Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Post date: Oct 18, 2016 12:36:05 AM

On Tuesday, October 11, 2016, we were lucky enough to have Dr. Neal Ferris from the University of Western Ontario and the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, formerly from the Ministry of Culture, come to Windsor and give us a presentation. He came to speak about The Western Basin Late Woodland as Fluid Material and Conceptual Borderlands.

We had a really good turnout for this presentation as our speaker was a highly anticipated one; we even had a member from Ohio attend this presentation.

Dr. Ferris explained how the Western Basin tradition was in Michigan, Ohio and Southwestern Ontario. It also overlaps into the Ontario Tradition occupation area in Southwestern Ontario. The Western Basin tradition sites are noted by their frequent lack of visible housing remains, but frequently there are post moulds from walls, storage pits and hearths.

He explained that for years there was debate as to the actual existence of the Western Basin Tradition. Archaeologists argued that it was not its' own distinct tradition but was actually a continuation of the Ontario Tradition. It was the study of the pottery making techniques by Chris Watts that helped to basically settle the debate and confirmed that the Western Basin Tradition should be recognized.

The archaeological sites, and the finds found within them, indicate the gradual movement of the Western Basin Tradition from the far eastern fringes of Southwestern Ontario around 900AD to eventually moving right out of Ontario entirely by 1600AD.

Thank you Dr. Ferris for coming down to present for our chapter and we look forward to hearing further discussion on the topic at the symposium in November.