James Chatters and colleagues make a significant contribution to the study of the Old Cordilleran culture of the Puget Sound region of northwestern North America in Hunters of the Mid-Holocene Forest. As the title suggests, the Old Cordilleran phase broadly coincides temporally with the early to mid-Holocene in the Puget Sound region. The authors focus on the early part of the Old Cordilleran (referred to as the Olcott period), and they address research questions relating to settlement, subsistence, and environmental adaptations—topics for which knowledge is currently limited largely due to postdepositional bioturbation and chemical weathering that commonly affect older sites in the region.
The book is divided into 14 chapters that present a comprehensive overview of a CRM study of two camp sites (45SN28 and 45SN303) investigated for a roadway project in Granite Falls, Washington. The first three chapters provide overviews of the project, the subject sites, and the Olcott period in regional context. These chapters are followed by an introduction to the project's research questions (Chapter 4), which are divided into seven analytical categories: settlement and community patterns, technology, lithic sourcing, chronology, subsistence, paleoecology, and adaptive strategies. In Chapters 5 through 13, the authors discuss the results of the excavations, stratigraphic analyses, specialized material culture analyses, chronology, and paleoenvironmental studies geared to address the project's research questions. The conclusion (Chapter 14) summarizes the contributions of the study to each of the research questions.
As acknowledged by the authors, sites 45SN28 and 45SN303 are not without the postdepositional impacts and chemical weathering that plague the archaeology of the Northwest Coast, especially with respect to older sites. These issues particularly affected interpretations related to subsistence (the subject of Chapter 11), given that chemical weathering appears to have resulted in a very small faunal assemblage and obliterated any identifiable protein residues on lithic artifacts. Similarly, bioturbation impacts seem to have rendered cultural features largely unidentifiable, although a notable exception (discussed in Chapter 10) is an apparent earth oven at 45SN303, which is one of the oldest features of that type found in the Pacific Northwest.
The technological analysis and sourcing of lithic artifacts discussed in Chapters 8 and 9 likely comprise the greatest contribution these two Granite Falls sites can offer to the regional study of the Olcott period. More than 13,000 lithic artifacts were analyzed from sites 45SN28 and 45SN303. The toolstone represented in the assemblage was primarily fine-grained volcanic rock available in the local vicinity in glacial outwash plains. The authors go on to suggest that the camp locations were selected, in part, due to their proximity to this lithic material, which is an apt interpretation given the overall paucity of good-quality toolstone in the Puget Sound region.
The technological analysis of the tools and debitage is indicative of a core-and-blade toolmaking industry. Among the formed tools recovered, the majority were laurel leaf-shaped projectile points that appeared to be deliberately fashioned long and thick in order to increase their use life, given that many had been repaired repeatedly and curated. Many of the projectile points were also serrated around the edges, which would have increased their effectiveness in penetrating animal flesh and reducing the likelihood of bending. The authors also postulate that the lack of antecedents to the core-and-blade toolmaking industry at Granite Falls could have implications pertaining to the number of human migratory events into North America.
The sites’ chronologies were established through various methods discussed in Chapter 12. Stylistic cross-dating of projectile points, obsidian hydration, and thermoluminescence dating from fire-modified rock indicate that the two Granite Falls sites were occupied during a time frame (approximately 9700–7700 BP) consistent with other Olcott sites in the region. This would have been a time, based on the pollen analyses discussed in Chapter 13, marked by a fire-prone environment with Douglas fir, grand fir, and likely a scattering of permanent open meadows and oak woodlands. This environment would have contained ample wild game and plant foods suitable for highly mobile groups that would have characterized the Olcott period.
The strength of the study outlined in this book stems from the comprehensiveness of the analyses conducted. Although certain data categories had limitations resulting from postdepositional impacts, the various lines of inquiry explored enabled the authors to present a plausible model for environmental adaptations during the Olcott period in the Granite Falls area that has relevant implications for groups associated with the Old Cordilleran culture in the Puget Sound region more broadly. Overall, this work fills important knowledge gaps and is a worthy resource for scholars researching early to mid-Holocene human adaptations on the Northwest Coast.
