The Settlement Patterns of the Mid-Fraser Region of British Columbia: A Statistical Analysis of Housepit and Village Sizes

Summary

This poster presents a settlement pattern analysis calculating the relative size distribution of housepit villages along the Mid-Fraser Region of British Columbia. The pre-contact settlements in this study area, along the Fraser River plateau between Yale and Big Bar, are amongst the largest hunter-gatherer communities anywhere in the world. While previous studies in the region have concentrated on the Keatley Creek, Bell, and Bridge River housepit village sites, the research presented in this poster greatly expands on these analyses by utilizing a sample size of over 1000 housepits from 49 villages in the region. In addition, while previous studies on settlement sizes in the area have focused on either the number of housepits or the size of individual housepits – the research in this poster uses a calculation of total roof area as a means of analyzing both housepit and settlement size and their potential statistical size classes. Investigating discrepancies in housepit and settlement size classes can give insight into potential hierarchies amongst settlements and can be used to infer social stratification. This method, of using site size as an index of use for a settlement location, has previously been used in the American southwest to document social stratification.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16528