Taber Hill
Taber Hill or Tabor Hill is a 20 m high Iroquois burial mound or mound in the Canadian city of Toronto. It is located north of Lawrence Avenue East at the Bellamy Road North, Scarborough and stands 53 meters above Lake Ontario.
The site is attributed to the Wyandot or Huron.
Excavation
On August 17, 1956, when the hill was prepared for removal, by having the trees and bushes removed, the work was stopped. The soil should be used for the construction of Highway 401, on the planarized surface of the construction of a new district should be.
This came after workers around 30 m on an extensive collection of human bones. They were on an area of more than 17 m in length and 2 m deep. The burials of around 472 individuals had taken place in 1250. The bones were reburied by traditional chiefs.
Recognition as a historic site
The tomb was declared a cemetery and taken from the province in possession. 1961 saw the Scarborough Hill at the historic site. Two information boards explain since 1966 its former function and the course of discovery, or provide an Iroquois prayer; In 1974, the hill to the Historic Site has been declared in accordance with the Ontario Heritage Act. 1998 banished the city council leisure activities out of respect for the place.
Classification
The site belongs to the designated as Early Iroquian, ie as early Iroquois -time phase, which is dated to about 1000 to 1300. This phase was followed by Middle Iroquian ( 1300-1330 ), the Middleport phase ( 1330-1420 ) and finally Late Precontact ( 1420-1534 ), where " Precontact " phase before the first encounter with Europeans, in this case with Champlain is meant. The earliest Iroquois phase, which is dated from 500 to 1000, bears the name of Princess Point, and was probably more of a nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life to that but even grew corn.
In southern Ontario are about 50 Iroquois villages from before 1534, has been partially or completely excavated the year of the first meeting with Champlain. Alone in the middle Southern Ontario is estimated the number of villages at 750, relates to the southwest with a, you get to double the number - this despite the fact that only the expansion of Toronto 1951-1991 in the metropolitan area of about 2,500 archaeological sites more or less unwittingly destroyed has. Of these, 650 might have justified a dig.
The high number of villages is related to the fact that the Wyandot their villages only a few decades long inhabited, and abandoned sites populated rarely again. Among the Iroquois, it is believed that they came to 500 in the region, which can be by the continuity of Leitfunde occupy up in the 17th century. They did not penetrate further north before, since their agricultural, based on corn and beans lifestyle was incompatible with the colder, marked by less frost-free days more northern areas.
The large number of corpses that were discovered in the hills, explained by the fact that the dead were buried together in large, cultic Dead celebrations.