C. Melvin Aikens Archaeology of Oregon Published 1986 Second Edition U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management Oregon State Office C. Melvin Aikens, author Foreword The Bureau of Land Management Oregon State Office is proud to present "Archaeology of Oregon" by Dr. C. Melvin Aikens. This volume presents a synthesisof the information that is available concerning the prehistory of Oregon. Dr. Aikenshas analyzedthe archaeological and anthropological data; in addition, he has added the insights and conclusions that have come to him through twenty years of concentrated study of the subject area. The Bureau of Land Management publishes this study in recognition of its responsibility to make the information gained through its Cultural Resources Management Program available to scholars and to the general public. State Director Oregon/Washington Bureau of Land Management Ill Preface chapter is organized utilizing the same themes. Thus attention is drawn, for example, to the reliance The Great Basin, the Columbia Plateau, the Lower on salmon in the Columbia gorge versus the use of Columbia and Coast, the Willamette Valley, the roots, seeds, and small game in the northern Great Southwestern Mountains: these Oregon Basin. Such differences must not obscure, however, environments have been explored and their the fact that there is a fundamental similarity in the resources used by man for at least the last 12,000 broad utilization of available resources and in the years. The evidence of that use has been resulting annual movement from lowland to upland painstakingly collected by archaeologists and and return. It is useful to observe that the same historians, and their descriptions of past life styles broad organizing principle is found to some degree based upon that evidence have been published in in all non-horticultural groups to the extent that they hundreds of different articles, monographs and are free from constraint. Inferences are also drawn, books. Anyone wishing to learn about the prehistory whenever possible, about the changes in life styles and/or history of any particular area within the State that occurred through time. The lack of major, can find at least some of the relevant information clearly defined changes within narrow time spans is without the expenditure of a very great amount of a hallmark of Great Basin and Plateau cultures and time and energy. represents one of only a few cases where both culture and environment have remained stable over Gordon B. Dobbs published a general history of a period of several thousand years. Such stabilityin Oregon in 1977; a general synthesis of the culture has and will continue to evoke considerable prehistory of Oregon has not, until now, been scientific interest. published. The present work was written to provide the reader a broad vista of the various major cultures of Oregon that can be reconstructed from the remnants that have survived of those life styles. 1. Witherspoon Readers who are sufficiently intrigued can fill in the details for any area from the more specific publications listed in the bibliography. This book is one product of the Cultural Resources Management program of the Oregon State Office of the Bureau of Land Management. Cultural Resource Management programs were started primarily as a result of the National Historic Preservation Act and Executive Order 11593. By 1975 archaeologists were working in most Federal land managing agency offices. An obvious first step in program development was the compilation of all of the archaeological data available. The resulting literature surveys were done in a more or less standardized format and came to be known as Cultural Resources Overviews. The overviews were in most cases done by contract and so involved the efforts of many different individuals. By 1981 most of the overviews for Oregon were completed and essentially all of the archaeological data for Federallymanaged lands in Oregon wasavailable in twentydocuments. These are open tothe public as researoh or reference sources; however, only a few copies were made and the format and style reduce their appeal to the general public. This synthesis of the material covered in these twenty overviews was written to provide readers who are interested with an introduction to all of those people who found their way into Oregon prior to Lewis and Clark. A major goal is to document the differing adaptations that groups have made to the various environments. In order to accomplish this goal each V Acknowledgments It gives me great pleasure to thank first of all Y. T. (Jack) Witherspoon of the Bureau of Land Management for the impetus and sustainedsupport he contributed to the production of this book, from its inception through to final publication. Phil Carroll and Don Smurthwaite, also of the BLM, made all but a few of the original photographs;new photographs for the second edition were madeby Gary Haase. BLM, who was responsible for graphic design and art direction; Shirley Wescott, BLM, carried out the word processing and typesetting; and Judy Briney, Eva Williams, and Cathlin ORiIey. BLM. drafted the illustrations and maps. William G. Loy of the University of Oregon generously permitted and collaborated in the adaptation of figures 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1. 5.1, and ai frommaps originally published in the ATLAS OF OREGON. Martha Frankel and Pamela Endzweig assistedin getting together for photography the bulk of the archaeological specimens illustrated, whichcome from the collections of the Oregon Slate Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of Oregon. Don E. Dumond, OSMA director,gave permission to photograph the specimens, and made available the facilities of themuseum for the project. Richard E. Ross and David R. Brauner of Oregon State University offered valuable consultation on the cultures of the Oregon Coast and Southwestern Mountains, and Brauner made available for photography the specimens depicted in figures 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, and 6.6. Richard M. Pettigrew, OSMA, and Michael D. Southard, BLM, read the manuscript in draft and made much appreciated suggestions for improvements. Southard also gave very important and timely assistance in the large task of preparing the illustrations. Thelma Aman. Margaret Olson, and Christine Kirkpatrick, University of Oregon, all contributed to the typing of the manuscript. The Bureau of Land Management employedme on special assignment during thesummer of 1981 when this project was initiated, andas always the University of Oregon has provided support, facilities, and a congenial setting in whichto write. C. Melvin' Aikens VI Archaeology of Oregon Table of Contents Foreword III Preface V Acknowledgements Vi Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Great Basin 9 Chapter 3 Columbia Plateau 41 Chapter 4 Lower Columbia and Coast 69 Chapter 5 Willamette Valley 87 Chapter 6 Southwestern Mountains 109 Chapter 7 Ancient Oregon Cultures in Perspective. 123 References 129 vu 630 85 1150 ± 100 Fig. 1.1 Hypothetical stratified site with projectile points and 14C dated firehearths. VIII Chapter 1 actual age of archaeological sites. Typological Introduction cross-dating, like stratigraphic excavation, is along- Archaeology reconstructs the human past by established and basic technique, still extremely studying the objects people have made, and by important in archaeological research. plotting the occurrence of specific artifact types across space and through time. We knowfrom Stratigraphic excavation relies on the elementary everyday experience that members of any society fact that in a series of earth layers or stratalaid make things according to definite patterns, which down on a given spot over a period of lime,the reflect their commonly shared ideas about what is sequential order of the strata from bottom totop of efficient, or attractive, or stylish. Ideas about what the deposit shows the relative age of anyobjects constitutes proper form (or proper behavior) vary contained in the various layers. Much of the from group to group, and these ideas change over legendary care devoted to archaeologicalexcavation time. Traditional clothing styles, for example, differ is spent on the precise determinationof from country to country, and fashions come and go. stratigraphic sequence. because the recoveryof Thus archaeology, through the comparative studyof artifact assemblages from successive time periods ancient artifacts from a variety of different places, is essential to the analysis ofcultural change. Even can map outthe regions or cultureareas once without other dating techniques, applicationof this occupied byprehistoric peoples ofdifferent method allows the archaeologist to definecultural traditions. Bytracking changes over time in the periods and outline patterns of cultural change or artifacts made within such regions,it can trace the cultural stability over time. By itself 1however, course of cultural changeover hundreds or stratigraphic excavation cannot establish the actual thousands of years. age of archaeological finds.Though it can place artifact assemblages in proper time sequence Many techniques are available to the archaeologist relative to one another, the application ofother for determining the sequence of cultural techniques is necessary to provide agecalculations developments over time, and for estimating the age in terms of actual years. The mostimportant and of cultural events. But only threestratigraphic widely used of such techniques is radiocarbon excavation, radiocarbon dating, and typological dating. cross-datinghave