Marine shell bead

Beads and a pendent made from marine shell have been recovered at the Lawson site. These shells would have come from the Atlantic Ocean and reflect the broad exchange networks Lawson residents and other Indigenous communities had established across the Great Lakes and eastern North America at the beginning of the 16th century. The Lawson site is a fortified 16th century Indigenous site located at the confluence of Medway River and Snake Creek. The site has been known to archaeologists since the mid-1800s and is now an Ontario designated heritage site and part of the Museum of Ontario Archaeology’s grounds.