Thesis
Variability in late prehistoric prey-use strategies of the southeastern Columbia Plateau: a test using the Harder Site faunal assemblage
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2005
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102802
Abstract
The economic pattern on the Columbia Plateau during the ethnographic period known as the winter-village pattern consisted of a suite of characteristics including pithouse villages, seasonal mobility, and reliance on the storage of surplus salmon and plant (especially root) resources. Over the past three decades of archaeological research on the Columbia Plateau, the question of how the winter-village pattern appeared and became established has become an important one. Various models have been suggested to explain the phenomenon. Most of these models focus on the appearance of one or two characteristics followed by gradual introduction of the other characteristics, and an increasing reliance on salmon and storage technology. Others recognize continuous variation and fluctuations in prey-use strategies over time. None of these models have incorporated faunal assemblage data from the southeastern region of the Plateau. In this study, analyses of faunal assemblages from the southeastern region of the Plateau demonstrate that it may have been characterized by a prey-use strategy distinct from other parts of the Plateau. Furthermore, temporal fluctuations appear to support models that emphasize the dynamic nature of prey-use strategies over the past 4,000 years of Plateau prehistory, rather than the gradualist models that suggest steadily increasing reliance on one resource. Several avenues for future research on the establishment of the winter-village pattern in the southeastern region of the Plateau are also suggested.
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Details
- Title
- Variability in late prehistoric prey-use strategies of the southeastern Columbia Plateau
- Creators
- Vaughn R. Kimball
- Contributors
- Karen Lupo (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900525080701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis