An iron tool was recovered from an excellent sealed context at the early sixteenth century ancestral
Huron-Wendat Mantle site near Toronto. It is one of the earliest European artifacts to have been found in the Great Lakes region. Radiographic analyses (x-ray and neutron radiography) of the piece have provided information on the nature and function of the object. This paper discusses the implications of this tool in terms of both pre-existing exchange networks in shell, catlinite, and native copper as well as early European-Indigenous trade and interaction from local, regional and superregional perspectives. Paper presented at the 77th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Memphis 2012 and at the 57th Annual Midwest Archaeological Conference La Crosse, Wisconsin October 13–15, 2011.
