• food or medicinal plants (e.g., migratory routes, spawning areas, prairie);
• scarce raw materials (e.g., quartz, copper, ochre or outcrops of chert);
• early Euro-Canadian industry (e.g., fur trade, logging, prospecting, mining);

• areas of early 19th-century settlement. These include places of early military or pioneer settlement (e.g., pioneer homesteads, isolated cabins, farmstead complexes), early wharf or dock complexes, pioneer churches and early cemeteries. There may be commemorative markers of their history, such as local, provincial, or federal monuments or heritage parks.

• early historical transportation routes (e.g., trails, passes, roads, railways, portage routes);

• property listed on a municipal register or designated under the Ontario Heritage Act or that is a federal, provincial, or municipal historic landmark or site; and

• property that local histories or informants have identified with possible archaeological sites, historical events, activities or occupations.

  In Southern Ontario (south of the Canadian Shield), any lands within 300 m of any of the features listed above are considered to have potential for the discovery of archaeological resources.

  Typically, a Stage 1 assessment will determine potential for Indigenous and historic era sites independently. This is due to the fact that lifeways varied considerably during these eras so that criteria used to evaluate potential for each type of site also varies.

  It should be noted that some factors can also negate the potential for discovery of intact archaeological deposits. Subsection 1.3.2 of the 2011 Standards and Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists indicates that archaeological potential can be removed in instances where land has been subject to extensive and deep land alterations that have severely damaged the integrity of any archaeological resources. Major disturbances indicating removal of archaeological potential include, but are not limited to:

• quarrying;

• major landscaping involving grading below topsoil;

• building footprints; and

• sewage and infrastructure development.

  Some activities (agricultural cultivation, surface landscaping, installation of gravel trails, etc.) may result in minor alterations to the surface topsoil but do not necessarily affect or remove archaeological potential. It is not uncommon for archaeological sites, including structural foundations, subsurface features and burials, to be found intact beneath major surface features like roadways and parking lots.

Archaeological potential is, therefore, not removed in cases where there is a chance of deeply buried deposits, as in a developed or urban context or floodplain where modern features or alluvial soils can effectively cap and preserve archaeological resources.