Modeling ancient plant use on the Northwest Coast: towards an understanding of mobility and sedentism

Abstract

Understanding patterns of mobility among ancient populations is inextricably linked to an understanding of fundamental aspects of social and economic systems. On the Northwest Coast of North America, archeologists use attributes of the lithic assemblage, site size and location, and to a lesser extent analyses of features and faunal remains to investigate patterns of mobility. Archeobotanical data are not used in these assessments, despite the fact that explicit expectations about plant remains at different kinds of sites can be derived from the region's rich ethnographic record of plant use. In this paper, we present a model of ancient plant use in the Coast Salish region of the Northwest Coast that can be used to distinguish sites which represent varying degrees of sedentism. Based on the ethnographic and ethnobotanical literature, we characterize the expected patterning of archeobotanical remains in short-term camps, base camps, and summer, winter, and year-round villages, according to richness, degree of specialization, density, accessibility, and seasonality. We then apply the model to help interpret two archeological deposits from the Scowlitz site, a multi-component site inhabited over a 3000-year span by Coast Salish peoples, and to refine the model further.