HISTORY
9000 B.C.
8000 B.C.
7000 B.C.
6000 B.C.
5000 B.C.
4000 B.C.
3000 B.C.
2000 B.C.
1000 B.C.
YEAR 0
2000
Earliest evidence of human occupation of southern Ontario
(11,000 years ago)
Hunter-gatherers "Palaeo-Indians"
These people created a variety of stone tools including fluted projectile points, scrapers, burins and gravers
SUB-ARCTIC ENVIRONMENT
They travelled widely, relying on seasonal migration of caribou, small animals, and wild plants
Copper mining in Upper Great Lakes, traded into southern Ontario
ARCHAIC PERIOD
BEGINS
(7000 B.C. - 1000 B.C.)
ENVIRONMENT OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO APPROACHES MODERN CONDITIONS
WATER LEVELS DROPPING
OTTAWA RIVER AND RIDEAU RIVER RECEDE TO THEIR RESENT CONFIGURATION
People begin to have greater reliance on fishing and gathering food
More diversity between regional groups
Heavy Woodworking:
more diverse tools used - adze, gouges and other ground stone tools
Construction of dug-out canoes
Specialized Fishing gear: people making and using net sinkers, plummets
Increasing evidence of ceremony, elaborate burial practices
Increasing evidence of manufactured non-utilitarian items: pipes, gorgets, 'birdstones'
1000
ARCHAIC PERIOD
ends
(7000 B.C. - 1000 B.C.)
Ottawa River system developed to be a main transportation corridor
Extensive settlements of eastern Ontario
Extensive use of cold-hammered copper tools
First significant evidence of occupation of Ottawa Valley
WOODLAND PERIOD
BEGINS
(1000 B.C. - 1550 A.D.)
Introduction of ceramics
Extensive trade network spanning much of North America
included movement of conch shell, fossilized shark teeth, mica, copper, and silver
Increasingly complex social structures
Distinctive traditions evolved in different parts of Ontario
Domesticated plants are introduced to the diet and economy: corn, beans, sqash, sunflowers, tobacco
Semi-permanent and permanent villages
Various Algonquin groups occupy the Ottawa Valley
1550
WOODLAND PERIOD
ends
(1000 B.C. - 1550 A.D.)
Arrival of the French, Dutch and British along the Atlantic seaboard
Chaudiere Falls was an important sacred site; the islands were used at stop-over sites for travellers. This practice continued into the post-contact period, including early European explorers
of People in Canada / Southern Ontario Region
EUROPEAN ARRIVAL (1535)