Laurentian University's Alicia Hawkins uncovers ancient artifacts

Alicia Hawkins started an archaeological digat the site of a former Huron-Wendatsettlement near Midland, Ont., with the hope of uncovering more information about unusual pottery but what she found sent her research in an entirely different direction.

"What we discovered is that it wasn't one village. It was actually two villages," she said, noting such a site isan uncommon find.

Hawkins, along withgroups of students, has been working at the dig site tolearnmore about how the Huron-Wendat people lived in the 1500s and then later when they settled again in the area in the1600s.

The first settlement dates back to beforeEuropean contact, while the second settlement was after contact.

Things such as the amount ofpreserved fish bones help show that the Huron-Wendat society changed quite dramatically between the two time periods, Hawkins said.

The change could be attributed to disease that struck the Huron-Wendat people hard during the time period, perhaps reducing the skills and expertise available to undertake the challenging fishing on Georgian Bay's big water, she said.

Listen in whenCBC's Megan Thomas stopped by Hawkins's lab at Laurentian University to find out more about her work.

Morning North8:53Summer U looks at the Huron-Wendat people

What can pottery, beads and fish bones tell us about the history of the Huron-Wendat people of Ontario? we'll visit the lab of archaeologist Alicia Hawkins as part of our Summer U series.

Some of Hawkinsresearch will be presented at an upcoming Ontario ArchaeologicalSociety symposiumin October that is being organized in cooperation withtheHuron-Wendat Nation.

"We are hopeful that through a collaborative organization of a conference like this what we will be doing is building a relationship that will help us to haveresearch that is more relevant to descendent First Nations," Hawkins said.

The conference will be held in Midland in October.