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Abstract
This study presents a population history of the Huron-Petun, Iroquoian-speaking agriculturalists who occupied south-central Ontario from A.D. 900 to A.D. 1650. Temporal change in the number, size, and residential density of prehistoric and contact village sites of the Huron-Petun are used to delineate population change. It is revealed that Huron-Petun population grew dramatically during the fourteenth century, attaining a maximum size of approximately 30,000 in the middle of the fifteenth century. This growth appears to have been intrinsic (1.2% per annum) and is best explained by colonization of new lands and increased production and consumption of corn. Population stabilized during the fifteenth century primarily because of an increased burden of density-dependent diseases (tuberculosis) arising from life in large nucleated villages. Huron-Petun population remained at 30,000 until A.D. 1634; there is no archaeological evidence for protohistoric epidemics of European origin. The historic depopulation of the Huron-Petun country, resulting from catastrophic first encounters with European diseases between 1634 and 1640, is substantiated by archaeological data.
