Doncaster Archaeological Site

The E.J. Sand Public School property is the location of an ancestral Wendat (Huron) village that was first  documented in detail by Arthur J. Clark in 1928. Clark was a highly skilled amateur archaeologist who  recorded the locations of many archaeological sites in York Township. An artist by profession, Clark  produced very detailed maps of the sites he explored, which have remained valuable sources of  information for archaeologists today. His contributions to our understanding of the Indigenous history  and archaeology of York Region—and of Richmond Hill and Markham in particular—are acknowledged  to this day through the work of the A.J. Clark Interpretive Centre at the Elgin West Community Centre in  Richmond Hill.  

While Clark visited the Doncaster 2 site on numerous occasions and collected a large number of artifacts  that now are in the collections of the Canadian Museum of History, comparatively little is known about  the site and for many years it was largely forgotten. Even its location was lost, or confused with other  sites, until archaeologist Dana Poulton began to work extensively with Clark’s original field notes in the  early 1980s as part of a municipal archaeological planning study undertaken for the Town of Markham,  as it was at that time.  

The current redevelopment of the E.J. Sand school property triggered a standard archaeological  assessment as required under provincial legislation. This investigation, undertaken in the fall of 2019,  concluded that at least a portion of the archaeological site was preserved on the school grounds and is  likely to extend into the adjacent park lands. Further archaeological work was undertaken in the  summer of 2020 to further define the extent and character of the surviving archaeological deposits on  the school property. This work was carried out in tandem with a redesign of the new school facilities to  avoid the area of the archaeological remains and involved the contributions of the Huron-Wendat  Nation, who are the descendants of the original occupants of the site, and the Mississaugas of the Credit  First Nation, who are the Treaty rights holders for this part of southern Ontario.  

Although the analysis of the artifacts recovered from the Doncaster 2 is yet to get under way, it is likely  that the village was occupied between approximately 1350 and 1450 CE. At this time, village sites were  occupied on a year-round basis and were surrounded by extensive agricultural fields. The inhabitants  lived in communal long houses and the settlements were sometimes fortified. The interior layout of the  villages became increasing dense and complex over time, culminating in the sixteenth and seventeenth  centuries CE in the emergence of a smaller number major towns occupied by thousands of people.  

For more information on the archaeology of Ontario’s Indigenous peoples, the 2013 book Before  Ontario: The Archaeology of a Province, edited by Marit K. Munson and Susan M. Jamieson, provides an  accessible summary of research and culture history. 

A reconstruction of longhouses and interior village compound. Courtesy of Archaeological Services Inc.  Ska nah Doht, Longwoods Road Conservation Area.  

Archaeological Services Inc.  

528 Bathurst Street  

Toronto ON M5S 2P9  

info@asiheritage.ca