INTERIM ANNUAL REPORT HOKO RIVER ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT : Phase XIV, March 1, 1984 to June 1, 1985

Dale R. Croes

doi:10.7273/000008025

One phase (XIV) was the focus of attention this year, involving data analysis and synthesis from all seasons of excavation (1977 through 1984). The Hoko River Site Complex is a close spatial inter association of two distinct sites. One site, investigated for eight years, is a 3,000-2,000 years B.P. waterlogged spring-summer halibut fishing camp with excellent preservation of perishable artifacts. More recently, National Endowment for the Humanities support provided four years of excavation in a second rivermouth site that represents the last 1,000 years of regional use and is located within an undisturbed and spacious rockshelter. Unlike the upriver 'wet' site, the rockshelter contains up to four meters depth of faunal-rich shellmidden. This site is the first residential camp of its size recorded in a rockshelter along the Northwest Coast of North America. During the Phase XIII 1983 summer field season, we successfully concluded excavation of 'Zone 3 1 exterior and 'Zone 2 1 living floors in the interior of the Hoko Rockshelter site (45CA21). With our original request for support reduced, revisions were made in our excavation strategies to accomodate the needs of the research design. We were able to accomplish all our excavation goals with our adjusted excavation strategy, except for testing the deep interior (Zone 1). Since this remaining unsampled zone contains cultural materials essential in further assessing the overall patterns of resource use manifested at the site, we applied and received a $25,000 NEH Treasury Fund matching grant, and recently received the total $25,000 match from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust and private contributions. We, therefore, are about to leave for the 1985 summer season to properly sample the last remaining Hoko Rockshelter deep-interior zone. The Phase XIV academic year analysis has proceeded well, resulting in several preliminary synthetic reports (see Appendices A-F). Presently, we are at the peak of data analysis and recording for Hoko Rockshelter, and we hope to proceed into a major synthesis phase after Phase XIV final summer excavations, concluding with the final preparation for publication of eight years of excavation, analysis, and research of this distinct site complex. These data, and those better understood from eight years of research at the upriver Hoko River wet/dry site, are being used to test specific implications of our economic decision-making modeling (see Attachment E). This computer-based simulation modeling is presently being used to develop hypotheses outlining processes of cultural evolution on the southern Northwest Coast. We are using 3,000 years of site-use data within the Hoko River site complex to test many of these conclusions. This work provides not only a processual scheme, but provides a hypothetical framework as to how and why these changes would have taken place (Attachment E).

INTERIM ANNUAL REPORT HOKO RIVER ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT : Phase XIV, March 1, 1984 to June 1, 1985

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