Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stoneware And Earthenware From The Beeswax Wreck: Classification Of The Dubé Collection And Discussion Of The Interpretation Of The Materials In Protohistoric Sites, Vanessa Renee Litzenberg

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past three centuries, items from the Beeswax Wreck have been discovered on Oregon's northern coastline near Manzanita, including stoneware and earthenware fragments. While the stoneware and earthenware were not noticed by beachcombers washing ashore until more recently, similar artifacts have been noted within Indigenous sites for decades. While most of the analysis of the artifacts found in protohistoric settings are used to provide proof of a wreck or potentially a marker of the start of the contact period, this study aims to provide some context to the stoneware and earthenware sherds related to the wreck. The goal was …

Archaeologists, The Public, And Collectors: Establishing A Regional Database Of Archaeological Sites On Private Land And Collections With A Process For Professional-Public Archaeological Research In The Portland, Oregon Area, Katherine Louise Tipton

Dissertations and Theses

Over the course of daily life, people engage with archaeology in various ways, including experiences with archaeology on their own land and as part of family collections of archaeological material. As a result, members of the public often hold considerable archaeological knowledge that professionals have historically overlooked. Recent scholarship focuses on the issue of incorporating the public and collectors into archaeological research and ways for capturing that information. Professional-public collaboration is particularly important in the Portland, Oregon area, where many archaeological sites are located on private land and there is a long history of collecting.

The goal of this thesis …

Lidar Predictive Modeling Of Kalapuya Mound Sites In The Calapooia Watershed, Oregon, Tia Rachelle Cody

Dissertations and Theses

Archaeologists grapple with the problematic nature of archaeological discovery. Certain types of sites are difficult to see even in the best environmental conditions (e.g., low-density lithic scatters) and performing traditional archaeological survey is challenging in some environments, such as the dense temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest. Archaeologists need another method of survey to assess large areas and overcome environmental and archaeological barriers to site discovery in regions like the Pacific Northwest. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology, a method for digitally clearing away swaths of vegetation and surveying the landscape, is one possible solution to some of these …

Sampling Fish: A Case Study From The ČḮXWIcən Site, Northwest Washington, Laura Maye Syvertson

Dissertations and Theses

Researchers on the Northwest Coast (NWC) are often interested in complex questions regarding social organization, resource intensification, resource control, and impacts of environmental change on resources and in turn human groups. However, the excavation strategies used on the NWC often do not provide the spatial and chronological control within a site that is necessary to document their variability and answer these research questions. The Čḯx^wicən site has the potential to address some of the limitations of previous Northwest Coast village site excavations because of its unique and robust sampling strategy, the wide expanse of time that it was …

Sablefish (Anoplopoma Fimbria) Scarcity And Zooarchaeological Data Quality In Northwest Coast Archaeological Sites, Reno Nims

Dissertations and Theses

Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) is a scarcely represented species in Northwest Coast archaeology, but its remains are abundant at Tse-whit-zen, a large, Lower Elwha Klallam village in modern Port Angeles, WA that was occupied over the past 2,800 years. Because sablefish flesh has high nutritional value and it can be easily captured from nearshore waters in its juvenile form, sablefish should have been pursued where it was available. Therefore, the scarcity of sablefish in many Northwest Coast archaeological sites could indicate this species was not abundant in past fisheries. However, current zooarchaeological reports do not contain sufficient information on …

Study Of Prestige And Resource Control Using Fish Remains From Cathlapotle, A Plankhouse Village On The Lower Columbia River, J. Shoshana Rosenberg

Dissertations and Theses

Social inequality is a trademark of Northwest Coast native societies, and the relationship between social prestige and resource control, particularly resource ownership, is an important research issue on the Northwest Coast. Faunal remains are one potential but as yet underutilized path for examining this relationship. My thesis work takes on this approach through the analysis of fish remains from the Cathlapotle archaeological site (45CL1). Cathlapotle is a large Chinookan village site located on the Lower Columbia River that was extensively excavated in the 1990s. Previous work has established prestige distinctions between houses and house compartments, making it possible to examine …

Building And Maintaining Plankhouses At Two Villages On The Southern Northwest Coast Of North America, Emily Evelyn Shepard

Dissertations and Theses

Plankhouses were functionally and symbolically integral to Northwest Coast societies, as much of economic and social life was predicated on these dwellings. This thesis investigates both plankhouse architecture and the production of these dwellings. Studying plankhouse construction and maintenance provides information regarding everyday labor, landscape use outside of villages, organization of complex tasks, and resource management.

This thesis investigates three plankhouse structures at two sites, Meier and Cathlapotle, in the Lower Columbia River Region of the southern Northwest Coast of North America. Methods consisted of digitizing over 1,100 architectural features, creating detailed maps of architectural features, and conducting statistical and …

The Spatial Distribution Of Tobacco Pipe Fragments At The Hudson's Bay Company Fort Vancouver Village Site: Smoking As A Shared And Social Practice, Katie Ann Wynia

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis represents one of the first systematic, detailed spatial analyses of artifacts at the mid-19th century Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver Village site, and of clay tobacco pipe fragments in general. Historical documents emphasize the multi-cultural nature of the Village, but archaeologically there appears to be little evidence of ethnicity (Kardas 1971; Chance and Chance 1976; Thomas and Hibbs 1984:723). Following recent approaches to cultural interaction in which researchers examined the nuanced uses of material culture (Lightfoot et al 1998; Martindale 2009; Voss 2008); this study analyzed the spatial distribution of tobacco pipe fragments for behavioral information through a …

Structural Bone Density Of Pacific Cod (Gadus Macrocephalus) And Halibut (Hippoglossus Stenolepis): Taphonomic And Archaeological Implications, Ross E. Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Describing prehistoric human subsistence strategies and mobility patterns using archaeofaunal assemblages requires archaeologists to differentiate the effects of human behavior from natural taphonomic processes. Previous studies demonstrate that differences in bone density both within and between taxa contribute to variation in element representation in archaeofaunal assemblages. Measurements of contemporary Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) skeletal elements using Dual Energy Absorptiometry (DEXA) and hydrostatic weighing revealed differences in bone volume density between elements and taxa.

Density values were highest in Pacific cod and halibut jaw elements; the lowest bone volume densities were measured in Pacific cod and …

The Holocene History Of Bison In The Intermountain West: A Synthesis Of Archaeological And Paleontological Records From Eastern Oregon, Nicole Anne Stutte

Dissertations and Theses

Intermountain West bison abundance and chronology is much debated, but little work addressing these debates has occurred in eastern Oregon. Historic records indicate bison were absent from eastern Oregon at Euro-American contact. However, during explorations in eastern Oregon in 1826 Ogden reported bison skeletons in a dry lake bed, suggesting bison once lived in the area.

This study reviews archaeological and paleontological records, and ethnohistoric accounts of early 19th century explorers, to synthesize the Holocene history of bison eastern Oregon. Bison NISP (number of identified specimens) was documented from site reports when available, and overall abundance was measured by number …

Public Outreach And The "Hows" Of Archaeology : Archaeology As A Model For Education, Jon Darin Daehnke

Dissertations and Theses

There is growing awareness of the importance of public outreach in archaeology. Many professional archaeologists argue that in order to ensure continued funding we must communicate the relevance of our discipline to the public in a more effective manner. Furthermore, it is often argued that public outreach and education provides perhaps the only reliable defense against looting and rampant psuedoarchaeology.

Current outreach activities, however, tend to focus on what archaeologists have discovered about the past. While this type of outreach is important, a more effective model for public outreach would focus on the methods of archaeology, rather than the results. …

The Spatial Distribution Of Ground Stone Tools As A Marker Of Status Differentials In A Chinookan Plank House On The Lower Columbia River, John William Wolf

Dissertations and Theses

Social status was an integral part of the social structure of Northwest Coast societies. The presence of ranked social structures and household space based on rank is reported in the ethnographic literature. Archaeologists have long searched for independent and verifiable means to infer social structure from archaeological deposits. Burial goods have been used to identify status differences. Do other items of material culture also reflect such differences?

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the distribution of certain tools recovered from a Chinookan plank house on the lower Columbia River paralleled the household residence location that …

The Burnett Site: A Cascade Phase Camp On The Lower Willamette River, Robert M. Burnett

Dissertations and Theses

Artifacts recovered from archaeological excavations near the Willamette River in Lake Oswego, Oregon indicate the presence there of a Late Windust-Early Cascade Phase site possibly dating to 9,000 B.P. The assemblage includes 137 projectile points, bifaces or point fragments, nearly all of the Cascade-type. Two stem fragments and one complete point which are similar to those of the Windust Phase which dates 10,000-8,000 B.P. in the southern Columbia Plateau also were found. Stone knives, choppers, scrapers, hammerstones, cores and microblades also are included in the assemblage. No later type notched or stemmed points have been recovered from the site. If …

Immunology And Archaeology : Blood Residue Analysis Of Three Sites, Shirley Jo Barr Williams

Dissertations and Theses

Cross-over electrophoresis, an immunological method for analyzing blood residues on archaeological artifacts, is tested. Artifacts from three sites were utilized in the testing of this methodology. The sites are the Dietz site in south-central Oregon (282 artifacts), Konemehu in northern California (48 artifacts tested for Winthrop Associates), and Chimney Shelter in southwestern Oregon (3 artifacts from the Umpqua National Forest).

Bone Tool Assemblages As An Aid To Shell Mound Site Typologies On The Northwest Coast, Doria Lee Fingerhut Raetz

Dissertations and Theses

Fifteen bone tool assemblages from shell midden sites were compared. Three of these are unpublished sites from Prince Rupert Harbor. They were grouped using cluster analysis. Inter and intragroup variation in bone tool assemblage structure was analyzed. One of the objectives of this study was to generate hypotheses about the function of the unpublished sites by comparing their bone tool assemblages with those from sites which are better understood by looking for underlying patterns in the bone tool assemblages. Other objectives were to test the utility of using bone tool assemblages as a diagnostic tool in analyzing sites and to …

Subsistence Variability On The Columbia Plateau, Ricky Gilmer Atwell

Dissertations and Theses

Long-term human dietary change is a poorly understood aspect of Columbia Plateau prehistory. Faunal assemblages from thirty-four archaeological sites on the Plateau are organized into fifteen aggregate assemblages that are defined spatially and temporally. These assemblages are examined in terms of a focal-diffuse model using ecological measures of diversity, richness and evenness. Variability and patterning in the prehistoric subsistence record is indicated. Major trends in human diet and shifts in subsistence economies are documented and the relationship between subsistence and some initial semi-sedentary adaptations on the Plateau is clarified.

Neutron Activation Analysis And Chemical Inference For The Identification Of Buena Vista Ceramics, Daniel D. Sullivan

Dissertations and Theses

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis was used for this study of stonewares collected from the site of the Buena Vista/Oregon Pottery Company (1866-1890).

The results show significant chemical signatures in the samples tested. Thorium/ytterbium and thorium/chromium ratios within their respective ranges of variation demonstrate a relative conformity among all samples of Buena Vista ceramics.

Tillamook Indian Basketry : Continuity And Change As Seen In The Adams Collection, Ailsa Elizabeth Crawford

Dissertations and Theses

In the Adams Collection at the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, Tillamook, Oregon, there are 29 baskets that were probably made between 1880 and 1940. They are mostly of raffia, are somewhat faded from their original, bright, commercial colors, and are generally quite small. Despite the fact that these baskets are well-documented and were made by Tillamook women, they are the sort that have been overlooked by anthropologists and by collectors because of their non-"traditional" appearance. In order to determine what relationship these baskets have to Tillamook basketry made earlier, I analyzed them and 39 Tillamook baskets from four other museum …

Post-Mazama Aboriginal Settlement/Subsistence Patterns : Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon, Frances Marie Philipek

Dissertations and Theses

A study was conducted in the Upper Klamath Basin, south-central Oregon, to test Luther s. Cressman' s hypothesis characterizing prehistoric Klamath Basin culture as having, from an early date, a marsh/riverine subsistence focus with long-term stability and a slow rate of internal change emphasizing intensification of the existing marsh/riverine utilization pattern. A subsistence/ settlement pattern model was developed to predict aboriginal site occurrence in the upper Klamath Basin.

Log Structures : Criteria For Their Description, Evaluation And Management As Cultural Resources, Margaret L. Glover

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis discusses mining cabin sites from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as cultural resources. Special attention is given the concept of "description" in regards to discussion of the resource category, history, and physical attributes of the sites. Evaluation and management suggestions are presented for this particular resource category. To aid in the process of identification of log cabin notching, a typology of notches is developed and presented within the context of the thesis.

The Determination Of A Relative Chronology For A Surface Archeological Site Using The Obsidian Hydration Dating Method, Scott Preston Thomas

Dissertations and Theses

This methodological study is an attempt to develop relative chronologies for surface archaeological sites from the obsidian hydration analysis of waste flake samples. Two sites in southeastern Oregon were selected and their surface components sampled. The results of the obsidian hydration analysis indicate, that with the use of random sampling methods and general geochemical control, a fairly accurate representation of the history of an archaeological surface site can be obtained.

Late Pleistocene And Recent Archaeology And Geomorphology Of The South Shore Of Harney Lake, Oregon, Keith Donald Gehr

Dissertations and Theses

The present study was a response to the discovery of two artifacts found in a ditch wall near Harney Lake, Oregon. These were lying on a buried lake floor that appeared to be of late Pleistocene or early Recent age. Other sediments exposed in the ditch seemed to relate to at least some of the phases of the pluvial lake sequence in the Harney Basin. Three problems were considered: (1) the geomorphology and dating of the pluvial lake stillstands, (2) whether the original artifacts were part of a larger early site, and (3) whether there was any relationship between archaeological …

Aboriginal Clay Figurines From The Upper Rogue Valley In Southwestern Oregon, Lyman Patrick Deich

Dissertations and Theses

A study of 80 clay figurines from aboriginal sites in the upper Rogue River Valley in southwestern Oregon fails to reveal any connection with other figurines found in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. A preference for animal rather than human representations is demonstrated. The temporal distribution of the figurines is not known, but spatial distribution appears roughly coextensive with territories occupied by the upland Takelma at the time of Euro-American contact during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

Harney Area Cultural Resources Class I Inventory, Ruth Mcgilvra Bright

Dissertations and Theses

This document presents the Cultural Resources Overview for the Harney Area in southeastern Oregon. The Harney Area combines three of the four planning units in the Burns Bureau of Land Management District. Most of the land in the Harney Area is located in Harney County, although a few parcels are just outside the county line in Lake and Malheur Counties. Almost all of Harney County is included. There are approximately 3,320,000 acres of Bureau administered public land within the Harney Area, as well as other public and private lands.

The Bureau Of Land Management And Cultural Resource Management In Oregon, William James Cannon

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an examination and description of the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management's program for the management of cultural resources in the State of Oregon. The author has worked for the Bureau from March, 1975 to the present as a District cultural resource specialist.

The major emphasis of the thesis is a description and explanation of the Bureau's cultural resource management program and its major problems in relation to the taxpayer and archaeologists.

Functional Analysis Of Great Basin Projectile Points, Roger Wiggin

Dissertations and Theses

This paper presents a refined methodology for distinguishing the stone points of arrows from the stone points of spear thrower darts in archaeological assemblages from the Great Basin. The methodology was developed from a sample of 111 complete stone points collected during the archaeological reconnaissance and testing of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon, 1971-1974. The points were measured for five metric variables and frequency histograms of each variable were generated by computer. The effectiveness of each variable as an index of functional class (i.e., arrow point vs. dart point) was judged on the basis of the apparent …

Contributions To Tualatin Ethnography: Subsistence And Ethnobiology, Henry B. Zenk

Dissertations and Theses

There is a considerable amount of unpublished source material on Kalapuyan ethnography. This consists primarily of manuscript field notes from three linguistically trained scholars: Albert S. Gatschet, who collected Kalapuyan linguistic and ethnographic data during a visit to Grand Ronde Reservation in 1877, Leo J. Frachtenberg, who worked with a number of Kalapuyan informants from 1913 to 1915, and Melville Jacobs, who worked with the last surviving speakers of Kalapuyan languages during a number of sessions between 1928 and 1936. Data from these three authorities, plus other available data, reveal many details about aboriginal Kalapuyan life ("aboriginal" here referring to …

The Ethnohistory Of Baker Cabin, A Clackamas County Pioneer Site, V. Claire Woodward

Dissertations and Theses

Baker Cabin, a pioneer log structure, is located on privately owned property near the community of Carver, Oregon. According to traditional accounts the cabin has existed continuously on this site since its construction in 1856. Archaeological excavations of the cabin's foundation and the surrounding area uncovered date-able artifacts and a second foundation with an associated well. Analysis of the artifacts associated with the present cabin foundation indicate a post-1870 construction date those associated with the second foundation and its well indicate an 1850’s occupation.

Four hypotheses that are explored in this paper can be derived from the interpretation of all …

A Functional Interpretation Of Pottery From Batan Island, Philippines, Joanne M. Laetsch

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is a report on a pottery analysis which was carried out in the laboratory of the Department of Anthropology at Portland State University. The earthenware materials involved were collected from three surface sites on Batan Island, Philippines, during the summer of 1969.

The interpretation of these potteries was based upon the direct-historical approach to archaeological research. The use of this method was proposed after a cursory examination of the earthenwares revealed certain general similarities between the archaeological potteries and the ethnographically-known wares produced in the area at the present time. One of the sites was a known habitation, …