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Keatley Creek is a significant
archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in the interior of
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
and in the traditional territory of the St'at'imc peoples. Its location is in the
Glen Fraser Glen Fraser is a locality in the central Fraser Canyon of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located c. 18 miles north of the town of Lillooet and between the communities of Fountain (S) and Pavilion. It is a ranching area formed o ...
area of the
Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...
ranchlands about 18 miles from the town of
Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...
on a
benchland In geomorphology, geography and geology, a bench or benchland is a long, relatively narrow strip of relatively level or gently inclined land that is bounded by distinctly steeper slopes above and below it. Benches can be of different origins and ...
flanking
Keatley Creek Keatley Creek is a left tributary of the Fraser River in the Glen Valley area of the Fraser Canyon in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Its outlet into the Fraser is between those of Pavilion and Fountain Creeks, approximately 16 miles up ...
, whose name derives from a former ranch owner, and from which the site takes its name. The site is home to more than 115
pit house A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a larder ...
(quiggly hole or ''kekuli'') depressions, left from semi-subterranean wooden dwellings, some of which would have been 18 to 21 meters in diameter. The site is one of the largest and well-studied house pit village sites in Canada, home to some of the biggest house pit depressions in the
archaeological record The archaeological record is the body of physical (not written) evidence about the past. It is one of the core concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record. Archaeological th ...
. Researchers believe that the site was first inhabited as early as 7,000
Before Present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...
. A large complex community whose economy centered around gathering, fishing, and hunting began developing from 4,800 BP. The Keatley Creek site blossomed from around 2,400 BP with a population of about 1,000 people. At this time the network of villages in the Mid-Fraser region would have been one of the largest
pre-contact In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
aboriginal communities in the modern borders of Canada. Although there is continued debate about the site's occupation and abandonment or depopulation, the community was vacated perhaps as early as 1,000 BP or as late as 800 BP, as were the other neighboring villages. No decisive evidence has been found of either warfare or a devastating epidemic, although this as well as an
environmental catastrophe An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity.Jared M. Diamond, '' Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'', 2005 This point disti ...
or
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
have all been theorized, and aboriginal peoples continued living throughout the region. Keatley Creek holds a special heritage importance to First Nations communities. Since the mid-1980s the site has also been the subject of the
Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...
's Fraser River Investigations into Corporate Group Archaeology Project, led by
Brian Hayden Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meani ...
, as well as other research projects led by Anne Marie Prentiss. It is now a provincially recognized cultural heritage area and also gaining international attention through interest at a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
research forum.


Overview


Location

The Keatley Creek Site (
Borden Number The Borden System is an archaeological numbering system used throughout Canada and by the Canadian Museum System to track archaeological sites and the artefacts that come from them. Canada is one of a few countries that use a national system to id ...
EeR17) is an
archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
excavation site in southwestern
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada, and is today located within the traditional territory of the St'at'imc First Nation. The site is situated on the British Columbia Plateau (also known as the Canadian Plateau) about 25 km upstream along the Fraser RiverLertzman, Kenneth P. "Reconstructing prehistoric socioeconomies from paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological data: an example from the British Columbia Plateau." Journal of Ethnobiology 16.1 (1996): 31–62. in what is called the Middle
Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...
or "Mid-Fraser".Prentiss, Anna Marie. "Imagining the archaic." SAA Archaeological Record (2008): 31. The site is between the St'at'imc communities of Xaxli'p (
Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or Spring (hydrology), spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. ...
) and Ts'kw'aylaxw (
Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
).P'egp'íg7lha Clan. "Homepage." http://www.titqet.org Accessed Dec. 29/2014 The closest town is
Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...
. Keatley Creek is "...nestled in a small basin at the back edge of a
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
river terrace, where it meets the mountain slope over 1,200 ft. (360 m) above the Fraser River" on terrain described as "benchlands above the Fraser River gorge". The village was close to many other small and medium communities including the down-river villages of Seton Lake (EeRl-21), Lillooet, Bridge River (EeRl-4), Fountain and Bell (EeRk-4), as well as, upriver, Pavilion, McKay Creek (EfRl-3 and −13), Chicken Gully (EfRl-5), and Kelly Creek/Pełtêqet (EfRk 1 and EfRl 25). Several of these villages (including Lillooet, Fountain and Pavilion) have now been destroyed. Of the remaining
Plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...
Pithouse A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a larder ...
Tradition housepit village settlements in the Mid-Fraser region, only the Kelly Creek and Keatley Creek sites have more than one hundred depressions, although large villages (with over 130 depressions) have also been identified along the Upper Chilcotin, South Thompson, and
Slocan River Slocan may refer to: Communities * Slocan, British Columbia or Slocan City, a village in the Slocan Valley, British Columbia, Canada * Slocan Valley or Slocan Country or Silvery Slocan, a valley in British Columbia, Canada * Slocan Park, British C ...
. This so-called zenith in the population is known as the Classic Lillooet Phase, where the villages existed in some form of network—either relatively autonomously or with multi-village communities.


Site

The site itself stretches over a kilometer, with the core area with the greatest concentration of house pits covering in a four
hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
radius. The site supported a lengthy period of human occupation, and was one of the largest villages in the Mid-Fraser region. Earliest carbon dating puts initial occupation around 7,000–8,000 BP. The site was more or less consistently occupied from the Shuswap horizon (2400–4000 BP) through the Plateau horizon (1200–2400 BP) and into the early Kamloops horizon (1200 BP).Middleton, William D., and T. Douglas Price. "Identification of activity areas by multi-element characterization of sediments from modern and archaeological house floors using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy." Journal of Archaeological Science 23.5 (1996): 673–687. The site features include 119 house depressions, called a house pits or
quiggly hole A quiggly hole, also known as a pit-house or simply as a quiggly or kekuli, is the remains of an earth lodge built by the First Nations people of the Interior of British Columbia and the Columbia Plateau in the United States The word ''quiggly'' ...
s (''kekuli'' or ''kickwillie''). Keatley Creek is "known for the unusually large size of its semi-subterranean houses" some more than 20 meters in diameter, although many are no larger than 5 meters.Prentiss, Anna Marie. "The winter village pattern on the Plateau of Northwestern North America." The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology (2012): 173 Archaeological investigation has concluded the Keatley Creek area was occupied by "residential corporate groups of differing economic and social status" which can also be described as a transegalitarian community.


Village life

At its peak population (c. 700 A.D.), Keatley Creek's population numbered over 700 people and probably around 1,000. Tools, baskets and hunting weapons found in excavations of Keatley Creek indicate that its ancient inhabitants had been the Stl'atl'imx, a Salish-speaking people who were gatherer-hunter-fishers living during the cold winter months in pit houses, and engaging in a variety of forms of food storage that included both harvest and material storage, and husbandry of one domesticated animal, the dog. Life in the ancient village continues to capture people's interest and imagination. The house pit village in some ways lends itself to the creation of a material history, as Anne Marie Prentiss explains:
Housepit villages such as Keatley Creek and Bridge River developed over hundreds of years. The archaeological record of many housepits formed through regular reoccupations organized around cleaning and rebuilding activities. An early researcher in this area,
James Teit James Alexander Teit (15 April 1864 — 30 October 1922) was an anthropologist, photographer and guide who worked with Franz Boas to study Interior Salish First Nations peoples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He led expeditions through ...
recorded that people constructed them by first digging a pit and then acquiring wood for upright posts and horizontal beams. The wood superstructure was then built by using strong upright posts to support the horizontal beams. Layers of timbers and matting covered the roof, and in some cases sediments sealed the construction, offering extra insulation. People dug pits indoors and lined them with birch bark to store food. They constructed hearths and made benches and storage platforms. Aside from regular cleaning, a family could live in such a house for up to 20 years without significant architectural modification. At some point, however, wood would become dangerously old, and vermin could infest portions of the roof and floor. In these cases, good timbers would be salvaged and the old roof burned down. Families returning from late warm-season food-gathering trips would then rebuild roofs and floors before they re-inhabited the houses. Sometimes rebuilding involved removing all of the burned roof materials and scraping out the old floors. At other times, as with many Bridge River houses, the people would remove burned and collapsed roof materials but not the floors. Instead, they would import new sediments and dump them over the old floors, thereby preserving an even more detailed record of household life over multiple generations.Prentiss, Anna Marie and Ian Kuijt. People of the Middle Fraser Canyon: An Archaeological History Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012
It is worth noting that the Keatley Creek and Bridge River sites have some differences in housepit formation. At Keatley, houses generally consist of the final inhabitant's floor; previous floors and roofs are re-deposited on rims. Keatley Creek society was part of the spectrum of complex gatherer-hunter-fisher societies. Such
sedentism In cultural anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In Sociocultural evolution, evolutio ...
is widespread in the archaeological record (such as the Middle Jōmon culture of Japan, the northern European
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
, the
Natufian The Natufian culture () is a Late Epipaleolithic archaeological culture of the Levant, dating to around 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction ...
of the Near East, the
Thule Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shet ...
tradition of North America's Western Arctic, etc.). At the same time, the pithouse villages along the Mid-Fraser are arguably "among the largest hunter-gatherer settlements recorded anywhere in the world for any period. They are much larger than most, if not all, prehistoric villages on the adjacent Northwest Coast. The only precontact settlements of comparable size within the modern borders of Canada were the horticultural Iroquoian villages of southern Ontario."Morin, Jesse, Ryan Dickie, Takashi Sakaguchi, and Jamie Hoskins. "Late Prehistoric settlement patterns and population Dynamics along the Mid-Fraser." BC Studies 160 (Winter 2008/09): 9–34


Dynamic seasonal round

Archaeologists have argued for at least a basic level of cultural continuity in the region, noting the consistency between traditional knowledge, oral and written historical records with the archaeological evidence. This suggests that the yearly round or seasonal life movements of the inhabitants of Keatley Creek were likely in general accord with those recorded in traditional ethnography. Hayden and Spafford suggest:
In the fall, large stores of salmon would be caught and dried along the Fraser River for winter food. After the fishing ended, the major deer hunt of the year took place in the alpine meadows. When cold weather set in, everyone would retreat to winter villages on the terraces of the Fraser River, where fish, meat, and plant foods were stored. During the winter, families lived in pithouses dug partly into the ground and covered with a conical wooden roof on which soil and sediment was piled for insulation, much like the roof of historical sod-covered cabins. Entry was generally via a ladder protruding through the smoke hole of the roof; and we think that people were relatively tightly bunched together in these houses for warmth during the frigid winters. By March, the people were anxious to move into the open and began to look for the first edible plant shoots and bulbs, such as young raspberry shoots and wild onions. Spring was often a time of hunger if winter food stores had been used up, and the first signs of spring salmon were eagerly awaited. When the snows had cleared in the mountains, most groups went to dig spring beauty corms ("mountain potatoes") and mountain lilies, as well as hunt and fish in the mountain lakes (Alexander 1992). In mid to late summer, people gathered saskatoon and other berries as they ripened at lower elevations. By late summer, everyone was back down at the river fishing sites preparing fish for the winter and trading with visitors.
Therefore, although a critical amount of nutrition came from gathered foods (plants,
geophytes A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified for storage of energy (generally in the form of carbohydrates) or water. Storage organs often grow underground, where they are better protected from attack by herbivores. Plants that have ...
or roots and tubers, and berries) and deer also supplemented nutrition, salmon fishery was a key source of nutrients. Trade and exchange for dried salmon also brought together goods from considerable distances away, like ground stone bowls, obsidian, and nephrite jade.
Sockeye The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...
, Chinook,
Chum Chum may refer to: Broadcasting * CHUM Limited, a defunct Canadian media company * CHUM Radio, now Bell Media Radio, a Canadian radio broadcasting company * CHUM (AM), a Toronto radio station * CHUM-FM, a Toronto radio station * CHUM Chart, a C ...
and
Coho The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name is ...
salmon were available from August to October and were caught, dried, and stored for later use throughout the winter. Chinook and Sockeye were, in the ethnographic record, preferred over Chum and Coho because of their stronger, richer flavor, although they also take longer to dry.Lertzman, Kenneth P. "Ancient DNA investigation of prehistory salmon resource utilization at Keatley Creek, British Columbia, Canada." Speller, Camilla F., Dongya Y. Yang, Brian Hayden. Journal of Archaeological Science 32 (2005) 1378–1389 Salmon DNA studies show that during the period Keatley Creek was inhabited, pink salmon, a fish known as easy to catch and easy to dry, were absent from the region. At the same time,
palynology Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and '' -logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposit ...
,
alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...
,
paleo __NOTOC__ ''Paleo'' may refer to: Prehistoric Era, Age, or Period * Paleolithic, a prehistoric Era, Age, or Period of human history People * David Strackany, aka "Paleo", an American folk singer-songwriter Art, entertainment, and media * ''P ...
-
oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...
, and studies of
pre-history Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
now show the climate, and likely also the seasonal round, varied significantly in the region with a dry interval (2,200 to 1,600 BP) followed by a cool, moist time (1,600 to 1,200 BP) and then return to dry interval, corresponding with the
Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from to . Proxy (climate), Climate proxy records show peak warmth oc ...
. These changes would have also affected salmon populations, with growth in the salmon population during the cooler, moist era and reduction during the warmer periods.Prentiss, Anna, James C. Chatters, Natasha Lyons, Lucille E. Harris. "Archaeology in the Middle-Fraser Canyon British Columbia Changing Perspectives on Paleoecology and Emergent Cultural Complexity." Canadian Journal of Archaeology 35 (2011): 143–174


Social organization

The presence of somewhat unequal pit house sizes, storage pits, as well as differences in the type and quality of dietary and lithic (stone tool) remains, have meant that Keatley Creek has become an important archaeological site in debates about the development of social inequality. Initial research formulated that "mass harvest and storage permitted
sedentism In cultural anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In Sociocultural evolution, evolutio ...
and inequality in natural abundances led to social inequalities." Certainly, winter survival relied on extensive use of food storage, which became all the more real as the population of Keatley Creek grew. Storage technologies in the mid-Fraser were varied and included cache pits, above-ground facilities, baskets, and cords.Prentiss, Anna, Hannah S. Cailb, Lisa M. Smith. "At the Malthusian ceiling Subsistence and inequality at Bridge River British Columbia." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 33 (2014):34–48 In this direction, three types of "
corporate groups A corporate group or group of companies is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of groups are often managed by an account manager. The concept ...
" were reportedly identified in the Keatley Creek village: several families living in the same structure, an individual family in its own structure, and large amorphous residential groups assembled, such as a neighborhood. Studies indicate an early socioeconomic strategy and signs of sociopolitical complexity suggesting domestic subgroups within households and within the community at large, especially in the final centuries of Keatley Creek's occupation. The biggest dwellings have the largest storage capacity, more prestige foods (i.e. chinook salmon) and lithics such as
obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...
,
steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...
and
nephrite Nephrite is a variety of the calcium, magnesium, and iron-rich amphibole minerals tremolite or actinolite (Aggregate (geology), aggregates of which also make up one form of asbestos). The chemical formula for nephrite is calcium, Ca2(magnesium, ...
which would have been difficult to obtain. Following from this analysis, the four largest pit homes represent the accommodations of multi-household clans or otherwise higher status social groups. Dogs were also kept by higher status dwellings for "hunting, transportation, protection and companionship, clothing (hides), weaving materials (hair), ritual, and food." Subsequent research has reconsidered the relationship between economic stratification and salmon species distribution at Keatley Creek as "visible but clearly not as dramatic as previously assumed" because of the over-all prevalence of chinook salmon. Some archaeologists have also suggested that social stratification took place not during a moment of population growth, but social contraction due to internal or external contradictions facing Keatley Creek. Therefore, "the pattern of inequality was not triggered by any major technological changes or expansions in per-capita storage. Rather, it appears to have come as a consequence of households changing the rules of food sharing and consumption under stressful conditions."


Excavation and research

Keatley Creek has been the site of active excavations from 1986 and ongoing in 2013–present.Hayden, Brian, and Jim Spafford. "The Keatley Creek site and corporate group archaeology." BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly 99 (1993): 106–139. The main projects have been led by Brian Hayden and
Anna Marie Prentiss Anna Marie Prentiss is an American archaeologist and Regents Professor of Anthropology at the University of Montana. She is known for her works on the history of the Great Plains, Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Casca ...
.


Hayden Project

In 1986, Brian Hayden of
Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...
, British Columbia, began the initial project at Keatley Creek. That study's initial aim was to "determine why this site was so large and why some of the individual semisubterranean housepits were also unusually big." Hayden's group was also interested in the cultural continuity in the region and exploring houses where multiple families lived in what were described as "residential corporate groups" Hayden's expedition examined the botanical, faunal, and lithic remains at the site and explored the formation of different types of strata and construction, closely examining floors, roofs, middens, and hearths. They sought to identify activities and social habits that occurred at Keatley Creek through examining stone artifacts and
debitage In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, b ...
(waste products from manufacture). The nature of each structure was examined in order to compare the "economic and social organization" of the residences. Over the years, Hayden's excavations have expanded, and his work continued with varied hypotheses. Ongoing studies have been documented in several publications: * Hayden, Brian. The pithouses of Keatley Creek: Complex hunter-gatherers of the Northwest Plateau. Toronto: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997. * Hayden, Brian. "Pathways to power: principles for creating socioeconomic inequalities." Foundations of social inequality (1995): 15–86. * Speller, Camilla F., Dongya Y. Yang, and Brian Hayden. "Ancient DNA investigation of prehistoric salmon resource utilization at Keatley Creek, British Columbia, Canada." Journal of Archaeological Science 32.9 (2005): 1378–1389. * Hayden, Brian, Nora Franco, and Jim Spafford. "Evaluating lithic strategies and design criteria." Stone tools: Theoretical insights into human prehistory (1996): 9–45. * Hayden, Brian, Edward Bakewell, and Rob Gargett. "The world's longest-lived corporate group: Lithic analysis reveals prehistoric social organization near Lillooet, British Columbia." American antiquity (1996): 341–356. * Hayden, Brian, and June M. Ryder. "Prehistoric cultural collapse in the Lillooet area." American Antiquity (1991): 50–65. * Hayden, Brian, and Rick Schulting. "The plateau interaction sphere and late prehistoric cultural complexity." American antiquity (1997): 51–85.


Prentiss Project

Anna Marie Prentiss of the
University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...
has included Keatley Creek in her study of Plateau villages throughout prehistory. She has explored the evolution of variations in the Plateau villages, including the need to draw distinctions between "socioeconomically 'complex' communities and those designated as 'sociopolitically' complex." She anticipated that findings at Keatley Creek would contribute to understanding the distribution of ethnographic cultures in the region. Additionally, her work identified the possibility that the Keatley Creek community had emerged as a "complex collector socioeconomic strategy." Her study of Keatley Creek Site contributes to her exploration of the "rise and fall of human societies during that long time span we call the Archaic." Prentiss' studies have been numerous and documented in several publications such as: * Prentiss, Anna Marie, et al. "The emergence of status inequality in intermediate scale societies: A demographic and socio-economic history of the Keatley Creek site, British Columbia." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26.2 (2007): 299–327. * Prentiss, Anna Marie, et al. "Evolution of a late prehistoric winter village on the interior plateau of British Columbia: geophysical investigations, radiocarbon dating, and spatial analysis of the Bridge River site." American antiquity (2008): 59–81. * Prentiss, Anna Marie, Ian Kuijt, and James C. Chatters. Macroevolution in human prehistory: Evolutionary theory and processual archaeology. Springer, 2009. * Prentiss, Anna Marie, and David S. Clarke. "Lithic technological organization in an evolutionary framework: Examples from North America's Pacific Northwest region." Lithic Technology: Measures of Production, Use and Curation (2008): 257–285. * Prentiss, Anna Marie. "The Emergence of New Socioeconomic Strategies in the Middle and Late Holocene Pacific Northwest Region of North America." Macroevolution in Human Prehistory (2009): 111–131. * Prentiss, Anna Marie, and Michael Lenert. "Cultural Stasis and Change in Northern North America: A Macroevolutionary Perspective." Macroevolution in Human Prehistory (2009): 235–251. * Prentiss, Anna Marie, et al. "The Cultural Evolution of Material Wealth-Based Inequality at Bridge River, British Columbia." American Antiquity 77.3 (2012): 542–564. * Prentiss, Anna Marie, et al. "At the Malthusian ceiling Subsistence and inequality at Bridge River British Columbia." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 33 (2014): 34–48.


Other projects

Several other subjects of study have involved Keatley Creek Site including (but not limited to): * Keatley Creek's general contribution to the study of human evolution and life in hunter-gatherer-fisher society *
Household archaeology Household archaeology has a long history of anthropological inquiry. Archaeological investigations of the household serve as a microcosm for the greater social universe. The household serves as a space for socialization processes. Household archaeol ...
, the
history of agriculture Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of Taxon, taxa. At least eleven separate regions of the Old World, Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin. The development ...
and evolution of agricultural economies, roots of
social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...
Ames, Kenneth M. "Thinking about household archaeology on the Northwest Coast." Household archaeology on the Northwest Coast (2006): 16–36. * The
demography Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and Population dynamics, dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups ...
of early households * Sediment characterization, activity areas identification, and the degree to which activities leave detectable chemical residues * The concept of house societies especially among hunter-gatherer-fishers * Mobility of household members *
Prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
bone assemblagesButler, Virginia L., and James C. Chatters. "The role of bone density in structuring prehistoric salmon bone assemblages." Journal of Archaeological Science 21.3 (1994): 413–424. *
Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
of Keatley Creek structuresHarris, Cole. "Introduction: Considering the Middle Fraser." BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly 160 (2008): 3–8. * Distribution of
ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
cultures * Prehistoric
socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...
* The role of "combined paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses in studies of prehistoric social and economic organization"


Keatley Creek housepit sites

The Keatley Creek winter village of housepits (Figures 1 – 3) is geographically positioned near the Fraser River to "protect access to critical salmon resource." The area also provided the village access to a wide array of natural resources (game for hunting, wood for construction, stone for tools).


Basic structural concept

The housepits of Keatley Creek are semi-subterranean structures. Their construction was obviously labor-intensive and provided permanent structures in a generally circular shape with conical or pyramidal roof shapes. Entrance to the housepit was made possible by a log ladder that emerged through an opening located somewhat centrally in the roof protruding through the smoke hole. In general, each housepit affords only 2.5 square meters of floor space per person occupying the space.


Small housepit

Hayden's group tested Housepit 12 – one of the smaller housepits at the Keatley Creek site. It measured 9 meters in diameter (rim crest to rim crest) where most small housepits are 7m in diameter. Compared to other small structures, housepit 12 had a substantial roof, indicating that these residents were not the poorest in the Keatley Creek community, but they were still impoverished compared to the residents of the larger structures at the site. There was little use of the fire hearth, foods required no cooking and were served unheated. It was essential for inhabitants to huddle for warmth. In this site, there was evidence of lower grade foods and clothing. There was very little storage space. The overall space was divided into distinct areas for butchering/eating, stonework and tools, open or communal areas. No distinct areas were reserved for lying down or sleeping, unlike peripheral areas of the larger housepits.


Medium housepit

Hayden's excavation included Housepit No. 3, which measured 14 meters in diameter. It is estimated that thirty people (i.e., five or six nuclear families) occupied this structure. Deposits here indicate some elements of wealth, larger storage pits, some higher grade food products, and probable access to better fishing sites than the residents of the smaller housepits. The wood used for fuel was the same type as for the small housepit, but here was evidence of greater use of fire and of the hearths. There were bedding materials at the peripheral walls with some raised sleeping platforms signifying another difference from the residents of the smaller structures. The medium-sized housepit included separate domestic spaces with a central communal area. The overall space was divided into four sectors with a principal hearth in central area.


Large housepit

The large housepit was especially important to Hayden's study of residential corporate groups and how the artifacts and assemblages could be used to compare the life practices of people living in the larger structures with those in the smaller size housepits. Hayden's team excavated Housepit #7 which measured 19 meters in diameter from rim crest to rim crest. They estimated that at least 45 people lived in this structure at one time—perhaps eight separate families or domestic units. The deposits found here indicated that these occupants enjoyed substantial economic resources and wealth compared to the residents of small structures. Higher grade construction materials and processes were employed. There were multiple hearths used regularly, some of them unusually large. Per capita storage areas were far larger and more numerous than those of other housepits. High quality foods were available including more meat products (such as fox, bear, and sheep) and some unexpected species (such as scallops which would have been obtained in trade from the coast). These occupants had access to a wide array of wealth items. Overall, they were economically well off. It is possible that they even had dogs as pets. Separate domestic units in the large housepit each contained hearths, tools, comforts, and conveniences. The structure held a central communal area with an especially large hearth. The division of the overall space indicates the possibility of sexual division of workspaces and for a "fundamental socioeconomic division" within the structure – perhaps including controlling families and tenant families or those who worked for the household. It is possible that some members of this household held high status in the community at large. Evidence indicates that the major housepits were continuously occupied over several generations, perhaps more than 1,000 years, by "a single, identifiable social group" which maintained the structure's roof, storage areas, and basic organization. It is remarkable that these households were able to successfully replenish themselves by recruiting new members over such a long period.


Other structures

Of the 119 housepits noted at Keatley Creek, some were apparently used as storage facilities of varying sizes (some quite large). Also evident are communal roasting pits outside of the residential structures.


Debate about occupation and abandonment

Some controversy surrounds the dates of Keatley Creek's occupation and the reason for its depopulation. The debate is frustrated partly by the
margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the ent ...
associated with
radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
. What is agreed by all researchers is that long before contact and colonization the large villages had disappeared—although the local area was never abandoned by indigenous peoples and, before contact and colonization, the indigenous population rose again. As the villages in the mid-Fraser Canyon contained one of the highest population densities in the Pacific Northwest, their breakup must have had significant repercussions for social life throughout the entire region. In identifying the exact reason, or reasons, for that change there is less consensus. To be sure, not all researchers agree the site was continuously inhabited, nor do they agree on how or why the social communities came together. Two main proposals have been formulated: Hayden emphasizes technological development, and Prentiss' emphasizes environmental factors and limitations.


Early occupancy and catastrophe

Hayden places Keatley Creek's occupancy as beginning in 2,600 BP and ending in 1,000 BP (ca 400 BC – 1000 AD). The villages came together at a moment which allowed for technological improvements to allow for the production of food surpluses through salmon harvest, and with the development of competitive feasting, social inequality emerged. The villages were long-lived until a serious problem with the salmon population arose, leading to abandonment in 1000 AD. This is when a single catastrophic event — a massive rockslide below Lillooet at Texas Creek — destroyed salmon runs in the Fraser and creating a sudden crisis for Keatley Creek residents. The slide would have created a long-lasting dam for salmon, preventing access to necessary spawning beds. The exact date of the Texas Creek slide is unclear, as is evidence of a large backed-up lake. These and other problems have been cited with Hayden's thesis.


Waves of population growth reach limits

Prentiss, on the other hand, estimates that occupancy was from 1,700 BP to 800 BP (ca 300–1200 AD). Significant climatic warming was taking place during the initial period of village formation, increasing vegetation and likely decreasing the salmon population. Small village formation was driven by resource scarcity and a need to come together to conserve the salmon resources. A complex process of
cultural transmission Cultural learning is the way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on information. Learning styles are greatly influenced by how a culture socializes with its children and young people. Cross-cultural res ...
associated with population expansion took place later, when the climate shifted to be more favorable for salmon. Later, depopulation took place in two waves, around 800 BP (1200 AD) associated with climatic deterioration during the
Medieval warm period The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from to . Proxy (climate), Climate proxy records show peak warmth oc ...
or the "early Neoglacial period." Stress on these communities was probably exacerbated by resource exhaustion of local roots and tubers. Dietary records suggest that people searched for food further afield from the villages and had more reliance on lower-quality food such as seeds. The complexity of hunting tools indicated that more diverse species of animals also were hunted further afield. This adds up to a " Malthusian ceiling" associated with reduction in critical subsistence resources, social change, and eventual village abandonment.


War, plague, crisis

Morin, who published radiocarbon dates of material at the house pits sites, concluded that the highest population densities were between 1,550–1,150 BP (400 AD and 800 AD) with a maximum around 1,200 BP (700 AD). He argues that Keatley Creek's drastic population decline began in the ninth century. By 950 BP (1000 AD) the Keatley Creek Site's population was barely half that of three centuries before. Also skeptical of a single catastrophic crisis, Morin also looks at internal contradictions in Mid-Fraser society. Although little evidence exists for warfare, it may have increased with the introduction of the bow and arrow, as elsewhere in the interior plains. Morin and others have suggested as well that variability in salmon populations could have been coupled with the reality that more densely settled population is vulnerable to disease. Perhaps summarizing the common ground in the discussion, Morin and others have written:
Rather than a static, timeless picture of the aboriginal past, research in the Mid-Fraser offers a glimpse of the rich history of these peoples and their settlements ike Keatley Creek Briefly, this history included the development of many large villages with population densities along the Mid-Fraser greatly exceeding those at contact or even today and the abandonment of such settlements at least six centuries before contact. The history of these communities was undoubtedly marked by the founding of new villages; the rise and fall of powerful lineages and chiefs; the shifting of alliances between chiefs, lineages, villages, and distant trading partners; the spread of new technologies and rituals; periods of strife and peace; and others of plenty and dearth. Although archaeology can illuminate no more than an outline of this rich and varied history, researchers will continue to question current understandings of and add information about the long and extraordinary human past of this remarkable region.


Heritage resource classification

The significance of Keatley Creek's cultural heritage is especially true for local First Nations peoples, who have striven to overcome over a century of colonial policies aimed at forms of cultural destruction and genocide, and to reclaim their history, language and identities, as well as sovereignty and self-determination. Since Keatley Creek was home to a large community for an extremely long time, it is extremely important for archaeological study, representing the culmination of centuries of human experimentation with housepit living. The site contributes to the bank of knowledge regarding North American history and communities. It suggests a past that was more socioeconomically or politically complex and more culturally diverse than previously recorded. Today the site is also recognized as a special heritage resource for the province of British Columbia. Keatley Creek has also been described as "a world heritage quality site."Hayden, Brian, and Simon Fraser University. Dept. of Archaeology. The ancient past of Keatley Creek. Burnaby, BC: Archaeology Press, 2000. It earned this distinction not only because its excavation is important for understanding the development of complex hunting and gathering cultures but also because it is well preserved, clearly visible, and easily accessed from a nearby highway. The Keatley Creek Site includes well-defined architectural features and provides valuable evidence of complex socioeconomic organization. Recently, the site has earned attention at a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
conference hosted as part of its 2013 World Heritage Thematic Programme, at
Biblioteca Palafoxiana The Biblioteca Palafoxiana is a library in Puebla City's historic centre, in the Mexican state of Puebla. Founded in 1646, it is recognized by the UNESCO for being the first and oldest public library in the Americas, It has more than 45,000 b ...
in Mexico City.


References


Selected resources


Books and monographs

* People of the Middle Fraser Canyon: An Archaeological History (Prentiss, Anna Marie and Ian Kuijt.) 2012 * Ancient past of Keatley Creek. (Hayden, Brian and Simon Fraser University). 2000. * The pithouses of Keatley Creek: Complex hunter-gatherers of the Northwest Plateau (Hayden, Brian). 1997 * Pathways to power: principles for creating socioeconomic inequalities. Foundations of social inequality. (Hayden, Brian.) 1995 * "Evaluating lithic strategies and design criteria." Stone tools: Theoretical insights into human prehistory (Hayden, Brian, Nora Franco, and Jim Spafford.) 1996


Papers

* "Identification of activity areas by multi-element characterization of sediments from modern and archaeological house floors using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy". (William D. Middleton and T. Douglas Price). 1996. * "Imagining the archaic". (Anna Marie Prentiss). 2008. * "Introduction: Considering the Middle Fraser." (Cole Harris). 2008. * "Keatley Creek site and corporate group archaeology, The". (Brian Hayden and Jim Spafford). 1993. * "Prehistory: introduction." (James C. Chatters and David L. Pokotylo).1998. * "Reconstructing prehistoric socioeconomies from paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological data: an example from the British Columbia Plateau". (Kenneth P. Lertzman). 1996. * "Role of bone density in structuring prehistoric salmon bone assemblages, The". (Virginia L. Butler and James C. Chatters). 1994. * "Thinking about household archaeology on the Northwest Coast." (Kenneth M. Ames). 2006. * "Winter village pattern on the Plateau of Northwestern North America, The". (Anna Marie Prentiss). 2012.


External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20120827121530/http://www.bcartifacts.com/great.html * http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2012/PeopleOfTheMiddleFraserCanyon.pdf * http://wikimapia.org/9355252/Keatley-Creek-archaeological-site * https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-evolution-of-fairness-45681 * https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-path-to-keatley-creek-45903 {{Prehistoric technology, state=collapsed Archaeological sites in British Columbia History of the Pacific Northwest Hunter-gatherers of Canada Lillooet Country St'at'imc Fraser Canyon First Nations history