Lithic Analysis Project

December 6-10, 2004

 

Malheur Winter PIT 2004 volunteers and staff

The Malheur National Forest just completed our 11th winter Passport In Time (PIT) volunteer project. This year we focused on the analysis of artifacts and debitage (waste flakes from stone tool manufacture) recovered from survey and test excavation completed in 2003 and 2004 in the Malheur Headwaters area. We also reviewed and cross-checked information from the previous two years of work. This completes our fourth year of work in the Malheur Headwaters and the will be the final PIT project in this location, for the time being at least. The information provided by our volunteers has produced reams (literally) of data that will be used to generate formal archaeological site and excavation reports.

All told over 1,500 artifacts have been described and their formal attributes have been measured and entered into a database. The locations for all of the artifacts have been recorded using GPS satellite receivers (accurate to within 1 meter). We can link the information about the artifacts to the GPS location and display the data on maps or over aerial photographs. All and all very high tech information for a bunch of folks who are more used to working with very old technology!

 

Classifying debitage

 

Sample of artifacts from 6460018. From top, left to right: basalt knife, Large Stemmed dart point, Willow Leaf dart point, Northern Side Notched dart point, Gatecliff Split Stem dart point, Elko series dart point, end scrapper, awl/drill, obsidian drill, Rosegate arrow point, Small Corner Notched arrow point, Desert Side Notched arrow point.

One interesting fact that has jumped out at us is that the sites in the Malheur Headwaters have been used longer and more consistently through time than most sites on the Malheur Forest as a whole. The graphs below show the number of datable projectile points recovered from the Headwaters (top) compared to the entire Forest (bottom). They are arranged in order of age with the most recent points at the left (DSN and SCN) and the oldest at the right (LG STEM).

 

The largest number of points recovered from the Headwaters sites are Northern Side Notched (NSN) dart points that date to 4500-7500 years old. For the Forest as a whole the largest number of points recovered have been Elko series dart points that date to 1250-3500 years old. This strongly suggests that the heaviest use of the Headwaters began 1-4000 years earlier than on the rest of the Forest. There also appears to be less of a reduction in use of the Headwaters during the later period, after 1250 years ago, than there was across the Forest (based on true arrow points: DSN, SCN and ROSE).

This pattern is a little clearer when the projectile points are lumped together by period of use:

 

• Late Archaic Period 150-1450BP (based on DSN, SCN, Rosegate)
• Late Middle Archaic Period 1250-5000BP (based on Elko and Gatecliff)
• Early Middle Archaic Period 4500-8000BP (based on NSN)
• Early Archaic Period 7500-11000BP (based on Large Stemmed and Concave Base)

 

A visit from the Prairie City Elementary School

 

This is a simplified map showing all 1500 artifacts in GIS database. It looks like far fewer artifacts due to stacking of symbols. Each of the 1500 points link to a database with detailed information on each artifact. We can query the database about the types of artifacts, various aspects of the artifacts, relationships between the artifacts, and relationships between the artifacts and environmental features. The results of our queries can then be shown on a map with background information such as roads, streams, topo lines, etc.

 

In this example we queried the database to show us all hopper mortars that are located within 20 meters of projectile points. Hopper mortars are shallow stone bowls used to process roots and other food (an old fashioned food processor). They are rare on the Forest as a whole but almost 200 have been recorded at Malheur Headwaters.

Based on pollen analysis we know Indian people processed lomatium roots in the hopper mortars but we don’t know when. We know the approximate age of the projectile points so by looking at the age of the points nearest the hopper mortars we can estimate the age of the mortars. The red points show hopper mortars associated with arrow points that are less than 1250 years old. The blue points show hopper mortars located near atlatl dart points that are over 1250 years old. Most of the dart points are the Northern Side Notched style that are 4500-7500 years old. This indicates that our working assumption that use of the hopper mortars dated from the last 2000 years is probably wrong. It now appears that the hopper mortars were in use for at least 4000 years in the area. There is an interesting spatial pattern showing up with the dart point associated mortars (blue) being further north and east and the arrow point associated mortars (red) being further south and west. This strongly suggests an environmental difference between the arrow point (less than 1250 years ago) and dart point (more than 1250 years ago) occupations of the site. This could indicate the tree line was further north during the older occupation or a change in the areas where root crops were abundant.

 

Hopper mortar from our office display located at the Supervisor's Office on the Malheur National Forest. The model of the mortar in use was donated by PIT volunteer Richard Lahti.

A big round of applause to the volunteers who have given so generously of their time at this year’s project:

Juliet Barton, Barbara Buetner, Richard Lahti, Carol Nygaard, and Larry Summers.

Thank You!!!!

Thanks also to the Malheur National Forest employees for pulling together and making this work: Diane Browning, Winnie Browning, Jennifer Harris, Pat Haynal, Pat Lyttle, Mary Robertson, Anne Schneider and Tee Voigt.

And thanks of course to instructor Alex Atkins for his patience and care in teaching the fine art of lithic analysis.

 

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