Introduction
• An Epic Story
A Human Landscape
A Lifestyle Shaped by the Seasons
Material Culture
The Story Continues
Site Map
Acknowledgements and credits
Questions/comments ?
Version française

Outside walls of the Droulers/Tsiionhiakwatha Archaeological Site
Interpretation Center's longhouses
The earliest evidence of human presence in what is now Quebec dates to the Palaeoindian period, which lasted between 12 000 and 8 000 years before the present (B.P.). During this time, Northern Quebec was entirely covered by the glacial ice cap, and the St. Lawrence Lowlands were flooded first by the Champlain Sea and then by Lake Lampsilis. The Palaeoindian hunters were succeeded by populations belonging to the Archaic period, which extended from 8 000 to 3 000 B.P. These people gradually became less nomadic as fishing activities increased and baked clay pottery was introduced; the new, more sedentary lifestyle led to the Woodland period around 3 000 B.P. The Iroquoians of Saint-Anicet were the first agriculturalists in the Upper St. Lawrence. Their presence is attested on some fifteen sites, including three major villages, known as the McDonald, Droulers/Tsiionhiakwatha and Mailhot-Curran sites.