant remains including charcoal from fires, as well as the by-products of the manufacture of tools. Settlement data, such as post moulds in the ground, reveal palisades, houses, and other structures. Hearth floors and pits seen as dark stains in the yellow subsoil make the picture more precise.
Many pieces to this fascinating archaeological puzzle are still missing, prompting continuous research for a clearer understanding of this story.
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