Author: Jerry V. Jermann

Publisher:

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13:

: Archaeological inventory and evaluation of cultural resources potentially threatened by a proposed 10-foot pool raise behind Chief Joseph Dam, north-central Washington was made. Pedestrian reconnaissance of areas not previously subject to resource inventory identified 27 prehistoric sites, bringing the total number of recorded sites in the area to 279. Test excavations were completed at 79 prehistoric habitation sites in order to characterize formal, temporal, and spatial variability in sufficient detail to provide for follow-on management planning. Artifacts and contextual samples recovered from nearly 600 cubic meters of soil matrix in 543 test units demonstrate that the project area was occupied by Native American groups continuously for at least the last 6,000 years, and perhaps longer. Considerable temporal and geographic variation occurs in the cultural assemblage, variability reflecting regional settlement and subsistence patterns. The cumulative database resulting from survey-level investigations includes the first comprehensive large-scale cultural resources inventory in the region, the first series of controlled radiocarbon age determinations from cultural contexts along the reservoir, and the largest assemblage of site samples from the upper Columbia River region. These data provide invaluable research materials for future investigators interested in the evolution of prehistoric cultural adaptations in the Columbia Plateau.