Northwest Coast

• Archaeology
• Early Period (10,000-5000 (±500) RCYBP)
• Late (Recent) Period (5000 (±500) RCYBP-contact)
• Early Period represents time of settling in to emerging Holocene environments (equivalent in some ways to Archaic elsewhere in N. America)

Early Period Archaeology

• Three regional traditions
• Stemmed Point
• Old Cordilleran
• N Coast Microblade

Old Cordilleran Tradition

• Tool complexes manifest unifacial cobble or pebble choppers & tools, and leaf-shaped bifaces
• Represents earliest occupants of region ca. 9000 RCYBP
• Two geographic contexts
• Coastal (including major islands)
• Lower reaches of major tributaries (Columbia, Frasier, Skeena)
• Inferences from Settlement Distribution:

Old Cordilleran Tradition

• Sites on lower reaches of major rivers probably situated to exploit seasonal salmon runs
• Milliken Site
• Located on lower Frasier River
• Situated in steep canyon in historically well known fisheries area
• Extensive & deeply stratified settlement
• Lowest levels date to ca. 9000-8000 RCYBP (Milliken phase)

Milliken Phase

• Earliest levels at the site contained extensive Old Cordilleran tradition assemblage
• Bifaces (Leaf-shaped & shouldered), scrapers on thin flakes, burins
• Pebble tools
• Fragments of polished soapstone, piece of obsidian, red ochre
• Limited seasonality data suggests late summer occupation (= when salmon begin migration)

Five Mile Rapids

• Located on lower Columbia River
• Situated in narrow, steep-sided canyon
• Historically well known salmon fishery
• Full Early Component (ca. 8000 ± RCYBP)
• Old Cordilleran Tradition lithics prevalent
• Some evidence of contact w/ Stemmed Point using groups in Plateau
• Extensive use of salmon (>125,000 salmon bones)
• Bone tools

Old Cordilleran Tradition

• Many coastal sites w/ Old Cordilleran tool tradition assemblages known
• Glenrose Cannery
• Bear Cove
• Dates range from almost 10,000 RCYBP to ca. 5000 RCYBP
• Most sites have early components associated with earth middens
• Shell middens not present, but some later occupations have shell in midden matrix

Bear Cove

• Early component underlies shell midden
• Early deposits extensive (1-1.5 m thick)
• Basal deposits dated 8020 ± 110 RCYBP
• Cobble (lg. Pebble) tools make up 48 % of lithics (mostly unifacial choppers)
• Spall & flake tools =36%
• 6 % bifacially flaked knives/points (leaf-shaped)
• Lithic assemblage quite similar to Glenrose Cannery

Bear Cove

• Subsistence system not similar to contemporary coastal sites
• Fish present
• Rockfish (72%)
• Salmon (10 %)
• "small quantities" of other fish
• All fish locally available
• Sea mammal bone twice as common as fish
• 80% sea mammal fauna from porpoise
• 9 % from northern fur seal
• Rest from three other classes of sea mammal (sea lion, otter, harbor seal)
• Terrestrial mammals make up 22 % of bone (mostly mule deer)

Glenrose Cannery

• On lower Frasier River near mouth
• Deeply stratified occupation w/ very deep early component
• Four dates range from 8150 ±250-5730 ± 125 RCYBP
• Dates may represent minimum time frame
• Excavator suggests range between 8500-4500 BP

Glenrose Cannery

• Lithics common & represent "typical" Old Cordilleran assemblage
• Cobble/Pebble tools make up 44 % of assemblage
• Leaf-shaped points present but not common
• Ground stone present but rare
• Bone & antler tools include wedges, punches, needles, awls, & a single barbed point

Glenrose Cannery

• Subsistence remains indicate emphasis on terrestrial mammals, w/ fish a distant second
• Terrestrial hunting focused on elk % deer; dog-sized canid bone present too
• Sea mammals relatively rare & mostly seal

Glenrose Cannery

• Fish remains indicate wide range of fishing strategies & emphasis
• Salmon most common
• Eulachon & stickleback next most common
• Eulachon & stickleback indicate spring occupation while salmon suggest later summer
• Shellfish (esp. bay mussel) common but not as dense as later shell middens
• Faunal remains suggest very diverse subsistence w/ terrestrial mammals & fish most important

North Coast Microblade Tradition

• From Alaska south to N end of Vancouver Island
• Lithic assemblages characterized by presence of microblades, pebble tools, and flakes, but very few bifaces
• Related to Denali Complex in Alaska but not the same (different technological traits)
• Dated 9000-5000 RCYBP
• Settlement is exclusively coastal except for occupation in Skeena River
• Paul Mason site in Kitselas Canyon
• Dated 5000-4300 RCYBP

Namu

• North of Vancouver Island in Fitz Hugh Sound
• Deeply stratified site w/ deposits spanning most of Holocene
• Similar artifact assemblage w/ sites to north but w/ developed bifacial flaking industry
• Fauna suggest broad use of most littoral & near shore resources
• Sea mammals
• Fish
• No shellfish
• Salmon (82 %), rockfish (4.5%) deer (2.7%) & seal (1.1.%) make up bulk of fauna

Early Period

• Two major traditions, N Coast Microblade & Old Cordilleran
• Following Greenberg, data used to suggest that Old Cordilleran represents descendants of first wave of immigrants (Amerindians), while Microblade Tradition groups were representative of second migration by Na Dene
• N Coast Microblade associated more w/ northern coastal & interior groups
• Old Cordilleran associated w/ groups to east (Plateau) & to south
• Both groups unlike later archaeological cultures, but both subsisted on foods that would be utilized later