Analysis of Western Stemmed Tradition Stone Tool Patterns and Faunal Remains from Pit Feature 95 at the Cooper’s Ferry Site (10IH73), Idaho

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology from Western North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Investigations at the Cooper’s Ferry site (10IH73) reveal unique insights about the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST). Previous studies at the site presented information on WST pit cache features; here specifically, I present a study of Feature 95 (F95), which provides an archaeological snapshot of site occupation at ~9679 ± 33 BP (11,190–11,093 cal BP). Feature 95 contains multiple WST points, modified flakes, debitage, and fragmented faunal remains, including carnivore teeth and a canid mandible. Results of analyses presented here reveal details about the morphometry of stemmed points, the technological patterns revealed in discarded debitage, and economic patterns reflected in the disposal of animal remains. I will also present a study of the canid mandible and give a preliminary view on whether it represents a domesticated dog. I will compare F95 with other WST features from Cooper’s Ferry and analyze how the data here can inform us about the lifeways of early Holocene WST people in the Columbia River Plateau.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology from Western North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35952.0