A Perspective on Olcott from the Banks of the Elwha River, Clallam County, Washington

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Research into the Old Cordilleran" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Olcott sites, representing human presence during the early-to-middle Holocene, have been defined throughout western Washington on the basis of a few key attributes: lanceolate projectile points, the use of relatively coarse-grained crystalline volcanic rock for the majority of the tools, and the position of artifacts within B-horizon soils. The focus on these attributes emphasizes the similarity of Olcott sites. The lack of abundant faunal remains, charcoal, and intact features is frequently invoked as limiting factors for refined understanding of this early period in the Puget Sound. Recent analysis of three sites (45CA727, 45CA774, and 45CA775) along the Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula presented the opportunity to explore sub-regional variation in Olcott occupations. This analysis yielded questions about human population movements, adaptive strategies, and technological stability over time. The artifact assemblages suggest that new approaches to Olcott analysis could provide new insights about a cultural tradition that appears relatively unchanged for thousands of years.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Research into the Old Cordilleran   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23515