South American Archaeology: The Paleo-Indian Period in the Northwest

The Paleo-Indian Period in the Northwest

Post-Clovis in the NW
1. End of Clovis also end of mega-fauna
  1. Still considered early period or paleo-Indian, or early archaic
  2. Projectile points leaf shaped and stemmed
  3. Much more regional variation than apparent with Clovis
  4. Believed to still be small groups of highly mobile people but maybe smaller foraging regions
2. Early sites rare on Washington Coast
  1. Surface finds
  2. Lots of geological change, isostatic rebound and earth quakes
  3. Lots of ground cover
  4. Less archaeological work
3. Farther north more sites recorded
  1. Very far north, "micro-blade cultures"
  2. No clear evidence for same age\cultures on lower NWC but still interesting because a few sites, of problematic age, have been found with microblades and cores
4. Bestinformation southern B.C., near mouth of the Fraser River
  1. Cobble tools and leaf shaped bifaces
5. More information on the Interior
  1. First and famous Lind Coulee Site
    1. Western most scablands, near Warden, WA
    2. Daugherty, 1947
    3. Excavating sites in future Pot Holes Reservoir
    4. Late period village sites
    5. Locals and CWU palentologists told him about site with old bones
      1. Artifacts on coulee floor
      2. Daugherty visited several weekends, checking coulee wall for 'in situ' artifacts
      3. Bone fragments and flakes only
        
        Bone identified as bison and "mastadon"
        
        Mastadon not mentioned in later reports, maybe not correctly identified in early reports
    6. 1948 & 1950 still digging at Pot Holes, still making week end visits to Lind Coulee
      1. Finally 1950
        
        Found base of stemmed point embedded in Coulee wall
        
        Deep in stratigraphic profile
        
        Few days later NPS archaeologists visiting Pot Holes (at that time NPS still did all federal archaeology)
        
        Daugherty took them to Lind Coulee
        
        Caywood found keeled scrapper "in situ"
        
        Gave permission for Daugherty to take crew to site for last 10 days of 1950 field season
        
        Turned out coulee was to be used as waste way for irrigation projects associated with Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects
        
        Team dug two deep trenches
        
        Found mineralized bone
        
        Chipped stone artifacts
        
        At this time the generally accepted view was that people had been in the Plateau for about 2500 years only so prospect of earlier site was very exciting
    7. Daugherty got grants to do significant excavating in 1951-1952
      1. Laid out grid system
      2. Tested enough to determine extent of sterile "over-burden"
      3. Then used bull dozer to remove top 10-12 feet of sediment
      4. Hand excavated >600 cubic yards
      5. Found 186 artifacts
        
        Stemmed projectile points
        
        Crescents, more common Great Basin pluvial lakes
        
        Serrated bone point
      6. Bison remains
      7. Interpreted site as single cultural level
      8. Ran some of the first carbon dates ever performed results 8,700 +/1400 years BP
    8. 1970s renewed interest in Lind Coulee
      1. Other old sites found by then (especially Marmes)
      2. New approaches
        
        Interdisciplinary
        
        Fine resolution excavation techniques
      3. Also Coulee was wet again (first time sine age of site) because of irrigation run off and folks were worried about the stability of the site
      4. WSU got funding to do more excavations at the site in 1972-1974
        
        Ann Irwin and Ula Moody
        
        Especially interested in geoarchaeology and zooarchaeology
        
        Aimed at fine tuning analysis of natural and cultural depositional history
        
        Number of occupations
        
        Environment at time of occupation
        
        Age of deposits
        
        Some of the first use of computer mapping technology and super fine mesh water screening
        
        Results
        
        Found three different tephras
        
        Mazama 7-8 KYA
        
        St. Helens J 8-12 KYA
        
        St. Helens S 12-18 KYA
        
        Cultural material located in levels w/ St. Helens J
        
        Analysis of microstratigraphy suggested site was used for 100-150 years
        
        Faunal studies determined
        
        Bison and elk were butchered at the site
        
        Near term fetal, new born, and adult remains, so spring kill, probably near by
        
        No caudal vertebrae (tails), so hides probably taken away from site
        
        MNI ten adult bison
        
        Artifacts
        
        More stemmed points and flakes representing final stages of manufacturing only
        
        No crescents
        
        Fine mesh water screening led to recovery of bone needles and beads, including pieces representing all stages of manufacturing
        
        Interpreted site as meat and bone processing site
  2. Other famous site, Marmes site
    1. Located just upstream of mouth of the Palouse river
    2. Daugherty excavating Palus village at mouth in 1964
      1. Decided too disturbed so took students to excavate in rock shelters up canyon below falls
      2. At Marmes stratigraphic evidence suggested many periods of use
        
        Upper levels
        
        Quite a few burials
        
        More recent style of notched points
        
        Storage pits
        
        Lowest levels found
        
        Stemmed and leaf shaped points
        
        Bola stones
        
        Edge ground cobbles
        
        Bone awls and needles
        
        Olivella shell beads
        
        Fire hearths
    3. After 1964 moved on to other sites
    4. 1965 Roald Fryxell, interested in history of river deposits and so had a dozer trench dug in front of the rock shelter
      1. Fourteen feet deep
      2. At bottom found concentration of charred bone fragments
      3. Took back to WSU for Gustrafson to identify
      4. Elk and human!
        
        Because of depth, potentially very old, but question of in situ or bull dozer moved?
    5. For next two years went back to trench on weekends with students to look for evidence in situ in trench wall
    6. Finally found some below a level that had been carbon dated to 9 KYA but above Glacier Peak ash, dated at 11.25 KYA
      1. Evidence was human remains, oldest in North America at that time
    7. Only eight months before the reservoir was scheduled to be filed
    8. BIG news event
    9. Emergency funds authorized to excavate site
    10. Worked both in deeper than earlier excavations in rock shelter and floodplain outside rock shelter
    11. In rockshelter found
      1. Cremation feature
      2. Charcoal
      3. Fire ash
      4. Fresh water mussel shell
      5. Mammal bones
      6. Broken (very small) and burned human bone
      7. Large biface
    12. On floodplain found
      1. More highly fragmented human bone
      2. Mammal bones, especially elk, 10% larger than modern elk
      3. Stone tools
      4. Owl claw with flakes
      5. Used fine mesh water screen (like at Lind Coulee)
    13. Time was running out. LBJ signed executive order to build coffer dam to protect site
      1. It failed, water leaked underneath through old gravels
      2. Big embarrassment for USACE
      3. Draped entire site with plastic and covered with white sand
      4. Now covered with plastic, sand, and deep still water. Good protection, less erosion than other parts of reservoir
  3. Marmes, and other sites, important to definition of Windust Phase; 10-9 KYA, (Leonhardy and Rice 1970)
    1. Artifacts
      1. Windust points (stemmed)
      2. Relatively crudely made large lanceolate or knives
      3. Large, poorly defined end scrapers, occur but rare
      4. Burins, occur but rare
      5. Cobble tools with large scraping places
      6. Unifacial and bifacial cobble tools
      7. Well developed flake tool technology
      8. Utilized spalls
      9. Bone tools are rare but include: needles, atlatl spurs, tips of awl like implements
      10. Fragments of bone "shafts"
      11. No artifacts associated with plant food processing
    2. Associated fauna
      1. Elk
      2. Deer
      3. Antelope
      4. Rabbits
      5. Beaver
      6. River mussels