Evaluating Lithic Technology and Function over the last 5,000 years at the Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site, Mount Rainier, Washington
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC Ballroom C/D
Start Date
16-5-2013
End Date
16-5-2013
Abstract
Recent human land use models proposed for the Pacific Northwest are firmly embedded in a forager/collector framework that explain the shift in the organization of technology as a function of human efforts to store resources. Evidence of this shift in upland contexts of the Washington Cascade Mountains may only be subtle as environmental constraints there are extreme and may select for a limited tool kit regardless of lowland changes in technology. To investigate changes, if any, over the last 5,000 years we employed a paradigmatic lithic classification to test the hypothesis that there is no major change in lithic technology and function. Preliminary results suggest that changes in lithic technology and function are not subtle during the last 5,000 years. Site components dating to the last 2,000 years have a more diverse lithic assemblage than earlier components. The change in diversity is evaluated in terms of tool stone sources, intra-site structure and sample size constraints. These results suggest that there may have been significant differences brought on by changes in the resource structure in upland contexts, as well as restrictions to exotic tool stone sources.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, Heather, "Evaluating Lithic Technology and Function over the last 5,000 years at the Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site, Mount Rainier, Washington" (2013). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 46.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2013/posters/46
Poster Number
5
Additional Mentoring Department
Anthropology
Evaluating Lithic Technology and Function over the last 5,000 years at the Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site, Mount Rainier, Washington
SURC Ballroom C/D
Recent human land use models proposed for the Pacific Northwest are firmly embedded in a forager/collector framework that explain the shift in the organization of technology as a function of human efforts to store resources. Evidence of this shift in upland contexts of the Washington Cascade Mountains may only be subtle as environmental constraints there are extreme and may select for a limited tool kit regardless of lowland changes in technology. To investigate changes, if any, over the last 5,000 years we employed a paradigmatic lithic classification to test the hypothesis that there is no major change in lithic technology and function. Preliminary results suggest that changes in lithic technology and function are not subtle during the last 5,000 years. Site components dating to the last 2,000 years have a more diverse lithic assemblage than earlier components. The change in diversity is evaluated in terms of tool stone sources, intra-site structure and sample size constraints. These results suggest that there may have been significant differences brought on by changes in the resource structure in upland contexts, as well as restrictions to exotic tool stone sources.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Patrick McCutcheon