South American Archaeology: The Late Prehistoric Period in the Northwest

The Late Prehistoric Period in the Northwest

The Late Period on the NWC, 2,000-200 years ago
1. Ames and Maschner "Late Pacific Period"
  1. Cultures similar to those encountered by early explorers
    1. But not 2,000 of cultural "stasis"
      1. Changes in mortuary practices
        
        From midden burials to elaborate, above ground structures, cremations, and/or burials in specifically designated places—cemeteries
        
        Slaves thrown into sea or middens, no intentional burial
      2. Increased warfare, especially northern NWC
      3. Rise of slavery
      4. Rise of "elite" class
      5. Big houses
        
        Lower Columbia houses excavated by Ames may have held as many as 100 people
        
        Year round occupation
      6. Shell middens large and continuous
      7. Processing and storage of large amounts of food
      8. Explosion in number and variety of wood working tools, many elaborately decorated
2. Quite a few sites of this period on the coast of Washington and Oregon
  1. Several thoroughly studied and reported
    1. San Juan Islands
    2. Ozette
    3. West Point in Seattle
  2. San Juan sites
    1. National Historical Park
      1. Historic site associated with Pig War
      2. Prehistoric sites, Cattle Point and English Camp
    2. Cattle Point
      1. Excavated by UW 1946-1948
    3. English Camp
      1. Historic site component excavated U Idaho 1070-1972
      2. Prehistoric site component excavated UW (Stein) 1983-1991
  3. Cattle Point
    1. Sandy/gravel ridge above beach
      1. Site located away from beach, beaches of that time maybe under water now
    2. Three natural springs near by
    3. Open/shrubby
    4. Includes component older than prehistoric component at English camp
      1. "Cascade" materials 9-4.5 KYA
      2. No shell midden
      3. Terrestrial mammals dominate faunal assemblage
      4. Didn't rely on marine resources?
        
        Parts of site that reflect use of marine resources submerged?
    5. 4.5-2.5 KYA occupation (Lacarno Beach Phase)
      1. Shell midden
      2. Small stemmed points
      3. Slate knives
      4. Shell dated in 1974—2.5-2.3 KYA
      5. This part of the site is located near shoreline
      6. Increase in number of wood working tools
        
        Douglas fir and western red cedar forests getting established, absent in earlier pollen records
    6. 2.5-1.5 KYA occupation (Marpole Phase)
      1. Increase in number and variety of wood working tools
        
        Elaborately decorated
        
        Includes weaving tools
        
        Mountain goat and dog hair
      2. Plank houses
        
        Year round occupation
        
        Increased population
      3. Triangular points
    7. 1.5 KYA to historic times (San Juan Phase)
      1. Lots of shell, processed in large quantities for storage and trade
        
        Early emphasis on mussels
        
        Later added clams, scallops, oysters
      2. Fewer artifacts, especially chipped stone
      3. Net weights suggest possible reef fishing for salmon
  4. English Camp

Class reading and discussion:
Stein, Julie
2000 Exploring Coast Salish Prehistory: The Archaeology of San Juan Island. University of Washington Press, Seattle.

The book is small with lots of illustrations. It was prepared by Stein for the National Park Service and is intended for a general, but not unsophisticated audience. There is enough description for the students to find parts rather boring to read but Stein also presents interpretations that were interesting and provocative enough that they found themselves going back to the boring description to see if they agreed with her. The book is broken into sections that deal with the history of the site, the artifacts, the sediments, and so forth. In addition to everyone reading the book one, or in some cases two, students were assigned chapters to report on to the class. They did not have to prepare a written report and there was no grade other than participation versus no participation. I did not want to grade on quality of participation because for many students this was their first time doing this kind of thing and I wanted them to gain confidence from the experience by just doing it without the worry of how well I might think they did. As it turned out, I was delighted with everyone's interest and participation. This was a nice break from me lecturing. The reporting and discussion took two class periods.

Ozette, films
West Point, video

The films and video took three days to view. I gave a bit of background information before and made a few comments after each of the films. Following the reading and discussion assignments we all enjoyed just relaxing and taking in the beautiful footage. The West Point video was particularly good at reinforcing many of the cultural historical period characterizations discussed earlier. We did not go into much discussion of Ozette at this time because it is revisited later in the course when we talk about the archaeological study of houses.

The late period in the Interior
1. Variety of site types
  1. Large villages
  2. Cemeteries
  3. Storage caves
  4. Field camps
    1. Hunting camps
    2. Root digging camps
    3. Quarry sites
2. Few large villages excavated
  1. Bias toward early period sites
    1. Some assumption that late period was like ethnographic period so no need to excavate
  2. Bias toward sites with long cultural historical sequences, like caves/rock shelters
  3. Large village sites most often severely disturbed
    1. Same locations as modern towns
    2. Lots and lots of looting
3. In Leonhardy and Rice cultural historical sequence
  1. Harder Phase 2.5 KYA-AD 1300
    1. Defined two sub-phases
      1. Based on settlement and artifact types
        
        Earlier sub-phase characterized by
        
        Camp sites
        
        Large basally notched and corner notched points
        
        Later sub-phase characterized by
        
        Pit house villages
        
        Presumed to be associated with change in social organization
        
        Large basally notched points become relatively rare, small finely made basal and corner notched points become common
    2. Timing of the end of the first sub-phases and the beginning of the second sub-phases is unclear, villages in place circa A.D. 1,000
    3. Earlier tool forms that continue
      1. Chipped stone knives
      2. Scrapers forms
      3. Hopper mortars
      4. Pestles
      5. Net weights
      6. Bone awls
      7. Bone matting needles
      8. Bone and elk tooth (including imitation) beads
      9. Bone and stone pendants
    4. Large scale food processing and storage indicated by
      1. Faunal remains
      2. Storage features
  2. Piqunin Phase
    1. Problematic phase
      1. Leonhardy and Rice later retracted but some folks think it is valid
    2. Characterized by small, delicate corner and basally notched projectile points (often called "bird points")
    3. Utilized flakes very abundant
    4. Other artifact types of the Harder Phase continue
4. Most complete study of the late period on the lower Snake, Strawberry Island, near confluence of Snake and Columbia rivers in the center ie. hottest and driest part of the basin.
  1. Recorded by 1947 River Basin Survey
  2. Mapped and tested 1952, also RBS
  3. Mid-1970s erosion related to reservoir action led to major excavations 1976-1979 by WSU
    1. Now in the midst of the "New Archaeology" more problem than culture history oriented. Work led by Randall Schalk, Binford student
    2. Specifically interested in expanding understanding of the Late Period
      1. Extant model was "static" ethnographic Plateau Pattern that was generally accepted without much empirical data
  4. Site was large village
    1. Greater than 100 house pit depressions
    2. Wide range of size in visible surface depressions
    3. Arrangement of surface depressions was not necessarily a feature of the shape of the landform, ie. the island
    4. Traditionally a large number of house pits was interpreted as a result of accumulation by many different occupations
      1. If this were true a scattered pattern of depressions would seem most likely
      2. But, if the depressions have an apparently patterned distribution, co-evil occupation is suggested
  5. Site was badly disturbed
    1. Lower end farmed until 1940s
    2. Upped end never cultivated
      1. Also minimal vehicle disturbances, which in dry climate of the area are very long lasting
  6. Two major clusters of house pit depressions
    1. One at either side of the up-river end of the island
    2. Few surface artifacts
    3. 1951 mapping showed 131 house pits, 1976 mapping showed 133 house pits, pretty good correlation number and location
    4. Similar results from analysis of old and new aerial photos
    5. Housepit depression spacing
      1. Right bank
        
        Sub-clusters of 4-10 pits
        
        Three sub-clusters with circular arrangements
        
        sub-cluster with rectangular arrangement with two central house pit depressions
        
        Depressions relatively closely packed
      2. Left bank
        
        Minimal indication of sub-clusters
        
        Less densely packed
    6. House pit depression size
      1. Right bank
        
        Large, small, and very small
        
        Average 36 square meters
      2. Left bank
        
        Very large
        
        Average 50 square meters
        
        No very small depressions
        
        Largest depression of all of center of left bank cluster
  7. Excavation strategies
    1. Focused work on housepits depressions being eroded
      1. 1976
        
        Large block excavations
        
        Three depressions started
        
        Non-housepit depression areas tested
      2. 1977
        
        Three houses started in 1976 were finished
        
        Fourth begun
        
        Most of the house dates came back 600-200 years old
        
        One steep sided house dated 1.4 KYA
      3. 1978
        
        One meter wide trenches dug across 8 housepit depressions
        
        Focused on digging variety of types of depressions
        
        Qualities of variation studied
        
        Size 2-16 meters in diameter, three classes defined
        
        1-3.5m diameter
        
        3.5-6m diameter
        
        Greater than 6m diameter
        
        Shape
        
        Circular
        
        Elliptical
        
        Location, ie. side of island
      4. 1979
        
        Many small, systematically spaced excavation units
        
        To determine site boundaries
        
        To test non-house areas more
  8. Results
    1. Left bank
      1. Saucer shaped floors
      2. Pronghorn and rabbit dominated faunal assemblages
    2. Right bank
      1. Steep walled depressions
      2. Salmon dominated faunal assemblages
    3. Pollen record suggested drought 1000-600 years ago
  9. Interpretations
    1. Native grasses stressed during drought reducing forage
    2. Pronghorn more drought tolerant than deer/elk/bison which are more common at other sites at other times and in higher elevation locations (remember site is in bottom of basin)
    3. Population may have been increasing, and congregating before drought in region generally but drought brought people to best local location
    4. Diffrent house/faunal assemblage styles may indicate two different intervals of occupation
      1. Dates not precise enough to separate