With National Science Foundation support, Dr. William C. Prentiss and his colleagues will conduct archaeological research at the Keatley Creek site, a large housepit village located in the Middle Fraser Canyon of south-central British Columbia. The Keatley Creek site contains extensive and well-preserved archaeological deposits, representing a globally significant record of change in hunter-gatherer culture and community organization spanning at least 5000 years. Early in its occupational history, the site was a frequently occupied camp for generalized (socio-economically egalitarian) hunter-gatherer peoples. However, by the height of its occupation, around 1100 years ago, a permanent winter village had evolved, likely featuring a hierarchically ranked society of approximately 1000-1500 persons residing in housepits as large as 22 meters in diameter. Residents of this complex hunter-gatherer community participated in a large-scale exchange network and maintained a subsistence economy centered on intensive salmon fishing and storage. Some households may have even owned or at least controlled access to portions of the surrounding landscape including fishing sites and stone quarries. The Keatley Creek site thus provides an optimal opportunity for studying the processes and events associated with the emergence of social inequality in a North American hunter-gatherer context.
This research will focus on the evolution of the Keatley Creek village with an emphasis on the processes which give rise to complex social organization. To accomplish this, Dr. Prentiss will direct multidisciplinary research that will include archaeological excavation, assessment of site stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, and studies of change in subsistence behavior, technology, and organization of activities on house floors. More specifically, excavation will focus on archaeological deposits chronicling the shift from generalized to complex hunter-gatherers. Radiocarbon analysis will establish the date at which social complexity emerged in the village. Studies of plant remains, animal bones, and stone tools will permit an assessment of changes in the organization of food procurement, preparation, and consumption during this important transition. The research team will focus on several questions: 1. When did the transition to social complexity occur? 2. Was this cultural transition abrupt or gradual? 3. Was the transition accompanied by a major change in subsistence? 4. Did the transition follow a reorganization of technology? 5. How did labor organization change during this time? Results of the project will advance the anthropological understanding of the evolution of complex societies. It will also provide insight into the organization of complex hunter-gatherer communities during the late period of the Northern Plateau. Finally, it will build positive working relationships between Indian people and archaeologists in the Pacific Northwest region.
