THE AGE OF THE CAYUSE PHASE

[47] There are a number of available C14 dates which allow the beginning of the Cayuse Phase to be fixed between ca. 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. in most parts of the Columbia Plateau. The associations of most have not been published in great detail, so the following discussion will have to be very general in nature.

There is only one C14 date of relevance from the northern periphery of the Columbia Plateau: 580 ± 160 B.C. It comes from the bottom of Zone B2 at 450K78 and is associated with a series of house structures (Grabert 1966:29).

Along the western margin of the Columbia Plateau there is a series of four dates from the Vantage locale. (1) There is a date of 235 ± 60 A.D. from a pit house floor at 45GR77 (Dorn et al. 1962:7). It is associated with a typical Cayuse Phase projectile point assemblage. (2) There is a series of three dates which bracket the lower boundary of the Cayuse Phase at Schaake Village, a site just north of Vantage (Fairhalt et al., 1966:505). The fill of a house structure has provided a limiting date above the boundary of 430 ±110 A.D. It is associated with local projectile point types characteristic of the Cayuse Phase. Dates of 90 ± 110 B.C. and 830 ± 190 B.C. have been obtained from approximately the same stratigraphic position underlying the Cayuse Phase component. Since the date of 90 B.C. was obtained through the dilution of a small sample, it is probably less reliable than the earlier date even though it is not necessarily inconsistant with the regional evidence.

There are five published dates from the Middle Columbia which are associated with early Cayuse Phase tool assemblages and village sites. (1) There are dates of 85 ± 150 B.C. (Cole and Cressman 1961: Cultural Level 3; Crane and Griffin 1962:199), 160 ± 275 A.D. (Cole 1963:17), and 550 ± 150 A.D. (Cressman and Cole 1962; Trautman 1963:74) in association with house remains at Wildcat Canyon. (2) There is also a date of 80 ± 150 B.C. from the main burial complex at Wildcat Canyon (Crane and Griffin 1962:199). (3) There is a date of 210 ± 175 A.D. in direct association with a house structure at 35GM15 (Cole 1965:19).

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There are also five important dates available for the early part of the Cayuse Phase along the Lower Snake. All are associated with projectile point assemblages characteristic of local manifestation of the Cayuse Phase. (1) There is a date of 425 ± 125 A.D. from a house structure at the Harder Site (Kenaston 1966:82). Since the house pit was excavated into earlier Cayuse Phase debris, 425 A.D. is simply a limiting date on the phase's lower boundary. (2) There is a date from 45C01 of 230 A 165 A.D. (C. M. Nelson 1966). It is associated with a Cayuse Phase tool assemblage but not with structural remains. (3) There is a date of 100 ± 40 A.D. (WSU-129) from Stratum VII, Feature H, at Cave C, Windust Caves (H.S. Rice 1965; 1967: personal communication). Although this date was initially rejected, it is now under review again. It compares very well with other dates from the Lower Snake and other regions of the Columbia Plateau. (4) There are two superposed dates of 810 ± 240 B.C. (WSU-430) and 1193 ± 187 A.D. (WSU-431) from house structures at Three Spring Bar (Daugherty 1967: personal communication). Both dates are associated with Cayuse Phase projectile point types, including Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile points. [47]

[48] Still further to the east, in Idaho, the early Cayuse Phase equivalent is the Rocky Canyon Phase. C14 dates in association with house structures suggest that this phase began at approximately 100 B.C. (Butler 1966:125).

With the exception of the earlier dates from 450K78 and Three Spring Bar, the available C14 dates suggest that the Cayuse Phase began sometime between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. However, since most of the dates simply fix an upper limit for this boundary, it is possible that it could have occurred as much as two or three centuries earlier in the southern and western Columbia Plateau. The earlier dates may be explained as follows.

The date of 580 B.C. from 450K78 is substantiated by a date of 1070 ± 150 B.C. from 450K58, a nearby open site. Although the earlier date is not associated with house remains, both dates are associated with similar projectile point types, including a number of specimens which can be considered prototypic of the Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile point (Grabert 1966). These facts suggest that the Cayuse Phase began at least 300 to 600 years earlier on the northernmost fringes of the Columbia Plateau than it did in the western or central Columbia Plateau.

Although substantiation of the early date from 450K78 might first appear to constitute a tentative conformation of the early date from Three Spring Bar, two sets of facts strongly suggest that a date of 810 B.C. for an early Cayuse Phase component in the southern Columbia Plateau is at least five centuries too early.

1. The date does not agree closely with dates for comparable assemblages on the Lower Snake, from the Middle Columbia, or from the adjacent portion of Idaho. The hiatus of nearly 2,000 years between the two dated houses and an age of approximately 3,000 years for the upper flood plain stratum at the site may also prove inconsistent with regional stratigraphic interpretations.

2. The date is associated with an early Cayuse Phase assemblage which includes Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile points. Comparative evidence suggests that prototypes for such projectile points developed along the northern and northwestern margins of the Plateau in the first and second millenia B.C. (Warren 1959; Grabert 1966), while the oldest probable occurrence of a typical representative of the type comes from the Ellensburg Canyon at the mouth of Umtanum Creek, where stratigraphic evidence suggests that it dates from the first millenium B.C. (D. G. Rice 1969). The type subsequently spread into the Vantage locale at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase at which time it comprised over 70 percent of the stemmed projectile point assemblage. It then diffused southward along the Columbia River and eastward along the Snake River, regions where it is found in far less abundance until later in the Cayuse Phase. This pattern of diffusion is in direct conflict with the early date from Three Springs Bar.

It is possible that the early date from Three Springs Bar is the result of stratigraphic inversion due to the excavation of house pits. In any case, the comparative evidence indicates that it should be regarded with skepticism unless corroborative evidence can be produced.

REGIONAL VARIANTS OF THE CAYUSE PHASE

Introduction. As enumerated above, the beginning of the Cayuse Phase is characterized by the appearance of a number of fundamental innovations, including increased population densities, increased coastal trade, and large site complexes composed of semi-permanent villages, burial areas, rockshelters, and other associated features. These changes appear everywhere at about the same time and permeate the entire Columbia Plateau. [48]

[49] Although one might expect such rapid and widespread changes to be accompanied by a radically new and relatively homogeneous material culture, no such development occurs. In fact, exactly the opposite appears to be true, for only a few archaeologically observable changes occur in the material culture. These changes fall into two basic classes.

1. There is the introduction of totally new items of material culture, apparently limited to a few pieces of fishing gear, such as the composite harpoon and three-pronged salmon spear, and to new items of trade, such as Dentalium beads. In addition, projectile points tend to be somewhat smaller. Other than these innovations, which apparently accompany the appearance of the Cayuse Phase everywhere it occurs, the basic hunting-gathering equipment of earlier phases is retained in toto.

2. While obvious fundamental changes do not occur in the basic technology, typological changes in the morphological forms of many tools do change to widely varying degrees. For example, in the Vantage locale there is an abrupt shift in projectile point types, whereas on the upper portion of the Lower Snake new types of projectile points occur in only small quantities. It is probable that extensive typological changes occur in areas subject to the regional diffusion of local types, while areas of relative typological stasis represent regions in which diffusion was slight or centers from which diffusion was dominantly unidirectional. The regional diffusion of local types in some areas and their retention in other areas has functioned to produce a series of regional geographic variants at the very beginning of the Cayuse Phase. Although the precise limits and interrelationships of such regional geographic variants are still poorly understood, the following centers of regional variation can be outlined tentatively.

The Vantage Locale. The Vantage locale, extending from Priest Rapids northward to Wenatchee, is an area in which the early manifestations of the Cayuse Phase are typologically highly differentiated from the underlying Quilomene Bar Phase. Here the Cayuse Phase is marked by the sudden introduction of the Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile point (Appendix A. Type 6), which at once constitues 70 to 80 percent of all stemmed and notched projectile points. The Quilomene Bar Base-Notched projectile point (Appendix A, Type 5), the dominant type during the proceeding Quilomene Bar Phase, now occurs in frequencies ranging from 10 to 25 percent. Moreover, only a fraction of such projectile points represent the type variant which was most abundant during the Quilomene Bar Phase. Most of the remaining specimens represent newly developed or introduced variants. In addition, miscellaneous forms generally account for ca. five percent of the stemmed and notched projectile points. The use of a small indentation or notch in the center of projectile point stems is also introduced, flattened bone and antler projectile points first appear (Appendix A, Type 1), and elongate core tools disappear from the record (Appendix A, Type 1). The retention of preexisting local patterns, such as the use of basalt spall scrapers and bifacially flaked crushing implements, and the general absence of other types of flaked cobble tools, also serves to differentiate the Vantage locale from other regional centers of variation in the early Cayuse Phase.

The Middle Columbia. Although the work of Cole (1963; 1965), Cole and Cressman (1961), Cressman (1960), and Cressman and Emmons (1953) makes it clear that the Middle Columbia forms a separate center of geographic variation in the early part of the Cayuse Phase, published analyses are not exhaustive enough to allow a detailed statement of its characteristics. However, it is apparent that Columbia Plateau Comer-Notched projectile points were introduced at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase when they may account for as much as 25 percent of all stemmed and notched projectile points. Antecedent forms carried over into the Cayuse Phase evidently include a wide variety of heavy corner-notched projectile points, including some variants of the Quilomene Bar Base-Notched [49/50] point (Cressman and Cole 1963). Small, peripherally flaked cobble and pebble choppers are apparently carried over from earlier periods, and help to distinguish the Middle Columbia from neighboring regions. Many other distinguishing features may also exist, but the preliminary nature of the published reports makes it very difficult to generalize.

The Lower Snake. Early Cayuse Phase components known from the down stream section of the Lower Snake River (Kenaston 1966; H. S. Rice 1965: Stratum VII) resemble their counterparts in the Vantage locale and the Middle Columbia Region more than they do components of comparable age from the eastern portion of the Lower Snake. They are dominated by variants of the Quilomene Bar Base-Notched and Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile points which diffused into the Lower Snake from along the adjacent Columbia River. Simple contracting stemmed projectile points and Side-to-Corner-Notched projectile points (Nelson and Rice 1966) occur in small quantities, probably as retentions from the local technology which antedated the Cayuse Phase.

Further to the east, in the upstream portion of the Lower Snake, the early Cayuse introduction of more westerly forms such as the Quilomene Bar Base-Notched and Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile points was more sporadic and earlier projectile point types are retained in higher frequencies (C. M. Nelson 1966; Sprague and Combes 1966; Nelson and Rice 1966).

The retention of cobble spall scrapers and a wide variety of crude flaked cobble tools helps to set the entire Lower Snake Region apart from the rest of the Columbia Plateau.

Idaho. Butler (1962a; 1966:125-128) has constructed a series of phases for that portion of Idaho immediately adjacent to the Columbia Plateau. Here there is a change from the Grave Creek to the Rocky Canyon Phase estimated to have occurred at about 100 B.C. This break is equivalent to the Cayuse-pre-Cayuse boundary in the adjacent Columbia Plateau, the Rocky Canyon Phase possessing the essential characteristics of the Cayuse Phase.

The latter part of the Grave Creek Phase is characterized by Bitterroot Side-Notched projectile points, which are largely replaced by a wide variety of corner-notched projectile points at the beginning of the Rocky Canyon Phase. These points include many specimens which fall into the Side-to-Corner-Notched type which apparently diffused eastward from the adjacent Columbia Plateau at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. Although not fully published, it is probable that the Rocky Canyon Phase assemblages also contain a very small number of Quilomene Bar Base-Notched and Columbia Plateau Comer-Notched projectile points further documenting diffusion from the eastern margin of the Columbia Plateau. Persistence of features such as the edge-ground cobble, the mano-metate complex, and small numbers of Bitterroot Side-Notched projectile points produce the distinctive character of this region. [50]

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LAST REVISED: 03 JAN 2015