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Despite these facts, it cannot be denied that a small portion of the material could antedate the deposition of the majority of the flakes, the bone, and the rock alignments. Even if this is the case, the artifact assemblage suggests that all of the cultural materials represented derive from the Frenchman Springs Phase. [28]
[29] Artifact Assemblage. The artifact assemblage from Cultural Component III was fairly large and quite diverse. Its 199 artifacts include several point types, as well as knives, core tools, scrapers, gravers, possible blades and cores, drills, and cobble scraping planes. In addition there were about fifty specimens similar to those called 'bolas stones' by Cressman (1960: Fig. 47b).
Projectile points, of which there are eighteen, form the most important part of the assemblage. Besides many leaf-shaped specimens, Cold Springs Side-Notched, Rabbit Island Stemmed, and rudimentary stemmed and corner-notched points are represented. Three of these specimens, a stemmed point (Fig. 11, o), and two rudimentary corner-notched points (Fig. 11, p, r), are of basalt, a material which at this time level is characteristic solely of the Cold Springs Phase. However, both of the Cold Springs Side Notched points associated with this component are of cryptocrystal-line silica. Looking at the component in terms of these associations, and assuming that the associations have been correctly made, the only artifact which might be considered out of place is a Rabbit island Stemmed point (Fig. 11, s). Again considering the assumption we have made to be true, this point could not be earlier than the rest of the assemblage, though it could easily be of the same age or of a slightly later period.
Thus, as a calculated guess, I would place Cultural Component III in the early Frenchman Springs period, transitional in some measure between that phase and the Cold Springs Phase.
Artifact Catalog.
Chipped stone artifacts (191)
Stemmed projectile points (8)
(3) Type 1 (Fig. 11, m-o)
(1) Type 2 (Fig. 11, l)
(1?) Type 2 (Fig. 37, p)
(1) Type 3 (Fig. 11, s)
(3) Type 4 (Fig. 11, p-r)
Leaf-shaped projectile points (6)
(3) Type 1 (Fig. 11, a-c)
(3) Style 1 (Fig. 11, e-g)
Triangular projectile points (1)
(1) Form 4
Semi-triangular projectile points (1)
(1) Type 2 (Fig. 11, h)
Lanceolate projectile points (2)
(2) Form 1 (Fig. 11, i-j)
(11) Fragments of projectile points and knives
Knives (40)
(2) Type 1 (Fig. 11, d)
(5) Type 2 (Figs. 12, i-j; 48, a-b)
(1) Style 7 (Fig. 12, e)
(1) Style 10
(1) Miscellaneous knife (Fig. 52, f)
(30) Knife fragments
Core tools (16)
(6) Type 1 (Figs. 12, f-g; 53, d)
(4) Type 2
(l) Form 1 (Fig. 53, j)
(5) Form 2 (Fig. 53, k-1) [29]
[30] Scrapers (56)
(9) Type 1 (Fig. 12, h)
Type 2 (16)
(1) Type Variant 2B (Fig. 12, k)
(1) Type Variant 2C
(14) Type Variant 2D
Type 3(4)
(3) Type Variant 3A (Fig. 12, c)
(1) Type Variant 3B (Fig. 12, d)
(5) Style 1
(3) Style 3
(5) Style 4
(4) Fragments of end or side scrapers
(10) Fragments of other scrapers
Gravers (2)
(l) Type 1
(1) Style 1 (Fig. 12, b)
(5) Micro-blades (Fig. 61, a-b)
(2) Micro-blade cores (Fig. 62)
(3) Drills (Fig. 11, k)
(4) Cobble scraping planes (Fig. 65, d)
(4) Miscellaneous cobble implements (Fig. 66, a)
Total number of artifacts (199)
FLAKES FROM BENEATH CULTURAL COMPONENT III
Approximately two to three feet below Cultural Component III alluvium from the Sunset Canyon fan was encountered. It contained flakes of cryptocrystalline silica numerous enough to leave no doubt but that they derived from cultural deposits. As only the surface of the gravel was tested, it is difficult to determine whether these flakes were a part of the gravel deposit or whether they were deposited on top of the gravels. In any event, being overlain by Stratum 3, they are at least late Altithermal in age. As no artifacts were recovered, nothing can be said of cultural affinities.
POSSIBLE COMPONENT BENEATH CULTURAL COMPONENT III
A collector named Mr. Daugherty (first name not noted) dug a deep hole in the beach in the area between House Pits 8 and 26 (Fig. 4). He dug beneath the modern beach into the sands of Strata 3 and 4 (Fig. 10). There he encountered a horizon containing basalt detritus and 6 corner-notched and stemmed points made on locally available basalts. These points are shown below.
Scale bar = 1 inch.
Click on image for more illustrations.
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In addition, he recovered one point made from cryptocrystalline silica that may be associated or may have fallen into the deeper part of the pit in slough from the overlying beach level. There is no photo, but I did make a field sketch, seen at the right.
This group, taken as a whole, may be related to some of the forms present in Cultural Component III, but appear to be made by folk who had little knowledge of local sources of raw material and may have been from someplace where they wer accustomed to using basalt. If this speculation is accurate, then this assemblage would fall between Cultural Components II and III.
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CULTURAL COMPONENTS IV AND V
Although they are designated differently and their assemblages catalogued as discrete groups, it is very probable that Cultural Components IV and V are really only one component, a portion of which has been altered slightly through weathering and erosion. Accordingly, they will be dealt with in the same discussion.
Stratigraphy. Cultural Components IV and V were encountered in the lower portion of Stratum 4 in the House Pit 15 excavations (Figs. 4, 5 and 6). They are underlain by Cultural Com¬ponent II of the Vantage Phase and overlain by several components of the Quilomene Bar Phase. Cultural Component IV is stratigraphically earlier and consists of scattered lenses of midden in which artifacts, bone and chipping detritus, fine flecks of charcoal, and a hearth were encountered. Cultural Component V directly overlies Cultural Component IV, but unlike the latter was distributed over the entire area of the excavation. It is not characterized by any stain. The only thing which distinguished it from the matrix sand is a concentration of cultural debris. [30]
To keep within the final publication budget, it was necessary to shorten the report by removing a number of figures and the accompanying text. This figure, which shows the excavation units in Cultural Component IV, was one such figure. During the final three years of excavation, the river partially flooded the excavation, so each year a new excavation had to be established. The smaller sounding represents the first year of excavation in CCIV, while the larger represents the second year. The filled area is a spread of charcoal stained sand with the remains of a hearth at it's center. Most of the artifacts came from the charcoal stained area.
[31] Because of the odd distribution of Cultural Component IV and the way it is blanketed by Cultural Component V, it is probable that the latter is merely the weathered surface of the former.
Artifacts from Cultural Components III and IV.
Artifact Assemblages (Figs. 13 and 14). In a general way the artifact assemblages bear out this conclusion, although a few minor differences might possibly suggest a very slight time gap between the two. Each component contains Rabbit Island Stemmed points, small leaf-shaped points, ground and drilled steatite, scrapers, knives, bone and chipping detritus, and the like. However, Cultural Component V also contained Quilomene Bar Base-Notched points, incised bone, and graphite pendants. Although the presence of a characteristically later point type might suggest that Cultural Component V was indeed more recent, it should be pointed out that the assemblage from this component (124 artifacts) is four times that of Cultural Component IV (28 artifacts). Thus, such inequities of distribution might easily occur.
For these reasons Cultural Components IV and V are best treated as a single component. However, the artifact catalogs will be presented separately.
The Artifact Catalog for Cultural Component IV.
Chipped stone (26)
Stemmed projectile points (1)
(1) Type 3 (Fig. 13, c)
Leaf-shaped projectile points (2)
(2) Style 1 (Fig. 13, a-b)
(2) Projectile point or knife fragments
Knives (6)
(1) Type 2 (Fig.13, e)
(1) Style 9 (Fig. 13, d)
(4) Knife fragments
Core tools (1)
(1) Type 1 (Fig. 13, g)
Scrapers (5)
Type 2 (1)
(1) Type Variant 2D
Type 3(1)
(1) Type Variant 3A
(1) Style 1
(2) Scraper fragments
Gravers (1)
1) Style 1 (Fig. 13, f)
(8) Utilized flakes
Stone tools of percussion (1)
Hammerstones (1)
(1) Style 1
(1) Ground and drilled steatite (Fig. 13, h)
Total number of artifacts (28)
Artifacts which Derive from Cultural Components IV or V. The following artifacts occurred at the contact between Cultural Components IV and V, and in material at the bottom of Cultural Component V which was very lightly stained. [31]
[32]
Chipped stone artifacts (34)
Stemmed projectile points (3)
(3) Type 3 (Fig. 13, l-m)
(4) Projectile point or knife fragments
Knives (6)
(1) Style 8 (Fig. 13,i)
(5) Knife fragments
Core Tools (2)
(1) Type 1 (Fig. 13, k)
(1) Type 2
Scrapers (7)
(3) Type 1
(2) Fragments of end or side scrapers
(2) Fragments of other scrapers
Gravers (1)
(1) Style 1
(11) Utilized Flakes
(1) Basalt spall scraper
Stone tools of percussion (1)
Hammerstone (1)
(1) Style 1
Total number of artifacts (36)
Artifact Catalog for Cultural Component V. Cultural Component V was much more extensive than Cultural Component IV and, expectedly, yielded many more artifacts.
Artifacts from Cultural Component V.
Chipped stone artifacts (113)
Stemmed projectile points (10)
(7) Type 3 (Fig. 14, a-f)
(1) Type 4 (Fig. 14, g)
Type 5 (2)
(1) Type Variant 5A (Fig. 14, i)
(1) Type Variant 5B (Fig. 14, h)
Leaf-shaped projectile points (1)
(1) Type 1 (Fig. 14, j)
(15) Projectile point or knife fragments
Knives (12)
(1) Type 1
(1) Style 1
(1) Form 4 (Fig. 14, 1)
(1) Miscellaneous knife (Fig. 14, k)
(8) Knife fragments
Core tools (3)
(3) Type 1 (Fig. 53, b)
Scrapers (30)
Type 2 (6)
(6) Type Variant 2D
Type 3 (2)
(2) Type Variant 3A (Fig. 14, n) [32]
[33] (6) Style 1
(2) Style 3
(1) Style 4
(2) Fragments of end or side scrapers
(11) Fragments of other scrapers
Gravers (2)
(2) Type 1 (Fig. 14, m)
(40) Utilized flakes
(1) Edge-ground basalt spall
(2) Miscellaneous flaked cobble tools
Beads and pendants of stone (3)
(3) Style 2 (Fig. 14, r-t)
(1) Piece of ground and drilled steatite (Fig. 14, o)
Bone and antler artifacts (4)
Projectile points (1)
(1) Style 1 (Fig. 14, p)
Beads and pendants (2)
(2) Fragments of incised bone objects
(1) Fragmentary bone artifact (Fig. 14, q)
Total number of artifacts (124)
Discussion. By comparing Figures 11 and 12 with Figures 13 and 14 it will become obvious that some potentially important differences exist between the assemblages from Cultural Component III on the one hand and Cultural Components IV and V on the other. Can such diverse assemblages from the same site represent the same phase? The curious fact is that neither of these assemblages is especially representative of the Frenchman Springs Phase. The Cultural Component III assemblage may be interpreted as transitional between the Cold Springs and Frenchman Springs phases, while the assemblages from Cultural Components IV and V are transitional between the Frenchman Springs and Quilomene Bar phases. It should be added, however, that the projectile point assemblage from Cultural Component III is so marginal to normal Frenchman Springs assemblages that it may actually prove to be the representative of an as yet unidentified phase of short duration which fits in between the Cold Springs and Frenchman Springs phases.
Based on a C14 date of about 2250 B.C. from a Cold Springs component at a site (45YK5) north of Priest Rapids, it is estimated that Cultural Component III dates from between 1600 and 2000 B.C. Cultural Components IV and V appear to be significantly more recent, geological estimates and typological comparisons placing them between 800 and 1200 B.C.
Shortly after these estimates were made, Dr. Greengo of the University of Washington obtained a C14 date from a more typical Frenchman Springs component at Schaake Village, a site located a few miles south of 45KT28 (American Antiquity 1964: Notes and News). This date, 1450 B.C., falls between and confirms the inferential age estimates for Cultural Component III and Cultural Components IV and V.
The Areal Distribution and Characteristics of the Frenchman Springs Phase. Frenchman Springs Phase components appear to be widespread in the western Plateau south of the Okanogan Highlands, but as yet remain unreported from much of the nuclear and all of the eastern portions of the Plateau. The most northerly, well-documented occurrences are confined to 45KT28, Schaake [33/34] Village (Swanson 1962a; 1962b), Cedar Cave (Swanson 1962a), and 45GR27 (Daugherty 1952).* Moving further south, we find only one well-documented occurrence of the Frenchman Springs Phase, Rabbit Island I (Crabtree 1957). The early levels of another site, located at the confluence of Wenas Creek and Yakima River, have also been described as closely related to the Frenchman Springs Phase (Warren 1959; Swanson 1962a), but the early artifact assemblage from this site is not duplicated elsewhere in the Plateau and its age and relationship to the Vantage sequence are therefore equivocal.
As with all of the earlier phases represented in the Vantage locale, it is most difficult to define adequately the discriminating characteristics of the Frenchman Springs Phase. The single best characteristic artifact type is the Rabbit Island Stemmed Point (see Type 3). Unfortunately artifact assemblages for the Frenchman Springs and other phases adjacent to it in time and space are too small to point to very many other categorical differences. In the Vantage locale flaked cobble choppers and scraping planes evidently disappear at the beginning of the Frenchman Springs Phase, while leaf-shaped points disappear at the beginning of the Quilomene Bar Phase. Other implements in use during the Frenchman Springs Phase include semi-triangular projectile points or knives, gravers, scrapers of virtually all varieties, both round and elongate core tools, pestles, edge-ground cobbles, grinding slabs, bone points, antler splitting wedges, bone projectile points, and awls(?). More exotic artifacts which have been recovered include an antler comb, a quartz crystal pendant, graphite pendants, mussel shell disc beads, ground and drilled steatite, a tubular pipe, incised bone objects, and a ground slate tabular object.
Though documented Frenchman Springs components are very few, they nevertheless reflect a variety of site types and ecological environments. Vantage Cave was, at least in part, used for purposes of storage, the 45KT28 and Schaake Village components evidently represent hunting stations, 45GR27 was centered around a large roasting pit surrounded with hopper mortars and probably represents a camas roasting station, and Rabbit Island I was a burial site. These sites and their respective assemblages clearly reflect seasonal hunting and gathering patterns designed to utilize most of the resources which Plateau peoples considered important in early historic times. However, the absence of winter villages indicates that the economic round was organized differently from that of ethnographic times.
Although there is presently no evidence to suggest that fishing played a role in the economy, it would be hazardous to assume that such a potentially important resource remained totally unutilized. Further research, particularly along the tributaries of the Columbia River, may bring to light fishing stations.
*A fifth possible Frenchman Springs component is embodied by the Shalkop Site where two pit houses were encountered which Swanson (1962b) has assigned, respectively, to the early and late Frenchman Springs period. The artifact assemblage from the earlier pit house is too small to be of comparative value, but the projectile points from the more recent pit house may be logically interpreted as diagnostic of a late Frenchman Springs assemblage, at least in the absence of other data which would tend to support a more recent date for the site. Because the projectile point types recovered from the site also occur in small quantities in the Cayuse III Subphase, such confusing data might include Columbia Plateau Comer-Notched Points, Wallula Rectangular-Stemmed Points, Columbia Plateau Side-Notched Points, or a number of other stemmed and shouldered varieties common in late prehistoric times. Although the total artifact sample is small, the fact that such point types were not recovered strongly supports Swanson's interpretation of the age of the Shalkop assemblage. Until we have more data bearing on this problem I am hesitant about assigning the Shalkop Site to any cultural period or phase. [34]
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LAST REVISED: 27 DEC 2014
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