So You Want to go North? Ontario Archaeology Conference Will Look at the Canadian Shield

In celebration of our chilly northern climate, the Ontario Archaeological Society will be holding their annual symposium in Killarney Ontario from Sept 24-26, a town on the northern tip of Lake Superior.

The symposium is called “Shibaonaning – the place of the clear passage.” It willfocus on the archaeology of the Canadian Shield. Its a vast, rocky, forested area of Canada that covers Northern Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and parts of the arctic.

At eight million square kilometres, its nearly double the size of the entire European Union. Although it’s chalk full of mines, the rocky terrain makes it difficult to do any kind of farming. In ancient times the people on the northern end of Lake Superior depended on hunting and gathering in order to survive.

In spite of this, they did adopt pottery blowing a hole in the theory that you have to be a farmer before you become a potter. People in the shield also drew petroglyphs rock carvings depicting both humans and nature.

You can read more about this pottery dilemma here on Heritage Key, and also check out an in-depth feature on the Great Lakes region and see some of the recent work done in the Canadian Arctic.

Also Dr. Ron Williamsons discussion on the way Ontario is mistreating its antiquities is a must-read.