The Archaeological Master Plan has four major goals:
1) the compilation of detailed, reliable inventories of registered and unregistered archaeological sites within the City;
Three 2500 year-old flint spearheads were found at an archaeological site on the Eglinton Flats - one of 172 registered sites in the City of Toronto.
2) the preparation of a thematic overview of the City's settlement history as it relates to the potential occurrence of additional pre-and post-contact archaeological resources;
3) the development of an archaeological site potential model, based on known site locations, past and present land uses, environmental and cultural-historical data, and assessment of the likelihood for survival of archaeological resources in various urban contexts and assessment.
4) the provision of recommendations concerning the preparation of archaeological resource conservation and management guidelines for the City.
The study began with a comprehensive review of archaeological conservation policies in major cities around the world focusing on Europe, Asia and North America. The resultant design for this study represents one of the most effective approaches to archaeological resource conservation currently employed by a major city anywhere in the world.
Click here to read the interim report.
The study is now in its third year and has resulted in the successful implementation of interim screening criteria throughout the City, to aid planners in the selection of development proposals for pre-development assessments, as well as the completion of final detailed modeling for over a third of the City.
Example of interim screening map used to define planning applications required to undertake archaeological assessment in advance of development.