Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Raw Material Usage And Stone Tool Manufacture In The Elwha River Valley, Zachary C. Allen Jan 2021

Raw Material Usage And Stone Tool Manufacture In The Elwha River Valley, Zachary C. Allen

All Master's Theses

Archaeological investigations stemming from the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams of the Elwha River Valley in 2014 resulted in the identification of nine archaeological sites and collection of 6,870 pre-contact lithic artifacts, primarily composed of fine-grained volcanic stone. Regional models of this raw material usage and site location within a glacially-carved riverine environment place these sites within the Old Cordilleran/Olcott cultural tradition that has been widely observed in the Salish Sea. This study is focused on the variation in raw materials used in the production of stone tools in the Elwha River Valley to understand if similar …


Evaluating The Analytical Contribution Of 1/8-Inch (0.32 Centimeter) Lithic Debitage At The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45pi408), David R. Davis Jan 2021

Evaluating The Analytical Contribution Of 1/8-Inch (0.32 Centimeter) Lithic Debitage At The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45pi408), David R. Davis

All Master's Theses

Due to a relatively recent trend toward universal use of screens with ⅛-inch (0.32 cm) mesh-sized openings, archaeologists in the Pacific Northwest have expressed concerns regarding the overall utility of collection and analysis of 0.32 cm (⅛-inch) mesh-sized lithic debitage. Recovering and analyzing these small-sized artifacts is a time-intensive endeavor that adds costs to fieldwork and laboratory tasks. The information potential from attribute analysis of 0.32 cm (⅛-inch) mesh-sized lithic debitage when a site’s lithic assemblage consists of mainly debitage is largely missing from the programmatic literature. The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45PI408), located on the slopes of Mount …


An Analysis Of Tachylyte And Other Volcanic Glasses In Washington Archaeology, Mallory M. Triplett Jan 2021

An Analysis Of Tachylyte And Other Volcanic Glasses In Washington Archaeology, Mallory M. Triplett

All Master's Theses

Within archaeological literature, a discussion of volcanic toolstones from Washington State is uncommon. Washington’s volcanic glass landscape is relatively sparse, with low-quality sources scattered within and on the east side of the Cascades, including tachylyte, obsidian, and vitrophyric obsidian. Tachylyte is a volcanic glass that forms within low-silica, basalt flows while obsidian comes from high-silica, usually rhyolitic, eruptions. Vitrophyric is a textural term used to describe an igneous rock that has a glassy groundmass with conspicuously large crystals. The low-quality and dispersed nature of these toolstones are reflected in Washington’s archaeological record by the more common occurrence of out-of-state volcanic …