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Radiocarbon, Soil, and Artifact Chronologies for An Early Southern Oregon Coastal Site

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Roberta Hall*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
Loren G Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
Samuel Willis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
Matthew Fillmore
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, USDA-NRCS, Tangent Soils Office, 33630 McFarland Road, Tangent, Oregon 97389, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

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Radiocarbon dates together with geoarchaeological, soil, and lithic analyses are presented to describe archaeological site 35-CS-9 in Bandon Ocean Wayside State Park, Oregon, northwestern USA. One of the few Oregon middle-Holocene coastal sites that includes sediments and artifacts dating to the early Holocene and possibly to the late Pleistocene, it was recorded in 1951 and surface surveyed by archaeologists in 1975, 1986, and 1991, but its depth and antiquity were not tested. In February 2002, we studied the site's stratigraphy and sediments and described 8 strata from the aeolian surface to bedrock at 350 cm depth. Soil samples taken from a cut bank for texture classification, particle size analysis, pH, carbon content, and chemical analysis suggested that the site represented a complete history of Holocene deposits. Excavation of 2 test units in August 2002 uncovered substantial lithic and charcoal remains that confirm a protracted middle-Holocene occupation and suggest that human occupation began in the early Holocene. Charcoal recovered at 235–245 cm dated to 11,000 14C BP, and the deepest lithic artifact was recovered in a level at 215–225 cm. Whether the human occupation was continuous throughout the Holocene, and whether it began in the early Holocene or in the late Pleistocene, can only be determined with further excavations.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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