ROEBUCK PREHISTORIC VILLAGE SITE, GRENVILLE COUNTY, 
ONTARIO 
INTRODUCTION 
The Roebuck site, a prehistoric, palisaded village site of Iroquoian 
culture, is located on the north half of lots 2 and 3, con. VI, Augusta tp., 
Grenville co., Ontario, about \ mile northeast of the village of Roebuck 
(from which it is named), 8 miles north of St. Lawrence river at Prescott, 
and about 40 miles south of Ottawa. An intensive exploration of the site 
was made by the author, under the general direction of Harlan I. Smith, 
from June 17 to October 28, 1912, and from April 24 to May 20, 1915. 
Although known at least since 1845, and subject for many years, like 
many other sites in Ontario, to considerable desultory digging and surface 
searching by local collectors, the Roebuck site had never been systematically 
explored. Much of the material found at the site had been lost and some 
of it scattered without any specific data as to the particular site or locality 
from which it came. 
The collection secured from the site by the w r riter is large enough to 
give us an idea of the culture of the inhabitants, one hundred and sixty- 
seven boxes of specimens, including human skeletons from eighty-three 
graves, being secured. In this paper an attempt is made to characterize 
the culture so as to form a measure with which to compare the results 
from other Iroquoian sites in eastern Canada, and to enable us to dis- 
tinguish material found in nearby sites of other cultures. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
Messrs. James Kelso and Nathaniel White kindly gave permission for 
the explorations on their respective properties, and we are especially grate- 
ful to the latter for presenting a number of specimens and lending others; 
also to Mr. William McKinley for presenting a pipe found on his property 
about one-quarter mile west of the site. The late Dr. M. 0. Malte, of the 
Botanical Division, National Museum of Canada, identified one of the 
plant remains; Chief Justice F. R. Latchford, of Toronto, identified most 
of the clam shells; Earl A. Reid, of the Division of Fishes, U.S. National 
Museum, the fish remains; Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Assistant Secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, the bird remains and 
Dr. Gerrit S. Miller, of the Division of Mammals, and Dr. J. W. Gidley, 
of the Division of Fossil Mammals, both of the U.S. National Museum, 
identified the mammalian remains. The author wishes to record here also 
his appreciation of Mr. Smith’s advice and assistance in the preparation 
of parts of this monograph and the maps. 
The accompanying illustrations of the artifacts are from photographs 
and from drawings by the author. Two text figures are the work of 
