Draper Site facts for kids
 Location in Ontario
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| Location | Pickering, Ontario, Regional Municipality of Durham, Ontario, Canada |
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| Region | Regional Municipality of Durham, Ontario |
| Coordinates | 43°55′42″N 79°10′32″W / 43.92833°N 79.17556°W |
| History | |
| Periods | Late Precontact Period, ca. 1475-1525 |
| Cultures | Huron (Wendat) |
The Draper Site was an old village of the Huron-Wendat people. They lived there long before Europeans arrived in North America, around the late 1400s. This village was located near a creek in what is now Pickering, Ontario, about 35 kilometers northeast of Toronto. Today, you can find the site in a wooded area on farmland.
Contents
A Growing Village
The Huron community at the Draper Site grew a lot over about 30 years, starting around 1525. It expanded at least five times!
Life in the Village
At its biggest, the village had 35 longhouses. These large homes could hold up to 2,000 people. The village covered an area of four hectares, which is about the size of eight football fields. To protect themselves, the villagers built strong wooden walls called palisades around their settlement. These walls had many rows for extra safety. As the Draper Site grew, smaller villages nearby were left empty, and their people likely moved to the larger Draper community.
Moving to New Homes
After living at the Draper Site for more than a generation, the entire community moved. This happened in the late 1500s. They traveled about five kilometers northwest to start a new village.
The Mantle Site
Archaeologists have named this new settlement the Mantle Site. It is located in the southeast part of what is now Whitchurch-Stouffville. The Mantle Site is the largest ancestral Wendat village that archaeologists have ever dug up. For a while, people thought this community moved again around 1550 to create the Ratcliff Site and the Aurora Site. These sites are further northwest in Whitchurch-Stouffville. However, new studies in 2018 showed that the Mantle Site was active from 1587 to 1623.
Discovering the Past
The Draper Site was mostly untouched for hundreds of years. In 1975 and 1978, archaeologists carefully dug up the entire site.
Why Excavate?
This important archeological work was done to find and save artifacts and clues about the past. The site was going to be destroyed to build the Pickering Airport. By excavating, archaeologists could learn as much as possible before the land was changed forever.
