Origin of Northwest Coast Microblade Tradition: Insights from Shuká Káa Cave (SKKC)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Two hypotheses for the origins of the Northwest Coast Microblade tradition (NWCMt) predominate: (1) it derives from the first human dispersal to the NWC from interior eastern Beringia; (2) it results from westward movement to the coast from interior regions of British Columbia (BC), Canada. The oldest NWCMt radiocarbon date from SKKC is ca. 10,700 cal BP, and the sum probability for all early 14C dates associated with the NWCMt at SKKC is ca. 10,360 cal BP. SKKC and other early NWCMt assemblages lack tools made from lithic sources and artifact types associated with contemporaneous and older microblade sites in eastern Beringia, while obsidian originating from Mt. Edziza occurs in early NWCMt assemblages. This indicates the NWCMt developed following LGM deglaciation ca. 12,500–10,700 cal BP and results from contact between people on the NWC and the Stikine Plateau, BC, likely between ca. 11,000 and 10,500 years ago. The morphological and functional variability of NWCMt technology suggests experimental application to new tasks and environmental circumstances. These data indicate the NWCMt originates from an early postglacial adaptation incorporating both non-coastal (terrestrial) microblades into a preexisting maritime technological system characterized by stemmed bifaces and a generalized lithic technology emphasizing production of organic artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39080.0