The complex marked a transition between the latter part of theMiddle Woodland period[1] and the earlyLate Woodland period.[2] One date estimate places the time period of the Princess Point complex as lasting from around 500 CE to around 1000 CE.[3] It later developed into theGlen Meyer culture.[4]
It is characterized by a horticultural economy, including the cultivation ofmaize, as well as aspects ofsedentism.[5] It was originally conceptualized by the archaeologist David Marvyn Stothers.[1]
The Princess Point marked a transition to earlymaize-based agriculture and an increasingly sedentary way of life. Stothers describes Princess Point maize cultivation as "developmental-experimental",[4] and notes the appearance ofpalisaded agricultural villages containing proto-longhouses.[4] Maize cultivation as a supplement to foraged foods began at least as early as 500 CE.[6] James V. Wright linked the Princess Point culture with the introduction of maize agriculture into Ontario.[7]
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 theGrand River. By the end phase of this Grand River focus, however, occupation had shifted away from river-adjacentfloodplains to well-drained sandy hills and plains in modern-dayNorfolk County, which were more suitable for maize agriculture.[4]
The Princess Point culture is linked to the introduction of maize to Ontario.[7] This was initially believed in the 1970s to have occurred around AD 650.[8] Lateraccelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) testing done in the mid-1990s on samples from the Grand Banks site (AfGx-3) returned acalibrated radiocarbon date of AD 540.[8]
David Marvyn Stothers developed the Princess Point complex as an archaeological framework in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His definition of it as acomplex 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.[9]
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 theRiviere au Vase phase of theWestern Basin tradition. The timescale was also narrowed to AD 650–900.[9]
Bursey, Jeffrey A. (2003). "Discerning Storage and Structures at the Forster Site: A Princess Point Component in Southern Ontario".Canadian Journal of Archaeology.27 (2). Canadian Archaeological Association:191–233.JSTOR41103448.
Crawford, Gary W.; Smith, David G.; Desloges, Joseph R.; Davis, Anthony M. (Summer 1998). "Floodplains and Agricultural Origins: A Case Study in South-Central Ontario, Canada".Journal of Field Archaeology.25 (2). Taylor & Francis:123–137.doi:10.2307/530574.JSTOR530574.
Haines, Helen R.; Smith, David G.; Galbraith, David; Theysmeyer, Tys (2011). "The Point of Popularity: A Summary of 10,000 years of Human Activity at the Princess Point Promontory, Cootes Paradise Marsh, Hamilton, Ontario".Canadian Journal of Archaeology.35 (2):232–257.ISSN0705-2006.JSTOR23267554.
Jackson, L. J. (May–June 1983). "Early maize in south-central Ontario".Arch Notes (3). Ontario Archaeological Society:9–11.ISSN0048-1742.
Noble, William C. (1982). "Potsherds, Potlids, and Politics: An Overview of Ontario Archaeology During the 1970s".Canadian Journal of Archaeology (6). Canadian Archaeological Association:167–194.JSTOR41102241.
Smith, David G.; Crawford, Gary W. (1997). "Recent Developments in the Archaeology of the Princess Point Complex in Southern Ontario".Canadian Journal of Archaeology.21 (1):9–32.ISSN0705-2006.JSTOR41103320.
Stothers, David M. (1973). "Early Evidence of Agriculture in the Great Lakes".Bulletin (9). Canadian Archaeological Association:61–76.JSTOR41243013.
Walker, Ian J.; Desloges, Joseph R.; Crawford, Gary W.; Smith, David G. (December 1997). "Floodplain Formation Processes and Archaeological Implications at the Grand Banks Site, Lower Grand River, Southern, Ontario".Geoarchaeology.12 (8):865–887.doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6548(199712)12:8<865::AID-GEA3>3.0.CO;2-3.
Cappella, Katherine (2006).Ontario's First Farmers? Investigations Into Princess Point and the Introduction of Horticulture to Ontario (Master's thesis). Trent University.
Shen, Chen (2001).The Lithic Production System of the Princess Point Complex during the Transition to Agriculture in Southwestern Ontario. International Series (991). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.doi:10.13140/2.1.2188.4806.
Shen, Chen (Fall 2000). "The Tool Use-Patterning at the Grand Banks Site of the Princess Point Complex, Southwestern Ontario".Northeast Anthropology (60):63–87.
Snow, Dean R. (October 1996). "More on Migration in Prehistory: Accommodating New Evidence in the Northern Iroquoian Case".American Antiquity.61 (4). Cambridge University Press:791–796.doi:10.2307/282019.JSTOR282019.
