Determination of Site Functionality and Subsistence Patterns at the Bray Archaeological Site (45PI1276) in Edgewood, Washington

Resource intensification, or the logistical approach to the mass capture and extension of food resources through storage, is first evident for marine resources of the Northwest Coast during the Locarno Beach Phase (LBP) (ca. 3,500 BP to ca. 2,400 BP). Plant resource intensification is evident by 4,000 BP within the interior of the Pacific Northwest, but until recently there has been little evidence to support early intensification of plant use in the Puget Sound during the LBP. Test excavations conducted as part of a damage assessment of the Bray Site indicated that the site may contain the earliest known evidence for intensive plant processing in the lower Puget Sound (ca. 3,000 BP). This finding is supported by analyses of materials previously recovered from the Bray Site by an amateur archaeologist in the 1990's. Analyses are conducted for five assemblage dimensions: pit features, fire-modified rock (FMR), macrobotanical, lithic tools, and lithic debitage. The Bray Site results are compared to evidence for plant resource intensification from sites in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon and the Calispell Valley of northeastern Washington. These comparisons show that Bray Site assemblage dimensions fall within the range of variation observed for other sites with evidence for plant intensification. Thus, the Bray Site does indeed contain the earliest documented evidence of plant resource intensification in the Puget Sound (ca. 3,000 BP).

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Resource Management

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Sheldon, David J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Steven Hackenberger
• Patrick T. McCutcheon
• James Chatters

• Excavations (Archaeology)
• Anthropology
• Seeds as food
• resource intensification
• Puget Sound
• lithics
• Archaeological Anthropology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/179

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1191