PLATEAU
Windust Phase
Age:
11,000-9,000
Technology:
chipped stone technology
Windust points
lanceolate and oval knives
scrapers
cobble implements
ground stone
pestles in larger numbers than before
bone
(awls, needles, atlatl spurs)
antler
(wedges and flaking tools)
shell
(beads and pendants)
Subsistence-Settlement Patterns:
hunting large mammals (deer, antelope, elk, and bison)
gathering plant
(roots and berries? known from grinding stones)
aquatic foodstuffs.
(fish: chub and suckers, but no salmon)
Winter spent near river, especially in rockshelters
Spring/summer/fall move around uplands and lowlands
Environment:
climate cooler and moister than at present (mesic conditions would be needed to
support large mammals, and consistent with rest of continent after
Pleistocene)
PLATEAU
Cascade/Vantage Phase
Age:
9,000-4500 B.P.
Technology:
chipped stone technology
(used basalt frequently)
Cascade points
Cold Springs points
lanceolate and oval knives
scrapers
cobble implements
ground stone
pestles in larger numbers than before
net weights
atlatl weights
bone
(awls, needles, atlatl spurs)
antler
(wedges and flaking tools)
shell
(beads and pendants)
Subsistence-Settlement Patterns:
hunting mammals
gathering plant
aquatic foodstuffs.
river mussels
(deer, antelope, and elk; rabbits too)
(roots and berries)
(fish - chub and suckers, and salmon)

winter/spring/summer/fall spent near river, probably in major canyons,
especially at intersections of tributaries, larger side canyons and along
rapids

uplands used only as special activity places, especially small hunting
parties and lithic scatters where people made or re-sharpened tools
semi-subterranean houses first appeared during Vantage phase and diffused
from here to south and to north
Environment:
climate much warmer and drier than at present (called Altithermal period in
other parts of the county, may have affected extent of forest and amount
of available water.)
Some suggest that all people within the area to the south (Great Basin) moved
north, east, or west. Those moving north entered the Plateau. Largest
populations may have been in the northern Plateau where elevations
higher.
Mazama ash fell 6700 B.P., effects unknown.
NORTHWEST COAST
(LITHIC PERIOD)
dates
Old Cordilleran Culture Type
(early)
9000 B. P. to 4500 BP
description
1
2
semi-nomadic hunting and gathering. Unspecialized hunters/gatherers
similar to those east of the Cascades (Plateau Windust and Cascade
Phases).
Oriented to LAND RESOURCES
from Glenrose Cannery site: use of watercraft inferred, as well as fishing
and shellfishing (but small number of sites known and only Glenrose has
faunal remains, and those appear only late in period)
3
artifacts:
a
b
c
pebble tools/choppers
unifacial scrapers
heavily weathered raw material
d
Points:
Cascade point
Large leaf-shaped knives (bigger than points and
impossible to attach to spears. Sometimes they are
sharper on one side).
Windust Points
occasionally (rare) contracting stem bifaces
e
f
g
chipped crescents at some sites.
ground-stone tools rare; 3 found at Glenrose
no microblades
4
Sites often found on terraces above river valleys, on rivers near coast
5
faunal assemblages are not known (except small sample at Glenrose) so
subsistence unclear
6
Antler and bone wedges (at Glenrose only)
NORTHWEST COAST
St. Mungo Phase and Mayne Phase
dates
Charles Culture Type
(middle)
4500 to 3300 BP (conservatively from 4300 to 3500 BP)
description
1)
grew out of Old Cordilleran Culture - stone tools seem related
2)
represents short seasonal stops (although Glenrose fauna indicate
different seasons) where people camped at place of collecting and ate
everything collected there (forager adaptations)
3)
development towards the ethnographic cultural pattern
4)
oriented toward riverine and maritime resources, emphasis on Salmon
(remember that Glenrose and St. Mungo closer to the Bay then, than
they are now)
5)
faunal remains:
a
fish (salmon 50% of fish and increases in % of fish throughout
the
phase, eulachon, sturgeon,
starry flounder (abundant 30% of fish at Crescent Beach and
found in Bay today, stickleback in all sites;
herring at Crescent Beach),
6
b
land mammals
deer, (most abundant at Crescent Beach
elk
(most abundant at Glenrose and St. Mungo
c
sea-mammals (seals)
d
shellfish (bay mussel predominate; barnacles some),
e
birds
f
salmon heads mean processed there (and are used to infer no
storage capacity at Glenrose for the St. Mungo phase???)
(duck and geese)
shellfish and fish now make up 40% by weight of the site
SHELL MIDDENS
7
artifacts:
a
b
c
d
e
pebble tools (now only 10% as opposed to 44% of assemblage)
at Glenrose cobble tools were 31% in Old Cord and 6% in St.
Mungo)
abrasive stones (17 whole at Glenrose; 18 other ground stone)
hammerstones
bipolar cores
shell tools (beads, adzes and knife blades of California Mussels
(Mytilus californianus)
f
g
stone beads
(only few found at Glenrose, some at St. Mungo,
lots at recent Crescent Beach excavation; might be a factor of
screen size)
incised, decorated schist/mudstone tablets
h
Points:
leaf-shaped
(most common form, but most smaller
than Old Cordilleran ones)
Stemmed points
shouldered
ground-stone points (2 at Glenrose, fragment of 3rd)
(no ground-slate KNIFE; that is Mayne Phase
characteristic)
8
i
Bone tools:
awls
unipoints bipoints
bird-bone tubes
beaver incisors
flesher? (from Glenrose and St. Mungo)
bone pendants (12 found at Glenrose, 13 at St. Mungo,
none at Crescent Beach)
j
antler tools (wedges, harpoons - bilateral and unilateral, barbed
points, single anthropomorphic figure from Glenrose)
flexed burials (grave goods include only small shell disk beads and
ocher; no labret wear)
9
evidence for cranial deformation and use of labrets questionable
(2 burials at Tsawwassen from St. Mungo phase deposits showed slight labret
wear; labrets could have started as wooden ones).
10
Both phases are thought to be part of Charles Culture but a few objects
are found in Mayne that are not found in St. Mungo
St. Mungo Phase:
Mayne Phase
No ground slate knives
No celts
No labrets
No microblades
ground slate knives
celts
labrets
microblades
11
all things found in Mayne Phase are found in the next Locarno Beach
phase
12
Mayne phase may have been the beginning of Locarno Beach in the
Islands, found there earlier, and spread to mainland.
NORTHWEST COAST
Locarno Beach Culture Type
Locarno Beach Phase
dates
(middle)
3500/3300 to 2400 BP
so if find site with this radiocarbon date, then it is Locarno Beach.
description
1)
artifacts:
a
medium-sized, basalt, contracting stemmed points
b
microblades and cores
c
slate knives (or scrapers of generally ovoid or ulu shape)
d
cobble tools, split cobble
e
ground-slate points
large, faceted points (hexagonal cross-sectioned
thick knives, often only partially ground)
f
celts, rectangular in plan and cross-section
g
labrets of several forms
h
earspools
i
abrasive stones (some shaped)
j
bone/antler tools
bone points (ground)
bipoints (needles?; awls?)
bone flesher
wedges
bilateral (and unilateral) barbed antler points
***toggling harpoons
antler foreshafts for above harpoons
h
i
2)
mussel-shell celts and mussel-shell points
GULF ISLAND COMPLEX
finely made small ground
objects with no clear function (notched, stone sinkers) made of
soapstone, coal, and bone (called Whatzits)
faunal remains:
a
land mammals; not large % of fauna
b fish
salmon , ranging from 66 to 78% of large fish. few salmon heads
Locarno Beach Site occupied in spring when no salmon
available, yet salmon there.
discuss:
taphonomy of salmon: ratio of head-to-body
bones
starry flounder still important
herring (and surf smelt) are smaller fishes used in large amounts
c
d
birds
shellfish (mussel and barnacles; but for first time horseclam,
butter clam, littleneck, and cockle
3)
new manufacture styles:
lots of objects drilled using long, thin drills of uniform diameter (possibly
fine reeds or bone) and objects often highly polished over whole surface
4)
clay-lined depressions and alignments of vertically placed rock slabs
5)
hot rock boiling technique implied from all the fire-cracked rock
6)
locations:
sometimes associated with now-inland location and with deposits
containing little shell or shell which is decomposed.
sites located away from Fraser River and may be focused on ISLANDs.
This would support suggestion that Mayne Phase was start of Locarno
Beach.
7)
only one hand maul found at any site, so difficult to say what the role of
woodworking is.
Western Red Cedar just arrived and probably not crucial until next
period. Mitchell suggests that leather clothing used during Locarno
Beach. No cedar? Are wedges in Locarno Beach used for splitting
planks?
8)
no evidence of plank houses (one "pit house" feature at Crescent
Beach),
9)
Burials
cairn burials are found
burials with labrets thought to mean achieved status rather than inherited
(ascribed) status
no head deformation in Locarno Beach
10)
difference in Locarno Beach from St. Mungo
a
the addition of ground stone tool types (starting to use cedar?)
b
increases in both bone and ground stone tools in LB phase.
c
increase dependence on processing of salmon in LB phase.
Locarno Beach people were starting to process large numbers of
salmon for storage. And they stay at one site longer than the
people of the previous St. Mungo Phase.
microliths/microblades may have been used for salmon
processing
ground slate may have been used for salmon processing,
NORTHWEST COAST
Marpole Culture Type
Marpole Phase
dates
(MIDDLE)
2400 to 1500/1100 BP
ending date is problematic
description
A) Artifacts
1) STONE TOOLS
a
projectile points
lanceolate bifaces
contracting stem form
expanding stem
corner notched
basal-notched barbed (stem ill-defined)
unstemmed triangular
b
microblades (less common than in Locarno beach, may be
screen-size problem)
c
slate points (less numerous than chipped stone points)
thought to be both points and parts of composite harpoon valve.
d
slate knives
....very rare in islands
....and found in earlier contexts in island sites.
e
celts/adze blades both small (like Locarno Beach), and large
ones.
f
hand mauls nipple-topped, plain and grooved conical top mauls
g
disc beads of shell or shale.
h
labrets and earspools all shapes represented (T-shaped, button,
pendulant, composite, and novice)
j
stone sculpture large seated human figurine bowls, sculptured
heads, faunal effigies, decorated bowls
k
perforated stones large stones with holes in center or at one end.
2) BONE TOOLS
NO COMPOSITE TOGGLING HARPOONS!
l
Needles (with eyes, large and small)
m
awls
n
harpoon points (all unilaterially barbed) line attachment features
differ
o
unilaterally barbed antler points found only in Marpole
p
antler wedges
3) METAL TOOLS
q
native copper ornaments (rare)
B) fauna
same as earlier phases
deer, elk, seals, salmon, starry flounder, herring, birds
heads of salmon used to suggest processing site, as opposed to
winter village.
evidence of storage: pits, heads of fish, specialized seasonal sites.
C) burials (many indications of ascribed (inherited) status)
1
flexed
2
skull deformation
3
trepanation
D) house outlines and post molds
NORTHWEST COAST
San Juan Phase
Gulf of Georgia Culture Type
(late)
dates
1500/1100 BP to contact with Eurasian traders
description
most of what we know about this phase is based on comparisons with
cultural materials known at Eurasian contact.
1
Relatively rare, small, triangular chipped basalt point (bows and
arrows?).
2
thin, triangular, ground-slate points
3
thin slate knives (abundant at Fraser River, only few on islands)
4
Dominance of bone and antler objects
a
bone unipoints and bipoints for fishing
b
antler wedges
c
small composite toggle harpoons
5
sea-mussel points toggle harpoons
6
numerous wood working tools:
- flat-topped mauls
- large well-made celts
7
irregularly shaped abrasive stones
8
weaving tools (blanket pins, combs, and spindle whorls)
9
some flexed burials (but most inferred to be above ground as
ethnographic observation),
10
head deformation common.
11
winter villages with plank houses and post molds
12
summer camp sites
13
emphasis on fishing
Reef net fishing??
weirs, dams, and traps
14
trench embankment sites
thought to indicate defense and fortification
PLATEAU
Frenchman Springs Phase
Age:
4500-2500 B.P.
Beginning of phase marked by significant changes in artifact assemblages
and settlement patterns, perhaps caused by climatic shift to mesic
environment. Beginning of ethnographic pattern.
Technology:
chipped stone technology
1 (overall much less significant to overall tool assemblage, and quality is
inferior)
2 (Basalt less frequently used, mostly chert)
Rabbit Island stemmed points (contracting-stemmed)
corner-notched/expanding-stemmed styles
knives
scrapers
drills
cobble implements
ground stone
hopper mortar bases
pestles
net sinkers
bone (awls, needles)
shell
(beads and pendants; but less common)
wood technologies (some mats, cordage in Vantage area)
Subsistence-Settlement Patterns:
hunting mammals
gathering plant
aquatic foodstuffs.
river mussels
(deer, antelope, elk, and rabbit)
(sheep may have been important)
(seeds, roots and berries) (grinding and pounding
equipment suggests this is even more important)
(fish, but evidence not strong for large numbers)
(may significantly increase in importance)
River settlements consist of small, aggregated pit house sites arranged in linear
fashion along the river.
uplands use changes significantly. Now have grinding tools in upland sites,
indicating that people spent more time there and put more effort into
activities at that location. Find base camps, extractive camps, and quarry
sites.
Environment:
climate much cooler and moister, changing vegetation in uplands to ones that
were more productive. This period not as cool and moist as during
Windust phase, but much more moist than Cascade Phase.
Moist conditions may have changed river hydrology in Snake River valley,
eroding terraces with sites from Frenchman Springs (Tucannon). Few
river sites found.
PLATEAU
Cayuse Phase
Age:
2500-350 B.P. (A.D. 1600)
Phase divided into early and late at 950 B.P. (A.D. 1000) when small points
increase in number and site of villages increase.
Technology:
chipped stone technology
small corner-notched points
small side-notched points
knives (lanceolate and pentagonal
scrapers
drills
cobble implements
ground stone
hopper mortar bases
pestles
net sinkers
grinding stones (abraders)
bone
(awls, needles)
shell
(beads- Olivella and Dentalium)
wood technologies (mats, cordage, fire starters, pendants)
Subsistence-Settlement Patterns:
hunting mammals
(deer, antelope, elk, and rabbit)
(sheep may have been important)
gathering plant (seeds, roots and berries)
(grinding and pounding equipment suggests this is very important)
aquatic foodstuffs.
(fish, especially salmon)
river mussels
River settlements consist of large winter pithouse villages.
uplands used for root gathering and hunting. (ethnographic pattern)
Environment:
similar to today.
Cascade Landslide may have increased numbers of salmon able to reach above
Celilo falls
Access to Coast and Great Basin trade important factor in cultural development
of Middle/Columbia River region.
CULTURE HISTORY OF WESTERN WASHINGTON
TIME
EVENTS
B.P. = before present
0 B.P.
decline in artifact diversity in sites
(artifacts of wood and fiber over stone?)
San Juan Phase
Increased reliance on salmon?
--- 1.000 to 1,500 B.P. --???
Marpole Phase
--------- 2,500 B.P. --------
Burial practices change
increase in artifact diversity
cultural elaboration
-----------------------------------------------------------------appearance of bone tools
ground tools, microblades
Locarno Beach
Phase
-------- 3,500 B.P. --------
diverse shellfish and fish
-----------------------------------------------------------------arrival of Western Red Cedar in San Juan Islands
St. Mungo Phase
Charles Culture Type
cool/moist climate
global stabilization of sea level
first appearance of shell middens in Northwest
(flatfish and mussels appear first)
-------- 4,500 B.P. -------few sites found - mostly stone tools
bipoints and cobbles (weathered)
Old Cordilleran Culture
Other names:
(Olcott Phase)
(Lithic Period)
open forests and prairies - Altithermal
oak forests, camas prairies = elk, deer
people depended on terrestrial resources,
with some fish (Fraser and Columbia River sites)
bone preservation is problem (absence of shells)
-------- 10,000 B.P. -------
------------------------------------------------------------------
CLOVIS
PERIOD
people using Clovis Points
11,500 B.P.
by Julie K. Stein