Duncan McLaren - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Duncan McLaren
This article considers the phenomenon of archaeological sites with very long occupational records... more This article considers the phenomenon of archaeological sites with very long occupational records on the central BC coast. This area includes the well documented archaeological site of Namu (ElSx-1), which was occupied repeatedly for at least the last ten thousand years (Cannon 1991, 2000, 2002, 2003; Carlson 1996; Rahemtulla 2006). Cannon (2003) argues that Namu and other sites on the central coast reveal a pattern of cultural continuity that is long-term and persistent. This article presents recently acquired archaeological data from the outer shore islands to the west of Namu, demonstrating that other archaeological sites on the central coast have records of human occupation and use that are of similar spans. In our interpretation of the long-term processes that contributed to the formation of these persistent places, a combination of both social and environmental factors is considered. In particular, the ethnographically described systems of prerogatives – exclusive rights and p...
The Richardson Island site is located on the Northern Northwest Coast of British Columbia, in the... more The Richardson Island site is located on the Northern Northwest Coast of British Columbia, in the island archipelago of Haida Gwaii1 (Figure 1). Dating between 9400 and 8400 BP2, the archaeological deposits at the site span over four vertical meters with over fifty discrete depositional events. The site is associated with a raised marine terrace. Excavations have recovered a large number of lithic manufacturing debris and artifacts related stratigraphically throughout a one thousand year period. The cultural sequence at this site includes the transition at 8750 BP from the Kinggi Complex (dominated by large unifacial core tools and foliate bifaces) to the Early Moresby Tradition, which sees the introduction of microblades to the existing lithic toolkit. In this context of technological change, the following paper addresses the research question: does the bifacial manufacturing technology at the Richardson Site change significantly during the period of occupation? This question is ex...
The goal of this paper is the exploration of the manner in which transcribed Salishan oral nar r... more The goal of this paper is the exploration of the manner in which transcribed Salishan oral nar ratives provide insights into the sequence of human history in the Fraser River region of southwestern British Columbia. Drawing upon six different sources of transcribed oral narra tives, I discovered that these orators used several different methods of sequential ordering of historical events. These methods include consen sual remembering, genealogical referencing, and use of sequencing references within a given narrative to connect it temporally with another narrative. The resulting sequences are traced and tabulated for each individual source and then compared to the other sources by creating a time-space chart. Such charts are employed in other studies of the past including palaeoecological, geological, and archeological in quiries. The oral historical space-time sequence presents an interesting perspective on the human past in the Fraser Valley that both contrasts with and comple...
American Antiquity, 2021
This article highlights the utility of vibracore technology to sample deep shell midden deposits ... more This article highlights the utility of vibracore technology to sample deep shell midden deposits on the Central Pacific Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Analysis of six core samples and 21 radiocarbon dates revealed that the archaeological deposits extended to a depth of 544 cm below surface and that occupation began approximately 6,000 years ago, continuing into the sixteenth century AD. Zooarchaeological identification of fine screened (2 mm) sediments shows that fish constitute 99.8% of identified vertebrate fauna, with a focus on herring (Clupea pallasii), salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.), rockfish (Sebastes sp.), and greenling (Hexagrammos sp.), followed by a variety of other fish taxa utilized throughout the occupation of this site. Despite a much smaller examined volume relative to conventional excavation, vibracoring was effective in recovering deep, stratigraphically intact, and adequate samples of zooarchaeological fisheries data as well as a considerable number of stone, bone,...
PloS one, 2018
Little is known about the ice age human occupation of the Pacific Coast of Canada. Here we presen... more Little is known about the ice age human occupation of the Pacific Coast of Canada. Here we present the results of a targeted investigation of a late Pleistocene shoreline on Calvert Island, British Columbia. Drawing upon existing geomorphic information that sea level in the area was 2-3 m lower than present between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago, we began a systematic search for archaeological remains dating to this time period beneath intertidal beach sediments. During subsurface testing, we uncovered human footprints impressed into a 13,000-year-old paleosol beneath beach sands at archaeological site EjTa-4. To date, our investigations at this site have revealed a total of 29 footprints of at least three different sizes. The results presented here add to the growing body of information pertaining to the early deglaciation and associated human presence on the west coast of Canada at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.
Nature Communications, 2016
Human occupation is usually associated with degraded landscapes but 13,000 years of repeated occu... more Human occupation is usually associated with degraded landscapes but 13,000 years of repeated occupation by British Columbia’s coastal First Nations has had the opposite effect, enhancing temperate rainforest productivity. This is particularly the case over the last 6,000 years when intensified intertidal shellfish usage resulted in the accumulation of substantial shell middens. We show that soils at habitation sites are higher in calcium and phosphorous. Both of these are limiting factors in coastal temperate rainforests. Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) trees growing on the middens were found to be taller, have higher wood calcium, greater radial growth and exhibit less top die-back. Coastal British Columbia is the first known example of long-term intertidal resource use enhancing forest productivity and we expect this pattern to occur at archaeological sites along coastlines globally.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009
Following earlier examples of mapping the subsurface of shell bearing sites using augering, we em... more Following earlier examples of mapping the subsurface of shell bearing sites using augering, we employ percussion coring to identify early Holocene shell midden components at two types of sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. We describe a method for mapping subsurface components at shell bearing sites including basal deposits, paleosols and transitions between distinct cultural components. Our research
Quaternary Science Reviews
A refined relative sea level (RSL) history spanning the past 14,300 calendar years is described f... more A refined relative sea level (RSL) history spanning the past 14,300 calendar years is described for the Quadra Island area in the northern Strait of Georgia on the Pacific coast of Canada. Here marine shorelines dating to the time of earliest post-glacial emergence are at least 197 m above present-day sealevel at 14,300 years ago. RSL fell rapidly, reaching two to three metres above present-day by 12,000 years ago. A series of raised marine terraces at ca. 4, 10 and 30 m above present day high tide level suggest the rapid fall in RSL during early post-glacial time may have been briefly interrupted by factors such as regional ice advances and recessions and global meltwater pulses generated by climatic variations. A possible minor sea-level transgression of 1e2 m around 12,000 to 11,400 years ago was followed by slow regression to modern levels. This sea-level reconstruction is providing critical input for efficient discovery and cataloging of late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites on ancient raised shorelines in the region. Integration of the sea-level history with LiDAR imagery has proven successful in locating a number of archaeological sites on these ancient shorelines.
Journal of Social Archaeology
Coastal archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are rare on the no... more Coastal archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are rare on the northwest coast of North America, as they are in many regions of the world, due to changing environmental factors, in particular glacial isostasy and eustasy, resulting in low visibility ...
The Dundas Islands are situated between two regions with different sea level histories. To the ea... more The Dundas Islands are situated between two regions with different sea level histories. To the east, the mainland cordillera was isostatically depressed during the Fraser glaciation, resulting in higher relative sea levels during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. To the west ...
Platforum, 2002
... Paleo-Ecological Field Notes from Porcher Island, BC. Duncan McLaren. Creative Commons Licens... more ... Paleo-Ecological Field Notes from Porcher Island, BC. Duncan McLaren. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. © 2010 PLATFORUM ONLINE ISSN 1923-6549. © 2010 PLATFORUM PRINT ISSN 1922-7043. ...
Post-glacial relative sea level (RSL) histories vary with distance from ice loading and associate... more Post-glacial relative sea level (RSL) histories vary with distance from ice loading and associated factors such as time-transgressive ice retreat, diverse tectonic settings, and differential crustal responses. At the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Cordilleran Ice Sheet depressed the crust over which it formed and created a raised forebulge along peripheral areas offshore. We synthesize the state of knowledge regarding post-glacial sea-level changes on the Pacific coast of North America based on approximately 2,200 previously published radiocarbon dates from northern California to Cook Inlet, Alaska. We then describe a 1000-km long hinge zone, separating the isostatically depressed inner coast from the forebulged outer coast, and discuss the implications for human occupation, based on 100 new radiocarbon dates from the central coast of British Columbia. On the Oregon and much of the Washington State coasts, which were unglaciated, RSL history was governed primarily by eustatic sea l...
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2014
Post-glacial sea level dynamics during the last 15,000 calendar years are highly variable along t... more Post-glacial sea level dynamics during the last 15,000 calendar years are highly variable along the Pacific coast of Canada. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the Earth's crust was depressed by ice loading along the mainland inner coast and relative sea levels were as much as 200 m higher than today. In contrast, some outer coastal areas experienced a glacial forebulge (uplift) effect that caused relative sea levels to drop to as much as 150 m below present levels. Between these inner and outer coasts, we hypothesize that there would have been an area where sea level remained relatively stable, despite regional and global trends in sea level change. To address this hypothesis, we use pond basin coring, diatom analysis, archaeological site testing, sedimentary exposure sampling, and radiocarbon dating to construct sea level histories for the Hakai Passage region. Our data include 106 newly reported radiocarbon ages from key coastal sites that together support the thesis that this area has experienced a relatively stable sea level over the last 15,000 calendar years. These findings are significant in that they indicate a relatively stable coastal environment amenable to long-term human occupation and settlement of the area. Our results will help inform future archaeological investigations in the region.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2014
ABSTRACT Sea-level history since the Last Glacial Maximum on the Pacific margin of North America ... more ABSTRACT Sea-level history since the Last Glacial Maximum on the Pacific margin of North America is complex and heterogeneous owing to regional differences in crustal deformation (neotectonics), changes in global ocean volumes (eustasy) and the depression and rebound of the Earth's crust in response to ice sheets on land (isostasy). At the Last Glacial Maximum, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet depressed the crust over which it formed and created a raised forebulge along peripheral areas offshore. This, combined with different tectonic settings along the coast, resulted in divergent relative sea-level responses during the Holocene. For example, sea level was up to 200 m higher than present in the lower Fraser Valley region of southwest British Columbia, due largely to isostatic depression. At the same time, sea level was 150 m lower than present in Haida Gwaii, on the northern coast of British Columbia, due to the combined effects of the forebulge raising the land and lower eustatic sea level. A forebulge also developed in parts of southeast Alaska resulting in post-glacial sea levels at least 122 m lower than present and possibly as low as 165 m. On the coasts of Washington and Oregon, as well as south-central Alaska, neotectonics and eustasy seem to have played larger roles than isostatic adjustments in controlling relative sea-level changes.
This article considers the phenomenon of archaeological sites with very long occupational records... more This article considers the phenomenon of archaeological sites with very long occupational records on the central BC coast. This area includes the well documented archaeological site of Namu (ElSx-1), which was occupied repeatedly for at least the last ten thousand years (Cannon 1991, 2000, 2002, 2003; Carlson 1996; Rahemtulla 2006). Cannon (2003) argues that Namu and other sites on the central coast reveal a pattern of cultural continuity that is long-term and persistent. This article presents recently acquired archaeological data from the outer shore islands to the west of Namu, demonstrating that other archaeological sites on the central coast have records of human occupation and use that are of similar spans. In our interpretation of the long-term processes that contributed to the formation of these persistent places, a combination of both social and environmental factors is considered. In particular, the ethnographically described systems of prerogatives – exclusive rights and p...
The Richardson Island site is located on the Northern Northwest Coast of British Columbia, in the... more The Richardson Island site is located on the Northern Northwest Coast of British Columbia, in the island archipelago of Haida Gwaii1 (Figure 1). Dating between 9400 and 8400 BP2, the archaeological deposits at the site span over four vertical meters with over fifty discrete depositional events. The site is associated with a raised marine terrace. Excavations have recovered a large number of lithic manufacturing debris and artifacts related stratigraphically throughout a one thousand year period. The cultural sequence at this site includes the transition at 8750 BP from the Kinggi Complex (dominated by large unifacial core tools and foliate bifaces) to the Early Moresby Tradition, which sees the introduction of microblades to the existing lithic toolkit. In this context of technological change, the following paper addresses the research question: does the bifacial manufacturing technology at the Richardson Site change significantly during the period of occupation? This question is ex...
The goal of this paper is the exploration of the manner in which transcribed Salishan oral nar r... more The goal of this paper is the exploration of the manner in which transcribed Salishan oral nar ratives provide insights into the sequence of human history in the Fraser River region of southwestern British Columbia. Drawing upon six different sources of transcribed oral narra tives, I discovered that these orators used several different methods of sequential ordering of historical events. These methods include consen sual remembering, genealogical referencing, and use of sequencing references within a given narrative to connect it temporally with another narrative. The resulting sequences are traced and tabulated for each individual source and then compared to the other sources by creating a time-space chart. Such charts are employed in other studies of the past including palaeoecological, geological, and archeological in quiries. The oral historical space-time sequence presents an interesting perspective on the human past in the Fraser Valley that both contrasts with and comple...
American Antiquity, 2021
This article highlights the utility of vibracore technology to sample deep shell midden deposits ... more This article highlights the utility of vibracore technology to sample deep shell midden deposits on the Central Pacific Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Analysis of six core samples and 21 radiocarbon dates revealed that the archaeological deposits extended to a depth of 544 cm below surface and that occupation began approximately 6,000 years ago, continuing into the sixteenth century AD. Zooarchaeological identification of fine screened (2 mm) sediments shows that fish constitute 99.8% of identified vertebrate fauna, with a focus on herring (Clupea pallasii), salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.), rockfish (Sebastes sp.), and greenling (Hexagrammos sp.), followed by a variety of other fish taxa utilized throughout the occupation of this site. Despite a much smaller examined volume relative to conventional excavation, vibracoring was effective in recovering deep, stratigraphically intact, and adequate samples of zooarchaeological fisheries data as well as a considerable number of stone, bone,...
PloS one, 2018
Little is known about the ice age human occupation of the Pacific Coast of Canada. Here we presen... more Little is known about the ice age human occupation of the Pacific Coast of Canada. Here we present the results of a targeted investigation of a late Pleistocene shoreline on Calvert Island, British Columbia. Drawing upon existing geomorphic information that sea level in the area was 2-3 m lower than present between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago, we began a systematic search for archaeological remains dating to this time period beneath intertidal beach sediments. During subsurface testing, we uncovered human footprints impressed into a 13,000-year-old paleosol beneath beach sands at archaeological site EjTa-4. To date, our investigations at this site have revealed a total of 29 footprints of at least three different sizes. The results presented here add to the growing body of information pertaining to the early deglaciation and associated human presence on the west coast of Canada at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.
Nature Communications, 2016
Human occupation is usually associated with degraded landscapes but 13,000 years of repeated occu... more Human occupation is usually associated with degraded landscapes but 13,000 years of repeated occupation by British Columbia’s coastal First Nations has had the opposite effect, enhancing temperate rainforest productivity. This is particularly the case over the last 6,000 years when intensified intertidal shellfish usage resulted in the accumulation of substantial shell middens. We show that soils at habitation sites are higher in calcium and phosphorous. Both of these are limiting factors in coastal temperate rainforests. Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) trees growing on the middens were found to be taller, have higher wood calcium, greater radial growth and exhibit less top die-back. Coastal British Columbia is the first known example of long-term intertidal resource use enhancing forest productivity and we expect this pattern to occur at archaeological sites along coastlines globally.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009
Following earlier examples of mapping the subsurface of shell bearing sites using augering, we em... more Following earlier examples of mapping the subsurface of shell bearing sites using augering, we employ percussion coring to identify early Holocene shell midden components at two types of sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. We describe a method for mapping subsurface components at shell bearing sites including basal deposits, paleosols and transitions between distinct cultural components. Our research
Quaternary Science Reviews
A refined relative sea level (RSL) history spanning the past 14,300 calendar years is described f... more A refined relative sea level (RSL) history spanning the past 14,300 calendar years is described for the Quadra Island area in the northern Strait of Georgia on the Pacific coast of Canada. Here marine shorelines dating to the time of earliest post-glacial emergence are at least 197 m above present-day sealevel at 14,300 years ago. RSL fell rapidly, reaching two to three metres above present-day by 12,000 years ago. A series of raised marine terraces at ca. 4, 10 and 30 m above present day high tide level suggest the rapid fall in RSL during early post-glacial time may have been briefly interrupted by factors such as regional ice advances and recessions and global meltwater pulses generated by climatic variations. A possible minor sea-level transgression of 1e2 m around 12,000 to 11,400 years ago was followed by slow regression to modern levels. This sea-level reconstruction is providing critical input for efficient discovery and cataloging of late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites on ancient raised shorelines in the region. Integration of the sea-level history with LiDAR imagery has proven successful in locating a number of archaeological sites on these ancient shorelines.
Journal of Social Archaeology
Coastal archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are rare on the no... more Coastal archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are rare on the northwest coast of North America, as they are in many regions of the world, due to changing environmental factors, in particular glacial isostasy and eustasy, resulting in low visibility ...
The Dundas Islands are situated between two regions with different sea level histories. To the ea... more The Dundas Islands are situated between two regions with different sea level histories. To the east, the mainland cordillera was isostatically depressed during the Fraser glaciation, resulting in higher relative sea levels during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. To the west ...
Platforum, 2002
... Paleo-Ecological Field Notes from Porcher Island, BC. Duncan McLaren. Creative Commons Licens... more ... Paleo-Ecological Field Notes from Porcher Island, BC. Duncan McLaren. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. © 2010 PLATFORUM ONLINE ISSN 1923-6549. © 2010 PLATFORUM PRINT ISSN 1922-7043. ...
Post-glacial relative sea level (RSL) histories vary with distance from ice loading and associate... more Post-glacial relative sea level (RSL) histories vary with distance from ice loading and associated factors such as time-transgressive ice retreat, diverse tectonic settings, and differential crustal responses. At the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Cordilleran Ice Sheet depressed the crust over which it formed and created a raised forebulge along peripheral areas offshore. We synthesize the state of knowledge regarding post-glacial sea-level changes on the Pacific coast of North America based on approximately 2,200 previously published radiocarbon dates from northern California to Cook Inlet, Alaska. We then describe a 1000-km long hinge zone, separating the isostatically depressed inner coast from the forebulged outer coast, and discuss the implications for human occupation, based on 100 new radiocarbon dates from the central coast of British Columbia. On the Oregon and much of the Washington State coasts, which were unglaciated, RSL history was governed primarily by eustatic sea l...
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2014
Post-glacial sea level dynamics during the last 15,000 calendar years are highly variable along t... more Post-glacial sea level dynamics during the last 15,000 calendar years are highly variable along the Pacific coast of Canada. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the Earth's crust was depressed by ice loading along the mainland inner coast and relative sea levels were as much as 200 m higher than today. In contrast, some outer coastal areas experienced a glacial forebulge (uplift) effect that caused relative sea levels to drop to as much as 150 m below present levels. Between these inner and outer coasts, we hypothesize that there would have been an area where sea level remained relatively stable, despite regional and global trends in sea level change. To address this hypothesis, we use pond basin coring, diatom analysis, archaeological site testing, sedimentary exposure sampling, and radiocarbon dating to construct sea level histories for the Hakai Passage region. Our data include 106 newly reported radiocarbon ages from key coastal sites that together support the thesis that this area has experienced a relatively stable sea level over the last 15,000 calendar years. These findings are significant in that they indicate a relatively stable coastal environment amenable to long-term human occupation and settlement of the area. Our results will help inform future archaeological investigations in the region.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2014
ABSTRACT Sea-level history since the Last Glacial Maximum on the Pacific margin of North America ... more ABSTRACT Sea-level history since the Last Glacial Maximum on the Pacific margin of North America is complex and heterogeneous owing to regional differences in crustal deformation (neotectonics), changes in global ocean volumes (eustasy) and the depression and rebound of the Earth's crust in response to ice sheets on land (isostasy). At the Last Glacial Maximum, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet depressed the crust over which it formed and created a raised forebulge along peripheral areas offshore. This, combined with different tectonic settings along the coast, resulted in divergent relative sea-level responses during the Holocene. For example, sea level was up to 200 m higher than present in the lower Fraser Valley region of southwest British Columbia, due largely to isostatic depression. At the same time, sea level was 150 m lower than present in Haida Gwaii, on the northern coast of British Columbia, due to the combined effects of the forebulge raising the land and lower eustatic sea level. A forebulge also developed in parts of southeast Alaska resulting in post-glacial sea levels at least 122 m lower than present and possibly as low as 165 m. On the coasts of Washington and Oregon, as well as south-central Alaska, neotectonics and eustasy seem to have played larger roles than isostatic adjustments in controlling relative sea-level changes.