Mantle Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village
Mantle Site – looking west from Byers Pond Way, Whitchurch–Stouffville over storm water pond towards Stouffville Creek and James Ratcliff Ave.: site of massive 16th-century Wendat (Huron) ancestral village
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 Location within Ontario today
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| Location | Whitchurch–Stouffville, Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada |
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| Region | Regional Municipality of York, Ontario |
| Coordinates | 43°57′49″N 79°14′13″W / 43.96361°N 79.23694°W |
| History | |
| Periods | Late Precontact Period, ca. 1500–1530 |
| Cultures | Huron (Wendat) |
The "Jean-Baptiste Lainé" or Mantle site in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, north-east of Toronto, is the largest and most complex ancestral Wendat-Huron village to be excavated in the Lower Great Lakes region to date.
In 2002, a Huron village from the late Precontact Period (i.e., immediately prior to the arrival of Europeans) was discovered during the construction of the new subdivision in Whitchurch–Stouffville along Stouffville Creek, a tributary of West Duffins Creek, on a section of Lot 33, Concession 9. From circa 1500 to 1530 AD, 1500 to 2000 people inhabited the 4.2 hectare site. The community was likely created from multiple smaller sites, including the Draper Site, located five kilometres south-east of Mantle in north Pickering.
In 2012, archaeologists revealed that they had discovered a forged wrought iron axehead of European origin which had been carefully buried in a long-house at the centre of the village site. It is believed that the axe originated from a Basque whaling station in the Strait of Belle Isle (Newfoundland and Labrador), and was traded into the interior of the continent a century before Europeans began to explore the Great Lakes region. "It is the earliest European piece of iron ever found in the North American interior."
The Mantle site was enclosed by a three-row wooden fort-like structure (palisade) with 95 longhouses, of which at least 50 were occupied at any one time. Each longhouse was approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, 20 feet (6.1 m) high; lengths varied from 40 feet (12 m) to 160 feet (49 m), with a typical length of 100 feet (30 m). They were constructed from maple or cedar saplings and covered by elm or cedar bark. The layout displays a uniquely high degree of organization (when compared, e.g., to the Draper Site), and includes an open plaza and a developed waste management system.
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Wikipedia