Exploring the Status of a Roasting Feature Complex along the Mid-Fraser Canyon, Bridge River Site, British Columbia

Summary

Roasting features were developed by First Peoples throughout North America to prepare and preserve food for winter storage during the mid to late Holocene. On the Interior Plateaus of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, these complexes are found at upland root harvesting sites and, to a lesser extent, in association with winter villages. This poster focuses on the interpretation of a dense complex of roasting features within a housepit at the Bridge River site, located on the Mid-Fraser Canyon of British Columbia, and dated to ca. 1200-1300 cal. B.P. We explore the results of recent excavations within Housepit 54, and examine the size, shape, and structure of these pits in comparison to other complexes on the Canadian Plateau. We analyse the plant macroremains, determining what edible species were being processed, what vegetative matter was used in the cooking process, and what size and species of fuels were being used to cook these resources. These palaeoethnobotanical analyses inform us about harvesting, subsistence, and preservation practices of ancient St’át’imc residents at this long-lived village complex, and the nature of their relationships with the landscape they lived in and to neighboring Interior Salish communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Complex Fisher-Foragers of the Interior Pacific Northwest: The Housepit 54 Project at Bridge River, British Columbia

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13183