Ware is Point Peninsula? Or, Who was living on the lower Credit River during the Middle Woodland Period?

When the compilation volume The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 volume was published nearly 30 years ago, three distinct Middle Woodland complexes were discussed in detail, but the authors of that article (myself included) provided a proviso that “…we expect a picture to emerge of a series of localized complexes extending across the southern part of the province, each only marginally different from its neighbours but more easily distinguishable from its more distant contemporaries”. We are apparently still wrestling with the notion of Middle Woodland archaeological cultures today, i.e., what constitutes Point Peninsula vs Saugeen, or Princess Point vs Sandbanks:  this paper will examine this issue from the prospective of the Hogsback site (AjGv-3), a newly excavated site on the lower Credit River, and two nearby and related sites, Scott-O’Brien (AjGv-32) and Stavebank Road (AjGv-74). Results from detailed ceramic analyses of these sites document a process for studying and interpreting local and regional Middle Woodland sites across southern Ontario.