Introduction
The McKean site was identified, and salvage excavated by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation in advance of a revision to Highway 26 east of the City of Collingwood. The McKean site is located in a cultivated field approximately 450 metres east of the Batteaux River and 40 metres south of the former Nipissing bluff, on Lot 38, Con. VI, Nottawasaga Twp., Simcoe County (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Identified during the 1989 archaeological survey, by a few pieces of chipping detritus recovered from several shovel test pits using 5 mm mesh screens, eighteen 50 cm square test units were excavated at 10 metre intervals, delineating the limited distribution and small quantity of cultural material here. Salvage investigations were conducted in August of 1994 through the excavation of approximately 100 square metres of ploughzone.
Using 5 mm mesh screens, artifact density ranged from a maximum of 52 pieces of debitage per metre square to an arbitrary excavation limit set at one metre squares containing less than 10 pieces of debitage (Figure 3). The distribution of debitage exhibits a distinctive clustering toward the prehistoric feature in the north central portion of the area excavated. Debitage density declines regularly toward the limits of excavation. The small collection of artifacts is to be expected from this small, likely short occupation.
Features
One subsoil feature is attributed to the prehistoric occupation of the site. It was found beneath the highest concentrations of artifacts in the ploughzone where 52 pieces of lithic debitage were recovered (Figure 3). Feature 2 (Figure 4) yielded 49 pieces of lithic debitage, two utilized flakes, a biface fragment, and approximately 50 pieces of microdebitage from the flotation sample. While much of the debitage was thermally altered or patinated making chert type identifications difficult, thirteen pieces are identifiable as Onondaga chert and one flake is Collingwood chert. A small sample of charcoal from the flotation of Feature 2 provided an uncalibrated AMS age estimate of 4710 ± 170 years B.P. (TO-6096), but this estimate is considered much too late for the site and is rejected.
Artifacts
The artifact assemblage from McKean is small. The range of patina development on the artifacts and the range of artifact forms represented here, might initially suggest that several components were represented, however, a detailed examination of the site’s small size and configuration, its apparently obscure location and the artifact types recovered here argue that it was occupied only once, likely for a short time, during the Early Archaic Period (Lennox 2000). Table 1 provides a list of the artifacts recovered and their frequencies.
Lithic Debitage
The 1093 pieces of lithic debitage recovered from the ploughzone excavations at McKean were distributed in an oblong area measuring approximately 10 by 15 metres, the excavation limit being arbitrarily defined (Figure 3). Despite years of cultivation, this material may represent debris that was left within the confines of a small structure (cf. Lennox 1986, 1990, 1993, Timmins 1996, Woodley 1988, 1989).
Chert type identification was often obscured by patina. This patina is attributed here and elsewhere, particularly on early components in the Huron Basin, to inundation by high water levels (ie. Dodd 1996, Ellis and Deller 1986, Ellis et al. 1990:107, Kenyon 1980). At McKean, patinated artifacts are widely distributed across the site area and the range of patina development exists on artifacts from similar contexts, indeed on fragments of the same specimen! The differences in patina at McKean is thus attributed to differences in the composition or structure of the chert, perhaps combined with soil chemistries (cf. Anderson and Whitlow 1984; Honea 1964), and was not attributed to different ages of parts of the assemblage. Also, as indicated by different patina intensities on fragments of the same tool (undoubtably the same age), some variation in patina intensity must be related to the different micro environments in which the artifacts were deposited.
With these difficulties in mind,. about 50% of the assemblage is unidentifiable chert (?). This includes thermally altered or burnt chert (245 specimens), heavily patinated specimens (179), a grainy chert of unknown source (68), and pieces considered to be too small to analyse (48) (see Table 2 below).
The largest identifiable chert type is Onondaga chert (n=332) representing approximately 67% of the identifiable chert from the site. This is followed by Collingwood chert (n=161) representing about 33%. These relative frequencies are notable since the primary source of Collingwood chert is only about 15 km away while the primary source of Onondaga chert is about 200 km to the south.
Unlike the nearby Archaic and Late Woodland Rentner site (Lennox 2000) the local pebble cherts, quartz and quartzite were used to a very limited extent at McKean, accounting for only 10 of the 1093 specimens.
Concerning flake morphology, the flake types at McKean were identified as Primary, Secondary, Shatter and Fragments (Lennox 1981, 1986; and Lennox et al. 1986) as enumerated in Table 2. Flake Fragments are most frequent, their large number likely influenced by the high incidence of small and thin Secondary flakes coupled with the effects of ploughing. Of the identifiable flakes, Secondary flakes are most common (30%), with relatively few Primary flakes (5%). As indicated by the high incidence of identifiable Secondary and the few Primary flakes recovered, emphasis of lithic reduction at McKean was toward the later stages of the reduction sequence. Shatter, making up only 2% of the McKean debitage, is typically of low proportions in assemblages dominated by the later stages of reduction.
In further detail, Primary flakes are relatively rare constituting only 5% of the total assemblage. But, of the Collingwood and Onondaga chert debitage that is identifiable as to morphology and material type (Primary + Secondary flakes = 493), there is proportionally about twice the incidence of Primary flakes of Collingwood chert than there are of Onondaga chert. While the sample is small, this pattern may be expected given the proximity of the Collingwood/Fossil Hill Formation primary chert sources. However, with the suggested scenario of settlement and source acquisition as presented below, the incidence of Primary flakes of Collingwood chert is remarkably high. Regardless of the raw material, the identifiable flake types strongly represent the thinning and resharpening of lithic tools. Given the scarcity of Primary flakes and a scarcity of tool rejects representing the reduction sequence from flake blanks to preforms, the tools used and maintained at the site appear to have been brought here in a finished or near finished state.
Stages of a lithic reduction sequence, as represented by the flake types present at a site, usually reflect distances from the site to the different chert sources used. For example, close to a chert source, the number of Primary flakes of that material usually constitute a significant portion of an assemblage and these tend to become less frequent as distance to the source increases. At the same time, Secondary flakes tend to become proportionally more frequent as distance to the chert source increases. However, contrary to the pattern of lithic reduction found on most later archaeological sites in southwestern Ontario, as indicated in Table 2 there are few Primary flakes represented for any material type at McKean and there is a greater proportion of the more distant Onondaga chert than that for the closer Collingwood chert. Interestingly, the frequencies of flake types (Primary and Secondary) for Onondaga and Collingwood cherts show little difference despite considerably different distances from the site to these two chert sources. This distribution indicates that even at this short distance from the Collingwood chert source the tools of this material were being similarly refined and were being transported, used and curated as were the tools from the more distant Onondaga chert sources.
Utilized and Retouched Flakes
The amount of edge damage on the debitage from McKean likely resulted from long term natural processes as well as recent ones, such as ploughing (cf. McBrearty et al, 1998). As such, utilization could not confidently be discerned. Of those showing retouch, two flakes may represent scraper fragments while three flakes, taken from large bifacial cores, exhibit retouch on their lateral edges. This may be the initial shaping of tool blanks from these large flakes before they were rejected due to breakage. Most interesting is the large size of these Onondaga chert flakes and the bifaces from which they were struck. Although most Secondary flakes from the site are small and appear to be the result of resharpening finished tools, these specimens indicate that large bifaces were used as cores, the source of flake blanks. This transport of lithic materials over long distances in this form is regarded as a chert conservation technique best known from Paleo-Indian assemblages located some distance from the primary sources of the raw materials used (cf. Lothrop 1989, Ellis 1989).
The remaining retouched flake is of Collingwood chert. It is a small Primary flake with fine ventral retouch along a concave lateral edge. The tool may have functioned as a spokeshave.
Piercers
Four finely pointed, unifacial, flake tools of Onondaga chert, likely used in piercing soft materials, are referred to here as piercers. The largest example (Figure 5:b and Figure 6:d), measures 31 mm long, 20 mm wide and 5 mm in maximum thickness. As with several of the other specimens (Figure 5a,c and Figure 6a), the point occurs at the intersection of the retouched lateral edges with a dorsal ridge, providing strength to the tip of the tool. The remaining specimen (Figure 5:b) possesses several spurs and might best be called a multiple graver (Deller and Ellis 1992) or cutter (Gramly 1982). Two of a probable three projections are formed by unifacial retouch on the flake's distal edge.
These finely pointed tools were likely used to pierce or engrave a range of softer materials such as hide, wood or bone. Similar specimens are common on Paleo-Indian sites in the Great Lakes region (Deller and Ellis 1992:68, Tomenchuk and Storck 1997:518) but are infrequent during the Archaic period (Ellis et al 1990: 99, 110). Recent usewear studies of multiple gravers, similar to one of the McKean examples, suggest use in removing disks from wood, bone or shell (Tomenchuk and Storck 1997).
Burins
Of the two burins recovered, one was made on a highly refined biface, perhaps once a projectile point base (Figure 5:c and Figure 7:b). Exhibiting five burin spalls, it may be described as a burinated biface or a burin core (Crabtree 1972:48,50). The other burin is made on a flake (Figure 5:a) and has had three burin spalls removed. Both examples, despite their differences in form, have had the spalls removed from unifacially retouched notches that represent prepared striking platforms. Heavy patina obscures chert type identifications.
With roots in the Old World Palaeolithic (Bourlon 1911, Semenov 1964), burin recognition and classification in the Americas was influenced by the collaborations of Francois Bordes and Don Crabtree in the 1960's (Crabtree 1972). Burins have since been sporadically traced throughout the New World, from Alaska to Greenland (Morlan 1973) and southerly at least to Equador (Bell 1965, Mayer-Oakes, 1969, 1986). As recently summarized by Julig, "burins have been recovered, in small quantities, at certain western Paleo-Indian sites such as Hell Gap (Irwin and Wormington 1970:26) and Levi (Alexander 1963). Use of burinated Plano projectile point fragments have also been reported at the (western) Parkhill site (Ebell 1980), Grant Lake (Wright 1976) and in Wisconsin (W. Hurley, pers. comm.)”(Julig 1988a:274).
Wright (1995) proposes continuity from Late Paleo-Indian to Shield Archaic in the distinctive technique of burinating broken Keewatin lanceolate points (indistinguishable from Agate Basin Points) at Grant Lake and this, together with the absence of burins on Parkhill Complex sites in southwestern Ontario (Deller and Ellis 1990) might suggest the tool’s late and western affinities, however, burins are reported from the Gainey site and Gainy Complex sites (Gramly and Summers 1986, Simons et al. 1984, Fig. 9d) seemingly refuting this suggestion temporally. Burins have also been noted, but rarely, on Archaic sites in southern Ontario (Lennox 1993, Ramsden 1976).
At McKean, only two burins are reported and although these examples are strikingly different in that one is made on a biface (perhaps a lanceolate point base) and the other is on a flake, both appear to be true or technological burins, not pseudomorphs. They lack signs of bipolar reduction, attributed in the Debert assemblage to wedges or pieces esquillees (MacDonald 1968: 86-90) and, with respect to the association of pseudomorphic burins with projectile points (cf. Epstein 1963, Frison and Stanford 1982, Julig 1988b), it is notable that the McKean burin on a biface, possesses burin spalls that have been removed from several directions. In contrast to many burin-like tools on projectile points, these burin spalls cannot easily be attributed to impact damage. In addition, both burins from McKean exhibit the removal of burin spalls from unifacially retouched notches, used as prepared striking platforms, and usewear at the junction of the burin spall and its striking platform - the bit edge of the burin. This recognition of "true" or “technological” burin attributes favours their intentional production and use at McKean.
Scrapers
Three of the nine scrapers from McKean are small fragments that offer little to this summary (see Table 3 below). Six others, however, exhibit the range of material types and forms that fit well into this context. The larger endscrapers possess steep retouch along thick working edges, an indication of extensive resharpening. Some exhibit further modifications that shape the lateral edges of the tools, perhaps to assist in hafting or hand manipulation. On occasion, they also possess graver spurs.
Three end scrapers of Onondaga chert portray the reduction sequence and associated use/retouch of end scrapers curated over extensive uselives. For example, the first in this sequence (Figure 5:g) is made on a large Primary flake through unifacial retouch of the distal edge. The bit edge measures approximately 45 degrees and is worn smooth through use. Steep, lateral retouch likely represents the shaping and dulling of this edge for hafting and, although snap fractures have removed the other lateral edge, graver spurs are notable at both junctions of the distal and lateral edges. The second, large and extensively retouched endscraper (Figure 5:h), is a broad, short and thick, unifacially retouched endscraper with a thick and steep bit edge angle of approximately 80 degrees. Unifacial retouch continues around both lateral edges creating a triangular plan view. The third scraper in this series (Figure 5:f) is also likely of Onondaga chert but is heavily patinated. The wide, convex bit edge is thick and vertically overhanging; the edge angle ranging from 90 to 100 degrees. Converging lateral edges toward the proximal end are thick, rounded and worn, either indicating extensive haftwear or perhaps use as a drill.
In contrast to these large, resharpened and carefully curated scrapers, two exceptions are of local Collingwood Chert. These specimens are little more than retouched flakes, being small and thin with narrow bit edges and acute edge angles (Figure 5:e).
The remaining scraper is a side scraper made on a flake of quartz. It has steep unifacial retouch along both lateral edges, one of which is concave and the other convex (Figure 5:d).
Biface Blanks and Preforms
Of the eight biface fragments recovered, five are small pieces from thick and unrefined, early stage bifaces made on locally available toolstone, two of Collingwood chert and three of quartz. These small fragments indicate, if little else, the limited use of local materials to provide tools. Similarly, another larger example is the base of a triangular biface blank of Collingwood chert. It is 45 mm across the base and 48+ mm long (Figure 8:b). In contrast, a fragment of a refined biface, also of Collingwood chert, exhibits fine bifacial flaking, a thinness of only 4 mm and convex lateral blade edges. With a maximum width of 35 mm the biface was probably a point preform or knife (Figure 8:a). The remaining biface fragment may have been the midsection of a projectile point blade. Of Onondaga chert but heavily patinated (red), it is 19 mm wide and 7 mm thick.
Projectile Points
Aside from the above possibilities, most notably the burinated biface, possibly a lanceolate point base (Figure 5:c and Figure 7:b), five point fragments from McKean exhibit a range of Late Paleo-Indian - Early Archaic forms. The first, is heavily patinated, perhaps of Onondaga chert, and, missing its base, it is tentatively identified as a Thebes point (Figure 8:d). It exhibits alternate bevelling and the resulting rhomboidal cross section which, along with concave lateral blade edges, indicate that the point has undergone extensive resharpening.
Thebes points are rare in Ontario and are best known from south of the Great Lakes (cf. Abel 1990) They have also been referred to as Archaic Bevels in Ohio, where their association with Dovetail (ca. 7400 B.C.) and MacCorkle Points (ca. 6800 B.C.) is noted (Bowen 1992:7,9,20). Also, within the Early Archaic Thebes Cluster, Justice remarks that dates reported by Kippel (1971) from Graham Cave (7530 B.C. ±400 and 7340 B.C. ±300), "secure the age of Thebes and St. Charles type points” (Justice 1987:54).
Three points from McKean can be classified as St. Charles points (Justice 1987:55, 57). One is a point blade of Onondaga chert (Figure 8:c) with convex lateral blade edges and fine intermittent serrations. Another base is of an unidentifiable chert, is thin (5 mm) with a straight, extensively ground base and side-notches (Figure 8:f). Similar point bases are within the range for Thebes and Dovetail points (cf. Luchterhand 1970) but the thinness of these specimens is more like that of St. Charles points where straight ground bases are rare but within the type range (Justice 1987:57). Another point base (Figure 8:e) is made of Collingwood chert, and possesses narrow corner-notches, slightly barbed shoulders, and convex lateral and basal edges. This specimen would also be considered a St. Charles or Dovetail point with the more typical convex basal edge.
The remaining fragment is small and thermally altered, but appears to be the basal corner of a projectile point of Onondaga chert. Basal thinning is notable as is a stepped contraction of about one mm along the lateral edge at what appears to be the distal end of the hafting element. Similar forms appear in the literature amongst such early point types as Dalton, where the stepped contraction of lateral edges toward the distal end of the points, appears to be a function of resharpening possibly while the points were still hafted (cf. Justice 1978:30-40). However, the straight basal edge and lack of basal and lateral grinding on this specimen is considered atypical of Dalton.
The range of variability exhibited by the few points recovered from this small site may be the result of several related factors: the reduction and reuse of some extensively curated specimens; different uses or functions for the various specimens recovered and the result of broad external influences on the tool forms represented.
Hammerstone
The only heavy stone tool from the site is a hammerstone. Hammering facets appear to be in their early developmental stages on this unique example where scattered peck marks become clustered toward either end of this granitic cobble.
Faunal Remains
The preservation of any faunal remains at such an early site as McKean is remarkable. Their presence here is attributed to their mineralization, frequency and recovery using fine screening. None of 103 specimens are however, identifiable below class. Most abundant are 89 very small pieces of fish bone from Feature 2. Their total weight is only 1.2 grams. These include a vertebra and two pieces of spine, rib or ray. Although this evidence is minuscule, it is the earliest evidence of fishery exploitation in the Upper Great Lakes region (cf. Cleland 1982:774, Peterson et al. 1984). The incorporation of fishing, or fish harvesting, into the settlement-subsistence pattern could easily have started during the Early Archaic period, if not earlier. How and when the fish were harvested can only be speculative since none of the artifacts recovered at McKean can be associated with that activity.
Recovered from the
ploughzone, McKean also produced a small piece of antler and four molar
fragments (also mineralized) from either a moose (Alces alces) or wapiti
(Cervus canadensis), either species being a possibility in this area
(Lennox 2000).
Summary and Discussion
The McKean site is a small, ploughed site that is represented by a limited distribution and density of artifacts. Our first impression might have been that the site was of little significance and it could easily have been “written off”, destroyed by highway construction and quickly forgotten. However, most of what remained of the site was recovered by the excavations. The site may be descriptively portrayed as a lithic scatter, probably representing a habitation site or base camp, occupied by a small group for a brief period of time during the Late Paleo-Indian - Early Archaic Period, about 9,000 or 10,000 years ago. Broadly, the site can be regarded as typical or representative of a major portion of the Province's past and, more specifically, the site is of a time period that is poorly understood, not well represented by detailed investigations. In this light it is of considerable significance.
While the McKean site might be classified as an Early Archaic site based on the notched, unfluted projectile points found there, most of the other artifacts from the site; the scrapers and flake tools, and the settlement-subsistence pattern, suggest the site’s strong affinities with an earlier pattern. As such, our findings from McKean allow for a rare glimpse of what we classify as Archaic and what we sometimes regard as Paleo-Indian. As should become obvious when we provide detail, these temporal episodes are not as clear cut along their boundaries as they are sometimes portrayed.
The distribution of cultural materials at McKean is pretty much restricted to an area measuring approximately 10 by 15 metres. Given their close proximity, these may have been deposited within the confines of a small shelter or structure, however, the effects of ploughing, the screen mesh size used for artifact recovery and the density of artifacts selected for our arbitrary limits of excavation, would variously affect estimates of site size. In comparison to single component sites of a similar age, excavated in a similar manner, the McKean site size with it's number and range of tool forms, can be seen to suggest an occupation by a small and diversified group, such as an extended family, for perhaps as little as a few days. However, given the number of tools represented, the site was probably occupied over a longer period, perhaps for several weeks or even longer.
A small collection of lithic debitage and a fairly wide variety of more formalized tools were recovered from McKean indicating that a range of activities took place here. These included the repair and maintenance of hunting equipment, the processing of meat from large mammals and fish and the preparation of hides. A number of other activities would be expected of such a base camp but these have left few traces in the archaeological record. The distribution of tools reveals some clustering of points and scrapers within the area excavated (Figure 9), and this suggests some segregation of work areas or tasks.
Approximately 1000 pieces of lithic debitage were recovered from McKean. While this may seem to be a small quantity of waste for the extent of the investigations, the small quantity and types of chert recovered indicate that the people who used the site travelled long distances to obtain most of the toolstone left here - to the Onondaga chert outcrops located along the north shore of Lake Erie. They also, however, used the nearby Collingwood chert source, but differently and to a lesser extent. Some of this material seems to have been acquired at the time of the occupation and represents early lithic reduction stages while some formal tools appear to represent refined and well used tool remnants, as if they were made and extensively used since the previous visit to this area, maybe a year before the McKean site occupation.
Given these interpretations it is obvious why the number of waste flakes is limited compared to sites occupied for longer periods of time, compared to sites occupied by more people or to sites located closer to preferred chert sources. The people at McKean transported only a few tools in a finished or partially refined state and distinctly maintained these items as needed; resharpening worn edges, replacing and recycling broken tools or making a few simple flake tools from large flakes obtained from bifacial cores, from waste flakes obtained from tool maintenance or from locally available, more expedient toolstone.
Notable is the proximity of the McKean site to the primary source of Collingwood chert. Although this chert source was known at the time the site was occupied, most of the debitage recovered is of Onondaga chert found some 200 km away. Following suggestions of a north-south movement of Paleo-Indians in Ontario, their preference for these chert sources in their presumed annual round following the migration of ‘caribou’, and the interpretation of the quantity and form of these cherts on those sites, similar explanations for the quantity of debitage, the chert types present and their form at McKean are plausible. These details of the assemblage can be used further as indications of the season of the site's occupation. At McKean, for example, tools from the south, those of Onondaga chert, dominate the assemblage and, together with the predominant waste of this same material, indicates that tools were maintained here and some were eventually discarded. With their depletion, some locally made tools were replacing those that were discarded. For example, most of the few early stage bifaces or preforms recovered are made on Collingwood chert, and these were probably recently acquired. In addition however, the few refined and some exhausted items of Collingwood chert may have been obtained during a previous visit to this chert source, perhaps a year before the occupation of the McKean site, and were returned here following their distant transport and curation. These data may indicate that the site was occupied in the spring or early summer when these people had recently returned from the south, carrying with them a supply of tools acquired there, as well as a few remaining tools of Collingwood chert. This would best explain the frequency and types of tools and debitage recovered and suggests the maintenance of a similar mobility pattern during this Late Paleo-Indian - Early Archaic occupation.
The lithic assemblage at McKean speaks further to the season of the site's occupation. Storck, for example, suggests a seasonal round for Paleo-Indians that included the acquisition of toolstone from chert sources of the Niagara Peninsula to the south (including Onondaga Chert) and also the nearby Collingwood chert source (Storck 1984:13). He also suggests that the Collingwood chert source is located in an area of heavy snowfall and would only be accessible during the snow-free seasons of the year (Storck 1984:14). Applying such a seasonal model of chert acquisition and movement, Timmins suggests the season of occupation and direction of movement of a Crowfield Phase Paleo-Indian component in Southwestern Ontario (Timmins 1994:183). Using similar reasoning; the dominance of Onondaga chert in the McKean debitage assemblage and the use and maintenance of few tools of Collingwood chert there, suggests that the people at McKean had recently returned from the south with tools of Onondaga chert and had not yet replenished their tool kit with local materials. This profile of lithic material use, supported by the exploitation of a cervid and fish, argues for a spring or early summer occupation of the McKean site. It will be of interest to examine additional Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic sites in southern Ontario with respect to the frequency and form of waste materials and the tools they produce, their interpreted seasonality and direction of movement.
In addition to the pattern of lithic sources utilized, the tools recovered are also early forms that are more typical of Paleo-Indian sites and are rarely recovered from sites of the Archaic Period. These tools include the piercers or gravers made on flakes, some of the endscrapers from McKean, particularly those with graver spurs, and the burins. While some of these “diagnostic” tools might simply be captured in the transition from Paleo-Indian to Archaic to remind us of the fallibility of our not-so-rigid constructs, in the case of burins, additional mechanisms are undoubtably involved, not the least of which is their recognition, classification, and interpretation. The few burin examples at McKean may communicate a relationship between this site and some other industries, and while we would like to suggest that these other industries include Paleo-Indians, burins are inconsistently reported elsewhere in the Northeast, so, at this point their presence can only be regarded as problematic - yet to be understood.
Controversies concerning the distinctions between true or technological burins, functional burins and pseudomorphs awaits considerable refinement. This is reminiscent of pieces esquillees/wedges/bipolar cores (LeBlanc, 1992, Lennox and Hagerty 1995, Shott, 1981), and, given the scarcity of burins and the little attention they continue to receive, their consideration will undoubtably continue for some time. These are not negative experiences but allow the exploration of tool forms and their various possible meanings in an enlightening and positive way, They are indicative of a maturing discipline and remain a challenge for future study.
These subtleties help
to illustrate some of the complexities associated with the classification of
cultural episodes based on the diverse range of site and artifact attributes
that we find across space and through time. It is in this way that
archaeological sites, such as the McKean site, help to fill uninvestigated,
poorly known portions of the province's past. Not easily classified as
Paleo-Indian or Archaic, the McKean site might best be described as transitional
or perhaps Plano. Aside from a few isolated finds most would agree that the
distribution of Plano sites in Eastern North America is meagre. This may be due,
in part, to their small size and the time of their occupation, being
overshadowed by more prominent site types in more predictable locations, but
this is undoubtedly also a function of the apparently short duration of this
cultural transition and the western location and orientation of most sites of
this cultural affinity.
Conclusions
Sites in a Changing Landscape
Substantial changes in the McKean site area were a part of changes that were continental in scope. These involved the melting and "retreat" of the Wisconsinan ice sheet over North America, the rise of the northern continent due to the lessening weight of the ice mass, exposing this area in particular about 11,000 years ago. But, drainage outlets to the north were still covered by ice and those to the south were still rising, meaning that a high lake level was formed in the Huron Basin. It is called Lake Algonquin. The McKean site area was under water at this time.
In this area along the shores of Lake Algonquin, Paleo-Indian settlements are in evidence. Wright (1995) outlines this period across Canada. Ellis and Deller (1990) summarise the evidence for the Paleo-Indian occupation of Southern Ontario and Storck (1978, 1979, 1982, 1997) presents results of investigations in this region specifically. Apparently for at least 1000 years Paleo-Indian settlements spread generally northward occupying newly exposed terrain with the retreat of the glacial ice sheet. They are thought to have moved in a southerly direction annually, following caribou on their seasonal migration. With faunal remains rarely preserved, the evidence is in the transport of distant types of toolstone (ie Storck and von Bitter 1989).
Following the Paleo-Indian, Lake Algonquin, spruce-pine transition about 10,000 years ago, the lake level lowered, leaving a series of subtle and successively lower beach ridges over several centuries as a large area of former lake bottom was exposed to habitation by plants and animals from the south (Eschman and Karrow 1985:89). These raised beaches were attractive settlement locations and rather dramatic cultural differences help distinguish some of the complexities of the penetrating influences.
As the ice continued to recede north of the Huron and Superior Basins, environmental change was rapid and people from surrounding regions moved into this new land area from all directions. Lanceolate projectile points, now basally thinned rather than fluted, are interpreted as Late Paleo-Indian, perhaps influenced from the Plains where people are better known as bison hunters during these Late Paleo or Plano times. The distinctive fluting of earlier Paleo-Indian projectile points also gives way further south, to unfluted lanceolate projectile points such as Holcombe and Hi-Lo (Ellis and Deller 1990), then to side-notched points, perhaps signalling a shift in hunting equipment. These later changes may have been from south of the Great Lakes apparently moving northward with the flora and fauna as temperatures warmed.
The low water stage in the Huron Basin saw two lakes, Lake Stanley in the main Huron basin and Lake Hough in what is now Georgian Bay. Drainage at this time was through North Bay eastward to the Ottawa River Valley. These low water levels meant that large tracts of land became open for travel and settlement. For example, recent investigations of the bottom of Lake Huron between Tobermory and Manitoulin Island describe an outlet for Lake Stanley into Lake Hough as a spillway comparable in magnitude to Niagara Falls. The recovery of an in situ Eastern White Cedar in this vicinity dated at 9360±80 B.P. (Janusas et al. 1998) help to establish these landscape changes.
While many archaeological sites that represent this Late Paleo-Indian period are now beneath the waters of Lake Huron, it was at this time that the McKean Site was occupied (Figure 10). As the apparent preference for the location of Paleo-Indian sites along the shores of Lake Algonquin may be debated (cf. Ellis and Deller 1990:51), the situation of sites like McKean, on active shorelines at the waters edge or on abandoned beaches some distance inland, is likewise debateable and rarely simply resolvable from the data available. For example, the patina on artifacts from McKean suggests that water was close by, but the patina may have formed either shortly after the site was occupied (as the fluctuations in the lowering post Lake Algonquin may have inundated the site) or the patina could have developed thousands of years later from the effects of water on the tools when the shore of Lake Nipissing came close to destroying the McKean site. The lack of patina on artifacts from the nearby Rentner site (Lennox 2000) however, might argue against this later possibility.
As with much of the Late Paleo-Early Archaic sequence in Ontario, the scarcity of sites comparable to McKean may be related to a presumed preference for locations along then active and since inundated shorelines, but, those remaining sites of this period that have not been inundated or destroyed are well preserved on dry land today, but are also undoubtably elusive due to their small size and low artifact densities (Ellis et al 1990, 1991, Fitting 1968, Kenyon and Lennox 1997, Lennox 1993, 1997, Ritchie 1969, 1971, Wright 1978 ). Despite the reason for the apparent scarcity of sites like McKean, this limitation of similar evidence is one of the reasons that these sites are of such great importance when they are found.
It may have been during this time that Plano influences from the west of the Great Lakes entered Ontario north and south of Lake Superior. To the north these influences are most evident in the Lakehead Complex (Fox 1980, Hinshelwood and Webber 1987, Julig 1988, MacNeish 1952b) extending east to the Killarney area (Greenman 1966, Storck 1974) subsequently contributing to the Shield Archaic (Wright 1972:85, 1995:22, 112-14, 126). To the south of the Great Lakes, southern and western influences are apparent at the Coates Creek site (Storck 1978) and the McKean site which share affinities to Archaic materials from the south as well as Plano materials from the west.
Over the next 5000 years, following the Stanley-Hough low water stage, isostatic rebound of the North Bay outlet(s) caused the water levels in the Huron Basin to again rise and drain southward through outlets at Chicago into the Mississippi River Valley and, at Port Huron into the lower Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River (Eschman and Karrow 1985:90, Larsen 1995:63). These are the rising waters of the Nipissing Transgression which submerged and concealed with sediment, broad areas that had been dry, vegetated land, restricting the area available for settlement and thus focusing terrestrial resources along the shores of the Nipissing Phase Lake. This offered extensive habitat to numerous aquatic species as massive areas were inundated. Without a doubt, the implications of these changes are astounding (cf. Butterfield 1986). Some of these changes are documented by investigations at the nearby Rentner site (Lennox 2000) and the Baxter site, located near the mouth of the Severn River immediately southeast of Georgian Bay (Dodd 1996). Our work at Rentner produced a number of Archaic components along this Nipissing shore while Baxter revealed an Early Archaic component (ca. 8000 B.P.) That was distinguished by heavily patinated artifacts, much like the patina at McKean, indicating that that site was also under water at one time since it was occupied and before the Middle Woodland component there.
The Cultural Materials
From the above considerations, it would appear that the McKean Site was occupied as the Lake Algonquin water level was subsiding; the shoreline receding northward. McKean is located on a topographically subtle beach ridge compared to the later, nearby and most prominent, Nipissing shorebluff, such that it is difficult to think of the site without that prominent feature in existence. The site location could have been selected at the time the shoreline was active nearby or as the waters in the Huron Basin lowered further. In this instance, the site may have been located some distance inland. Either situation would have allowed this small encampment to exist on at least a medium sized cervid and some fish, both of which were evident from the investigations. While the few details provided by the floral or faunal remains help to focus the numerous possibilities that could be entertained, these are inconclusive. Generally, the site area was exposed about 10,000 years ago and comparisons of the cultural materials with those from elsewhere indicates an occupation within the next millennium. The single available radiocarbon date from McKean is rejected as being thousands of years later than other good evidence suggests.
The McKean assemblage produced tools that are similar to examples from Early Archaic components in evidence over broad parts of North America. Most notable are two diagnostic point styles recovered from McKean. St. Charles points and Thebes points would be classified as Early Archaic by most researchers. They provide date estimates of about 9500 B.P. by comparison with carbon dated sites to the south where both point types co-occur (Justice 1978, Morrow 1989). Also notable is a small fragment of a biface shoulder, probably that of a projectile point, which resembles several Plano or Early Archaic point types (see Justice 1978:30-53). This specimen and another point base that has several burin spalls removed from a prepared striking platform may also present affinities to Late Paleo or Plano point types but the few, fragmentary examples are only inviting, not definitive. While the age and distribution of some of these points, and their co-occurrence with Thebes and St. Charles points may not be surprising, these possibilities raise numerous interpretations that cannot be pursued with so few examples here and elsewhere. Unfortunately, while these bits of information are of interest, the nature of small sites will always provide some challenges in the quantity and quality of information they can offer.
A few of these point types have been recovered from Ontario but most are "isolated finds" or were recovered with little additional data. One site, bearing very similar cultural materials, also with Late Paleo-Early Archaic and Plano affinities is the Coates Creek site (Storck 1978) located only 17 km to the southeast of McKean and similarly situated on an ancient shoreline. Interestingly, and in contrast to the McKean base camp, the Coates Creek assemblage produced few scrapers and is interpreted as a hunting encampment (Storck 1978:42). In addition to the side-notched points, several lanceolate point fragments were recovered from both McKean and Coates Creek perhaps reflecting their close temporal, geographic and cultural affinities.
It is interesting that one of the lanceolate point fragments from McKean is burinated. These may be broadly considered Plano or late Paleo-Indian and while contemporaneity is not a problem with the Early Archaic points their appearance together raises numerous possibilities concerning the distant contacts or influences responsible for such small and complex assemblages.
Notable are the flake tools recovered and their similarity with those from Paleo-Indian sites. Similarities between Early Archaic and Paleo-Indian flake tools are noted elsewhere but many of these tools were soon to become obsolete. This occurrence of what have been regarded as "diagnostic" Paleo-Indian tools on sites of the Early Archaic is now to be expected and thus broadens the diagnostic scope of such implements and the interpreted life ways of these people. The presence of these tool forms here, point to the temporal/cultural affinities of the McKean site and, at the same time, indicate some of the difficulties that exist in our constructs. Some sites that produce these "diagnostic" Paleo-Indian flake tools are not, under most classificatory schemes, Paleo-Indian sites.
The settlement-subsistence pattern of the McKean people also appears to have followed closely the pattern of their Paleo-Indian ancestors, perhaps also a result of following caribou or other migratory Cervids, in their annual movements, north and south with the changing seasons. The cervid remains at McKean are probably elk. Although caribou was anticipated and would fit well with preconceptions, our refinement of rigidly conceived constructs must be welcomed. If indeed they are elk, interesting is the repetition of lithic source use and the replenishment of a small and highly portable tool kit on long journeys similar to Early Paleo Indians but in pursuit of a different species. On one hand, it appears that many of the tool forms, except the most refined bifaces at McKean, were remarkably similar to those of the Paleo-Indians, but the typologically closest point styles suggest influences from the south and west, in some cases, from beyond the rapidly changing environmental and cultural configuration of the Great Lakes region. Most likely time, space, environment and subsistence economies create a patchwork of cultural variables at this particular time in this area especially, and McKean is one of our few examples so far. Similarly debatable is the more precise meaning of the fish remains from McKean. Do they represent the exploitation of a nearby or distant lake or were they taken from a nearby creek, and by what means? A more precise chronological understanding of the geological and cultural events would help to understand this earliest evidence of a fishery in the Upper Great Lakes. Are these Late Paleo-Indian shifts in faunal exploitation or a sampling dilemma?
As may be expected for Late Paleo and Archaic peoples, their base camps are generally, but not always, small and reflect a group size that was suitably sustained by what is often dramatically considered as a "marginal livelihood". Like most later Archaic occupations, the people at McKean were mobile, at least seasonally, but unlike their descendants, who seem to have adapted to more specific local conditions, similar to the Paleo-Indians, the distances evidently travelled at this time were still considerable. The similarities and differences between Paleo-Indian and Archaic manifestations expectedly break down close to the boundaries of these convenient segments of this cultural continuum.
In addition to the tools recovered and their affinities to earlier forms, is the privileged glimpse that we have of the lifestyles of these people and its similarity to that proposed for Paleo-Indians. The regular movement of people over long distances is made obvious by the curation of tools constructed from distant materials and are some of the hallmarks of their ancestors. If, as has been suggested for Paleo-Indians, one of the reasons for this distant travel and transport of materials was to follow the migration of ervids annually, and the tools and settlement patterns adopted for this endeavour also mirror that which has come before, the distinction between Paleo-Indians and such Early Archaic manifestations as is represented at McKean, may be all too simply, academic.
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