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Debbie Steiss is responsible for overseeing all aspects of administration, human
resources, finances, laboratory and collections management, and
information technology.
Debbie received her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology (1975) and her Master of
Arts in Anthropology (1979) from the University of Toronto. She also enrolled, in 1977,
in the Graduate Program at the University of Pittsburgh, before returning to the
University of Toronto to complete her graduate studies.
As a Senior Archaeologist, Ms. Steiss has been responsible for the supervision of
dozens of archaeological surveys and excavations, and she is an experienced lithic
analyst. She has participated in many of the company’s major assessments and excavations
over the last 20 years, including investigations at the Snake Hill and Peace Bridge
sites in Fort Erie, the Sheguiandah site on Manitoulin Island, the Myers Road site in
Cambridge, and the Iroquoian Antrex, Grandview, and Parsons sites, in Mississauga,
Oshawa and Toronto, respectively. Most recently, Debbie has served as a Field Director
for various surveys within the Greater Toronto Area and has analysed lithic collections
from numerous pre-contact Aboriginal sites including the Pickard site (5,000 B.C.), the
Peace Bridge site (2,000 B.C.- A.D.1650), the Holmedale site (A.D. 1,000), the Antrex
site (A.D. 1280), and the Colborne Street site (A.D. 500), to name a few.
Prior to joining ASI on a full-time basis in 1983, Ms. Steiss worked on excavation and
survey projects in Alberta, Texas, New Mexico, Italy, the Northwest Territories and
Ontario. In Ontario, she assisted in excavations at the Paleo-Indian Cummins site in
northern Ontario; she assisted in the excavations of six multi-component sites along the
Severn River, in the Hudson's Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario; she assisted in the
survey for Iroquoian sites in the Niagara Peninsula; she provided field assistance in
survey and excavation of Early Iroquoian sites near Markham, Ontario; she was responsible
for analysing artifact collections from the Late Iroquoian Thorold site in southwestern
Ontario and the Early Iroquoian Auda site in southeastern Ontario; and she was the
archaeological contractor for Parks Canada at Fort St. Joseph, Sault Ste. Marie,
responsible for administration and supervision of the crew. Debbie supervised public and
school participation in archaeological excavations at the Front Street site, for the
Foundation of Public Archaeology and also co-directed contract excavations and historic
documentation at the 1820 Rowland Burr House for the Richmond Hill Historical
Society.
Outside of Ontario, Ms. Steiss participated in survey for neolithic sites in southern
Italy, assisted in extensive excavations at the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, an early and
important stratified site in southwestern Pennsylvania; participated in cultural resource
assessments of sites in the McGregor Missile Range, New Mexico; in salvage excavations at
the Hopewell School site, Glen Rose, Texas; in test excavations of various sites in the
Crowsnest Valley, southwestern Alberta; and in the excavation of three Thule sites in
Coronation Gulf, Northwest Territories.
Ms. Steiss is interested in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and in the methods and
techniques of stone tool analysis. She is a co-author of a number of peer-reviewed
articles including, among others: “The Middle Archaic Occupation of the Niagara
Peninsula: Evidence from the Bell Site” (Ontario Archaeology); “Archaic Ancaster: The
Archaeology of the Meadowlands” (Preceramic Southern Ontario); and the debitage and
biface analysis sections in In the Shadow of the Bridge: The 1994-1996 Archaeological
Investigations of the Peace Bridge Site.
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