Thesis
Geoarchaeological analysis of a Northwest Coast plank house: formation processes at the Dionisio Point site
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2009
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102525
Abstract
Since the later 19th century, the societies of the Northwest Coast have been recognized as complex hunter-gatherers. Archaeological research into the pre-contact history of these societies has been characterized as divided into two discussions, one concerning the evolutionary history of a complex hunting and gathering economies, and the other the rise of inequality. Increasingly, prehistoric plank house deposits are being seen as a nexus of these two research themes, providing archaeologists with the opportunity to explore the integration of ecology, economy, social organization, and culture at the local level. Research of this nature has typically focused on the spatial organization of evidence of production and consumption activities through stone tool, bone tool, and faunal remain analyses. This study broadens this research by focusing on plank house deposits as sedimentary data sets. The goal of this study is to present the results of geoarchaeological analyses that demonstrate that we can establish better links between models of plank house formation processes and archaeological data through quantitative methods based in the soil and sedimentary sciences. To this end, sediment samples were collected from confirmed house deposits at a major Marpole phase village site at Dionisio Point on Galiano Island in southwestern British Columbia. Using current models of plank house cultural formation processes and the extensive ethnographic record for the region, a model of the sedimentary signatures of several plank house architectural features was generated. This permitted the prediction of expected values for a series of geoarchaeological assays. Laboratory determinations were compared to model expectations. Soil texture, organic matter enrichment, inorganic carbonate enrichment, and electrical conductivity were proximate measures of the presence and intensity of human activity, permitting the differentiation of house from non-house deposits as well as features internal to these structures. House features, as expected, reflected a range of non-cultural formation processes that could not be directly assessed through the artifact assemblage. Moreover, sediments demonstrated that cultural formation processes varied within these deposits between functionally analogous features. This variation is best identified as reflecting socio-economic differentiation of the family units that made up the household
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Details
- Title
- Geoarchaeological analysis of a Northwest Coast plank house
- Creators
- James Patrick Dolan
- Contributors
- Melissa Goodman-Elgar (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525144901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis