Archaelogical Assessment

Tillsonburg was the site of a large Iroquoian village in approximately 1400 A.D. The site was uncovered during grading for construction of the Tillsonburg Soccer Park (275 Quarter Town Line).

Salvage excavations conducted by Archaeologix Inc. in the late fall of 2000 and the spring of 2001 resulted in the documentation and excavation of ten longhouse structures in various states of archaeological preservation.

The faunal, floral, and artifactual material recovered from the excavations indicate that the site was occupied on a year-round basis with a subsistence economy based on a combination for maize agriculture and hunting. 

The houses within the Tillsonburg Village were very widely dispersed and there is no evidence of a palisade surrounding the site. Although the precise limits of the village could not be determined, it is estimated that site covered in excess of 8 hectares (20 acres), making it the largest known pre-contact Iroquoian village of its time in southern Ontario. The combination of the extremely large village size and the dispersed community pattern represents a site type that has not been previously documented for the Middle to Late Iroquoian period in southern Ontario.

Learn more

The report prepared by Archaeologix Inc. is available for viewing and download (PDF) below.

• Tillsonburg Village Report - Final Report (Prepared by Archaeologix Inc., 2002)