Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:23:04.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Columbia Plateau Prehistory: Cultural Development and Impinging Influences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David L. Browman  and
David A. Munsell
David L. Browman
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
David A. Munsell
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Excavations of the last decade have yielded much data which cannot be adequately handled by extant models of Plateau cultural development. The 15,000 years of pre-history revealed by these new data appear to break into seven distinct periods. For each cultural period we present a synthesis of elements, including varying trait-unit intrusions from both the Great Basin and the Canadian Plateau. Included in this examination are such important new factors as a pre-Old Cordilleran stemmed point tradition and a microblade tradition some 5,000 years in duration. Reanalysis also suggests that the "emergence" of Columbia Plateau culture (as ethnographically known) can be placed at about the time of Christ, instead of about A.D. 1200-1300 as previously hypothesized.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , July 1969 , pp. 249 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Borden, C. E. 1961 Fraser River Archaeological Project. Anthropology Papers, National Museum of Canada, No. 1. Ottawa.Google Scholar
Borden, C. E. 1962 West Coast Crossties with Alaska. In “Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate Zones of North America.” edited by J. M. Campbell, pp. 9–19. Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper, No. 11. Montreal.Google Scholar
Borden, C. E. 1966 Radiocarbon and Geological Dating of the Lower Fraser Canyon Archaeological Sequence. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Radiocarbon and Tritium Dating, Pullman, 1965. Paper 16, pp. 165–78. Pullman.Google Scholar
Browman, D. L. 1966 Contributions to the Prehistory of the Columbia Plateau: The Indian Dan Site. MS, Master's thesis, University of Washington, Seattle.Google Scholar
Butler, B. R. 1961 The Old Cordilleran Culture in the Pacific Northwest. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 5. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Butler, B. R. 1962 Contributions to the Prehistory of the Columbia Plateau. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 9. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Butler, B. R. 1965 The Structure and Function of the Old Cordilleran Culture Concept. American Anthropologist, Vol. 67, No. 5, Pt. 1, pp. 1120–31. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, B. R. 1966 A Guide to Understanding Idaho Archaeology. Special Publication, Idaho State University Museum, Pocatello.Google Scholar
Caldwell, W. W. and Mallory, O. L. 1967 Hells Canyon Archaeology. Smithsonian Institution, River Basin Surveys, Publications in Salvage Archaeology, No. 6. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Capes, K. H. 1964 Contributions to the Prehistory of Vancouver Island. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 15. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Carlson, R. L. 1960 Chronology and Culture Change in the San Juan Islands, Washington. American Antiquity, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 562–86. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Cowles, J. 1959 Cougar Mountain Cave. Private publication, Rainier, Oregon.Google Scholar
Cox, R. 1957 The Columbia River [1831]. Reprinted by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Cressman, L. S. and Others 1960 Cultural Sequences at The Dalles, Oregon. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 50, Pt. 10. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Daugherty, R. D. 1956 Archaeology of the Lind Coulee Site, Washington. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 100, No. 3, pp. 223–78. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Daugherty, R. D. 1962 The Intermontane Western Tradition. American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 144–50. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Daugherty, R. D., Purdy, B. A., and Fryxell, R. 1967 The Descriptive Archaeology and Geochron-ology of the Three Springs Bar Archaeological Site, Washington. Washington State University Laboratory of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 40. Pullman.Google Scholar
Davis, E. L. 1967 Man and Water at Pleistocene Lake Mohave. American Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 345–53. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Fryxell, R. and Daugherty, R. D. 1962 Interim Report: Archaeological Salvage in the Lower Monumental Reservoir, Washington. Washington State University Laboratory of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 21. Pullman.Google Scholar
Fryxell, R. and Daugherty, R. D. 1963 Late Glacial and Post Glacial Geological and Archaeological Chronology of the Columbia Plateau, Washington. Washington State University Laboratory of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 23. Pullman.Google Scholar
Fryxell, R., Neff, G. E., and Trimble, D. E. 1965 Scabland Tracts, Loess, Soils and Human Prehistory. Guidebook for Field Conference E: Northern and Middle Rocky Mountains. International Association for Quaternary Research [INQUA], 7th Congress, pp. 79–89. Washington.Google Scholar
Grabert, G. F. 1966 Archaeology in the Wells Reservoir — 1965. Report on file with the National Park Service, Region 4, San Francisco. (Mimeographed)Google Scholar
Greengo, R. E. 1966 Archaeological Excavation at the Marymoor Site (45KI9). Report on file with the National Park Service, Region 4, San Francisco. (Mimeographed)Google Scholar
Gruhn, R. 1961 The Archaeology of Wilson Butte Cave, South-Central Idaho. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 6. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Gruhn, R. 1965 Two Early Radiocarbon Dates from the Lower Levels of Wilson Butte Cave. Tebiwa, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 57. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Gunkel, A. 1961 A Comparative Cultural Analysis of Four Archaeological Sites in the Rocky Reach Reservoir Region, Washington. Theses in Anthropology, No. 1. Washington State University, Pullman.Google Scholar
Hadleigh-West, F. 1967 The Donnelly Ridge Site and the Definition of an Early Core and Blade Complex in Centtal Alaska. American Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 360–82. Salt Lake City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, H. T. J. 1967 The Itama: Late Pleistocene Inhabitants of the Plains of the United States and Canada and the American Southwest. MS, doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Layton, T. N. 1968 A Definition of the Cougar Mountain Type Projectile Point and Its Relations with Other Early Stemmed Forms in the Northern Great Basin and Western Great Plains. MS, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mitchell, D. H. 1965 Preliminary Excavations at a Cobble Tool Site (DjRi:7) in the Fraser Canyon, British Columbia. Anthropology Papers, National Museum of Canada, No. 10. Ottawa.Google Scholar
Mitchell, D. H. 1968 Microblades: A Long-Standing Gulf of Georgia Tradition. American Antiquity, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 11–15. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Munsell, D. A. 1967 The Ryegrass Coulee Site. MS, Master's thesis, University of Washington, Seattle.Google Scholar
Nelson, C. M. 1962 Stone Artifacts from Sn100. The Washington Archaeologist, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 2–41. Seattle.Google Scholar
Nelson, C. M. 1966 A Preliminary Report on 45001, a Stratified Open Site in the Southern Columbia Plateau. Washington State University Laboratory of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 39. Pullman.Google Scholar
Newman, T. M. 1966 Cascadia Cave. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 18. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Osborne, H. D. 1956 Early Lithic in the Pacific Northwest. Research Studies of the State College of Washington, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 38–44. Pullman.Google Scholar
Osborne, H. D. 1967 Archaeological Tests in the Lower Grand Coulee, Washington. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 21. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Ray, V. F. 1942 Culture Element Distribution: XXII — Plateau. Anthropological Records, Vol. 8, No. 2. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Ross, A. 1904 Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River. Reprinted in Early Western Travels, 2748–1846, edited by R. G. Thwaites, Vol. 7, pp. 9–332. The Arthur H. Clarke Company, Cleveland.Google Scholar
Ross, A. 1956 The Fur Hunters of the Far West (1855). Reprinted by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Sadek-Kooros, H. 1966 Jaguar Cave: An Early Man Site in the Beaverhead Mountains of Idaho. MS, doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sanger, D. 1966 The Archaeology of the Lochnore-Nesikep Locality, British Columbia: Final Report. MS, doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.Google Scholar
Sanger, D. 1967 Prehistory of the Pacific Northwest Plateau as Seen from the Interior of British Columbia. American Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 186–97. Salt Lake City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swanson, E. H. Jr. 1962 The Emergence of Plateau Culture. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, No. 8. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Swanson, E. H. Jr. 1965 Archaeological Explorations in Southwestern Idaho. American Antiquity, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 24–37. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Tadlock, W. L. 1966 Certain Crescentic Stone Objects as a Time Marker in the Western United States. American Antiquity, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 662–75. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Walters, L. V. W. 1938 Social Structure. In “The Sinkaietk or Southern Okanogan,” edited by L. Spier, pp. 71–101. General Studies in Anthropology, No. 6. Menasha.Google Scholar
Warren, C. N. 1967 The San Dieguito Complex: A Review and Hypothesis. American Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 168–85. Salt Lake City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, C. N., Bryan, A. L., and Tuohy, D. R. 1963 The Goldendale Site and Its Place in Plateau Prehistory. Tebiwa, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1–21. Pocatello.Google Scholar
Wormington, H. M. and Forbis, R. G. 1965 An Introduction to the Archaeology of Alberta, Canada. Proceedings of the Denver Museum of Natural History, No. 11. Denver.Google Scholar