Settlement Patterns on the Central Coast
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SETTLEMENT PATTERNS ON THE CENTRAL COAST i PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS ON THE CENTRAL COAST OF BRITISH COLUMBIA BY MARY LYNN TOBIASZ, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Anthropology and the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts McMaster University © Copyright by Mary Lynn Tobiasz, November 2015 All Rights Reserved i MASTER OF ARTS (2015) McMaster University Department of Anthropology Hamilton, Ontario, Canada TITLE: Prehistoric Settlement Patterns on the Central Coast of British Columbia AUTHOR: Mary Lynn Tobiasz SUPERVISOR: Dr. Aubrey Cannon NUMBER OF PAGES xiii, 216 ii Thesis Abstract Over the past half century, archaeologists have been interested in how the environmental variation of the Central Coast has affected settlement patterns. Archaeologists relied on ethnography and subsistence models to explain settlement distribution but were unable to analytically demonstrate influencing factors. The objectives of this thesis were to investigate: (1) the spatial arrangement of sites to examine the types of locations people utilized; and (2) test if the occupational history of a site is reflected by its geographic locations. In this project, site dimension was used as a relative indicator of settlement occupational intensity, and over twenty environmental attributes were tested. Analysis was systematically conducted at multiple spatial scales using GIS. In the first stage the location of shell middens (n=351) were compared against an environmental baseline, derived from a sample of random points. For the second stage, small and large shell middens were compared to test if their locations significantly differed. It was found that shell middens do show an association with certain environmental settings. For some attributes, there was an observable difference in the location of large and small shell middens. However, immense variability was identified and the environmental context of sites greatly determined whether locational preferences could be empirically demonstrated. Overall, large middens, more so than small middens, are located in areas with higher resource diversity. These conclusions support other studies that indicate the relevance of multiple determinants and emphasizes the local nuances of settlement patterning affected by environmental and cultural factors. My results oppose the simplistic and static notion about a prehistoric annual cycle of sedentary winter villages and seasonal resource- specific camps. Improvements to an understanding of settlement distribution can aid in contextualizing specific sites within their regional setting and contribute to our knowledge regarding larger cultural practices such as subsistence and land use practices. iii Acknowledgments iv M.A. Thesis – Mary Lynn Tobiasz McMaster University – Anthropology Thank you to those that offered me their guidance and patience Thank you to my friends and family for their support and love Finally, thank you to all the people that made this journey a little easier and more enjoyable 1. Hamilton, Ontario 45. Graham Schiebel 2. Woodstock 46. Lindsay Amundsen-Meyer 3. Cypress 47. Lance Evans 4. Eszter Bell 48. Gerry Oetelaar 5. Kimi 49. Kee Yong 6. Beth Tobiasz 50. Maddy Mant 7. Kari Carter 51. Dale Walde 8. Kandace Bogaert 52. Allee Jaagumagi Holland 9. Aubrey Cannon 53. Chelsey Geralda Denise 10. Julianna Rees 54. Andrew Dreyer 11. Rachelle Sangret 55. Melissa McDermott Dreyer 12. Lian Kwong 56. Yurek Tobiasz 13. James Conolly 57. Matthew Tobiasz 14. Lindsay Van Wert 58. Chris Paul 15. Anna Tobiasz 16. Laura Lockau 17. Daniel Schmidtke 18. Diane Doran 19. Rob Stark 20. Zack Batist 21. David Wills 22. Andy Roddick 23. Tyler Murchie 24. Meaghan Peuramäki-Brown 25. Kalyna Horocholyn 26. Jeff Dillane 27. Sean Doyle 28. Eric Toffin 29. Antonia Rodrigues 30. Eric Tobiasz 31. Mike Robinson 32. Delia Hutchinson 33. Colleen Hughes 34. Daiana Rivas-Tello 35. Christine Cluney 36. Madison Isenor 37. Joelle Ingram 38. James Williams 39. Dorian Jurić 40. Christina Rees 41. Meghan Burchell 42. Sally Lynch 43. John Silva 44. Brandi MacDonald v Table of Contents Thesis Abstract............................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ix List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. xi List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 3 Findings ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Thesis Overview .......................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2: Background on region and archaeology of the Central Coast ....................................... 7 The Central Coast Overview ....................................................................................................... 8 The People ............................................................................................................................... 8 The Place ............................................................................................................................... 10 The History ............................................................................................................................ 12 Archaeology on the Central Coast ............................................................................................ 17 Previous Survey Work ........................................................................................................... 17 Archaeological Sites .............................................................................................................. 18 Settlement Size Differences ................................................................................................... 20 Settlement Patterns .................................................................................................................... 22 The Northwest Coast Settlement Pattern ............................................................................... 22 Central Coast Settlement Pattern ........................................................................................... 24 The History of Previous Archaeological Research on the Central Coast ................................. 27 Methods and Definitions ....................................................................................................... 28 Results ................................................................................................................................... 29 Site Feature Preferences ........................................................................................................ 30 Temporal Trends.................................................................................................................... 31 Geographic Distribution ........................................................................................................ 33 Subsequent Investigation of Materials .................................................................................. 35 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 36 Conclusions and Recommendations ...................................................................................... 38 Geographic Information Systems for Studying Settlement Patterns ......................................... 39 GIS in Northwest Coast Archaeology ................................................................................... 39 vi M.A. Thesis – Mary Lynn Tobiasz McMaster University – Anthropology Similar Studies ....................................................................................................................... 40 Factors/Variables Considered ................................................................................................ 42 Issues of Scale ....................................................................................................................... 44 Number of Variables ............................................................................................................. 46 Conclusion of Similar Studies ............................................................................................... 47 Chapter 3: Methods ....................................................................................................................... 49 Methodology for Comparing Shell Middens to Environmental Baselines (Results Section 1) 51 Methodology for Comparing Shell