An archaeological and geographic analysis of the nineteenth century Euro-Canadian settlement of Douro Township, Peterborough County

Using Geographical Information Systems software and settlement pattern analysis, and the relative values of recovered ceramic assemblages from eleven historic sites, this research investigates the factors influencing the pattern of the nineteenth-century Euro-Canadian settlement of Douro Township, Peterborough County, and the connections between the relative wealth of rural agricultural sites and land quality. The results of the settlement pattern analyses suggest that land quality played little part in the direction of settlement; rather proximity to early roads was the guiding factor in the settlement of Douro Township. In regards to the connections between relative wealth and land quality, neither the indexical cost of the recovered ceramic assemblages nor the agricultural productivity of the land directly correlates with relative wealth of nineteenth-century southern Ontario farms. This research is significant because it provides a fuller understanding of the nineteenth-century Euro-Canadian settlement in Ontario and the connections between their wealth and the land.;Keywords: Historic Ontario Farmstead, Historic Settlement and Material Culture, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Nineteenth-Century Wealth, Miller's Ceramic Index.