Sponsor
Most of the funding for Čḯxwicən analysis came from the National Science Foundation (Grant Numbers 1219468, 1353610, and 1663789 to Portland State University; 1219483 to University of Rhode Island; 1219470 to Western Washington University), through the efforts of Anna Kerttula de Echave. Laura Phillips (Burke Museum, University of Washington) facilitated the loan of all the materials used in analysis, and provided guidance on many aspects of the project.
Published In
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2019
Subjects
Port Angeles Region (Wash.) -- Antiquities, Excavations (Archaeology) -- Washington (State) -- Port Angeles Region, Social archaeology, Bones -- Identification
Abstract
Coastal shell middens are known for their generally excellent preservation and abundant identifiable faunal remains, including delicate fish and bird bones that are often rare or poorly preserved at non-shell midden sites. Thus, when we began our human ecodynamics research project focused on the fauna from Čḯxwicən (45CA523, pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a large ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, located on the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles, Washington (USA), we anticipated generally high levels of bone identifiability. We quickly realized that the mammal bones were more fragmented and less identifiable than we had expected, though this was not the case with the bird and fish bone or invertebrate remains. To better understand why this fragmentation occurred at Čḯxwicən, we evaluate numerous hypotheses, including both post-depositional and behavioral explanations. We conclude that multiple factors intersected (to varying degrees) to produce the extreme bone fragmentation and low identifiability of mammal bones at the site, including bone fuel use, marrow extraction, grease rendering, tool production, and post-depositional breakdown. Using a human ecodynamics framework, we further consider how both social factors and external environmental forces may mediate human choices, such as the economic decision to use bone for fuel or render bone grease. We place our findings from Čḯxwicən in a regional context and discuss the potential of the approach for other coastal archaeological sites worldwide.
Rights
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.08.049
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28093
Citation Details
Bovy, K., Etnier, M., Butler, V., Campbell, S., and Shaw, J. D. (2019). Using bone fragmentation records to investigate coastal human ecodynamics: A case study from Čḯxwicən (Washington State, USA), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 23, Pages 1168-1186.
Description
Article is part of a Special Issue of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports entitled “Tracking human ecodynamics at Čḯxwicən, a 2700 year old coastal forager village in Northwest North America.”