An Approach to the Study of Far Western North American Prehistory: Early Man

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AUTHOR Cressman, Luther S. TITLE An Approach to the Study of Far Western North American Prehistory: Early Man. INSTITUTION Oregon Univ., Eugene. Museum of Natural History. PUB DATE Aug 73 NOTE 17p.; Bulletin No. 20 AVAILABLE FROM University of Oregon, Museum of Natural History, Eugene, Oregon 97403 ($0.75)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.75 HC-$1.50 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Ancient History; *Anthropology; Archaeology; Bulletins; Geology; Instruction; Instructional Materials; Science Education IDENTIFIERS Natural History

ABSTRACT This bulletin, in keeping with the basic purpose of all the bulletins published by the Museum of Natural History of Oregon, contains the text of a lecture presented in the field of anthropology. The approach taken is interdisciplinary. Drawn together are not only published works, but also the skills and wisdom of scholars in the peripheral disciplines on which archaeology so greatly relies. Cressman's approach deals with the so-called Early Man record, using artifacts as a means to an end and not an end in themselves. He presents a consideration of the origins of the New World population considering first the question of indigenous origin.. This he rules out and then presents in detail the facts that support that the population was derived from another continent, namely, northeastern Asia. Evidence is presented from geological data, and the archaeological evidence is presented in detail. A list of publications of the Museum of Natural History at the University pf Oregon is included. (EE) )of Lp DEPARTmENT OF HEALTH, 4.4 I t sR di EDUCATION 3 rNELFAR E YATIONAL INSTITUTE Of

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lvation applied. woven,=decorated baskets The Bulletin of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Oregon is published to increase the knowledge and understanding of the natural history of Oregon. Original articles in the fields of Archaeology, Botany, Ethnology, Geology, Paleontology, and Zoology appear irregularly in consecutively numbered issues. Contributions arise primarily from the research programs and collections of the Museum of Natural History and the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology. However, in keeping with the basic purpose of the publication, contributionsare not restricted to these sources and are both technical and popular in character.

DAVID L. COLE, Acting Director LAURENGE R. KITTLEMAN, Editor Museum of Natural History University of Oregon

Communications concerning manuscripts and purchase of copies of the Bulletin should he addressed to the Museum of Natural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403. A list of previous issues of the Bulletin is printed inside the back cover. BEST COPY AVAILABLE

AN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY: EARLY MAN AN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY: EARLY MAN

LUTHER S. CHESSMAN

Bulletin No. 20 Museum of Natural History University of Oregon Eugene. Oregon August 1973 FOREWORD

Luther S. Cressman, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology in the University of Oregon, presented the paper published here before an audience in the De- partment of Anthropology on February 22, 1973. Dr. Cressman had accepted an invitation to speak, not knowing that the intention was to create an occasion on which he could be presented with a Festschrift* in his honor. The presenta- tion was made by Homer G. Barnett, a colleague of Dr. Cressman's in the Department of Anthropology since 1939.

Professor Cressman's lecture, An Approach to the Study of Fat- Western North American Prehistory: Early Man, exemplifies his approach to archaeology that is familiar to all who have worked with him. The text of the lecture is published here to share it with a wider audience. Dr. Cressman's approach has always been interdisciplinarythe effective use, synthesis, and integra- tion of all evidence and of the full resources of the university system. He draws together not only the published works, but also the skills and wisdom of scholars in the peripheral disciplines on which archaeology so greatly relies. It is this approach, now widely accepted, that is perhaps Dr. Cressman's greatest contribution to his chosen field. DAVID L. COLE Eugene, Oregon March 28, 1973

For the Chief: Essays in Honor of Luther S. Cressman. University o/ Oregon Anthropological Papers. No. 4, 1973, edited by Fred W. Voget and Robert L. Stephenson, with a foreword by Theodore Stern. 1 AN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY: EARLY MAN

LUTHER S. CRESSNIAN Professor Emeritus of Anthropology University of Oregon

Human prehistory of the New World begandifferential change through time the prehistory at some uncertain time in the Pleistocene whenof this segment of the continent is highly com- the first human set foot on the land which isplex and distinctive. now Alaska. Unlike Columbus, he did not know Archaeologists use the expression, Early that he had discovered a New World for, toMan Period, for the segment of prehistory ex- him, it was simply an extension of the land hetending from its beginning to the time of the already knew. Hopkins put it felicitously whenextinction of the large Pleistocene fauna, in he wrote: ..and foundquite unwittinglyparticular, the horse, the camel, the mammoth, --a new world to conquer." certain species of bison and others. While this The environment of Far Western Northterminal point is not always used, it will do for America, that is west of the Rocky Mountains,my definition. Operationally we may use as the is uniquely different from that of the rest ofterminal point the shift in subsistence patterns the continent. A comment by Dwight Taylorwhich accompanied the changing post-Pleisto- is apt: "...the Great Basin and central west-cene climate. The latter approach would give coast region of North America, where the Mid-us a terminal date in the Far West ranging dle Pleistocene orogenv of the Coast Ranges,from 8,000 to 1.0,000 years ago, depending on eustatic changes of sea level, block faulting inthe region. Much of my discussion will he con- the Great Basin, Pleistocene desiccation, andcerned with the Early Man record. volcanism have changed habitats more rapidly I wish to point out that, as humanist as well and drastically than in other parts of Northas scientist,I view this record as the story of America."' It was to this diverse and changingh Milan beings, a part of the Human Epic. To environment that these early men and womenthis end I consider artifacts as the means to an had to adapt or perish; and because of the di-end, never an end in themselves. The artifacts verse character of the environments and theare the mute record of the men, women, and children who made and used them. Let us turn

I I presented this paper in a slightly different form in the Sci 'ow to the record. ence Seminar Series of the Joint Center for Graduate Study The question of the origins of the New World of Oregon State University, the University of Washington, and Washington State University at Richland. May 17. 1972. The population is sometimes raised. Was the popu- Science Seminar Series is sponsored by Atlantic Richfield lation indigenous or derived front another con- Hanford Company. No general bibliography is appended. 2 D. W. Taylor. The Study of Pleistocene Nonmarine tinent? Let us consider first the question of tusks in North America. In the Quaternary of the United indigenous origin. Briefly, the answer is, that States, a review volume for the VII Congress of the Interna- there was no ancestral primate stock in the tional Association for Quarternary Research. H. E. Wright. Jr. and David C. Frey (eds.). Princeton University Press. New World corresponding to that in the Old 1965. p. 597. which lead to the ape. and human evolutionary BULLE7'IN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.20 lines. both probably deriving from a commonvast population reservoir or source in north- ancestral form in the lower Miocene Epoch oreast Asia. 2) the evidence for land connection earlier in East Africa. The New World mon-between the continents and the time at which keys represent a more primitive and earlierthey occurred, 3) firm evidence of human pres- stage of organization than the Old World vari-ence. The larger question really breaks down ety. The evolutionary development runs frominto twO: first, when was intercontinental popu- Old World monkeys into the Hominoidea whichlation passage possible? Notice the critical in turn branched into the great apes (Pongids):11'0rd "possible;" second, when did interconti- and Man ( Hominids). The evolutionary his-nental population passage actually take place? tory of the New World monkeys is obscure butHere the key word is actually. Information on at any rate the New World monkeys are not inthe population reservoir and the land connec- the line of hominoid evolution. Sir Wilfredtions is relevant to the question of "possible" Le Gros Clark wrote: time; to answer the question of actual time firm After the Eocene there were almost certainly no information showing human presence must he land-bridges between the Old and New Worlds added to these other two categories. which were favorable for the migration of ani- Further, for man to move into the continent mals adapted for life in tropical forests, and yet from Alaska, a passage route was required. all the evidence at our disposal makes it reason- Alaska was isolated from the interior of the ably certain that the early evolution of the An- thropoidea took place in such an environment." continent at various times by a mass of glacial ice 1.500 miles in width, stretching from coast The indigenous origin of New World popula-to coast, and in places more than a mile thick; tion can thus be ruled out. Only the Yukon basin was ice-free, by compari- The homeland of the first humans to moveson a Garden of Eden cul-de-sac. With deglaci- into the New World must, therefore, be soughtation this ice barrier disappeared and the fa- elsewhere. All the evidence from physical an-miliar Ice-Free Corridor became available to thropology, geology, and archaeology indicatesman. Glaciation, by lowering the sea level, that the source area was in northeastern Asia.made the land connection possible but it also Itis not firmly established whether the areaclosed the passage route to the continental in- bordering on the Pacific coast or the interior.terior; deglaciation submerged the land con- eastern Siberia, was the source. In the writer'snection but opened the Ice-Free Corridor. Thus present opinion the former is the more likelythe problem of the arrival of man in the New source for the earliest people, while later theWorld and his expansion into the interior de- Siberian people gradually merged into thepends on the configuration of these four specific movement and from time to time both sourcescategories of data: 1) an available population contributed. The population movements werereservoir, 2) available land connection, 3) the probably intermittent, on a small scale, andpresence of an Ice-Free Corridor, and 4) firm non-directional, except as guided by the searchevidence of human presence. The logical struc- for food. The major problem now is the deter-ture of the problem is analogous to the struc- mination of the tirne of the earliest movements.ture of a non-circular plane figure in which The solution of the problem requires firm in-the shape of the figure is determined by the formation from three sources: physical anthro-location of a number of points, for example, a pology, geology, and archaeology. trapezoid or a rhomboid, etc. If the location of These categories of evidence may be restatedone point is changed the whole figure changes. in these terms: 1) the availability of a rele- Let us now consider the substantive evidence; first the biological factors: The Asiatic 3 Sir Wilford E. Le Gros Clark. The Foundations of Human Evolution. Condon Lectures, Oregon State System of Higher population reservoir. This subject need not de- Education. Eugene. ]959, p. 32. tain us long. Fossil remains, although) few in 1973 CRESSMAN: AN APPROACH TO FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY 3 number, of Homo sapiens, apparently a proto-ronmet of Far Western North and Central mongoloid stock, have been found widely scat- America. tered in China. These date from the third inter- While the New World population would be glacial period well into the Wisconsin glacia-expected to show similarities to the members tion. These fossil human remains indicate theof the source population reservoir, differences presence of a population pool or reservoir,produced by genetic drift were added to by probably small limiting and gathering groups physicalchanges environmentallyinduced. sonic of whose descendants might have pushedShapiro and others have demonstrated the ef- on eventually across the land connection tofectiveness of the environment in influencing North America. In other words, a populationphysical characteristics of a population al- was available during the Upper Pleistocene, athough the exact methods are not fully under- period comprising well over 100,000 years, stood. from which the New World population could No one should expect any New World group have been derived. The evidence for man inof 10.000 or more years ago to reproduce the the 1,ake Baikal region. and it is cultural, doesphysical likeness of some asiatic ancestral pool not go beyond about 20.000 years ago. Dur-beyond a limited sharing of basic genetic traits, ing the period of the land connection betweenthose comprising the hypothetical genotype of 25.000 and 11,000 years ago there could havethe proto-mongoloid population. Physical an- been groups derived from both northeasternthropologists find suggestive likeness in some China and Siberia contributing to the popula-cranial traits of New World skeletal remains tion movement; and in a vast area of land 1,000dated on the order of 10,000 to 20.000 years miles in width. as the connection was, variousago and those of the Upper Pleistocene of population groups could have never met; andChina; but there are many differences. This is different cultural traditions could have existedas it should be if the opinions expressed are contemporaneously known onlytolimitedvalid, as I think they are. Populations. The Geological evidence. Certain terms must This source asiatic population, while havingbe defined at this point and I shall use those certain basic genetic traits in common, mustproposed by the American Commission on have been highly diversified. It would probablyStratigraphic Nomenclature in 1961 and now have consisted of small nomadic predatoryin general use. bands moving according to the availability of (it A glaciation was a climatic episode during food. In this kind of human society the process which extensive glaciers developed, attained a of genetic drift is of the greatest importance maximum extent, and receded. An inter- inproducing diversity. Hybridizationis of glaciation was an episode during which the cli- limited importance. A small hunting band sepa- mate was incompatible with the wide extent of rating from a larger may carry only a pOrti0f1 glaciers characterized by glaciation. Oil A stale was a climatic episode within a glaciation of the total gene pool and that portion is what during which a secondary advance of glaciers is carried on in the breeding population. In took place. (iv) An interstade was a climatic the vast areas of northeastern Asia there were episodic within a glaciation during which a sec- undoubtedly many different minor gene pools ondary recession or a stillstand of glaciers took contributing to the migrant population and it place (p. 660). is these diverse sources which supplied the New The formation of glaciers interrupted the World types. Genetic drift must have beena normal cycle by which precipitation falling on particularly important factor in producing fur-the earth is returned to its source, the sea, for ther group differences between 25,000 andthe falling rain and snow became a part of the 11,000 years ago in the population south of frozen world of ice. As the volume of the oceans the ice-sheet in the highly differentiated envi- declined the shore line dropped with reference BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No. 20 to the land; in other words the sea level wasdeduction that a land connection should be lowered. This process which at its maximumrelatively contemporaneous with a glaciation. reached a point of at least 100 meters andIf there were no other factors affecting the sta- perhaps 130 meters, exposed land as islandsbility of a land mass, such as the Chukchi plat- in shallow areas, connected earlier separatedform, the deduction would he valid, but tec- land masses, and exposed along the coasts ex-tonic changes have occurred. Recent studies tensive new coastal plains where the continentalhave showed that while some formations are shelf sloped gradually. Deglaciation reversedfound on both sides of the Bering Strait others this process. This process of lowering and rais-appear on only one shore. The further back in ing the sea level is called eustatic adjustment;time, the more tenuous our information be- Flint calls it "the swingingsea level." comes. Hopkins has suggested that a land con- The earth's crust under the ice and for somenection may have occurred even during an distance beyond its peripheries was depressedinterglacial period. The record from paleon- by the great weight of the ice and with thetology makes it clear that during the Pleisto- melting of the ice it returned to its former posi-cene there were land connections at various tions_ a processes called isostatic adjustment.times and that Eurasiatic and North American The depression in the vicinity of Vancouver,faunas moved back and forth across them. British Columbia, is estimated to have been as Since 1950, with the development of radio- much as 1,000 feet; and beaches along thecarbon dating, a reasonably firm chronology British Columbia coast high above the presenthas been developed for the late glacial episodes shoreline reveal the upwarping of the earth'sin the Pacific Northwest. Radiocarbon dates crust; and are of significance to the archae-indicate that the Fraser Glaciation was under- ologist working in the area. way with ice appearing in the northern end of The climatic episodes, glaciation and de-the Strait of Georgia by 25,000 years ago and glaciation, had effects of the greatest impor-was in the Fraser Lowland by 24,500 years tance for the human occupation of the Greatauo the Puget lobe did not reach its maximum Basin, namely, the production and disappear-extent, about 15 miles south of Olympia, until ance, in part or completely, of the vast systemabout 15,000 years ago. At that time the ice in of pluvial lakes. These lakes were formed inthe area of present Seattle was 3,000 feet thick. fault-block depressions and depressed foldsDeglaciation progressed rapidly; present Lake when the intake from precipitation exceededWashington was ice-free by 13,500 and the the loss from evaporation; and when the proc-Fraser Lowland by about 500 years later. Ma- ess was reversed desiccation set in. In a gen-rine sediments and the presence of evidence eral way the time of the pluvial lakes and theirof ice bergs in much of the Fraser Lowland disappearance or shrinkage correlateswith show that the area, while ice-free, was unfit for that of glaciation and deglaciation. Actuallyhuman habitation. A final advance of the cor- the evidence is clear that the correlation is onlydillera!) ice sheet started about 11,000 years general and that the history of each lake mustago with a lobe moving down the Fraser canyon he studied in its own terms to place it in a rea-and occupying some 250 square miles of the sonably accurate temporal position. upper lowland; the advance is called the Sumas To relate this climatic and geological evi-Stade. Its termination date is uncertain, per- dence to the problem of man's arrival in thehaps 10,500 years ago; but the canyon was New World requires firm information on the free of ice by 9,000 years ago as shown by the times when land connections existed. The ques-archaeological remains at the site near Hope, tion is more easily asked than answered. Theapparently a salmon fishing location. general theory which relates the eustatic low- In the interior of British Columbia dating ering of sea level with glaciation permits theis much less firm. Three major sources of ice 1973CRESSMAN: AN APPROACH TO FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY 5 were the Coast Mountains, fronting the openbest statement which summarizes this material sea between the Queen Charlotte Islands andand relates it to the archaeological problem is Vancouver Island, the Selkirk Mountains, andthat of Hopkins. I quote: the Cariboo Mountains. The first provided the One can state only that an ice-free corridor major source of ice both for the coast and the must have existed there[Yukon Territory, interior. It seems a reasonable position to take northeastern British Columbia, and northern that, because of the non-maritime position of Alberta] during the mid-Wisconsin episode of mild climate that took place between 35,000 Interior British Columbia, its climate, and top- and 25,000 years ago; that waxing glaciation ography, that its glacial chronology is most probably closed the corridor again earlier than likely to be contemporary with that of the ma- 20,000 years ago; and that the corridor must jor coastal area, that is, the Coast Mountains have remained closed until at least 14,000 years between the Fraser Lowland and southeastern ago and possibly almost 10,000 years ago (em- Alaska. phasis added; Hopkins (ed.), 1967, 467-8)4 The archaeologist, however, must keep in The archaeological evidence. I shall present mind two important points which relate to thethe archaeological data which are relevant to influence of glaciation and deglaciation on hu-the time of the arrival of man in the New World, man prehistory. First, is the effect of these cli-following Hopkins' model which I just pre- matic episodes on the environment as humansented. Conclusions will then be drawn. Avail- habitat. Second, is the nature of deglaciation.able space requires me to be selective both This affects not only the habitat potential, butwith reference to the number of sites to be dis- the very nature of an ice-free corridor. Deglaci-cussed and the amount of information pre- ation apparently begins near the center of ansented. The most important data are, of course, ice-sheet, not at the periphery. Peripheral de-the dates. glaciation is very uneven; some sections will It is obvious that the age of sites should be be still advancing while others will be meltingprogressively younger the further one is from away or retreating. Ice sheets melt, but notthe point of man's entry. The archaeological evenly. Extensive blocks of ice may float inrecord does not conform to this model for a impounded melt waters. Vast wastage areas ofnumber of reasons. One is that if man had lived hog land resulted in interior British Columbiain an area later overridden by a glacial ice and western Alberta from this process. Howsheet there is little chance of any evidence sur- long a time was involved, time significant forviving. Second, the amount of Pleistocene sedi- human beings, for these wastage areas to be-ments in which human evidence should be come suitable for human habitat is unknown.found is limited. Finally, little archaeological Man is omnivorous and ubiquitous; he is cer-search for sites in Pleistocene sediments has tainly not amphibious. been made. Luck has played an important I have presented this extended discussionrole in the discovery of sites which preserve of background information because I think itevidence of Pleistocene man. is necessary for any meaningful discussion of The archaeological evidence falls into two Early Man in the Far West. Without it the stu-classes: 1) that from accepted valid sites and dent is like a swimmer in a fog, completelyfirmly dated; and 2) that from sites the validity unaware of where the safety of the shore lineof which is in dispute among archaeologists. lies. There is no point in archaeologists pre-Let us start with the first class, accepted sites, tending to a precision of knowledge when it isand for convenience move from north to south. clearly lacking. The material I have presented Lower Snake River and Middle Columbia represents our present state of knowledge; ifRiver. The Marmes Rockshelter on the lower it is true then a conclusion follows, if not trite 4 David M. Hopkins (ed.). The Bering Land Bridge. Stanford some other conclusion follows. Probably the University Press, Stanford, 1959. 6 BULLETIN. MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No. 20

Palouse River, Granite Point and the \Vindustan infant burial between 5,000 and 6,000 years caves on the Snake. and Wildcat Canyon andago. Since the Fort Rock Cave was occupied at the Five-Mile Rapids site at The Dillies on the13,200 years ago when it first became avail- Columbia River have records of occupationable because of the lower lake level, we have beginning at 10.000 to 10..500 and perhapsto conclude that there was an available popu- 11.000 radiocarbon years ago. This culturallation outside the lake bed to supply the occu- manifestation is called the Windust Phase; itpants for the cave. is thought to have been derived from the North- Danger Care in the Eastern Great Basin, just ern Great Basin. north of Wendover on the Utah-Nevada line Wilson Butte Care. in the Snake River Plainhas an initial date for human occupation of about 25 miles northeast of Twin Falls. Idaho,11.151 radiocarbon years ago. Occupation of has produced two radiocarbon dates of morevarying degrees of intensity continue until late than 14_000 rears ago. One is 15,000 and thetimes. other. 14.500. A long sequence of occupation Fish Bone Cave on the eastern shoreline of follows. A single bone specimen, the identifica-Pluvial Lake Winnemucca, near Pyramid Lake, tion of which as an artifact is equivocal. is as-Nevada, has occupation dated at 11,000 years sociated with the older date. Stone artifacts aceago. A sandal, structurally similar to the Fort associated with the second date. The Pleisto-Rock Cave sandals but made from different cene geologist. Haynes, has questioned the as-material, is associated with this date. sociation of the artifacts with the dated strata Occupation occurs in the Fallon area of Ne- as well as the use of burned bone as a satisfac-vada on the top terrace of Lake Lahontan but tory dating material. I have examined the boneno material for radiocarbon dating has been specimen and think it is a tool. that is an arti-found. By cross dating the artifacts with those fact, because of what I interpret to be a wearfrom sites of known date in the Northern Great or use facet at one end. I am not at all convinced Basin and southeastern and southern California that the excavator, Dr. Ruth Gruhn, is in errortogether with the probable date for the exposure in her interpretation of the stratigraphic asso-of the Lahontan terrace, it is reasonable to fix ciation. a date for this material at about 10,000 years Foi t Rock Care in south-central Oregon and ago. a series of six rockshelters, all located on what Ventana Cave in southwestern Arizona has were once islands, in Pluvial Fort Rock Lake,a radiocarbon date of 11,300 years ago for have provided a firmly documented record ofthe next to the lowest stratum in the cave which occupationstartingin Fort Rock Cave atcontains tenuous evidence of human occupa- 13.200 years ago. This date is from hearthtion. Given the nature of the carne fill in these charcoal and is associated with a cultural as-two lower strata it is not unreasonable to expect semblage. The next date, from another shelter.0. date of something in the nature of 13,000 is 11,950 radiocarbon years ago. This is fol-years ago for the earliest occupation of the lowed by a series of dates from Fort Rock Cavecave. and several shelters at the Connlev Hills show- The Tlapacova Site on the shore of Pluvial ing heavy use of the shelters. The only hiatusLake Chalco in the Valley of Mexico has dates in the occupation of the caves is from 7.000 tofrom charcoal from two hearths at 24,000 5,000 years ago when the lake bed was in the radiocarbon years ago. A true blade is associ- process of drying up and that condition wasated with this site. compounded by the catastrophic effects of the Further south, the Valsequillo Site named Mt. Mazama eruption. We know, however, thatfor the gravels of that name and famous for the country was not abandoned because the area the great numbers of fossil Pleistocene fauna within the lake bed. Table Rock. was used forfound there, has a firm date of25,000 years 1973CRESSMAN: AN APPROACH TO FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY 7 ago, with a well developed stone working tech-ago. The vast unglaciated Yukon drainage ba- nology. A date of 35.000 or more years ago issin, an area of 250,000 square miles, with its in dispute. rich food supply provided a relugium for man Not all these sites are associated with anand other Pleistocene animals. We can appreci- extinct Pleistocene fauna. That fact does notate the significance of this area if we relate it indicate that they post-date the extinction ofto known space. The total area of California those forms. The lack may be due to a numberand Oregon is 255,000 square miles and that of causes: thelocal or micro-ecology, theof the total Columbia River drainage basin is chances of the hunt, butchering practices which259,000. The Yukon area is about the same size did not provide large bones or teeth of the ani-as part of England, France, and part of Ger- mals to he brought back to the occupation site,many where so much of the development of and sampling error in the excavations. Extinctthe paleolithic cultures of western Europe took animals which were hunted by these peopleplace during several hundred thousand years. were the jaguar, the horse, camel, bison, Cora-Itis my opinion that man entered the New gyps o,:cidentalis (the extinct Pleistocene vul-World well before 35,000 years ago. ture"), the mammoth, and others. At both the Let us consider briefly a number of sites Marmes Rock Shelter and The Da lles the boneswhich some archaeologists do not accept as of elk, larger than varieties now in the area,firmly established evidence of human presence. suggest a Pleistocene environment. I accept these sites as valid evidence both on Let us now consider the significance of thesethe presence of internal data and the evidence dates before 10,000 years ago for the time offrom the firm sites which shows that the dates the arrival of man in the New World. Usingof the questioned manifestations are strictly Hopkins' model we have between 70,000 andwithin the pattern of probability. 35,000 years ago probably a number of land The Texas Street Site in San Diego was dis- connections; but how many and when is un-covered and reported by Carter, a geographer, certain. Certainly there was one during the gla-while studying the Pleistocene formations in cial period terminating at 35,000 years agothat area. He found in a fan on the south side but none in the suceeding warm interval endingof the canyon in which the present San Diego at 25,000 years ago. There would have beenRiver flows a number of fire basins or hearths, an ice-free passage into the interior of the con-as he identified them, and associated tools. At tinent during that warm interval. Betweenleast he identified the objects as tools. A radio- 25,000 and possibly 10,000 years ago a mas-carbon date from the charcoal indicated the sive land connection had as its counterpartage was more than 35,000 years, that is be- the enormous Cordilleran-Laurentide ice-sheet,yond the range of C-14. dating. Archaeologists 1,500 miles wide in the Pacific Northwest,dismissed Carter's claims both by ignoring and blocking access to the interior. attacking them and him. The reasons were: 1) The dates for the archaeological sites I havethe date was obviously too old; 2) Carter was just given clearly show that man was south ofa geographer and it was presumptuous for him the Cordilleran ice-sheet which closed passageto act as an archaeologist; 3) even if there was between 25,000 and 10,000 years ago. If thistrue charcoal in the basins it could be accounted is so, then entry to the continental interior mustfor by other than human action; 4) the objects have been made before that ice-sheet formed, oridentified as artifacts by Carter could have been during the warm interval of 35.000 to 25,000produced by natural means. Archaeologists years ago. Further, since there was no landsaid, "Forget it." bridge during that interval the crossing had to Carl Hubbs of the Scripps Oceanographic have been made not later than during the gla-Institution, a long time friend of Carter, who cial interval which terminated at 35,000 yearshad been assr.ciated in an informal way with BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No. 20

Carter in his work, took me to the Texas StreetMember of the Santa Rosa Formation and, like site in May of 1965 for a personal inspection.its counterpart at the Scripps Estates, is thought While the precise original site could not beto include the entire Wisconsin. If there was located because of construction, a similar situ-no connection with the mainland via the east- ation was located close by. Hubbs found in anernmost island the water gap would have been exposure a basin similar to those described byshallow and nc, more than two miles wide. The Carter and it contained evidence of what ap-rising sea-level has eroded the Tecolote Mem- peared to be charcoal. Hubbs later checkedber and it is now exposed in cliffs of varying the material in the lab and found it to be trueheight; and itis from an area of about two charcoal. I have excavated through buried for-miles along the cliff that most of the evidence est fire debris, holes made by burned stumpscomes. with their distinctive pattern, hearths in the The most striking member of the fossil fauna open, and hearths in house pits. The pattern ofon Santa Rosa Island is the dwarf or pygmy the basin shaped depression with its charcoal,mammoth, which stood about four feet high. now filled by slumped gravel and sand, andRemains of these mammoths have been found the true charcoal, when viewed in terms of myin pits often accompanied by evidence of fire experience convinced me that the fire basinand charcoal. Some pits contain parts of several could be and most likely was what Carterdisarticulated animals suggesting that they had thought it to be, that is a human artifact. been ilitelieed elsewhere and the parts brought A few miles to the north of San Diego in theto the pits for cooking. The excavation of these sea-cliff at the Scripps Estates are a numbersites was carried out as a paleontological proj- of fire basins, saucer shaped areas of'burnedect without the archaeologists' interest in the clay with charcoal. The cliff is the remnant ofpresence or absence of minute evidence of the Pleistocene terrace fill, about 50 feet thick,human presence, such as exists at the Scripps resting on the Sangamon interglacial beach. ItEstates. The presence of fire and the presence is thought to encompass the entire Wisconsinof disarticulated animals in the same pit first (probably 70,000 years of time). About one-suggested to and then convinced Orr, the pale- third of the way clown from the surface a basinontologist, that he was dealing there with the has been dated at 21,500 radiocarbon yearsevidence of human activity. Several radio- ago. Krieger examined this fire basin and foundcarbon dates ranging from around 20,000 to bits of shell and stone flakes in and around it,beyond the range of the C-14 method were se- indicating human presence. Later another ex-cured. Orr's reports of the presence of humans posure of the same kind was found about two-and at the time suggested by the radiocarbon thirds of the distance down to the interglacialdate were generally received by archaeologists beach; this was dated at more than 34,000with incredulity and treated in the same man- years ago. The correspondence of this date withner as they treated Carter's; and for the same that from the Texas Street site is informative. reasons. Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Is- In 1.960 Dr. Fay-Cooper Cole, former Head lands 31 miles off the Santa Barbara coast pro-of the Department of Anthropology at the Uni- vides further evidence. During the maximumversity of Chicago, but then retired and a trus- of thelast glaciation the lowered sea-leveltee of the Museum of Natural History of Santa caused the four islands to be joined into a singleBarbara, in cooperation with Orr, curator of land mass; and perhaps to join the mainland,the Museum, arranged for a field conference although this connection is open to question.of archaeologists and other scientists, to study During this period of lowered sea-level a broadthe evidence on Santa Rosa. I had the good coastal plain extended some five miles seaward.fortune to be a member of the field conference. The remnant of this plain is called the TecoloteWhen Iwent to this conference I was very 1973 CRESSMAN: AN APPROACH TO FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY 9 skeptical of the validity of the claims but when A few very brief observations on major cul- I left I was convinced that Orr's claims of mantural developments are in order. First, the and dwarf mammoth association were sound.archaeological record shows clearly that the The chronology may be illustrated by a seriesdevelopment of sophisticated methods of work- of C-11. dates from Survey Point. These datesing stone to produce a wide variety of tools are in general stratigraphic alignment. Theand weapons occurred on this continent as an youngest is from a site about 45 feet above theautochthonous evolution. The point of view Teco lote Member and is greater than 25,000which holds that the well developed methods of years ago. I helped collect the charcoal for thisstone working were introduced at about 12,000 dating sample. About 11 feet below this siteYears ago by new comers is not sound. charred mammoth bone was found in a pit and Second, between 10,000 and 8,000 years dated at 29,700 years ago. Below this locationago each of the major areas had laid the and about 2.5 meters above the base of thefoundations foe its future cultural and social Tecolote is a fire area about 1 meter in diame-development. On Santa Rosa Island and the ter which has been dated at im.».e, than 37,000adjacent coast of southern California the years ago. ploitation of the rich resources of the sea and The striking thing about these last three areasshoreline was under way by 10,000 years ago. is the similarity of the cultural evidence andIn the Great Basin the changing climatic con- the general conformity of the dates. ditions becoming effective about 8,000 years I wish to mention one more bit of evidenceago produced a more arid environment and re- even though it comes from east of the Rockyduced the available food supply, forcing the Mountains in southwestern Alberta, but nearerpeople to exploit all available plant and animal the point of entry to the New World. On theresources. Subsistence became hardly more east hank of Oldman River about 9 miles north-than marginal. The economy prevented the de- east of Taber a field party of the Geologicalvelopment of any social organization above the Survey of Canada found some bones of a hu-minimum for survival. man infant. The significance of the discovery On the Columbia Plateau along the Middle was not realized at the time, for it was onlyColumbia and Lower Snake rivers by 9,000 after the bones had been cleaned in the labo-and perhaps even more years ago, the salmon, ratory that they were recognized as human. Asso richly supplied by the Columbia, became a result further study continued at the area andthe staple food in the economy, once methods specimens of wood were found for dating theof taking the fish were perfected. Of course to bones. The bones were found about 40 feetthis were added various roots, bulbs, fruit, and below the base of the Late Wisconsin till andgame. The nature of the salmon runs and the in alluvium deposited by a slowly aggradingfact that good fishing sites were not (Weld), dis- river. The ice sheet passed across this sectiontributed gave rise to a system of exogamous of Alberta about 23.000 years ago and so themarriages, that is outside the village, which in bones should be older than that: as a matter ofturn provided a network of kin in different fact much older for they were buried under 40areas.' Thus a family without access to a good feet of alluvium. Two C-14 dates from wood 7.I am indebted to .\1r. David L. Cole. Acting Director of the apparently closely associated with the bones Museum of Natural History of the University of Oregon, for this observation passed on to me more than ten years ago, are more than 32.000 and more than 37.000 Cole carried out the extensive archaeological salvage work years ago. Stalker, the party chief, believes in the John Day Dam reservoir on the Columbia River. The that the time of their deposition may be as much similarity of housekeeping objects and diversity of projectile point types lead him to infer that women upon marriage left as 60.000 years ago. In this case the overriding their parental families to join those of their husbands' and glacier did not destroy the human evidence pro- thus, eventually, a fairly common variety of housekeeping materials was spread throughout the area. Men on the other tected by the deep mantle of alluvium. hand retained the local traditions of their group. 10 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.20 fishing site probably had relatives at sonic placethe frontiers of Imperial Rome. Toynbee's or places to which it could go to share the fish-"Challenge and Response" theory does not ing at a favorable location. Families camehelp us, for while we may recognize the "re- down-river to meet the salmon runs and fol-sponse" we are completely in the dark about lowed them slowly up-river. It is quite likelythe "challenge." that this system of cooperating and interde- American archaeology has little room for pendent kin groups was a major, if not thethe humanist's approach; itis presently too major, factor in producing the pacific characterinterested in the development of techniques of this society. Peaceful coexistence was thewhich will hopefully permit it to he classed as price to pay for this cooperative kin organiza-one of the "hard nosed" sciences in the hier- tion essential for the maintenance of the econ-archy of disciplines, an unattainable aim if it omy and life itself. be the study of human prehistory. My approach The Great Basin culture also was unwarlike,has been largely the study of the sweep of major Init for a different reason; at its marginal sub-forces and the interaction of human beings sistence level it could not afford the luxury ofwith them. I would not want to leave the im- warfare. pression that I see man as the victim of these Third. two great population movements tookforces but his actions cannot lie understood place about 1.000 years ago but in differentwithout reference to them. Early Man, like us, places. One started probably in British Co-was a population with wide ranging intellect, lumbia and the other at the southern tip of thefeelings of love and compassion, hate and Sierra Nevada Mountains. The first consistingjealousy, appreciation of beautiful objects and of Athapascan speaking peoples, saw one groupthe Nvillingness to do sloppy work. Prehistory move out of the homeland eventually to arriveis the story of human beings like ourselves act- in northwestern California and southwesterning out the drama on a set of different stages. Oregon; another group which departed some-The archaeologist is not less a scientist for being what later eventually arrived in the Southwestat the same time a humanist; in terms of his and comprise the Apachean-Navajo speakers.field probably the better scientist. The second group called Numic speaking We archaeologists have an extremely limited peoples spread rapidly eastward across theview of the life of the people whose artifacts Great. Basin in three main elements startingwe recover. We do not know their myths which from the southern end of the Sierra Nevada:validated their value systems nor the tales by the Southern Paiutes or Utes in the south, thewhich their imaginative life was given play in Shoshones in the center, and the Northern Pai-fantasy. We should not substitute our limited utes in the north. The Utes expanded to theknowledge for their reality. That there was western Plains and became horse riding In-more to their lives than just the struggle to sur- dians. The Shoshoneans extended their areavive is shown by the care men lavished on across the Rocky Mountains to the plains andweapons, women on basketrythe humblest of became the fatuous equestrian Comanche. Thehousehold goodsand the ceremonial objects Northern Paiute never passed out of the Greatwhich they made. i, as other archaeologists, Basin beyond perhaps a foothold in the south-have excavated weapons which could only have ern Columbia Plateau. Each of these groupsbeen given their elegant finish to delight the continued to Occupy its Great Basin territory.beholder. The artistry lavished by the maker What motivation lay behind these expansion-did not increase the lethal capacity of the ist movements? Isit of any significance thatweapon. And I have dug from the dirt and filth they occurred about the same time in humanof caves fragments of exquisite basketry which history? One is reminded of the great move-give pleasure because of the skill with which ments of the Germanic tribes which swept overthe originals were tmuk and the elegance of 1973CRESSMAN: AN APPROACH TO FAR WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN PREHISTORY 11 the decoration applied. Simple. woven. undec-or we avoid their consideration. This man-en- orated baskets would have served the house-vironment relation adds a proper dimension keeping needs but these people went beyondto this series of events of epic proportion. I can that and added intricacy of fabrication andIntt suggest some of them. Fears of the known: imaginative designs to give pleasure to thethe dire wolf. the sabre-tooth eat, the jaguar, beholder. and other predators: the fears of the unknown: Certainly on the perceptual world these peo-the seemingly limitless bogs, dark forests, des- ple imposed for their safety and assurance. aerts. volcanic eruptions, ice fields, and even world of imaginative fantasy which gave Mean-that angry or that glimmering sea'' were as ing to it. What these myths were no one \villmuch a part of their world as the understood ob- ever know but one can be sure that with theirjects giving rise to their fears. Hardships and acceptance they provided an orderly worldgenial environments are part of the picture. If in which life was tolerable, even though thewe keep the human part of the problem in mind, myths were fanciful. They must have learnedthe non-human aspects gain added significance. early, as Shelley so eloquently writes -To look Even then, at the best, perhaps Our under- through thin and rainbow wings upon the shapestanding will riot transcend that of the poet who of death.- The shaman must many times havewrote: been far more important to both the individual \Ve are the Pilgrims, master: we shall go and the social group than the hunter. These Always a little further: it may be were human beings whose epic behavior pro- Beyond that last blue mountain barred with vides our problem and its true dimensions be- snow, come meaningful only if that salient fact is Across that angry or that glimmering sea. kept in mind. \Ve travel not for trafficking alone: If one wishes to grasp something of the full By hotter winds our fiery hearts are meaning of this human experience I have been fanned: discussing he must explore it imaginatively in For lust of knowing what should not be terms of problems met and solved or unsolved, known the experiences faced by men, women, and their We make the golden journey to children. The thousands of miles of often fright- Samarkand. ful landscape which were eventually crossed It was ever thus. and even lived in are part of the scene. We talk Men are unwise and curiously planned. of tundra. taiga, mountains, ice-free corridors, predators and the lack of them but the effects James Elroy Hecker: of these on the human experience escapes us The Golden Journey to Samarkand. PUBLICATIONS of the Museum of Natural History University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon

Bulletins Titles Price

No. 1 Cenozoic Stratigraphy of the Owyhee Region. Southeastern Oregon, by L. R. Kittleman and others; 45 pages, 9 plates, 11 figures, December 1965 S1.50 No. 2Notes on Some Upper Miocene Shrews from Oregon, by J. H. Hutchison: 23 pages, 17 figures, March 1966 $1.25 No. 3A New Archaic Cetacean from the Oligocene of Northwest Oregon, by Douglas Etn long; 51 pages, 15 figures, October 1966 S1.50

. 4The Archaeology of a Late Prehistoric Village in Northwestern California, by Frank C. Leonhardy; 41 pages, 17 figures, March 1967 $1.00 No. 5Peromyscus of the Late Tertiary in Oregon, by J. Arnold Shotwell; 35 pages, 11 figures, June 1967 $1.25 No. 6Ethnomalacology and Paleoecology of the Round Butte Archaeological Sites, Deschutes River Basin, Oregon, by Ernest J. Roscoe; 20 pages, 4 figures, July 1967 S .75 No.7 Its Own Story: The Museum of Natural History : 20 pages no charge No. 8Geologic Map of the Owyhee Region, Malheur County, Oregon, by L. R. Kittleman and others; scale, 1:125,000 (1/4 inch equals 1 mile), September 1967 82.00 No. 9Late Tertiary Geomyoid Rodents of Oregon, by J. Arnold Shotwell ; 51 pages, 28 figures, November 1967 51.25 No. 10Refinements in Computerized Item Seriation, by W. B. Craytor and LeRoy Johnson, Jr.; 22 pages, 6 figures, March 1968 .75 No, 1 l Fossil Talpidae (Insectivore, Mammalia) from the Tertiary of Oregon, by J. H. Hutchi- son; 117 pages, 98 figures, July 1968 $1.25 No. 12Plants of the Three Sisters Region, Oregon Cascade Range, by Orlin L. Ireland; 130 pages, 34 figures, April 1968 $3.75 No. 13Historical Background of the Flora of the Pacific Northwest, by LeRoy Detling; 57 pages, 6 figures, July 1968 $1.50 No. 14Miocene Mammals of Southeast Oregon, by J. Arnold Shotwell; 67 pages, 3.3 figures, August 1968 $1.25 No. 15Item Seriation as an Aid for Elementary Scale and Cluster Analysis, by LeRoy Johnson, Jr.: 46 pages, 19 figures, September 1968 81.50 No. 16The Oligocene Marine Molluscan Fauna of the Eugene Formation in Oregon, by Carole Jean Stentz Hickman; 112 pages, 14 plates, 4 .figures, August 1969 $2.50 No. 17Pliocene Mammals of Southeast Oregon and Adjacent Idaho, by J. Arnold Showell; 103 pages, 42 figures, August 1970 82.00 No. 18Smilodonichthys rastrosus, a New Pliocene Salmonid Fish from Western United States, by Ted M. Cavender and Robert Rush Miller; 44 pages, 14 figures, March 1.972 $1.50 No. 19Journal of First Trip of University of California to John Day Beds of Eastern Oregon, by Loye Miller, edited by J. Arnold Shotwell; 21 pages, 7 figures, 1 map, December 1972 81.00 No. 20An Approach to the Study of Far Western North American Prehistory: Early Man, by Luther S. Cressman; 11 pages, August 1973. 8 .75 No. 21Guide to the Geology of the Owyhee Region of Oregon, by Laurence R. Kittleman; 61 pages, 4 plates, 36 figures, 3 maps, September 1973. $2.50 : , 4 Q+ S nay e

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