Occupational history and land use at Rock Creek Shelter (35LK22), Southeastern Oregon

Andrew Gordon Frierson

Rock Creek Shelter (35LK22) is a large basalt rockshelter located within the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Lake County, Oregon. The site was excavated in 1967 by graduate students and faculty from Washington State University. This field reconnaissance led to the discovery of a rockshelter that possessed a diverse artifact assemblage and a long occupational history, yet these significant findings remained unreported for fifty years. This thesis remedies this situation by providing an excavation report, a current typological analysis of the artifact assemblage, and presenting the results of several new and different types of analyses including accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of organic material, x-ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemical characterization of obsidian, and a quantification of the faunal assemblage, that were not available fifty years ago. Drawing upon previous archaeological research from the northern Great Basin, I address three research questions: (1) What were the primary functions and activities that took place at the site over time? 2) What do the archaeological materials at the site tell us about land use patterns of its prehistoric inhabitants? (3) Lastly, is there evidence in later cultural components at the site of artifact types or patterns of behavior associated with the Numic expansion? Based on the artifact assemblage, established chronology, and analyses conducted, I argue that the site was used for diverse activities and that this remained largely consistent for approximately 8,000 years. In terms of land use, I propose that the upland region east of Hart Mountain was utilized more extensively than other researchers have suggested. Furthermore, the site occupants were not tethered to the resource-rich lakes and wetlands in the neighboring valley to the degree that some have argued, and instead, were connected to people all over the northern Great Basin. Finally, there are no artifact types or recognizable evidence of behavioral strategies associated with the Numic expansion at the site. Rather, site occupation appears to cease prior to the estimated timing of the Numic expansion into this part of the northern Great Basin, which is thought to have taken place in the very late precontact period (after approximately 800 B.P.).

Occupational history and land use at Rock Creek Shelter (35LK22), Southeastern Oregon

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