Saugeen Complex


The Saugeen Complex was a Native American culture located around the southeast shores of Lake Huron and the Bruce Peninsula, around the London area, and possibly as far east as the Grand River. They were active in the period 200BCE to 500CE. There is archeological evidence that the Saugeen complex people of the Bruce Peninsula may have evolved into the Odawa people.

Hopewell Interaction Sphere

The Hopewell Exchange system began in the Ohio and Illinois River valleys about 200 BCE. The culture is referred to more as a system of interaction among a variety of societies than as a single society or culture. Hopewell trading networks were quite extensive, and their valued commodities included obsidian from the Yellowstone area, copper from Lake Superior, and shells from the Gulf Coast. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society, but a widely dispersed set of related populations. They were connected by a network of trade routes. known as the Hopewell Exchange System. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell exchange system ran from the Southeastern United States into the southeastern Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Within this area, societies participated in a high degree of exchange with the highest amount of activity along waterways, the easiest transportation routes.
Burial customs of the Saugeen people were similar to those of the nearby Point Peninsula Complex. The evidence from excavations suggests a band size of about 50 individuals. No indications of status differences have been found in excavations, but no mounds in the Saugeen Complex have been excavated. The main distinction between the Saugeen complex and the nearby Point Peninsula Complex peoples seems to be that Saugeen ceramics were cruder in construction and decoration.