The Archaeology of Inundated Cultural Landscapes in Freshwater Lake Systems: Preliminary Insights from a Multi-Methods Study in the Kawartha Lakes Region, Ontario

Abstract

In this paper, we review the goals, methods, and results of our modelling of the shoreline history and archaeological survey of the inundated portions of a freshwater lake system within the Lake Ontario watershed of south-central Ontario, Canada. We first review the character of the regional archaeological record and highlight the likelihood that the relatively few documented sites in this region before 6000 cal BP is due to landscape inundation from shoreline transgression. The first part of our analytical work focuses on the derivation of paleoshoreline models to identified now flooded, but formerly inhabitable landscapes. The second phase of our work reports on the shallow water survey of high potential areas. We documented over 1000 artifacts in a set of targeted surveys, including the presence of material diagnostic of the early Holocene, which is underrepresented in the terrestrial record. The results of our work emphasize the importance of evaluating the potential for cultural landscape inundation in freshwater lake systems and, when so identified, how underwater surveys contribute to regional studies of hunter-gatherer settlement and land use patterns.