Middle holocene archaeology and paleoenvironments of the Thunder Bay region, Lake Superior basin

Abstract

This thesis describes the analysis of a deeply buried peat deposit discovered in a cutbank along the Kaministiquia River near Thunder Bay, Ontario. This exposure yielded a large sample of well-preserved plant macrofossils that have been dated between 9,100- 8,900 cal yr BP. This is the first study using macrofossil remains to reconstruct vegetation and the environment in the Thunder Bay region. These data contribute to the development of a high-resolution reconstruction of a specific plant community that developed approximately 1,500 years after final deglaciation of the region. The vegetation data is used in conjunction with the sedimentological record of the cutbank to reconstruct paleoenvironmental events that occurred within and around the Lake Superior basin during the early and middle Holocene, providing previously unknown data to the paleoenvironmental record. This reconstruction not only identifies and explains these events but also assigns an environmental context to the archaeological record of the area which is extremely important to understand since there are many gaps and inconsistencies in the record.