Ronald F. Williamson, PhD, CAPHC: Chief Archaeologist & Managing Partner, Manager of the Special Project and Planning Act Assessment (Greater Toronto Area) Divisions
Ronald F. Williamson is an archaeologist with over 30 years of field and administrative experience. He holds an Honours BA from the University of Western Ontario and MA and PhD from McGill University, all in Anthropology. In 1980, he founded ASI and has since directed over a thousand archaeological assessment, excavation, and planning projects throughout the Northeast.
In 1987, he directed an international team of scholars in the exhumation and analysis of twenty-eight American soldiers who died near Old Fort Erie during the War of 1812. These remains were eventually repatriated to the United States. This project resulted in the publication, by Dundurn Press, of both a scholarly volume entitled Snake Hill: An Investigation of a Military Cemetery from the War of 1812 (1991), which Ron co-authored and co-edited, and a more popular account of the investigation called Death at Snake Hill: Secrets from a War of 1812 Cemetery (1993). The latter volume, also co-authored by Ron, was selected as the third volume of the Local History Series of the Ontario Heritage Foundation. He has also directed excavations at the complex 80 acre Peace Bridge site in Fort Erie over the past ten years. That work resulted in the publication of a scholarly technical volume entitled In the Shadow of the Bridge: The 1994-1996 Investigations of the Peace Bridge Site and a more popular account, published by eastendbooks of Toronto called Legacy of Stone: Ancient Life on the Niagara Frontier, co-authored with Robert MacDonald. The latter volume was awarded the Ontario Archaeological Society Peggy Armstrong Public Archaeology award in 1998. In 1999, he co-edited, with Christopher Watts, the proceedings of the 1997 joint Ontario Archaeological Society/Midwest Archaeological Conference entitled Taming the Taxonomy: Toward a New Understanding of Great Lakes Archaeology, published by eastendbooks in Toronto. In 2001, he co-authored with Frank Dieterman the book Government on Fire: The History and Archaeology of Upper Canada’s First Parliament Buildings, which was also published by eastenbooks of Toronto and, in 2004, he and Susan Pfeiffer of the University of Toronto co-edited Bones of the Ancestors: The Archaeology and Osteobiography of the Moatfield Ossuary, which was published by the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Most recently, he co-edited with Michael Bisson The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger : Theoretical Empiricism, a volume honouring the work of one of the 20th Century's greatest anthropologists, published by McGill-Queens University Press. He is currently writing an illustrated history of Toronto that encompasses the first ten thousand years of people in the city. His other publications include chapters in numerous edited volumes and dozens of articles in Canadian and American scholarly journals.
Dr. Williamson is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and is an Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty. He is also a former President of the Canadian Association of Professional Heritage Consultants, a national organization dedicated to furthering the cause of heritage resources conservation and excellence in heritage consultation. He has also been involved in several senior level policy development activities with the Province of Ontario, most recently with revisions to the Planning Act and Stage 1-4 guidelines for archaeologists. He has also made major contributions to the review of the Ontario Heritage Act, the provision of guidelines for the planning and conservation of heritage resources in Timber Management Plans in Northern Ontario, and the development of regulations to accompany the revised Cemeteries Act with respect to the recognition and protection of heritage interests in the procedures involved in unmarked grave situations. He served on the National Aboriginal Heritage Committee of the Canadian Archaeological Association, for three years, and co-chaired the Ontario Provincial sub-committee with Sylvia Thompson of the Chiefs of Ontario