Dating the Oldest Sites in the Portland Basin

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Second-Oldest Sites in the Pacific Northwest" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the Portland Basin in Oregon, organic material is rarely preserved, archaeological features are often thoroughly bioturbated, and historic wildfires have introduced abundant charcoal into the soil matrix that is not directly tied to human settlement. Dates must often be estimated without the aid of radiocarbon analysis. This presentation reviews dating methods that have been applied to some of the oldest sites in the Portland basin, such as the Burnett Site. The methods used include optically stimulated luminescence and obsidian hydration rind analysis and reveal not just chronology but also environmental history and long-distance trade networks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Second-Oldest Sites in the Pacific Northwest   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37311.0