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Recreating the Past
EARLY PALEOINDIAN (12 000 to 10 000 years before the present)
During this period, Quebec territory was still partially covered by glaciers and marine transgressions. Until very recently, no Quebec site had revealed traces of the nomadic people who at this time roamed the tundra in search of big game, never staying at any one spot for very long. Such sites, identified by the Clovis tool-making tradition, are found in Ontario, New England and the Maritime provinces. In August 2003, evidence of the first Quebec Paleoindian site was discovered near Lake Megantic.
LATE PALEOINDIAN (10 000 to 8 000 years before the present)
In this period, certain regions of Quebec began to be populated. So far, only a handful of Late Paleoindian sites have been identified in Quebec and the period remains poorly defined. The people of this period were expert tool makers and produced projectile points of the Plano type, characterized by parallel flaking. This technique was used exclusively for over 2 000 years before being replaced by stone grinding and less refined flaking techniques about 8 000 years ago. Plano sites on the north shore of the Gaspé Peninsula (Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Cap-au-Renard, La Martre, Marsoui), as well as around Rimouski and Thompson Island in the Upper St. Lawrence, date back further than 8 000 years. They are among the oldest sites in Quebec.
EARLY AND MIDDLE ARCHAIC (8 000 to 6 500 years before the present)
The populations that lived in these periods lived by gathering, fishing and hunting all kinds of game. By making use of diverse resources, they were more adaptable than people of the previous period had been. These groups produced tools by grinding or flaking stone.
LATE ARCHAIC (6 500 to 3 000 years before the present)
Throughout this period, environmental conditions grew more stable, gradually becoming like those that prevail today. As the glaciers retreated and the climate warmed up, trees began to grow once again. A variety of ecological niches started to develop. Small family groups spread out over practically the entire territory of Quebec. They seem to have preferred regions that provided certain resources and they adapted to these places. The Late Archaic people used objects made of native copper coming from the Great Lakes region in addition to stone implements.
EARLY WOODLAND (3 000 to 2 400 years before the present)
During this period, much of the St. Lawrence Lowlands were occupied by groups who left traces of a new cultural environment. They practised previously unknown funeral rites. Their lithic industry was characterized by the almost exclusive use of Onondaga chert, a material that had to be imported. They made pottery and enjoyed certain “luxury products”, such as gorgets (pendants), “birdstones” (bird-shaped stones) and tubular pipes, as well as necklaces and ornaments fashioned of native copper.
MIDDLE WOODLAND (2 400 to 1 000 years before the present)
By the end of this period, people had begun to be less mobile, staying in one place for a whole season to take advantage of certain natural resources. Fish started to play a more important role in the diet of some of these groups.
LATE WOODLAND (1 000 to 400 years before the present)
Certain people living in the St. Lawrence Lowlands acquired knowledge about cultivating the soil. They sowed corn, squash, beans, sunflowers and tobacco in fields. They adopted a mixed subsistence lifestyle, relying of the products of hunting and fishing in years when the harvest was bad. The St. Lawrence Iroquois established villages, where they lived together in longhouses. As the population grew and competition for territory intensified, villages were often fortified with palisades. The markers of Iroquoian cultural identity began to take shape. With few exceptions, the Algonquian populations in the northeast of the continent continued to live as hunter-gatherers, but they maintained contacts and trading relations with the farming communities.
CONTACT PERIOD (500 to 400 years before the present)
Amerindian groups began to experience the influence of European culture, either through direct encounters with Europeans to trade for certain material goods or through the acquisition of such goods from middlemen. The traditional way of life practised by the First Peoples was rapidly undermined by the spread of epidemics and intense rivalry for dominance in the fur trade. The actual moment of Contact was not the same for every group, but the period is often said to begin in 1600, a date that provides a convenient point of reference.
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Center, Université de Montréal 2006. All rights reserved. Questions/comments? |
