Exploring 8,500 Years of Human Life: Mount Rainier Archaeology Study

1. Cascade Mountain Land-Use8500 years of Life on Mount Rainier(Takhoma)

2. Mountains too cold, dark, and remote for prehistoric people?

3. Prehistoric Site Distribution Patterns Suggest:1) Mountains were used repeatedly, &2) Use was patterned

5. So what’s going on? Using Mount Rainier as a model we’ll discuss The place of humans in mountain landscapes • Why prehistoric people used high-elevation places like Mount Rainier • How long people have used the Mountain & how that use changed over time Mount Rainier Archaeology • Why Takhoma is a particularly good place to study the past • What the archaeological record looks like

6. So what’s going on? Using Mount Rainier as a model we’ll discuss The place of humans in mountain landscapes • Why prehistoric people used Takhoma • How long people have used the Mountain & and how that use changed over ca. 8,500 years Mount Rainier Archaeology • Why this is a particularly good place to study the past • What the archaeological record looks like

7. Think of mountain settings as neighborhoods rather than remote places

8. Subalpine Settings are Resource Rich

9. Is an orderly process of community development involving predictable change in species structure through time; that in stable, wet environments like the Pacific Northwest Succession culminates in a roughly stable ecosystem dominated by trees with little edible biomass. Ecological Succession:

10. Dense Forests: BAD Meadows: GOOD

11. Prehistoric Site Locations& the Subalpine Ecozone

12. So what’s going on? Using Mount Rainier as a model we’ll discuss The place of humans in mountain landscapes • Why prehistoric people used Tahoma • How long people have used the Mountain & and how that use changed over ca. 8,500 years Mount Rainier Archaeology • Why this is a particularly good place to study the past • What the archaeological record looks like

13. -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Celsius  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1000’s of Years B.P. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15  Cooler Warmer

14. -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Celsius  0 Garda Stade 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1000’s of Years B.P. 8 9 Sumas Stade 10 11 12 13 14 Vashon Stade 15  Cooler Warmer

15. -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Celsius  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1000’s of Years B.P. 8 9 10 11 Everson Interglacial 12 13 14 15  Cooler Warmer

16. -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Celsius  0 1 2 3 4 5 Hypsithermal Interval 6 7 1000’s of Years B.P. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15  Cooler Warmer

17. Modern Ground Surface Mt. Rainier C, 2300 years BP St. Helen’s P, 2500-3000 years BP St. Helen’s Y, 3400 years BP Buried Soil (Paleosol) Mt. Rainier F, 5000 years BP Osceola Lahar Splash, 5500 years BP Burned Paleosol Mt. Mazama, 6800 years BP Burned Paleosol. 7700 years BP Mt. Rainier R, 9000 years BP The Sunrise Profile Glacial Till

18. Pre-Mazama Artifact in situ

19. -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Celsius  0 1 2 Increase in mountain subsistence use coincident with development of lowland villages 3 4 5 6 7 Oldest known archaeological site on Mount Rainer 1000’s of Years B.P. 8 Earliest human habitats on Mount Rainier 9 10 11 12 First humans enter North America 13 14 15  Cooler Warmer

20. So on Mount Rainier, • People used subalpine habitats because they were seasonally productive neighborhoods, and • They’ve done so for about 8,500 years • Use changed population increased • First use by small, very mobile hunting and gathering groups • Then as task-specific collectors linked to permanent fishing villages about 3,500 years ago • Modern tribes date only to the AD 1800s

21. So what’s going on? Using Mount Rainier as a model we’ll discuss The place of humans in mountain landscapes • Why prehistoric people used Takhoma • How long people have used the Mountain & and how that use changed over ca. 8,500 years Mount Rainier Archaeology • Why Takhoma is a particularly good place to study the past • What the archaeological record looks like

22. Huge subalpine habitat

23. Mist Park Cowlitz Park Slide Mountain Ridge Grand Park Broadly distributed around the mountain

24. Stratified Deposits, Artifacts & Time

25. Grand Park Cowlitz Park Paradise Meadows Buck Lake Broadly distributed around the mountain

26. So what’s going on? Using Mount Rainier as a model we’ll discuss The place of humans in mountain landscapes • Why prehistoric people used Tahoma • How long people have used the Mountain & and how that use changed over ca. 8,500 years Mount Rainier Archaeology • Why this is a particularly good place to study the past • What the archaeological record looks like on Takhoma

27. At Mount Rainier, Archaeological Information Comes Mostly From: • Reported Finds • Construction & Maintenance Projects • Survey and • Excavation

28. Reported Finds

29. FS2003-08, Naches Peak Cabin

30. Construction & Maintenance Projects

31. Paradise Camp/Paradise Visitor Center

32. Prehistoric Site Survey & Excavation

33. Buck Lake Site Spray Park Survey Area Fryingpan & Berkeley Rockshelters

34. Upper Spray Park

35. Survey Crew at FS2003-01

36. FS2003-01 Artifacts

37. FS2003-03 Talus Pit

38. FS2003-05 Eastern Spray Park

39. FS2003-05 Stone Tool Remains

40. FS2003-09 Found in September

41. Ben Diaz & FS2003-09 Dart Point

42. FS2003-09 Dart Point & Lithic Debitage

43. FS2003-11 ca. 1930 Tent Platform

44. Fryingpan Rockshelter FS1963-01

45. Fryingpan Rockshelter Excavation

47. FS1986-02 in Berkeley Park

48. 1300 Year Old Hearth at Berkeley Rockshelter

49. Buck Lake facing NE: A high elevation stratified site and natural cirque lake sediment trap N Buck Lake

50. Buck Lake Project:1. Archaeological testing2. Lakebed sediment core extraction and analysis