Western Stemmed Tradition (Other Keyword)
1-17 (17 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...
Analysis of Western Stemmed Tradition Stone Tool Patterns and Faunal Remains from Pit Feature 95 at the Cooper’s Ferry Site (10IH73), Idaho (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology from Western North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigations at the Cooper’s Ferry site (10IH73) reveal unique insights about the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST). Previous studies at the site presented information on WST pit cache features; here specifically, I present a study of Feature 95 (F95), which provides an archaeological snapshot of site occupation at ~9679 ± 33 BP (11,190–11,093 cal...
Bear Creek (45KI839) Data Recovery Investigation and the Paleoarchaic Settlement of the South Salish Sea during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (2017)
The Bear Creek site (45KI839) in Washington State’s central Puget lowland is among the earliest lithic artifact-bearing, professionally excavated archaeological sites on the Pacific coast between Haida Gwaii and the Santa Barbara Channel. Data recovery excavations in 2013 provided an unprecedented view of Native American settlement in a rapidly changing coastal lowland setting during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene (LPH) transition. We summarize the results of these excavations and attendant...
Bear Creek and the Pacific Northwest Western Stemmed Tradition (2017)
The lithic assemblage from Bear Creek (45KI839), a late Pleistocene-early Holocene site in King County, Washington, is representative of the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST), likely the oldest lithic tradition in most areas west of the Rocky Mountains. It is followed in the Pacific Northwest by the Olcott Tradition. Although some argue that Olcott represents an intrusion from Alaska, archaeological evidence supports in situ development from the WST. In the Great Basin the WST is biface oriented,...
Dating the Western Stemmed Tradition in the Northern Great Basin (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent University of Oregon investigations at the Paisley and Connley Caves have resulted in 300+ radiocarbon ages including coprolites with human DNA. Earliest human occupations have been established at the Paisley Caves by stone tool cut marks on bone dated to 12,380 ± 70 14C yr B.P. Western Stemmed...
The Emerging Picture of Human Occupation at the Cooper's Ferry Site During the Bølling-Allerød Interstadial (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological excavations conducted from 2009-2018 at the Cooper's Ferry site in west-central Idaho revealed a long record of repeated human occupation encompassing the late Pleistocene to early Holocene periods. Lithostratigraphic unit 3 (LU3) is a loess deposit found near the bottom of the site that...
Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Occupations on the Sierra Army Depot in Honey Lake Valley, California (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological testing at three sites on the Sierra Army Depot in Honey Lake Valley recovered several Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene artifacts. Obsidian hydration rim measurements on tools and debitage display remarkably thick hydration rinds (~9.0-11.0 microns) and confirm very early occupations. Results of X-ray fluorescence sourcing reveal a...
Lithic Technologies and Faunal Remains From a Terminal Pleistocene Pit Feature at Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology from Western North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A new study at the Cooper’s Ferry site (10IH73) located in west central Idaho focuses on the contents of pit feature 110 of Area B. Feature 110 (F110) has been dated between ~9938 ± 36 BP (11,352–11,264 cal BP) and ~9867 ± 36 BP (11,278–11,223 cal BP) and contains WST points, debitage, and faunal remains. Notably, the F110 faunal record includes a...
Microarchaeological Approaches to the Identification of the Younger Dryas in the Northern Great Basin (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Far West Paleoindian Archaeology: Papers from the Next Generation" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC) is a cooling event occurring 12,900–11,600 years ago (cal BP) marked by rapid changes in plant and animal communities, subsequently affecting late Pleistocene human population organization and settlement dynamics across the globe. In North America’s Northern Great Basin, these changes...
New Caches from Area B at the Cooper’s Ferry Site, Idaho, Reveal Key Technological Insights and Extend the Age of Stemmed Points in the Americas (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Late Pleistocene Stemmed Points across North America: Continental Questions and Regional Concerns" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Continued analysis of materials excavated from Area B at the Cooper’s Ferry site has clarified details about a well dated artifact assemblage containing 11 stemmed projectile points. New radiocarbon analyses show that these stemmed points are significantly older than classic Clovis fluted...
New Excavations at an Old Site: Reevaluation of Chronology and Subsistence at the Connley Caves (35LK50), Lake County, Oregon (2016)
The Connley Caves are composed of eight rockshelters eroded into a south-facing ridge of welded tuff, rhyolite and fine-grained basalt in the Fort Rock Basin of central Oregon. The caves contain deeply buried and well-stratified sediments dating to the late Pleistocene-early Holocene. Excavations directed by Stephen Bedwell in the late 1960s recovered many lithic artifacts and intriguing radiocarbon dates of 10,600±190 14C yr B.P. and 11,200±200 14C yr B.P. Bedwell’s interpretations of the...
Radiocarbon Chronology of the Western Stemmed Tradition on the Columbia Plateau (2016)
The Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) is an early cultural phase on the Columbia Plateau of Western North America. Much of the seminal work establishing the timeframe of WST is now decades old and suffers from imprecise dating. In this poster, we review previously compiled data, update stratigraphic interpretations, and model existing radiocarbon assays within a Bayesian framework. Preliminary results indicate that WST on the Columbia Plateau is at least coeval with Clovis and spanned at least...
Reevaluation of Site Chronology, Subsistence, and Unifacial Lithic Technology at the Connley Caves (35LK50), Lake County, Oregon (2016)
The Connley Caves are a series of rockshelters and caves eroded into a south-facing ridge of Miocene welded tuff, rhyolite and fine-grained basalt in the Fort Rock Basin of Oregon. Initially excavated by Stephen Bedwell in 1967-68, their deeply stratified late Pleistocene-early Holocene deposits produced rich lithic and faunal assemblages potentially associated with earliest radiocarbon ages of 10,600±190 and 11,200±200. The Connley Caves data played a major role in the development of Bedwell’s...
Smith Creek Cave Revisited: An Analysis of Western Stemmed Tradition Raw-Material Procurement Strategies and Lithic Technological Organization in the Bonneville Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the time of its initial discovery by Alan Bryan nearly fifty years ago, the Mount Moriah occupation at Smith Creek Cave was one of the oldest in the Great Basin and played a critical role in establishing the terminal-Pleistocene age of stemmed-point technology in western North America. Today, what is now known as the Western Stemmed Tradition has been...
A Synchronic Perspective of Early Holocene Occupation at the Cooper’s Ferry Site in Western Idaho (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology from Western North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Cooper’s Ferry Site (10IH73) in western Idaho provides a unique synchronic perspective into the lives of the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) people in the late Pleistocene/early Holocene period. Pit cache features previously excavated at the site provide key information and reliable dates to inform the understanding of the lifeways of...
Using Predictive Modeling to Evaluate Changes in Great Basin Paleoindian Settlement Systems through Time (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Great Basin underwent considerable environmental change during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, such as lower precipitation, increased temperatures, and the diminishment of lakes and wetlands. Archaeologists have long hypothesized that people responded by altering their settlement-subsistence strategies. Some models outlining these responses...
Western Stemmed Occupations of the Northern Great Basin (2017)
Recent research into the chronology and character of Western Stemmed Tradition occupations at the Paisley and Connley Caves provides new insight into the settlement-subsistence patterns and social organization of the period >13,000 to 9000 cal. BP. Human populations may have been larger, more social, and territorially constrained than previously envisioned. Long distance movement of obsidian artifacts across the landscape probably reflect brief population agglomerations (festivals) scheduled to...