Holocene Site Assemblage Structure and Economic Organization In Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound, Washington

Summary

We compare 80 site components in Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound, Washington, using component age, deposit thickness and complexity, feature type and diversity, portable artifact functional classes, and assemblage diversity to study the range of functional site types and diversification of tool kits through time. We previously (2011) analyzed 75 components using Thompson’s (1978) 20-functional class system to code portable artifacts. We noted that most inland riverine and prairie sites did not have shell matrices that preserved bone and antler tool classes and we could not differentiate assemblages comprised primarily of lithic artifacts because variation was masked by the definition of Functional Class 9: utilized flakes and chipped stone tools. Here we use 49 functional classes generated by subdividing Thompson’s original classes. Results of the new analyses suggest marine and riverine/prairie inland site assemblage patterns may be accounted for in part by differential preservation of bone or antler tools, recovery techniques, and sample size. We compare bone/antler and lithic assemblages separately to tease out functional patterns among sites not conditioned by recovery. Finer-grained analyses such as use-wear or technological studies are necessary to track functional organization of lithic assemblages.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage