Migration in Prehistory: Princess Point and the Northern Iroquoian Case

Abstract

Snow has recently challenged the in situ theory of the origins of the Northern Iroquois, arguing that it is a controlling model that does not account for certain linguistic, social, ceramic, and settlement anomalies he identifies in the record of prehistoric Iroquoian development. He proposes a migration model that purports to respond to these anomalies. Data recently gathered from a project focusing on the Princess Point Complex of southern Ontario shed light on Snow’s hypothesis for a migration after A.D. 900. These new data do not support Snow’s migration scenario, at least as this model concerns Ontario and Princess Point.