A Late Archaic Smallpoint Horizon Conundrum

Excavations at the multi-component Gehl Site in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada resulted in the recovery of more than 50,000 lithic artifacts. During lithic analysis of the site’s assemblage at least one pattern began to emerge focused on one temporal period of Ontario’s past: the documentation of 71 Late Archaic Smallpoint Horizon Expanding Stem projectile points of which 30 are Bases that appear to have “snapped” in the same manner. Included in this Smallpoint Horizon assemblage are 26 impact-damaged Ace of Spades and Innes projectile points (3,500 BP). When combined with the Bases, this group of artifacts supports a retooling hypothesis, one of the largest of such scenarios recorded to date in the Province of Ontario. The recovery of a unique contemporaneous projectile point from Ohio, USA highlights an exciting period in Ontario’s history: a monumental shift was slowly unfolding that would eventually see hunter-gatherer groups transition to a southern-influenced sedentary lifestyle. The introduction of ceramics and cultivated crops from the south would usher in sweeping socio changes and impacts that would help shape and change people’s lives for more than a millenia.