Thesis
Points in time: stone tool analysis as an indication of group movement at the Birch Creek site (35ML181), southeastern Oregon
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2010
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100232
Abstract
In this thesis I explore the question of occupational continuity at the Birch Creek Site (35ML181) in southeastern Oregon with a focus on the Middle Archaic. The site is located in the physiographic province of the Owyhee Uplands along the Owyhee River at what can be described as a transitional zone between the Great Basin and the Columbia Plateau. A series of thirteen radiocarbon dates from approximately 6,600 B.P. to 2,100 B.P. provided a means by which to assess the occupational history through discrete sections of time. Obsidian and chert comprise a near totality of the raw material used in the chipped stone assemblage from the site. Behavioral differences in the collection and utilization of these material types is considered the product of new groups of prehistoric peoples adapting to an unfamiliar landscape. This is recognized in the archaeological record as assemblages that differ significantly from all others. Three lines of evidence from the chipped stone assemblage were used to answer the question of continuity in the Middle Archaic. These are the raw material frequencies of chert and obsidian use through time, the source locations of obsidian identified at the Birch Creek site, and the established projectile point chronology of the site. As the data set is composed of material from discrete assemblages of time, any change or patterning in the data was used to identify periods of time when new groups of prehistoric people moved into the Birch Creek Site. Analysis of the relative raw material frequencies, obsidian source locations, and projectile point chronology indicate that new groups of prehistoric peoples inhabited the Birch Creek Site at different times during the documented 4,000 year occupational history.
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Details
- Title
- Points in time
- Creators
- Philip Robert Fisher
- Contributors
- William Andrefsky (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
- 99900525165401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis