Abstract

This paper presents a broad overview of environmental change and its relevance to the archaeological record in the southern basin of a former glacial lake in southwestern Manitoba. Plant microfossils, macrofossils, and geomorphological data indicate that, throughout the Holocene, the ecological history of this area represents the complex interaction between both large-and small-scale natural processes (e.g., climatic trends, sand sheet mobilization and dune formation, aquifer hydrology, etc.). The postglacial thermal maximum, for example, is shown to have a more complicated effect on the timing of grassland colonization in the basin in comparison to the surrounding uplands of the Manitoba Escarpment. Understanding the character of small-scale ecosystem variation provides a means of accounting for the timing of McKean occupations in this area.