North American - Basin Plateau (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (58 Records)
We describe a digital 3D geometric morphometry approach that employs GIS-based routines to extract information about the form of Western Stemmed Tradition projectile points from sites located in the Columbia River Plateau of the Pacific Northwest. These data are used to describe a number of novel morphometric measures and to compare the design characteristics of regional early stemmed projectile points. We explore issues of artifact use, rejuvenation and repair and how these aspects can be...
The American Falls obsidian source: near, far, or unknown? (2015)
Harris’ 2011 Master’s thesis sourced obsidian artifacts from the Kyle Canyon Spring site (10-BT-8). Obsidian source characterization suggested a large circulation range for the prehistoric people using site 10-BT-8, with strong emphasis placed on the American Falls obsidian source. This result was unexpected, given that it is 120km from 10-BT-8 and a nearer, arguably higher quality obsidian source is only 50km away. In my thesis, I concluded that the people occupying 10-BT-8 over the last 3,000...
Archaeological recovery associated with the Wanapum Dam emergency drawdown, central Washington State. (2016)
In spring 2014, a 60-foot crack was discovered in the Wanapum Dam, a large hydroelectric dam on the mainstream Columbia River. In order to avoid catastrophic failure of the dam the reservoir it impounded was drawn down 26 feet. As a run-of-the-river dam, a complete drawdown is not normally planned, and more than 4500 acres of inundated landscape was exposed for the first time in more than 50 years. Under normal operating conditions, around 1400 archaeological sites are known to exist along the...
Assessing Testing Programs and Strategies for Section 106 Determinations of Eligibility: U.S. Army Yakima Training Center, WA. (2016)
The U.S. Army Yakima Training Center (YTC) contains over 1,300 archaeological sites. Thirty years of inventory and archaeological testing have produced a significant body of archaeological reports and databases. Two university programs, several CRM firms, and now the Wanapum Band and Yakama Nation are working with the U.S. Army, studying and protecting the unique natural and cultural landscapes of the Yakima Uplands within the YTC. Synthesis of this work for the purpose of archaeological...
A Biface Cache from Paradise Springs, Central Mojave Desert (2015)
A cache of eight pressure-flaked bifaces, including two Humboldt Basal-Notched knives of Coso obsidian and six, chert, dart-point performs, was found at Paradise Springs, south of Fort Irwin in the Central Mojave Desert. Hydration rinds on the two Humboldt bifaces indicate that the cache dates to about 1400 cal BP. The function of the cache within its social context, the special role of the Humboldt Basal-Notched knife, and the persistence of the altatl and dart into bow and arrow times are...
Class and reproductive control: birth control access and hygiene among prostitutes in turn of the century northern Idaho (2017)
Excavations of two brothels in the northern Idaho town of Sandpoint presented a unique opportunity to explore the nuances of economic differences in the lives of two groups of prostitutes. Over 100,000 artifacts were recovered, providing a rich accounting of a brothel that catered to local mill workers and a brothel whose clientele was more affluent. Further, such a large volume of materials resulted in the recovery of relatively esoteric materials such as douching nozzles and a variety of...
Collaboration and Partnership: The Columbia Plateau Inter-Tribal Repatriation Group (2016)
The Columbia Plateau Inter-Tribal Repatriation Group consists of the tribes and bands in the Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. The Colville, Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce, and the Wanapum Band of Priest Rapids have come together to undertake the repatriation of human remains and funerary objects from the Columbia Plateau. The Plateau tribes have an inherent responsibility under their religious beliefs and practices to care for the ancestors buried within their homeland....
A Comparison of the Lithic Assemblages from the Shavano Springs site (5MN40) and Christmas Rock Shelter (5DT2), Western Colorado (2017)
Archaeologists have long struggled to identify archaeological material diagnostic of prehistoric and protohistoric Ute occupation in the Rocky Mountains and surrounding areas. Despite continued efforts, researchers continue to rely principally on William Buckles’ (1971) seminal work examining Ute cultural continuity on the Uncompahgre Plateau of western Colorado. My research expands on Buckles’ 45 year-old dissertation by re-examining two excavated sites from his project: the open occupation...
Controlling for Carnivores and Shaft Fragmentation in Skeletal Element Analysis: Some Insights from Southern Idaho Cave Deposits (2015)
Although caves are often excellent for organic preservation, they also attract carnivores and introduce the potential for rock fall. Carnivores systematically remove spongy long bone ends from assemblages, while experimental studies have shown that rock fall can fragment dense long bone shafts. As a result, these processes may bias faunal assemblages in opposing directions. This has implications for the interpretation of correlations between bone density and skeletal element frequencies in...
Depositional Circumstances of Three Paleoindian Sites Along Lima Reservoir, Montana (2015)
Wave action along the Lima Reservoir in Centennial Valley, Montana has exposed three adjacent Paleoindian sites along the north shore cutbank. While these sites date to the same period and are near each other (within 1.5 miles), they possess markedly different geologic contexts. The westernmost site, 24BE43, is a surface scatter resting on an old soil with a very well-developed Btk horizon. The eastern site, 24BE52, is also a surface manifestation but it sits on a very thin soil capping what...
EA-IRMS and the isotope ecology from faunal remains at the Slocan Narrows site, Upper Columbia River area, interior Pacific Northwest (2017)
Isotope ecological signatures can add to the overall understanding of terrestrial and aquatic species’ diets that are present at an archaeological site. In this paper we analyze fauna specimens from across the breadth of species found at the Slocan Narrows site, an aboriginal pithouse village occupied from 3,100 cal BP to the late 18th century in the Upper Columbia River area of the interior Pacific Northwest. We utilize EA-IRMS to measure δN, δC, and δO isotope ratios to obtain an...
Embedded Activities: Preliminary Analysis of Landscape Use and Mobility Patterns in Colorado National Monument (2015)
Ongoing archaeological survey of Colorado National Monument, located on the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau, reveals that much of the area is a continuous landscape of non-discrete lithic scatters with light to dense concentrations of artifacts. The ephemerality of many of the sites, coupled with their lack of distinct boundaries, poses a challenge for understanding landscape use and mobility patterns of the hunting and gathering people who utilized the area. To circumvent this issue we...
Engendering the Archaeological Record of the Southern Plateau, Northwestern North America (2016)
Within the last 30 years, researchers have made considerable advances in the effort to engender the archaeological record in areas of northwestern North America. Despite these developments, archaeological considerations of gender in the southern Plateau remain markedly sparse; rather, studies in the region tend to focus on human-environmental interactions and subsistence, settlement, and technological systems. This study aims to address the relative scarcity of explicit and systematic approaches...
Experimental Maize Farming in Range Creek Canyon, Utah (2016)
This paper examines the economic trade-offs between dry farming maize vs. maize farming using simple surface irrigation for Fremont farmers occupying Range Creek Canyon, Utah, from AD 900 to 1200. A maize farming experiment was conducted focusing on changes in edible grain yield as irrigation water was varied between farm plots. The benefits of irrigation were clear; higher yields. Experiments designed to construct irrigation ditches and dams, using only technology available to the Fremont,...
Facade CRM: Protecting the Resource with Words Rather than Actions (2016)
In 1983, Tom King noted ethical responsibilities of American archaeologists to six entities could be in conflict. A 1997 SAA workshop concluded that "stewardship" should be the "core or foundation" of all ethical principles, and recognized the broad socio-political context of modern archaeology. This context has resulted in facade CRM—statements by federal land-holding agencies that they are the stewards of the archaeological record, yet that record is knowingly destroyed by the agency and...
Faunal Analysis of the Mesa 12 Site, Central Columbia Basin (2017)
From 1973-1975, William C. Smith of Central Washington State College led the "Mesa Project" excavating four sites on the Columbia Plateau in Grant County, Washington. These mesas are small isolated basalt buttes, 100 or more feet above the surrounding scabland channels, with cultural materials on the top and base. They are hypothesized to be defensive sites. Faunal material recovered from these sites has been in storage unanalyzed for over 40 years. The largest excavation was at Mesa 12 where 33...
Faunal Analysis of Two Columbia River House Feature Sites: Hole-in-the-Wall-Canyon (45KT12) and French Rapids (45KT13) (2017)
As part of ongoing thesis work, a taxonomic and taphonomic faunal analysis was completed for the zooarchaeological collections (n≈5,000) of two house feature sites, Hole-in-the-Wall Canyon (45KT12) and French Rapids (45KT13). Both sites are located near Vantage, Washington, within the inundated area of the Wanapum Reservoir, and date ca. 2400 – 200 B.P. Originally excavated as part of large scale archaeological salvage work prior to dam construction in the summers of 1961-62, the fauna was never...
Fetching Firewood: Access to fuels as a constraint for prehistoric settlement (2015)
In arid, topographically variable desert environments, resources important to humans are typically distributed heterogeneously. This variability required prehistoric humans to evaluate trade-offs over accessing spatially distinct patches. A potentially important and largely unexplored resource in these trade-offs is firewood. This work examines the distribution of archaeological sites along the watershed of the Dolores River of southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. With new archaeological...
Forensic Materials Science Applications in Archaeology (2017)
Forensic science and archaeology share many similarities in laboratory and field methods that are deeply rooted in geology, chemistry and biology. Questions addressed in forensic science contexts often include item/material identification and provenance, rarity (probative value), comparative examination for sourcing purposes, and accurate scene reconstruction. This paper will examine actual forensic cases and their archaeological analogs in order to demonstrate how current forensic analyses may...
Form and Function: Projectile Point Morphology and Associated Faunal Remains at Four Eastern Great Basin Cave Sites. (2017)
Spatial and temporal patterning of projectile point morphology continues to be a well discussed topic within the Great Basin. However, despite this attention, little progress has been made addressing the functional attributes of projectile points beyond the simple atlatl vs. bow dichotomy. Stratified cave sites offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between hunting technology and prey choice through the analysis of projectile point characteristics and contemporaneously deposited...
Founding House, Neighborhood, Village: Hunter-Gatherer Social Complexity at the Slocan Narrows Site, Upper Columbia River Area, Interior Pacific Northwest, North America (2017)
The Slocan Narrows site is a prehistoric pithouse village aggregation on the Slocan River, a tributary of the Upper Columbia River in the interior Pacific Northwest, North America. 14C dating of housepit deposits have revealed a complex occupational history, likely reflecting fluctuating demographic and habitation cycles beginning ca. 3100 cal BP continuing to approximately contact in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. Slocan Narrows was occupied through three millennia characterized by...
Gear Selectivity and Mass Harvested Minnows: Evidence from the Northern Great Basin (2016)
Madsen and Schmitt’s seminal 1998 article challenged the assumption that small animals and fish in archaeological assemblages of the Great Basin provides evidence for diminished foraging efficiency. Energetic return rates for density dependent species instead may be a function of harvesting technique. The Northern Paiute of the Great Basin exploited seasonally aggregated tui chub minnows (Gila bicolor) using gill nets, seines and scoops. This study presents a simulated mass harvesting experiment...
Great Basin Incised Stones and the Shoshonean World (2017)
More than 1500 incised stones have been documented from the Great Basin. By defining object itineraries of individual artifacts, it is possible to animate the archaeology from static to active by emphasizing motion and interaction, fragmentation and accumulation. Tracing both provenience and provenance, we can learn how these objects moved through time and space, intertwining with people and places. It is possible to craft a cartography sufficiently powerful to tease out an underlying, basic,...
Haskett Biface-Point Production and Occupation of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Great Basin at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary (2015)
The Sentinel Gap site (Washington) lithic assemblage documents the sequential production of bifaces and projectile points stylistically associated with the Haskett type. Lithic workshop debris analysis identifies patterns in the reduction trajectory of large cores into bifaces and lanceolate projectile point/knives. An average of 10.2 ka B.P. for six radiocarbon dates place short term Sentinel Gap site occupation at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Stylistic and technological evidence...
Idaho's Radiocarbon Record and the Challenges of Chronometric Hygiene (2015)
Idaho’s position as a hub adjoining several culture areas gives its radiocarbon chronology more than local interest. The record of late Pleistocene and Holocene radiometric dates extends back more than fifty years and includes at least 800 known or reported assays, not all of which are on file at the Archaeological Survey of Idaho. As of mid-2014 more than 650 dates were available from 184 sites distributed across all ten of the Level 3 ecoregions intercepted by the state’s border. Not...