Compositional Analysis of Glass Beads from Huron-Wendat Contexts at the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Mission Site, Quebec

Abstract

Glass trade beads recovered during the 2018 excavations of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Mission Site (CeEu-11), the site of a c. 1673–1697 Huron-Wendat village at L’Ancienne-Lorette (Quebec), were analyzed using Laser Ablation - Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). This minimally invasive analysis, conducted with permission from the Huron-Wendat Nation of Quebec, provides information about glass bead recipes that can be compared to other known samples from across eastern North America. This paper presents compositional analysis results for 78 artifacts (mainly simple, drawn varieties of blue and white beads) and compares the L’Ancienne-Lorette glass bead compositions to those from other seventeenth-century Wendat archaeological sites in the Western Great Lakes and in Southern Ontario. These sites were occupied both prior to and after the ca. 1650 dispersal of Huron-Wendat people from Wendake. From this research, historic Wendat trade networks and population movements can be inferred.