Legacy Collection from a Mid-Columbia River Village Site Reveals Surprising Late Pre-contact Focus on Terrestrial Mammal Hunting and Processing Bone and Stone Items for Use and Export

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological data and collections from the Chiawana Park site, a pre-contact village on the Columbia River in Washington State, were analyzed decades after its original excavation. Archaeological excavations conducted in 1967 produced huge assemblages of animal bones, bone tools, and stone tools. Geoarchaeological, faunal, and technological artifact analyses address methods and challenges faced when analyzing legacy collections. The archaeological materials appear to date primarily within the last two millennia and are associated with a possible mat lodge. Results of faunal analyses suggest an emphasis on hunting pronghorn but surprisingly little evidence for salmon fishing. Extensive bone tool manufacturing and use is represented especially by bone spear points and awls. Stone tools are dominated by simple flake tools and specialized tools for bone and wood working. Projectile points for both bow-and-arrow and for dart-and-atlatl weaponry are present along with evidence for processing local toolstones to produce bifacial blanks for exports. The data gathered during the reanalysis fill in important details that were absent from the original excavation reports.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39848.0