Life on the River : The Archaeology of an Early Native American Culture

by Hildebrandt, William R.

• ISBN13: 9781597140867
• ISBN10: 1597140864
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Heyday Pub Inc

Summary

In this detailed account of an archaeological dig along the banks of the Upper Sacramento River in Northern California, we gain unforgettable glimpses into the village life of a Wintu tribe 175 years ago, including signs of their often contentious interactions with other groups and evidence of the epidemic that nearly destroyed the tribe in 1833.

Author Biography

William R. Hildebrandt is a principal owner of Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., located in Davis, California, and is an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz Michael J. Darcangelo is a senior archaeologist at Far Western, and he was raised in Shasta County, California

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Distant Past	p. 7
Dating Archaeological Sites	p. 8
Radiocarbon Dating	p. 8
Obsidian Hydration	p. 9
Cross-dating Artifact Styles	p. 9
Ancient Cultures of the Upper Sacramento Valley as Seen through the Archaeological Record	p. 11
Borax Lake Pattern (8000-5000 BP)	p. 13
Squaw Creek Pattern (5000-3000 BP)	p. 14
Whiskeytown Pattern (4000-1500 BP)	p. 15
Shasta Pattern (post 1500 BP)	p. 17
Changes in Prehistoric Land Use	p. 18
Linguistics and the Arrival of the Wintu	p. 18
Historical Linguistics	p. 22
Wintu Linguistics	p. 22
Wintu Culture as Known through the Ethnographic Record	p. 27
Wintu Foods	p. 28
Deer Hunting	p. 31
Bear Hunting	p. 32
Fishing	p. 33
Plant Gathering and Processing	p. 36
Wintu Social Organization	p. 38
Wintu Chiefs	p. 38
Shamans	p. 40
Marriage	p. 41
Gambling	p. 41
Warfare	p. 42
Village Architecture: Implications for the Archaeological Record	p. 42
Discussion	p. 43
Archaeology of a Wintu Village, "Kum Bay Xerel" (CA-SHA-1043)	p. 45
Field Methods	p. 46
Site Structure and Chronology	p. 50
Stratigraphic Profiles	p. 50
Cultural Features	p. 52
Radiocarbon Dates	p. 60
Projectile Points	p. 61
Beads	p. 61
Prehistoric Tools	p. 64
Flaked-stone Tools	p. 64
Bone Tools	p. 68
Food Remains	p. 70
Plant Foods	p. 70
Filaree: European Plants Outpacing the Explorers?	p. 73
Animal Foods	p. 74
Discussion	p. 78
End of an Era: First Contacts with Europeans	p. 79
John Work and the 1833 Malaria Epidemic	p. 80
Archaeology of the Primary Cemetery Area: Evidence for the Malaria Epidemic?	p. 84
Dating the Primary Cemetery Area	p. 86
Treatment of the Dead	p. 90
Age of the Dead	p. 94
Males, Females, and Interpersonal Violence	p. 96
Rich People, Poor People	p. 100
Other Historic-period Artifacts	p. 102
Other Sites in the Area	p. 102
Discussion	p. 103
Summary and Conclusions	p. 107
Photo Credits	p. 115
Recommended Readings	p. 117
About the Authors: Dr. William R. Hildebrandt and Michael J. Darcangelo, Far Western	p. 119
List of Tables
Projectile Point Frequencies from the Village at CA-SHA-1043	p. 62
Artifacts from the Village Deposits at CA-SHA-1043	p. 65
A Comparison of Artifacts from the Village and the Cemetery at CA-SHA-1043	p. 86
List of Figures
Location Map	p. 2
Some of the Excavation Team at CA-SHA-1043	p. 3
Measuring an Obsidian Hydration Rim	p. 10
Medicine Lake Obsidian Hydration Curve Based on Radiocarbon-Hydration Pairs	p. 11
Chronologically Diagnostic Projectile Point Types	p. 12
Atlatl and Dart	p. 15
Squaw Creek Pattern (5000-3000 BP) Incised Stone from the Sacramento River Canyon	p. 16
Prehistoric Settlement Zones along the Upper Sacramento River	p. 19
Distribution of Time-sensitive Projectile Points Across Key Environmental Settings	p. 20
Medicine Lake Obsidian Hydration Data from Key Environmental Settings	p. 21
Linguistic Map of Northern California	p. 21
Important Speakers of the Wintu Language	p. 23
Wintu Subareas from Cora Du Bois	p. 29
Wintu People from Birth to Middle Age	p. 30
Wintu Elders	p. 31
Location of CA-SHA-1043 in Relation to the Sacramento River	p. 32
Salmon Harpoon after Du Bois	p. 34
Wintu Salmon House	p. 35
Wintu Fish Weir	p. 36
Salmon Drying on the River Bar	p. 37
Burden Basket and Hopper Mortar	p. 39
Clamshell Disk Money	p. 40
Backhoe Trenches and Hand Excavation Units within the Village Portions of CA-SHA-1043	p. 47
Field Workers Excavating at CA-SHA-1043	p. 48
Wintu Trainees Screening, Ester Stevenson and Veronica Graybel	p. 48
Wintu Representatives Observing Materials at Field Lab, Kelli Hayward, Linda Malone, and Lori Light	p. 49
Stratigraphic Profile of the S7/W23 Exposure	p. 51
Feature 3, Burned House Remains	p. 53
Traditional Wintu House Similar to Feature 3	p. 55
Stratigraphic Profile of Feature 21, Earthen Lodge	p. 56
Plan View of Timber Zone (Stratum I; 70 cm) at Feature 21, Earthen Lodge	p. 57
Plan View of Fill and Floor Zones (Stratum III; 135 cm) at Feature 21, Earthen Lodge	p. 58
An Earthen Lodge from Wintoon Territory	p. 59
Close-up of Burned Timbers from Feature 21, Earthen Lodge	p. 59
Projectile Points from the Village at CA-SHA-1043	p. 63
Key Obsidian Source Areas in Northern California	p. 66
Alternative Flaked-stone Tool Production Strategies	p. 67
Bone Tools from CA-SHA-1043	p. 69
Charred Plant Remains from CA-SHA-1043	p. 72
Filaree Seed and Foliage	p. 73
Animal Foods from CA-SHA-1043	p. 75-76
Fish Caught and Eaten at CA-SHA-1043	p. 77
Route of John Work's Expedition to California, 1832-1833	p. 81
Primary Cemetery Area at CA-SHA-1043	p. 85
Hudson Bay Company Covered Copper Kettle	p. 87
Glass Trade Beads from CA-SHA-1043 (full scale)	p. 89
Relative Percentage of Glass, Clam, and Olivella Shell Beads by Burial	p. 91
Structural Characteristics of the Cemetery Area	p. 93
Percentage of Each Age Class within the Primary Cemetery at CA-SHA-1043	p. 95
Probability of Death by Age Class at CA-SHA-1043	p. 96
Percentage of Adult Males and Females by Age Class at CA-SHA-1043	p. 97
Percentage of Population (Historic Period and Prehistoric) with Traumatic Injuries According to Sex	p. 98
Percentage of Population (Historic Period and Prehistoric) Buried with Beads and Ornaments	p. 101
United States 1842 Military Pistol Compared to the Gun Discovered at CA-SHA-1043	p. 103
Copper Black Powder Flask Discovered at CA-SHA-1043	p. 104
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