The Princess Point complex (also called the Princess Point culture) is an

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

of the

Middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

Late Woodland In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some arch ...

period of northeastern North America. The complex marked a transition between the latter part of the

Middle Woodland period In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact i ...

and the early

Late Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some arch ...

. One date estimate places the time period of the Princess Point complex as lasting from around 500 CE to around 1000 CE. It later developed into the Glen Meyer culture. Named for its

type site In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and H ...

at Princess Point near modern-day

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

, Canada, the complex was present in the area between the Grand River and the

Niagara Peninsula The Niagara Peninsula is an area of land lying between the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario and the northeastern shore of Lake Erie, in Ontario, Canada. Technically an isthmus rather than a peninsula, it stretches from the Niagara River in the ...

. It is characterized by a horticultural economy, including the cultivation of

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, as well as aspects of

sedentism In anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. As of , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In evolutionary anthropology and arch ...

. It was originally conceptualized by the archaeologist David Marvyn Stothers.

Characteristics and social changes

The Princess Point marked a transition to early

-based agriculture and an increasingly sedentary way of life. Stothers describes Princess Point maize cultivation as "developmental-experimental", and notes the appearance of

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

d agricultural villages containing proto-

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...

s. Maize cultivation as a supplement to foraged foods began at least as early as 500 CE. James V. Wright linked the Princess Point culture with the introduction of maize agriculture into Ontario. There was a general westward geographic shift in focus during this period, with the appearance of sites such as the Glass site ( AgHb-5) on the western bank of the Grand River. By the end phase of this Grand River focus, however, occupation had shifted away from river-adjacent

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

s to well-drained sandy hills and plains in modern-day Norfolk County, which were more suitable for maize agriculture.

Early maize cultivation in Ontario

The Princess Point culture is linked to the introduction of maize to Ontario. This was initially believed in the 1970s to have occurred around AD 650. Later

accelerator mass spectrometry Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a form of mass spectrometry that accelerates ions to extraordinarily high kinetic energies before mass analysis. The special strength of AMS among the different methods of mass spectrometry is its ability t ...

(AMS) testing done in the mid-1990s on samples from the Grand Banks site (AfGx-3) returned a calibrated radiocarbon date of AD 540.

Archaeological framework

David Marvyn Stothers developed the Princess Point complex as an archaeological framework in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His definition of it as a

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

was rooted in an understanding of "Princess Point" as being widely distributed; therefore, it was divided into three regional foci (the Point Pelee, Ausable, and Grand River) and three phases falling within an original date range of AD 600 to AD 900. William Fox later revised this framework, proposing instead that the Princess Point complex should be more narrowly defined around the Grand River focus, with the Ausable focus being excluded as too poorly documented, and the Point Pelee focus assigned to the Riviere au Vase phase of the Western Basin tradition. The timescale was also narrowed to AD 650–900.

Foci and sites

Stothers divided the Princess Point complex into a set of three regional foci composed of clusters of similar sites. In a 1973 list, these were: Grand River focus * Surma site * Orchid site * Martin site * Jordan Harbour site * Reimer site * Selkirk #5 * Selkirk #2 * Port Maitland site * Newman site (AfGv-3) * Cayuga Bridge site (AfGx-1) * Grand Banks site (AfGx-3) * Indiana site * Middleport site (Princess Point component) * Glass site (AgHb-5) * Porteous site (AgHb-1)transitional Princess PointGlen Meyer site * Mohawk Chapel * Princess Point * Rat Island Point Pelee focus * Indian Clearing (AbHl-4) * Kreiger site * Van Hooste site * Cummings site Ausable focus * Smith site (AhHk-1) * Fox site (AhHk-29) * Bear site (AhHk-31) * Pinery site (AhHl-12) As well, the Forster site is a notable Princess Point site which also contained a Glen Meyer component.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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