Lithic Technological Organization at Three Olcott Sites along 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.

In western Washington, Olcott sites are generally understood to represent a period of cultural and technological stability that extended through the early Holocene into the middle Holocene. While some researchers have suggested subtle technological evolutionary developments occurred over time, Olcott sites have often been characterized as a consistent or uniform technological pattern. Recent archaeological investigations at three Olcott sites located along the Elwha River (sites 45CA727, 45CA774, and 45CA775) recovered a diverse assemblage of chipped stone tools and debitage that indicate Olcott technological organization was not homogenous between sites. The tool production strategies evidenced by the discarded tools and debitage suggest that individual sites were dominated by varying degrees of biface production and informal core/flake tool production. The implications of the Elwha lithic pattern for regional Olcott land-use are explored.

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): 25182