Study of Human Ecodynamics at Tse-whit-zen, a 2,800-Year-Old Lower Elwha Klallam Coastal Village in Washington State, U.S.A.

Extensive 2004 excavation of the Tse-whit-zen village, traditional home of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, documented multiple houses spanning the last 2,800 years with exceptionally fine geo-stratigraphic control; faunal samples from 10 L buckets, screened to 1/8" mesh, allow for detailed reconstruction of animal use. Occupation spans several large-magnitude earthquakes, periods of climate change, and a gradual increase in sheltered intertidal habitat. Our geo-zooarchaeological project provides an important case study that adds to developing scholarship in human ecodynamics, which uses archaeological and other multi-disciplinary knowledge to study the complex and dynamic interactions between humans and their environment in deep history. The link between social structure and social response to environmental stress has been highlighted in several case studies, but differential intracommunity resilience in the face of disaster has been little studied. Our project addresses this need by examining faunas—foundationall resources for any community—to evaluate the resilience of distinct social units in a marine forager community. We model and test the effects of environmental change on animal resources and examine both diachronic and synchronic variation in resource use by social units. Tribal members add their own perspectives on the importance of Tse-whit-zen and the recent archaeological project.