Who Cares About the Past?

Archaeology is happening all around us, every day. Before a highway, pipeline, or a new house is constructed in Ontario, archaeologists make sure that the material cultural heritage is recorded and protected.

This plate was found in Toronto in 2007. The plate is a blue scenic transfer printed ware, with willow pattern, dated from c. 1822-1835. It was manufactured by the company Meigh & Johnson in Shelton, Staffordshire, England. It bears a very common pattern, the willow, inspired by hand-painted ceramics from China.

This artifact was found in Vaughan on a site excavated in 1998, 1999 and 2003. In the middle of the 15th century CE, an indigenous village was standing there.

This miniature pottery is decorated with incised lines and small linear punctuates. Miniature pottery is often present in archaeological context of villages from the Late Woodland period (A.D. 900 to A.D. 1650).

In late 2019, the Ontario Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries reported that over 33,500 archaeological sites had been identified in the province. That number is always increasing; over the last 15 years, an average of 533 sites have been documented each year. Moreover, 80% of the sites reported in the province’s database contain Indigenous archaeological heritage.

These cat bones were recovered from a site excavated in 2007 by Archaeological Services Inc. in Halton Hills. The site corresponds to a mid-nineteenth century domestic occupation.

Archaeologists have found evidence of people living in the region now
called Ontario over 13,000 years ago, shortly after the last glacier ice started retreating. As the development industry
expands, building houses and linking communities across the province, there is
potential to disturb and destroy the archaeological evidence of the most ancient to the latest human pasts.

This collection of projectile points comes from a series of archaeological sites located near Puslinch Lake in Cambridge. The excavated sites covered a span of 9,000 years of human history in Ontario, from 8500 BC. to 900 AD..

This artifact is a glass pendant found in 1983 near Brantford. The site was identified as an Indigenous village established around 1784 near the Grand River and occupied until the mid 19th century.

The iridescence is due to a weathering crust of the glass that can occur in archaeological contexts.

This artifact is an incomplete iron spade. It was found in Halton Hills in 2007. Between 1836 and 1848, a farm was standing on this land.

However, shovels are not only used for agricultural purposes, but they are also part of the archaeologist tool kit. This shovel was therefore found by… another shovel: history comes full circle!