The western Archaic of California, the coastal areas, Plateau and NW Coast do not resemble Archaic cultures of the Great Basin very much
In western California, there was evidently great concern for the dead
--many buried in mounds
--grave good analysis has led some archaeologists to suggest there was a social complexity
that was not a simple egalitarian like that in other Archaic zones of the west
--several lines of evidence suggest a long-lived, ranked society with dominant lineages
for the following reasons:
Postulated that some individuals or lineages could manipulate the social and political system and extend their individual influences beyond limited tribal or ethnic groups
The trade assumes alliances between powerful individuals in distant locations (big men?)
Many local complexes --earliest is the Encinitas at about 7,000 BP, but followed by Topanga, Oak Grove, La Jolla, Little Sycamore and Channel Islands
Vary in artifact content, but milling stone is the marker, but hunting and finishing didn't necessarily diminish -- also sea mammal use
Assemblage is fairly typical Archaic, but a few interesting items
Among the best known and longest lived is the La Jolla (7000 BP-5000BP)
--a milling stone assemblage
--staple foods were acorns and seeds, shellfish, hunting
--both flexed and extended burials with some reburials under stone cairns
--in Campbell phase (5300 BP), the hopper mortar, basket attached to a rock outcrop with
asphalt, a pestle was used in it to crush acorns. Hopper held crushed acorns as they were
moved up and down by pestle
Central Valley
Rich valley between the coastal range and the Sierra Nevada
Earliest remains were deeply buried
At time of contact, it was a naturally rich paradise, well watered, full of game
Similar sequence, with a few variations
Windmiller phase at 4750-2250 BP
Burials
Northwest Coastal California
Earliest known Archaic culture is called Borax Lake, circa 6000BP
Known primarily from heavy lanceolate bipoints, and lanceolates with indented bases
Millstones with pebble manos and mortar/pestles found
Key feature is large shell mounds with mix of terrestrial and maritime animal bones
Animal effigy figures made of several kinds of stone
Steatite bowls, large ceremonial blades of red and black obsidian, indicating great stone working skill --some blades came from quarries more than 200 miles away
For California in general, most of the patterns dated after 500 AD are usually interpreted as prehistoric manifestations of tribes historically in those locations
The Columbia Plateau, the Snake River Plain and the Interior Plateau of southern British Columbia are extensive lava flows incised by strong flowing rivers like the Columbia, Snake and Okanogan
--aboriginal use is concentrated along the watercourses
Earliest cultures before 8000 BP are little known, from 7500-5000 BP show little change, with more variation around 2500 BP
Heavy Great Basin influence is recognizable during the middle period, but late are richer with penetration by the Pacific coast peoples, indicating a strong trade economy
The Harder Phase ( 2500 BP) is especially interesting
Umatilla Rapid- several sites with deposits 10 feet deep and a mile long along the Columbia
Pit houses appear-30 of them
Major use of the site extended from 3600 BP until after Lewis and Clark visit in 1805/6
L & C estimated 50 lodges and 700 people gathered for the salmon run
At Wildcat Canyon, the Harder phase sites had many superimposed pit houses, generally round, but some with squared corners, 3 feet deep pits, stone-lined fireplaces, House diameters 15-20 feet. Many had been refloored several times. Five deep earth ovens with chunks of basalt, for cooking camas and other bulbs
Small triangular points appear with long stems and deep corner notches, marking the appearance of the bow and arrow-greater range and rapid fire possibility
A large cemetery had 50 flexed human burials, and six dog burials
--dogs were similar to modern Siberian sled dogs
NW Coastal Areas have rich sites in Washington, Oregon and northern California
About 2500 BP, extensive use of sea is evidenced
People had ocean going vessels, built cedar planked longhouses, used cedar bark and milkweed fiber for cordage
Most well known sites are Hoko and Ozette
Both had excellent preservation due to the permanently wet climate and mud
Hoko
Extreme NW Washington.
Of interest are well-woven flat bags and conical hats of cedar bark, gill nets of cedar bark with stone sinkers still attached, wooden and bone codfish hooks, huge halibut hooks.
Ozette
West of Hoko on the Pacific side of the Olympic peninsula
A treasure trove --a 500 year old Makah village covered by a massive mudflow
6 cedar plank houses with shed rather than ridgepole roofs
Mud preserved most perishables
Meticulous excavation with water jets recovered wooden boxes, bone and wood figurines, wooden bowls and human effigy bowls (carved into the abdomen), canoe paddles, harpoons, whale vertebras with embedded harpoon points
Though more recent, the lifeways exhibited here probably are very like the Archaic - richness brought stability
Arctic and Subarctic
Obviously a huge area, with culture that was very stable from Paleo into Historic
--only the briefest overview --See Prehistory of North America by Jesse Jennings
(1989, 3rd ed. pages 194-222) for more detail
In the Arctic, we see hardy foragers adapted to one of the harshest environments
in the world
--survived on the harvest of the sea and land mammals , birds, and fish
--with no storable vegetation, there was no cushion for hard times
Arctic cultures were little influenced by cultures found south of the Canadian border
Paleoarctic ended about 8,000 BP. There is a 2,000 year gap in the record after that attributable to accidents of discovery or climatically caused absence of people in the region
By 6,000 BP there is a toolkit identified as Archaic, the northern Archaic was first discovered on Cape Krusenstern.
--small side notched, stemmed, crudely made chert points
Following this is the so called Arctic Flint or Arctic Small Tool tradition- a complex with wide distribution from Alaska to Greenland -- possibly ancestral to Canadian Dorset cultures.
Denbigh Flint is an example consisting of chipped crescent blades, or knives, blades and points, delicate burins, scrapers, harpoon blades, and Eden-like lanceolate points
It is spread all around Hudson Bay, spread due to climatic change according to some scholars
By 3,000 BP Norton complex develops from it and split into local groups
From that comes Thule culture by 2,500 BP to 1 AD
Norton and Thule lived on seaside locations, building sturdy semi-subterranean houses of rock, whalebone and driftwood, covered with sod and lined with skins - all had long downsloping cold-wells at the low end with a trapdoor into the house
Maritime hunting demanded boats, both the kayak (one man) and the umiak (many people)
Norton culture has some pottery, but it is not well made or fired. Most have some incising, and flat bottoms with a bucket shape
A major probable site is the Ipiutak village-huge with some 600 houses, most up to 20 feet square-thin debris level suggests relatively short use
Many artifacts suggest some sea hunting but more limited than at some sites
The site is famed for its delicate, elaborate art forms such as masks, snow goggles, chains, animal effigies and ornaments carved from ivory
Dominant geographical feature is the Laurentian (Keewatin) Shield - a huge area of 300 million square miles surrounding Hudson Bay-taiga (evergreen forest) surrounds the bay.
A wide range of adaptations befitting a diverse area
Arctic portion of the regions is part of the Arctic Small Tool Tradition, called pre-Dorset, Independence or Sarqaq, appearing about 3500-2000 BP
The Maritime Archaic persisted in Quebec until about 2500-300 BP followed by Arctic Small Tool and Dorset
Broadest pattern is the so-called Shield Archaic from about 7,000 to 3500 BP
Sites are small and widely scattered, but represent the first human habitation in interior Canada
Many sites like the Aberdeen site west of Hudson Bay, are related to hunting caribou
There are also connections to the Old Copper culture around the Great Lakes
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larry-zimmerman@uiowa.edu
University of Iowa Anthropology
08.20.98
in fact many Archaic developments foreshadow later periods: trade, treatment of the dead, elaborated social structures