This is a report of archaeological test excavations conducted at two prehistoric sites in the middle Umpqua Basin, Douglas County, Oregon. Work at these Bureau of Land Management administered sites, prompted by continued vandalism, was performed by BLM personnel, Umpqua Community College archaeological field school students, volunteers from the University of Oregon, and volunteers from the Rogue Valley Archaeological Society.
The Narrows Site (35D0153) lies adjacent to the North Umpqua River in the vicinity of Idleyld, Oregon, and was described as an aboriginal fishery in the 1855 cadastral survey records. Test pits placed on the terrace overlooking the river yielded 597 tools and 8913 pieces of lithic debitage. Approximately 22.6 m 3 were excavated. The artifact assemblage at the Narrows Site is varied, containing projectile points, knives, drills, scrapers, cores, choppers, hammerstones, edge faceted cobbles, stone bowl and hopper mortars, pestles, bone tools and a fragment of a baked clay figurine. This variety suggests its use as a base camp. The excavation of a portion of a house pit indicates that the site may have been, at times, permanently occupied. An analysis of the vertical distribution of cultural material, found to extend to approximately 150 cm below the surface, indicates the presence of four cultural components. Radiocarbon dated, these components represent portions of the Middle and Late Archaic periods, beginning approximately 6300 years ago.
Component I , with a series of four radiocarbon dates ranging from 90 + 70 BP to 330 + 80 BP, is found in a midden-like upper soil stratum. Associated with this component are barbed and tanged projectile points, bone tools, a baked clay figurine fragment, and a tightly flexed human burial found to have been buried in a basin-shaped pit.
Component II is dated by two radiocarbon assays; 450 + 70 BP and 1020 + 60 BP. Only four diagnostic projectile points were recovered from this component and include one small concave base point, two broad-necked and side-notched varieties, and a foliate-shaped point. Associated with this component are stone bowl and hopper mortars, and a partially exposed housepit.
Component III is dated by a radiocarbon assay of 5090 + 80 BP on charcoal collected from a small, bisque-rimmed fire pit. Associated with this component are broad-stemmed, corner- and side-notched projectile points, and stone bowl mortar fragments.
Component IV is represented by the artifacts, debitage and fire pit uncovered at a depth of approximately 110 to 150 cm below the surface. Charcoal collected from the fire pit, which also contained small fragments of calcined bone, returned a date of 6270 + 130 BP. The two projectile points recovered from this component include an asymmetrical broad-stemmed specimen and a convex base specimen.
The Martin Creek Site (35D0147), is a pair of rockshelters adjacent to the main stem of the Umpqua River in the vicinity of Kellogg, Oregon. Upper Shelter contained cultural deposits of at least 90 cm in thickness. The tool assemblage includes projectile points, biface fragments, utilized flakes, choppers, pestles, an abrader, and worked bone. The identified faunal remains include deer, hare, squirrel, salmon, and fresh water mussel. Hazelnut and myrtle nut fragments were recovered. Based upon an examination of the vertical distribution of the cultural debris, three components are indicated. The uppermost of these is dated by two radiocarbon assays: 350 + 60 BP and 400 + 70 BP. The projectile point assemblage is dominated by barbed and tanged varieties of the Gunther Series, consistent with the Late Archaic period radiocarbon dates.
Lower Shelter, filled to the ceiling with alluvium and colluvium, contained a cultural deposit of approximately 70 cm in thickness beginning at a depth of 150 cm below the surface. The artifact assemblage includes projectile points, a biface, utilized flakes, and choppers. The three projectile points recovered include two V-stemmed Coquille Series specimens and one convex-base serrated foliate. The single component of Lower Shelter is dated by one radiocarbon assay of 420 + 60 BP.
A comparison of 21 Umpqua Basin projectile point assemblages, including those from the Narrows and Martin Creek sites, was undertaken in order to develop a local cultural chronology. Results of this statistical analysis indicate that these assemblages may be divided into three temporally separable groups, two of which are interpreted to be phases of the Late Archaic Period.
One group of assemblages, associated with Middle Archaic Period dates, is dominated by broad-stemmed projectile points. Sites containing these assemblages are found in a variety of settings in both the North and South Umpqua drainages. Riverine resources appear to have played as large a role as terrestrial resources during this period.
Assemblages of the Falls Phase, a Late Archaic occupation that until approximately 400 years ago was found basin-wide, characteristically contain Coquille Series projectile points. It is hypothesized that the geographic distribution of most recent assemblages of this phase, found in the South Umpqua drainage, reflects a constricted territorial distribution of the Takelman Cow Creek Band.
Assemblages of the Narrows Phase, the third temporal group, typically contain Gunther Barbed projectile points and are radiocarbon dated from 400 years ago to historic times. These assemblages are generally found within the territorial limits of the Athapaskan Upper Umpqua and appear to have supplanted those of the earlier Falls Phase.