20H. it. Z 9) Late Archaic Period Page 1 of 3 Nehalem Bay Dune Site (aka Davidson Site) — 35TIS7 This prehistoric site was excavated by Rick Minor, Ruth Greenspan, Robert Musil and Nancy Stenholm under a contract with the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division. The site had been disturbed by looters and was being impacted by erosion. The artifacts recovered from the looters suggested that the site was unusual for a coastal site in that most of the artifacts were from stone tool manufacturing and included projectile points. There was no evidence for a shell midden, yet the site is located along the Nehalem Bay estuary. It was suggested that the site might be a fishing station located in a dune adjacent to a fresh water source. The site was surveyed and mapped, then augered to determine the depth and extent of cultural deposits. Five areas were checked with excavation units. These included two mound-like features that turned out to be high spots in the dune. The project determined that small groups were camping in the dunes near the freshwater creek over and over during a period of about 300 years between AJ). 1310 and Ad). 1610. The dune hollows were protected from the wind, and the availability of fresh water in the creek made this location attractive. As expected, occupation (artifact density) was higher closer to the creek and decreased with distance from fresh water. Five radiocarbon (C14) dates were made from carbon samples. Carbon samples cost about $250 each, and are sent to labs scattered around the country for analysis. A date of 340160 (AJ). 1610) came from a 4 inch thick layer of fire- cracked rock, artifacts and organic remains. Firecracker} rock is produced from heating rock for stone boiling or for baking in earth ovens. Another similar layer in a different area of the site produced a date of 470i70 (AD. 1480). Three dates came from a very dark greasy black layer near the creek containing lots of fire-cracked rock, artifacts and organic debris. The dates were 5801:60 (A.D. 1370), 6405260 (AJ). 1310), and 4901250 (Ad). 1460). A total of 98 flakes stone tools were recovered in the excavations. Eight cores were recovered. Cores are chunks of stone from which flakes were removed for the manufacture of tools. The cores indicated that list sized cobbles were being struck to remove flakes with a hard stone hammer. The larger of these flakes were then thinned into bifaces for the manufacture of tools (mostly arrowheads). Nenty-one projectile points were recovered, all from the deep greasy black area near the creek. All of the points were made from chert and all were for the bow and arrow. One small "winged" point was made from a small flake, and the rest of the complete specimens were corner-notched with contracting stems. Four chert scrapers came from site deposits and four chert perforators (drills) as well. In addition, twenty-four flakes were used as cutting tools, exhibiting small nibbling flakes along the utilized edge (use wear). 12,619 pieces of flaked stone from tool manufacturing were also recovered and studied. Four small stone hammers were probably used with the cores as percussion flakers. Three other cobbles show wear associated with their use as anvil stones. Small cobbles of chert were placed on them and struck with the hammer stones to split the cobbles (bi-polar splitting). Other ground stone tools included two sandstone abraders used to sand down wood or bone. Organic preservation was quite good for an open site on the coast. Four fragments of worked bone were recovered, but were in such bad shape that their function could not be determined. Three wood awl fragments also survived. 12,605 fragments of bone were found, but the level of preservation was quite poor. The majority were identified as salmonid vertebrae (they were fishing). While the Nehalem River estuary is not mentioned as a fishing site in historical interviews with Indians, The report on this project notes that in 1852 inhabitants of a village on the estuary "had journeyed up the Nehalem River to fish and dry salmon for their winter's use". if the bone had decayed beyond recognition, there would have been no trace of an orientation towards fishing based on the artifacts recovered. This strongly suggests that interpretation of site function, where organic preservation is poor, may be biased towards those parts of the economy that produce stone tools. Plant remains included maple, thistle, alder, birch, elderberry, goosefoot, red cedar, sedge, rush, kinnikinnick, clover, ash, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, hunch grass, blackberry, thimhleherry, raspberry, hedstraw and willow were present , Original File Name: 011.jpg, File Size: 1694053, MIME Type: image/jpeg, File Added: 2011-08-29 11:18:06, File Modified: 2016-01-19 13:15:11, File OS Type: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, File Metadata: , Width: 2546, Height: 3242, Bit Depth: 8, Channels: 3, Exif String: FileName:5dde180514004a4c1f81d7543bc1eff2.jpg FileDateTime:1314641886 FileSize:1694053 FileType:2 MimeType:image/jpeg SectionsFound:ANY_TAG, IFD0, THUMBNAIL, EXIF COMPUTED: html:width="2546" height="3242" Height:3242 Width:2546 IsColor:1 ByteOrderMotorola:1 Thumbnail.FileType:2 Thumbnail.MimeType:image/jpeg Orientation:1 Software:Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000 DateTime:2011:08:29 11:13:30 Exif_IFD_Pointer:2202 UndefinedTag:0xEA1C:ê THUMBNAIL: Compression:6 XResolution:0/1 YResolution:0/1 ResolutionUnit:2 JPEGInterchangeFormat:4376 JPEGInterchangeFormatLength:2004 ImageUniqueID:51E6BA00E55D4F97863F04FF37955B6F, Exif Array: a:14:{s:8:"FileName";s:36:"5dde180514004a4c1f81d7543bc1eff2.jpg";s:12:"FileDateTime";i:1314641886;s:8:"FileSize";i:1694053;s:8:"FileType";i:2;s:8:"MimeType";s:10:"image/jpeg";s:13:"SectionsFound";s:30:"ANY_TAG, IFD0, THUMBNAIL, EXIF";s:8:"COMPUTED";a:7:{s:4:"html";s:26:"width="2546" height="3242"";s:6:"Height";i:3242;s:5:"Width";i:2546;s:7:"IsColor";i:1;s:17:"ByteOrderMotorola";i:1;s:18:"Thumbnail.FileType";i:2;s:18:"Thumbnail.MimeType";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:11:"Orientation";i:1;s:8:"Software";s:46:"Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000";s:8:"DateTime";s:19:"2011:08:29 11:13:30";s:16:"Exif_IFD_Pointer";i:2202;s:19:"UndefinedTag:0xEA1C";s:2014:"ê";s:9:"THUMBNAIL";a:6:{s:11:"Compression";i:6;s:11:"XResolution";s:3:"0/1";s:11:"YResolution";s:3:"0/1";s:14:"ResolutionUnit";i:2;s:21:"JPEGInterchangeFormat";i:4376;s:27:"JPEGInterchangeFormatLength";i:2004;}s:13:"ImageUniqueID";s:32:"51E6BA00E55D4F97863F04FF37955B6F";}, OCR Text: 20H. it. Z 9) Late Archaic Period Page 1 of 3 Nehalem Bay Dune Site (aka Davidson Site) — 35TIS7 This prehistoric site was excavated by Rick Minor, Ruth Greenspan, Robert Musil and Nancy Stenholm under a contract with the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division. The site had been disturbed by looters and was being impacted by erosion. The artifacts recovered from the looters suggested that the site was unusual for a coastal site in that most of the artifacts were from stone tool manufacturing and included projectile points. There was no evidence for a shell midden, yet the site is located along the Nehalem Bay estuary. It was suggested that the site might be a fishing station located in a dune adjacent to a fresh water source. The site was surveyed and mapped, then augered to determine the depth and extent of cultural deposits. Five areas were checked with excavation units. These included two mound-like features that turned out to be high spots in the dune. The project determined that small groups were camping in the dunes near the freshwater creek over and over during a period of about 300 years between AJ). 1310 and Ad). 1610. The dune hollows were protected from the wind, and the availability of fresh water in the creek made this location attractive. As expected, occupation (artifact density) was higher closer to the creek and decreased with distance from fresh water. Five radiocarbon (C14) dates were made from carbon samples. Carbon samples cost about $250 each, and are sent to labs scattered around the country for analysis. A date of 340160 (AJ). 1610) came from a 4 inch thick layer of fire- cracked rock, artifacts and organic remains. Firecracker} rock is produced from heating rock for stone boiling or for baking in earth ovens. Another similar layer in a different area of the site produced a date of 470i70 (AD. 1480). Three dates came from a very dark greasy black layer near the creek containing lots of fire-cracked rock, artifacts and organic debris. The dates were 5801:60 (A.D. 1370), 6405260 (AJ). 1310), and 4901250 (Ad). 1460). A total of 98 flakes stone tools were recovered in the excavations. Eight cores were recovered. Cores are chunks of stone from which flakes were removed for the manufacture of tools. The cores indicated that list sized cobbles were being struck to remove flakes with a hard stone hammer. The larger of these flakes were then thinned into bifaces for the manufacture of tools (mostly arrowheads). Nenty-one projectile points were recovered, all from the deep greasy black area near the creek. All of the points were made from chert and all were for the bow and arrow. One small "winged" point was made from a small flake, and the rest of the complete specimens were corner-notched with contracting stems. Four chert scrapers came from site deposits and four chert perforators (drills) as well. In addition, twenty-four flakes were used as cutting tools, exhibiting small nibbling flakes along the utilized edge (use wear). 12,619 pieces of flaked stone from tool manufacturing were also recovered and studied. Four small stone hammers were probably used with the cores as percussion flakers. Three other cobbles show wear associated with their use as anvil stones. Small cobbles of chert were placed on them and struck with the hammer stones to split the cobbles (bi-polar splitting). Other ground stone tools included two sandstone abraders used to sand down wood or bone. Organic preservation was quite good for an open site on the coast. Four fragments of worked bone were recovered, but were in such bad shape that their function could not be determined. Three wood awl fragments also survived. 12,605 fragments of bone were found, but the level of preservation was quite poor. The majority were identified as salmonid vertebrae (they were fishing). While the Nehalem River estuary is not mentioned as a fishing site in historical interviews with Indians, The report on this project notes that in 1852 inhabitants of a village on the estuary "had journeyed up the Nehalem River to fish and dry salmon for their winter's use". if the bone had decayed beyond recognition, there would have been no trace of an orientation towards fishing based on the artifacts recovered. This strongly suggests that interpretation of site function, where organic preservation is poor, may be biased towards those parts of the economy that produce stone tools. Plant remains included maple, thistle, alder, birch, elderberry, goosefoot, red cedar, sedge, rush, kinnikinnick, clover, ash, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, hunch grass, blackberry, thimhleherry, raspberry, hedstraw and willow were present , Nehalem Valley Historical Society,Under Construction,General Collection,Records,Report on the artifacts found at the Nehalem Bay State Park site.,File 393, File 393