Exploring Community Formation and Coalescence at the Late 14th-Early 15th Century Tillsonburg Village Site

This thesis examines the Tillsonburg Village’s particularly large and dispersed community plan through an intra-site analysis of ceramic vessels and longhouse attributes, as these are considered useful indicators of social, organizational, and temporal processes. The archaeological site in Tillsonburg, Ontario dates to the late Middle Iroquoian Period (AD 1350-1420). Community coalescence involves the aggregation of previously separate social groups into one communal settlement. It is explored as the predominant conceptual approach to better understand the formation of the Tillsonburg Village’s community plan. However, other processes relating to the contemporaneity of village areas or houses are also considered. Spatial and statistical analyses are used to explore spatial patterning of attributes among their associated contexts. The findings suggest that the Tillsonburg occupants were experimenting with formative processes of community coalescence, with groups interacting and living together in one settlement, yet still remaining socially and spatially distinct within the larger village community