UREN

The Uren 'sub-stage' is one of two stages in the Middle Ontario Iroquois period. Along with the Middleport stage, Uren marks the transition from the development of full villages, which occurred during the Early Ontario Iroquoian period, and the emergence of distinct tribal groups (Huron, Neutral etc.) which marks the beginning of the Late Ontario Iroquoian period. Uren was originally believed to have emerged as a result of the conquest of Glen Meyer people by Pickering people during the late thirteenth century.

The Uren stage has been dated to the early part of the fourteenth century. Archaeologists dispute over the exact dates of this short lived stage, however all place somewhere between A.D. 1290 and A.D. 1350.

Uren sites have been found throughout central Ontario, extending in an arc from the Rice Lake area in the east, west as far as London. Although Uren artifacts have been recognized as far north as Lake Nipissing, near North Bay, these may have been the products of local Algonkian peoples who were influenced by the styles and preferences of their southern neighbours.

SETTLEMENTS

Uren people lived in small and medium sized villages of about 1 hectare in area. These were usually located on or near areas of sandy or sandy loam soil where agriculture could be easily and profitably practiced. They also used small, cabin settlements, or hamlets, away from the main village.

Many Uren villages were defended with stout palisade fences. In some areas such defensive measure were clearly not thought necessary since no evidence of palisades has been found at some of the village sites. The hamlets were not defended.

Each village contained a number of longhouses. These structures were substantially larger than those of the preceding Early Iroquoian period. On average Uren houses were up to twice as long as Pickering or Glen Meyer longhouses. These were laid out in pairs in an orderly manner.

Uren longhouses were 'cigar shaped' with straight sides and rounded ends. Each building contained a number of hearths aligned along the central axis of the longhouse. These provided heat during the winter, and were used for cooking year round. The large numbers of storage and refuse pits within Uren longhouses and their increased size has led some archaeologists to speculate that by the fourteenth century, corn agriculture had become so successful that living in larger, more settled villages was now possible.

SUBSISTENCE

The increasing importance of corn agriculture during the Middle Iroquoian period did not mean that the ancestral practices of hunting and fishing had been abandoned. Faunal refuse (discarded bones, scales etc) from Uren sites indicate that white-tailed deer was an extremely important food item for many Uren people. On some sites fish also seem to have been a major food source with such species as bullhead, pike, perch and bass being the most important species.

Archaeologists suggest that most Uren people spent their winters in the villages, living off the stored food from the fall harvest. During the spring and summer, some members of the community would move out to smaller settlements to hunt and fish.

BURIALS

Uren burial practices are, at best, poorly known. Scattered fragments of human skeletons are frequently encountered during the excavation of Uren sites. These are often found within large pit features inside the longhouses in areas which would have lain beneath the sleeping platforms. These are usually interpreted as pieces of skeletal material which have been missed when bodies have been exhumed for collective reburial, although in some cases they may represent the scattered fragments of individuals who were unfortunate enough to have been caught, tortured and dismembered by the villagers. It is generally assumed that each family buried their departed members close to their living quarters within the longhouses. When the time arrived for collective reburial, it is inevitable that a few skeletal fragments (usually teeth and finger and toe bones) escaped collection. The only complete burials found at Uren sites have been interpreted as people who, for some reason, could not be buried with the rest of the community dead.

ARTIFACTS

POTTERY

Pottery sherds are the most common artifacts found at Uren village sites.

The pottery from Uren sites shares much in common with earlier and later pottery from prehistoric Ontario Iroquoian sites. Uren pots are globular in shape with poorly developed, or non-existent collars. Some vessels have small castellations on the rim.

Decoration is usually restricted to the upper part of the pots. Push-pull and linear stamping were the most common techniques used. These were often applied as horizontal bands, or in bands of vertical or oblique impressions.

The undecorated parts of the pots (the body) was usually textured using a ribbed paddle , although smooth and checked stamp textures are also fairly common.

Stone Tools

Uren people use a wide variety of stone tools. In common with other Late Woodland phases and traditions, the majority of projectile points used by Uren people were small, isosceles triangular points. A small percentage of points were side or corner notched, but these are relatively rare.

Other Uren tools include abraders (used for grinding the edges of bone or wooden tools), wedges (for splitting and scraping bone), scrapers (for working wood and processing hide) and a wide variety of cutting and scraping tools made by retouching the edge of random flakes.

Uren people also used hammerstones, made from naturally occurring cobbles, ground stone adzes, stone pendants (drilled and ground), and ground slate knives with concave blades.

Pipes

Pottery pipes and pipe fragments are fairly common on Uren sites. As a middle stage in the development of the Ontario Iroquois, Uren pipes show some early characteristics (such as elbow shape, squared stems) and some later characteristics (such as conical and barrel shaped bowls and decorations using incised triangles). Effigy pipes, which are common on later sites, are rare on Uren sites.

Bone Tools

Uren people made good use of the many animal bones available to them. Awls (for piercing), were made either by cutting a splinter out of a deer long bone, or by sharpening the end of a suitable bone fragment. Small mammal long bones were cut into sections and polished as beads. Deer toe bones were modified, perhaps for use in the historically documented 'cup and pin' game. Beaver teeth, probably set into bone handles were used as chisels.

Antler was put to a wide variety of uses. Projectile points and harpoon tips were made from antler tines, and tools used as flakers in stone tool making were made. In addition, a number of tools made from sections of bone or antler, the uses of which are unclear, are also found on Uren sites.

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