Mortuary Practices and Their Social Implications at the Keffer Site, Ontario
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Authors:  Michael W. Spence and Dori Rainey
Page Range: 1- 43
Abstract: Keffer (AkGv-14), a late 15th centuryWendat site on the Don River, grew over a period of two to three decades
to ultimately include 15 longhouses and a population estimated at 744 people. During its complete excavation,
29 individuals were recovered from 27 burial features, the majority of them in longhouses. Seventeen of these
longhouse burials were of infants or young children. A detailed analysis of their placement in relation to the
interior features of the longhouses suggests that reincarnation was the anticipated outcome of their burial, that
reincarnation was viewed as a process rather than an event, and that care was taken to ensure that they would
be reborn to an appropriate matriclan mother. The 12 other individuals described here include 4 from
longhouses, 5 from elsewhere in the village, and 3 from a primary burial cemetery just outside the village.We
also discuss the cultural and archaeological context of the numerous human bones from midden and other nonburial
contexts within the village and from the ossuary in which the majority of the deceased villagers were
buried. Although this paper involves a broad range of mortuary contexts, a comprehensive reconstruction of the
Keffer mortuary programme is difficult because we do not have comparative osteological and dental data from
the ossuary or from the other primary cemeteries presumed to exist beyond the village limits.

Minimum Sample Sizes, recovery Techniques, and the Reporting of Animal Bones from Historic-Period Assemblages in Ontario
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Author: Eric Tourigny
Page Range: 44- 60
Abstract: An overview of faunal assemblages from Euro-Canadian historic period sites located across southern and
eastern Ontario challenges the validity of faunal analyses that strictly adhere to the Ontario Standards and
Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists. Through its requirement to only identify 500 animal remain
specimens, the standards and guidelines inadvertently suggest that such a sample size is large enough to be
representative of the archaeological deposit. Results indicate that sample sizes under 2,000 are insufficient to
properly address one of the most fundamental zooarchaeological research questions: Which animal species were
exploited by past site occupants? Fish are particularly underrepresented in historic faunal assemblages, and
links are made to excavation strategies and their effects on the data being generated. New standards for
minimum sample sizes and excavation strategies are recommended based on analyses examining the extent to
which assemblages have been sampled to redundancy. Also discussed are the inconsistent ways in which faunal
analyses are currently being presented and a need to update the current standards and guidelines with regards
to zooarchaeology.

Mortuary Practices and the Social Adjustment to Village Life at the Younge Phase Bingo Village
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Author: Michael W. Spence and Brandy E. George
Page Range: 61- 90
Abstract: Bingo Village (AgHk-42) is a Western Basin Younge phase component site in southwestern Ontario, near the
modern village of Arkona. It represents a time of village formation, as extended families, which had formerly
been the principal settlement unit, came together to create larger and more settled communities. Full excavation
of the palisaded Bingo Village site led to the identification of 16 mortuary features with a total of 27
individuals. The features fall into three categories: unexhumed primary burials, sorted deposits, and multiple
secondary burials. Sorted deposits are features containing the skeletal elements from exhumed primary burials
that had not been selected for inclusion in the subsequent secondary burials. Evidence suggests that primary
burial, exhumation, and sorting events were conducted by the social group occupying the deceased person’s
longhouse, but that these events took place in open areas, thus allowing for the participation of other villagers
in the rituals. The secondary burials were more closely tied to the decedent’s residential group. This dichotomy
of inclusion was probably a result of, and the first step in accommodation to, the pressures created by the novel
social environment of the village.The extended family unit, now a longhouse group, still maintained its integrity
in the rituals, but the social relevance of the broader community was also recognized in the initial steps of the
mortuary sequence.

The Blueberry Field Site (BcHa-23): A Middle Woodland Campsite in Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, Ontario
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Authors:  David A. Spittal
Page Range: 91- 120
Abstract: The Blueberry Field site (BcHa-23) and several small associated artifact clusters, situated near the Nottawasaga
River in the Town ofWasaga Beach, were salvage excavated in 1977. The recovered artifact assemblage includes
portions of six ceramic vessels and small lithic and faunal samples. Two hearth features were also recorded. The
site was a small, single component encampment of the MiddleWoodland period. Located in an area where the
dominant cultural associations appear to be with the Saugeen Culture to the west, the site also exhibits a strong
affiliation with Point Peninsula sites to the east. The area of the lower Nottawasaga River appears to be an area
where people of the two cultures came into close association.

Profile: Marian E. White (1921 - 1975): Action Archaeologist
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Author:  Kathryn Leacock and William Engelbrecht
Page Range: 121- 130

Profile: J. Norman Emerson and Frank Ridley: Ontario Archaeology As We Know It
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Author: Peter Ramsden
Page Range: 131- 140

Book Review: Contact in the 16th Century: Networks among Fishers, Foragers and Farmers
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Authors:  Jennifer Birch
Page Range: 141- 144

Book Review: Mailhot-Curran: Un Village Iroquoien du XVIe Siècle
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Author: Suzanne Needs-Howarth
Page Range: 145- 147

Book Review: Before Ontario: The Archaeology of a Province
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Author: Claude Chapdelaine
Page Range: 148- 150

Book Review: Late Pleistocene Archaeology and Ecology in the Far Northeast
Volume: OA97
Year: 2017
Authors: William Fox
Page Range: 151- 154