Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 3

The Armstrong Mound on Rainy River, Ontario

by Walter A. Kenyon

Conclusions

The Armstrong Mound is a roughly circular tumulus situated on a terrace overlooking the Long Sault Rapids on Rainy River. This particular structure is but one element in a large ceremonial complex of at least 11 mounds on the site. Although no systematic excavation has been undertaken prior to the investigations described in this report, an examination of several surface collections suggests very strongly that the site has been occupied for some 8,000 years.

When we cut a trench through the centre of the Armstrong Mound and examined a vertical profile, we found that the mound had been constructed by piling up individual basket-loads of earth. Beneath the mound was a rectangle formed of pine logs; within the rectangle were the bodies of 13 people, in three different locations. Burial No. 2 contained the body of a child, lying on its left side with the knees flexed. Burials 1 and 3 each contained the disarticulated skeletons of six individuals, liberally painted with red ochre. These bodies, at death, had either been buried or placed on a scaffolding, probably the latter. At a later date, the bones were collected, painted and deposited in their final resting place.

In the absence of grave furniture, it is impossible to identify culturally the people who were buried in the Armstrong Mound. Both the size and the contour of the mound, however, suggest that it can be attributed to the Laurel culture. Most of the artifacts that were found in the mound fill are Laurel, and some randomly scattered test pits in the area reveal the presence of a large Laurel village. The pottery types from the mound are like those described by both MacNeish and Stoltman as being early Laurel. Although no C-14 dates are available, it has been estimated that this culture flourished in southern Manitoba from about 1,500 to 1,000 years ago. A lump of charcoal from one of the logs in the Armstrong Mound was submitted to Isotopes, Inc. for a C-14 age determination. This sample (NMC-118 [1-2594]) yielded a date of 1,010 ± 100 years, or A.D. 957. It should be noted incidentally, that this date applies to the building of the mound, not to the manufacture of the pottery and other artifacts that were scattered throughout the mound fill. The artifacts are the usual debris that one finds when excavating an Indian village. They are in the mound only because some of the earth to build the mound was taken from an Indian village site. But that village could have been abandoned for an indefinite period before the mound was built.

On the basis of the C-14 date and the reliability of MacNeish's estimate regarding the age of Laurel materials in Manitoba, we can assume, pro tem, that the village is in fact an early Laurel village, and that the mound is a Late Laurel mound, built about 1,000 years ago.

Having excavated the Armstrong Mound, we have established certain matters of fact. These, in turn, suggest certain hypotheses which can be verified, or rejected, by future excavation. There are sufficient mounds and village areas along the Long Sault Rapids to work out the sequence in which the mounds were built, as well as the sequence of pottery types which occurred throughout the history of the Laurel peoples.