Online Activities: Iroquoian Longhouse
About 500 years ago, Ontario Iroquoian peoples lived in longhouses in palisaded villages. We have written accounts of life in longhouses from Europeans, such as French explorers and missionaries, who visited Ontario and lived with the Iroquois after 1615 (almost 400 years ago). Although the letters and diaries written by explorers and missionaries give us some information about life in Ontario for Iroquoians, they do not give us a very detailed description. For more information about life in Ontario in the 1600s, the work of archaeologists must be used.
This painting is an artist's conception of what an Iroquoian village would have looked like about 500 years ago (before contact with European explorers). It is based on information uncovered by archaeological excavations, and advice from an archaeologist at the Royal Ontario Museum. The village is located on a high plateau of land surrounded on three sides by a river.
Explore the Village
- What is a longhouse?
- Why were villages built on plateaus?
- What is a palisade?
- How are sites found by archaeologists?
- Where were the corn fields?
- Why were villages built near water?
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