The Web Pubs
Sunset Creek
by C M Nelson
Reflections
by Jay Miller
The Paper Pubs
Prelim. Report
Sunset Creek
Eratta
Culture Change
Solland Thesis
Supplements Catalogs
2014 Drawdown
Proj. Points
Blade Tools
Setting
Excavatiions
Features
Camp Life
45KT26
ID Bone
Stratigraphic Relationships within Cultural Component VII |
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[62] Because the subphase identifications can be no more accurate than the subcomponent sequence on which they are based, it is essential that the stratigraphic relationships between these subcomponents be thoroughly discussed. At 45KT28 the Cayuse Phase is synonymous with Cultural Component VII which in turn is coextensive with Stratum 5. Within this component, in which repeated aboriginal house building has disturbed much of the original internal stratigraphy, a reliable sequence of subcomponents could only be provided by a series of major site features, such as house floors, which could be interrelated [62/63] through stratigraphic or typologic analysis. This presented a particularly difficult problem because such features were unusually widely separated and therefore not directly relatable by the usual stratigraphic methods. A solution to this problem was provided by the House Pit 15 excavations in which five features of major importance were encountered in close stratigraphic proximity. Stratigraphic relationships between these features are depicted in Figure 19. The earliest of the features was evidently a repeatedly used earth oven and refuse pile with clear lithologic boundaries. It came to be designated Subcomponent VIIA (see Figs. 5, 18, 19, 20, 21). Two pit houses were intruded into Subcomponent VIIA and have been designated Subcomponents VIIB and VIIC (see Figs. 5, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22). Each of these pit houses possessed an encircling interior bench and a flat, central floor area, with other features such as outline and hearth areas differing in minor details. Although the precise stratigraphic relationships between these subcomponents is somewhat vague, such clues as over-all depth, house design, and associated artifact assemblages suggest that they are of the same relative age, Subcomponent VIIB probably being slightly older. |
Conventions Abstract Table of Contents Letters Figures & Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Definitions Setting Cultural Record Introduction Vantage Phase Cold Springs Frenchman Spring Quilomene Bar Cayuse Phase Characteristics Age Ethnography Salishan Stratigraphy  Cayuse I Cayuse II Cayuse III Discussion Summation Models for Prehistory Typology Stone Artifacts Flaked Stone Percussion Ground Stone Bone/Antler Tools Shell Artifacts Metal Artifacts Raw Materials Methodology Rockshelters References Cited |
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After a considerable amount of fill had accumulated in the depressions which were left by Subcomponents VIIB and VIIC, new pit houses of a different type were excavated into them. These possessed straight side walls and level floors. The earliest, which came to be designated Subcomponent VIIF, was excavated into the depression of Subcomponent VIIB (see Figs. 5, 18, 19, 20). The depression which it left was later partially filled by the subsequent excavation of Subcomponent VIIH (see Figs. 5, 18, 19, 21, 22), the pit house which was intruded into Subcomponent VIIC. [Field crews from the University of Washington encountered an identical situation in their excavations at 45KT28. A late house pit, evidently saucer-shaped, was found superimposed on an early-stepped house pit (American Antiquity 1962: Notes and News, 28:266).] When the artifact assemblages from these subcomponents were studied, it was discovered that the only apparent significant change had occurred between Subcomponents VIIF and VIIH. This change was defined principally by point types which remained stable throughout the earlier subcomponents but changed dramatically in Subcomponent VIIH. This change appeared at first to be somewhat anomalous because it did not coincide with a change in house types. However, with the extension of the House Pit 15 sequence it was shown to be an accurate observation and has proven historically reasonable in the light of known history and ethnography. Based on this overlapping sequence of house types and projectile point types, three periods were established as operative units designed to correlate the other house features at the site. Later these proved to represent the three subphases of the Cayuse Phase. The Cayuse I Subphase was defined by the presence of houses with interior benches in primary association with point Types 5 and 6. Subcomponents VIIA, VIIB, and VIIC fell into this category in House Pit 15 excavations. Elsewhere at the site the only other Cayuse I subcomponent proved to be House Pit 7 which possessed a series of interior benches; it came to be designated Subcomponent VIID. In the House Pit 15 excavations the second period, or Cayuse II Subphase, was represented by Subcomponent VIIF, a straight-walled pit house with an interior bench but containing artifacts much like subcomponents of the Cayuse I Subphase. Elsewhere at the site only one other major feature, House Pit I, provided a similar subcomponent, and it was designated VUG. Subcomponent VIIE, which the reader may have noticed was skipped, designates a refuse surface overlying Sub¬component VIID. Unfortunately there is not enough data to evaluate its sequential position with respect to any subcomponent except VIID. [63] [64] The third period, or Cayuse III Subphase, was represented in the House Pit 15 excavations by Subcomponent VIIH, where the introduction of several new point types defined a very clear break. House Pit 12 contained these point types in equally high relative numbers and, in addition, still more new point and knife types. This suggested that it was slightly more recent than Subcomponent VHH, and it was designated Subcomponent VII-I. Two other house pits (numbers 5 and 10) were tested and revealed a third type of pit house characterized by a circular outline and saucer-like floor with gradually sloping side walls. The fill in these house pits was only eight inches deep in the central area of the depressions and characterized by a very black, greasy-filling midden flecked with minute white spots, apparently organic in origin. The lip was still mounded around large sections of House Pit 10, the larger and deeper of the two tested. Although no diagnostic artifacts were recovered from these subcomponents, the freshness of the structural remains and house type distributions along the Upper Columbia suggest that they represent the last or nearly the last occupation of the site, probably in early historic times. They were designated Subcomponents VIIJ and VIIK. The final subcomponent designation, VIIL, was assigned to the artifact assemblage from the top six inches of Stratum 5 wherever it was tested at the site. This was the only arbitrary unit level that could be assumed to be relatively undisturbed by pit house and storage pit excavation. Though it undoubtedly varied in age from place to place through the site, artifacts recovered from it consistently indicate that Subcomponent VIIL may be reliably assigned to the Cayuse III Subphase. The letters which have been attached to the various subcomponents record no absolute sequence of events, but rather approximate such a system to varying degrees. Subcomponent VIIA is almost certainly the earliest, VIID being the only subcomponent possibly as old or older. Subcomponents VIIB through VIID cannot be ranked among themselves but are definitely of greater antiquity than Subcomponents VIIF and VIIG, and younger (with the possible exception of VIID) than VIIA. Similarly, although their ages relative to one another cannot be absolutely established, Subcomponents VIIF and VIIG are demonstrably younger than Subcomponents VIIA through VIID and demonstrably older than Subcomponents VIIH through VIIL. Subcomponent VIIH is slightly older than VII-I, and Subcomponent VIIJ and VIIK are probably virtually contemporaneous with one another, although younger than Subcomponent VII-I. Finally, Subcomponent VIIL embraces the entire Cayuse III Subphase. Within the tolerance limits established above, any particular sequence might have been chosen without changing the results of the analysis of Cultural Component VII. Where such choices were exercised they represent hunches of the author and admittedly may be incorrect. Artifacts from Undesignated Areas in Cultural Component VIIA large portion of the excavations in Stratum 5 lay outside the designated subcomponents. Because of extensive aboriginal disturbance in these areas, the artifacts from them can only be incorporated into the subcomponent sequence in a crude and often problematical manner. Other artifacts were encountered on the margins of subcomponents where the stratigraphy was not [64/65] completely clear-cut and have also been termed “undesignated.” Undesignated specimens account for approximately 25 percent of the total assemblage from Cultural Component VII. The following is a complete catalogue of such specimens. The probable positions which many occupy in the sequence of subcomponents have been estimated with greater or lesser degrees of specificity and are recorded in the appendix on material culture. Where estimates are not given, the artifact may occupy virtually any position in the sequence. [65] Catalogue of Undesignated Artifacts from Cultural Component VIIChipped stone artifacts (788)Stemmed projectile points (111) Type 5 (8) (1) Type Variant 5A (Fig. 38, a) (2) Type Variant 5B (Fig. 38. g, i) (2) Type Variant 5C (2) Type Variant 5D (Fig. 38, j) (1) Miscellaneous specimens (Fig. 38, r) Type 6 (87) (16) Type Variant 6A (5) Type Variant 6B (Fig. 39, p, r) (15) Type Variant 6C (Fig. 39, l, o) (2) Type Variant 6D (Fig. 39, aa) (12) Type Variant 6E (1) Type Variant 6F (31) Miscellaneous specimens (Fig. 39, jj) (5) Specimens in the process of being manufactured Type 8(6) (1) Type Variant 8A (1) Type Variant 8B (2) Type Variant 8D (Fig. 41, h) (1) Type Variant 8E (1) Type Variant 8G Type 9 (5) (5) Type Variant 9A (Fig. 40. e, l) Type 10 (2) (1) Type Variant 10B (Fig. 41, ll) (1) Type Variant 10C (Fig. 41, gg) (1) Form 1 (1) Form 3 (Fig. 42, d) (1) Form 7 (Fig. 42, i) Triangular projectile points (43) Type 1 (42) (1) Type Variant 1A (1) Type Variant 1B (Fig. 44, f) (40) Type Variant 1C (Fig. 44, l, o-p) (1) Form 3 [65] [66] Semi-triangular points and knives (5) (2) Type 1 (1) Type 2 (2) Style 1 (Fig. 45, n) Pentagonal points and knives (2) (1) Type 1 (1) Style 1 (65) Point or knife fragments Knives (145) (31) Type 1 (Fig.47, d, i-j) (7) Style 1 (Fig. 49, a) (1) Style 3 (Fig. 49, i) (1) Style 5 (Fig. 50. a) (2) Style 7 (Fig. 50, f) (2) Style 9 (Fig. 50, j) (1) Form 1 (Fig. 51, g) (1) Form 6 (1) Form 7 (Fig. 52, i) (3) Miscellaneous specimens (Figs. 51, n; 52, b, h) (95) Knife fragments Core tools (16) (1) Type 1 (Fig. 53, a) (14) Type 2 (1) Form 1 Scrapers (182) (30) Type 1 (Fig. 54, a, c-d) Type 2 (32) (4) Type Variant 2C (28) Type Variant 2D Type 3 (4) (3) Type Variant 3A (Fig. 56, e) (1) Type Variant 3B (33) Style 1 (Fig. 58, c) (6) Style 2 (9) Style 3 (Fig. 56, i) (3) Style 4 (Fig. 56, l) (27) Fragments of end and side scrapers (38) Fragments of other scrapers Gravers (7) (7) Type 1 (Fig. 59, d) (2) Drills and awls (Fig. 59, p) (1) Chisel (1) Bifacially flaked hand tool (Fig. 60) (3) Possible blades (Fig. 61, f, h) (205) Utilized flakes (Fig. 63, b, e) (23) Basalt spall scrapers (Fig. 64, b, h, j) (5) Miscellaneous flaked cobble tools (Fig. 66, e) Stone tools of percussion (15) (1) Pestle Hammerstones (9) (2) Style 1 [66] [67] (4) Style 2 (Fig. 68, e) (3) Style 3 (Fig. 68, b) Crushing implements (5) (5) Style 1 (Fig. 70, a-d) (1) Notched net weight (1) Pipe (1) Incised tablet (Fig. 75. a) (1) Ground concretion disc (Fig. 74, z) (1) Ocher pallet (2) Yellow ocher (5) Red ocher (2) Diatomaceous earth Bone and antler artifacts (100) Awls(23) (11) Type 1 (Fig. 76, g) (4) Type 2 (Fig. 78, a, c, j) (3) Type 3 (Fig. 79, j) (1) Form 1 (Fig. 81, a) (4) Awl fragments (1) Pin or needle (Fig. 82, d) Composite harpoon tips or barbs of three-pronged fish spears (4) (3) Type 1 (Fig. 85, r-s) (1) Form 1 (Fig. 85, o) Projectile points (1) (1) Type 1 (1) Digging stick handle (Fig. 86, a) (1) Spatulate scraper (1) Fleshing implement (?) (1) Splinter scraper or flesher Pressure flaking tools (12) (9) Type 1 (1) Style 1 (Fig. 89, f) (1) Form 1 (Fig. 89, b) (1) Form 2 Antler splitting wedges (1) (1) Type 1 (Fig. 90, c) (1) Bone chisel (Fig. 90, a) (1) Beaver-tooth engraver (1) Worked canine tooth (Fig, 91, a) (1) Percussion flaked bar of bone (Fig. 92, b) Beads and pendants (15) (5)Type 1 (10) Style 1 (Fig. 93, g-i) (1) Antler comb (Fig. 95) (1) Fragment of point, harpoon tip, or barb (5) Fragments of points, awls, or other pointed objects (6) Fragmentary antler artifacts (20) Fragmentary bone artifacts (6) Cut bone detritus (Fig. 96, d) (1) Cut antler detritus [67] [68] (1) Adzed antler beam Shell artifacts of aboriginal trade (10) Ornaments (9) (8) Type 1 (1) Type 2 (Fig. 97, f) Artifacts of utility (1) (1) Type 1 Total number of artifacts (963) [68] Bone/Antler Beads and pendants, Form 3, appears in the published report as coming from VIIUnd. However, it actually comes from VIIA. The totals have been corrected here and in the VIIA artifact summary. LAST REVISED: 12 OCT 2018 |