Duncan McLaren | University of Victoria (original) (raw)

Papers Peer Reviewed by Duncan McLaren

Small villages have been central to progressive models of hunter-gatherer-fisher complexity on th... more Small villages have been central to progressive models of hunter-gatherer-fisher complexity on the Northwest Coast as a stage in the narrative of increasingly nonegalitarian social relations. We argue that Tsimshian settlement history is more complicated. We examine settlement and chronological data for 66 village sites in the Tsimshian area, 22 of which we define as small. Small villages were present in the area as early as 6500 years ago, but they are also contemporary with larger settlements until after 1300 years ago. We suggest that small villages represent a traditional Tsimshian social entity known as the wilnat'aał, or lineage, knowledge of which is preserved in Tsimshian oral records. We argue that the persistence of this settlement and community form illustrates the foundational role of this social unit throughout Tsimshian history, a result that has implications for archaeological research in the context of Indigenous history.

Quartz crystals are relatively common in archaeological sites of the lower Fraser River and Salis... more Quartz crystals are relatively common in archaeological sites of the lower Fraser River and Salish Sea regions. As of 2016 there are 93 recorded sites reported to contain quartz crystal objects in British Columbia ( ). The majority of these sites are situated on the eastern side of Vancouver Island, the Fraser River drainage, the Peace River region, and southeastern BC. A lower frequency of these objects in northwestern BC may be due to less archaeological work in that region compared to southern BC. Different types of quartz crystal artifacts found at the Ruskin Dam Site in the lower Fraser River region (Gray et al. 2010) are related to a range of tasks and activities. Here we explore six 'facets' of quartz crystal use:

a n M c L a r e n , F a r i d R a h e m t u l l a , G i t l a ( E l r o y W h i t e ) , a n d D a... more a n M c L a r e n , F a r i d R a h e m t u l l a , G i t l a ( E l r o y W h i t e ) , a n d D a r y l F e d j e 155 bc studies, no. 187, Autumn 2015 bc studies 156 territories of the Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv, and Nuxalk nations, includes the outer coast islands and skerries to the north and south of Hakai Passage as well as the mainland shoreline on the east side of Fitz Hugh Sound ( ). Calvert and Hunter islands are two of the major outer coast islands included in the study area.

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.

The First Nations (Da'naxda'xw) village of Kwalate, Knight Inlet, British Columbia was located al... more The First Nations (Da'naxda'xw) village of Kwalate, Knight Inlet, British Columbia was located along the shore of a funnel-shaped bay. Archaeological investigations show that this was a major village that stretched 90 m along the shoreline and was home to possibly 100 or more inhabitants. Oral stories indicate that the village was completely swept away by a tsunami that formed when an 840-m high rock avalanche descended into the water on the opposite side of the fjord. Shipboard geological mapping, combined with empirical tsunami modelling, indicate that the tsunami was likely 2 to 6 m high prior to run-up into the village. Radiocarbon dates reveal that the village was occupied from the late 1300s CE until the late 1500s CE when it was destroyed by the tsunami.

Archaeology of British Columbia: Essays in Honour of Professor Philip M. Hobler, 2003

Recent discoveries on the northern Northwest Coast of North America provide evidence of bear hunt... more Recent discoveries on the northern Northwest Coast of North America provide evidence of bear hunting dating to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. This paper describes the faunal assemblage from the Kilgii Gwaay wet site in southern Haida Gwaii. This assemblage includes a high proportion of the remains of black bear. Ethological data, ethnographic sources, and the archaeological record are examined in order to provide an interpretative framework for this assemblage and others in this region. The significance of bear hunting, the use of different hunting strategies, the economic utility of bears, bear ceremonialism, and the occurrence of bear bones at other Pleistocene archaeological sites are discussed. Evidence from Kilgii Gwaay suggests that bear hunting at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition on the northern Northwest Coast had both economic and ceremonial significance.

Canadian Journal of Archaeology

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 was undertaken for the purpose of identifying early Holocene shell middens above the modern shore, and as components below large shell midden villages. Our results augment the developmental trajectory of shell middens on the Northwest Coast by suggesting that pre-5000 BP forms of these sites may be more common than previously thought. In light of these results, we argue that the Northwest Coast cultural historical sequence, which locates an increase in the number and rate of accumulation of shell middens beginning 5000 years ago, to be premature. However, there are insufficient data from shell middens in the early Holocene, a sampling problem that the percussion coring methods described here can address.

Coastal British Columbia is largely a rugged fjord-land archipelago. It has not always been so – ... more Coastal British Columbia is largely a rugged fjord-land archipelago. It has not always been so – over time, the coastline has changed configuration dramatically and the fauna and flora have seen multiple successions and extirpations. Through this, for the last 11,000 RCYBP years at least, resilient people made their living from the ocean and the land, shrugging off or taking advantage of environmental change. Similarly, archaeologists have worked the nooks and crannies of the coast for decades, surveying in the dense forest and digging in the deep middens, subject to similar environmental conditions as those they study and making quiet progress in regional culture histories. In more recent years, this area has been thrust to the forefront of research into the First Peopling of the American continents. As the Clovis First model began to be questioned, alternate modes and routes for the arrival of humans were brought in from the sidelines, including the hypothesized west coast route (e.g. Fladmark 1979). Not much research had been focused on this route, perhaps as Easton (1992) suggests, because of the terrestrial mindset of many archaeologists. Perhaps also, the prospects of finding sites on the deeply drowned landscapes or in the rugged, heavily forested hinterland was prohibitively daunting and led to a pessimistic outlook on success.

Quaternary International, 2011

This paper reviews the current archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence from the Younger ... more This paper reviews the current archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence from the Younger Dryas period on the Northwest Coast of North America. Sea level histories are region-specific, ranging from 100 m lower to 150 m higher than modern at ca. 12,200 cal BP, the mid-point of the Younger Dryas. Palaeo-environmental evidence shows temperature decrease across the study area, but in some regions this is accompanied by greater precipitation and glacial advance whereas in other conditions were drier. Terrestrial vegetation reflects this variability, with northern areas in particular showing evidence for expansion of herb and shrub tundra and southern areas marked by increased mountain hemlock and other species. Marine, intertidal and terrestrial fauna indicate productive ecosystems, with some sub-regional changes, such as extirpation of deer and bison, perhaps associated with the Younger Dryas onset. Stable isotope analysis of bear remains show these species, which are a good ecological analogue for humans, exploited both marine and terrestrial resources. Despite patchy and dynamic marine and terrestrial environments, these results suggest a challenging, yet viable environment for humans. Archaeological evidence for Younger Dryas human occupation is currently limited to six sites, of which four are associated with karst caves. The earliest of these are in Haida Gwaii, where bear hunting is dated to at least 12,650 cal BP, during the heart of the Younger Dryas interval. Other sites in southeast Alaska and in the Fraser River lowlands date to around 12,100 cal BP. In Puget Sound, the presence of ca. 13,000 cal BP Clovis surface collections, and the emerging data from the pre-Clovis Ayer Pond bison butchery site, suggest pre-Younger Dryas occupation. The Northwest Coast was open to population movement from both the north and south in the poorly known interval before the Younger Dryas, when conditions may have been more moderate and stable. The sub-regional variation and the scale of environmental change in the Younger Dryas, especially sea level fluctuation, makes discovery of Pleistocene archaeological sites challenging. The Younger Dryas may therefore be seen as something of a worst-case scenario for both the human occupation and the archaeological investigation of the Northwest Coast.

Dissertation by Duncan McLaren

A Dissertation Submitted in Par tial F ulfillment of the Req uire ments for the Degree of

Thesis by Duncan McLaren

This thesis explores multiple ways in which long-term history is constructed, described, and enac... more This thesis explores multiple ways in which long-term history is constructed, described, and enacted. The goal of undertaking this research is to discover if different long-term historical approaches provide compatible perspectives of the past. Five different approaches to the late-Pleistocene and Holocene histories of the Stave Watershed region of British Columbia are investigated. These approaches include palaeo-environmental history, Coast Salish oral tradition, the cultural-historical sequence, and two sequences based on the analysis of surface collected archaeological data from fifty sites in the study area. The last two sequences employed the use of a seriation analysis to order formed bifaces and site locations temporally, and a cluster analysis to characterize different landuse and settlement patterns in the study area through time. The long-term histories are compared, contrasted, and tabulated to demonstrate the interrelatedness of sequences and to gain an understanding of the role of social memory in enacting tradition.

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...

Archaeology of British Columbia: Essays in Honour of Professor Philip M. Hobler, 2003

Canadian Journal of Archaeology

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009

Quaternary International, 2011

A Dissertation Submitted in Par tial F ulfillment of the Req uire ments for the Degree of

American Antiquity

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,...

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...

bc studies 156 territories of the Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv, and Nuxalk nations, includes the outer coa... more bc studies 156 territories of the Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv, and Nuxalk nations, includes the outer coast islands and skerries to the north and south of Hakai Passage as well as the mainland shoreline on the east side of Fitz Hugh Sound (Figure 1). Calvert and Hunter islands are two of the major outer coast islands included in the study area. Excavations undertaken at Namu in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s uncovered a long-term record of site occupation spanning over ten thousand years (Carlson 1996; Hester 1978a, 1978b; Rahemtulla 2006). Archaeological deposits in the order of four metres deep, with a comprehensive radiocarbon chronology, show repeated occupation over millennia (Cannon 1991; Carlson 1996; Luebbers 1978; Rahemtulla 1995, 2006). The earliest deposits-eleven thousand to ten thousand calendar years before present (cal BP)-lack bone but include stone tools. This basal cultural assemblage is characterized by foliate-shaped bifaces and cobble tools. Sometime between 10,000 and 9000 cal BP, microblade technology was added to the lithic suite. In deposits dating after 7000 cal BP, bone and antler artefacts and faunal remains are preserved, and shell is the primary sedimentary matrix for cultural materials after 6000 cal BP. Bone artefacts were found in abundance dating from the mid-Holocene on. Contracting stem points and ground stone adzes appear in the assemblage around 5000 cal BP, and the microblade industry becomes less pronounced. After 3000 cal BP chipped stone projectiles tend to be notched and ground stone tool types increase. Faunal elements recovered from the shell midden at Namu (Cannon 1991) reveal the types of animals harvested for human use over the last seven thousand years.

PlatForum, 2010

... 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. ...

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 sea-level 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 arc...

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.

Oral narratives and archaeological chronologies are diachronic systems of knowing the past. In th... more Oral narratives and archaeological chronologies are diachronic systems of knowing the past. In this paper we explore how archaeologists working on the Northwest Coast of North America have imbricated these two 'forms of knowing' to achieve a more complete understanding of history. Indigenous communities on the Northwest Coast have transmitted their complex and dynamic oral narratives across generations for millennia. Indigenous knowledge keepers have upheld rigorous standards of transmission in order to maintain the legitimacy of their oral narratives. Archaeologists have therefore looked to Indigenous oral records as a legitimate and informative source for insight and interpretation. through the application of archaeological survey and dating methods, archaeologists have been able to temporally and spatially anchor events recounted in oral narratives on the Northwest Coast. In concert, the results have added significant contributions to science, history, jurisprudence and other socio-political pursuits.

Who were the first people who came to the land bridge joining northeastern Asia to Alaska and the... more Who were the first people who came to the land bridge joining northeastern Asia to Alaska and the northwest of North America? Where did they come from? How did they organize technology, especially in the context of settlement behavior?< br> During the Pleistocene era, the people now known as Beringians dispersed across the varied landscapes of late-glacial northeast Asia and northwest North America.< br> The twenty chapters gathered in this volume explore, in addition to the questions posed above, how Beringians adapted in ...

B r y n L e t h a m , A n d r e w M a rt i n d a l e , D u n c a n M c L a r e n , T h o m a s B ... more B r y n L e t h a m , A n d r e w M a rt i n d a l e , D u n c a n M c L a r e n , T h o m a s B r o w n , K e n n e t h M . A m e s , D av i d J . W. A r c h e r , a n d S u s a n M a r s d e n

EkTb-9, a Heiltsuk First Nation village site located on Triquet Island, British Columbia, Canada,... more EkTb-9, a Heiltsuk First Nation village site located on Triquet Island, British Columbia, Canada, has an occupation span of 11,500 calendar years. Archaeological and palaeo-environmental research indicates that local sea level has been relatively stable during that time. EkTb-9 is rich in cultural heritage features: shell midden deposits are approximately five meters deep, and a large peat deposit contains perishable materials, most notably parts of bent wood and compound fish-hooks and wooden bi-point technology. Preliminary faunal analysis suggests that diversified marine-based subsistence occurred for millennia; although shell is mostly absent from the peat deposits, an abundance of periostracum reveals that shellfish were intensively used over time, and that an early focus on sea mammal hunting later shifted to rockfish and other fish species between 7,000-5,000 BP. Two distinct layers of sand revealed in the stratigraphy suggest that the site experienced two possible tsunami events. This data, coupled with Heiltsuk First Nation’s rich oral traditions and system of prerogatives, is used to explore and build on the notion of “persistent places” and to gain a more thorough understanding of Heiltsuk exploitation of the region from the early Holocene until the present day.