One Group or Many? Cultural Inheritance at Housepit 54, Bridge River Site, British Columbia

Summary

The Bridge River housepit village, located in south-central British Columbia, features 80 housepits with radiocarbon dates spanning the past 2000 years. Many of these house structures include stratigraphic records indicating multiple generations of household re-occupation. Housepit 54 offers a particularly impressive record with an estimated 15 superimposed anthropogenic floors, the majority of which date to the period of ca. 1100-1500 cal. B.P. Extensive excavations undertaken in 2013 and 2014 demonstrate that the house grew in size over time, mostly dramatically with at least two doublings in floor area. Housepit (HP) 54 offers the opportunity for us to examine the histories of cultural traditions over many generations within a single household. However, we cannot simply assume that this house was occupied by the same group throughout its entire history. This poster presents analyses designed to test alternative hypotheses regarding inter-generational cultural transmission in HP 54. To accomplish this, we draw on data concerning variability in artifact manufacture and style along with the organization of space within floors. We expect to develop conclusions regarding patterns of cultural continuity in this long-lived house. Results should also offer implications for the utility of different methodological approaches to cultural transmission in evolutionary archaeology.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Housepit 54 Project at Bridge River, British Columbia: Archaeological Perspectives on Demography, Cultural Inheritance, and Household History   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage