Aboriginal History Unit: The Late Period
The Northern Plains (2000 to 300 years ago)
The beginning of this period is marked by the introduction of two new technologies: clay pottery and the bow-and-arrow. Clay pottery seems to have been introduced from the east and the bow-and-arrow technology from the west. The bow-and-arrow did not immediately replace the atlatl-and-dart system; in fact, they were used simultaneously for a few hundred years.
Avonlea: how old is pottery on the northern plains?
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Avonlea pottery is not the oldest on the northern plains - that honour falls to Besant pottery which is just slightly over 2000 years old - but the pottery found at the Avonlea type site in the 1960s started the debate about the antiquity of pottery production in this area. Archaeologists knew that the small side-notched Avonlea points used to hunt bison found at sites are between 1750 and 1150 years old, which they assumed was long before pottery was made on the northern plains. Therefore, when they found pottery at the Avonlea site, they assumed that it was associated with a later culture. A few years later, when archaeologists excavated the Garratt site, they recovered the same style of pottery in the same levels as Avonlea points, thereby ending the debate. |
The "Big Pot" from the Avonlea type site (EaNg-1).
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The tipi is probably the best-known symbol of plains-dwelling First Nations. These are represented archaeologically by numerous stone circles or tipi rings that are found across the northern plains. |
The Mortlach site (EcNl-1).
However, a different structure was used at the Mortlach site about 1500 years ago. Archaeologists found a double line of shallow post holes that formed a remnant of a circle that would have been about 8 m in diameter, had it been complete (unfortunately, illicit digging had destroyed a large part of this circle). Evidence of a similar structure was found at a site in South Dakota, which appears to have been a circular to oval, dome-shaped structure that may have been covered with hides or woven grass mats. |
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Meanwhile in northern Saskatchewan
Northern Saskatchewan is generally perceived as being a place of trees, rock, and water. Although that is generally true, it also has large areas of sand on the west side and, in the northeastern corner, a transitional tundra zone. Moose, beaver, muskrat, hare, grouse, and fish formed the basis of the economy throughout most of the north; barren ground caribou were, and still are, important in the far north.
The archaeology of the boreal forest is less well known than that of the plains. We know the north was free of glacial ice about 8500 years ago, but only a few, widely-scattered sites have been found from the first 6000 years or so of human occupation. Most sites are from the last 1000 years.
Portaging around rapids is a fact of life when traveling on lakes and rivers, the natural highway system of the north. About 900 years ago, a group of people traveling down the Sturgeon-Weir River in eastern Saskatchewan decided to camp at the portage around Spruce Rapids for a couple of days. They were not the first to camp at this portage, but they were the first to leave behind a distinctive style of pottery called Laurel.
This group of people may have been part of a regional band that lived in the Churchill River-Amisk Lake area, because all the Laurel pottery found in that area is decorated in much the same manner. Another group living to the south around the Saskatchewan River Delta decorated their pottery slightly differently. Both groups are quite different from the Laurel pottery found further to the east in what is now Manitoba.
Excavation at Spruce Rapids (GdMo-5) by Tom Kehoe (front) and Gil Watson (back).
For further information contact the Curator of Aboriginal History
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