Household Archaeology at Bridge River, British Columbia

FAIN: RZ-51287-11

University of Montana (Missoula, MT 59801-4494)
Anna M. Prentiss (Project Director: November 2010 to May 2016)

An excavation, analysis, and interpretation of a single semi-subterranean dwelling with 13 superimposed floors occupied between 1450 and 1150 years ago in present day British Columbia. (36 months)

The Bridge River Project will engage in excavation research and subsequent laboratory investigations of a single housepit within the Bridge River housepit village. Housepit 54 offers a well preserved record of at least 13 superimposed occupation floors separated in places by seven buried roof deposits recording processes of change and continuity between the dates of 1450 and 1150 years ago on the temporal scale of roughly 25-year generations. This combination of intact occupation surfaces and exceptionally well preserved artifacts, features and food remains offers the very rare opportunity to look in a fine grained manner at a range of questions about cultural and ecological change at a critical time in Pacific Northwest ancient history. The project will offer contributions in the humanities to scholars and the general public in the areas of First Nations history, anthropological archaeology, and paleoecology.

Associated Products

The Last House at Bridge River: The Archaeology of an Aboriginal Household in British Columbia during the Fur Trade Period (Book)
Title: The Last House at Bridge River: The Archaeology of an Aboriginal Household in British Columbia during the Fur Trade Period
Editor: Anna M. Prentiss
Abstract: The Last House at Bridge River offers a comprehensive archaeological study of a single-house floor and roof deposit dated to approximately 1835-1858 C.E.Although the Fur Trade period of the nineteenth century was a time of significant change for aboriginal peoples in the Pacific Northwest, it is a period that is poorly understood. These studies of Housepit 54 at the Bridge River site offer new insights, revealing that ancestors of today's St'at'imc people were actively engaged in maintaining traditional lifestyles and making the best of new opportunities for trade and intergroup interaction.Among its major contributions, the book includes a first-ever historical ecology of the Middle Fraser Canyon that places aboriginal and Euro-Canadian history in ecological context. It demonstrates that an integrated multidisciplinary approach to archaeological research can achieve insights well beyond what is known from the ethnographic and historical records. Because the project derives from a long-term partnership between the University of Montana and the Bridge River Indian Band, it illustrates the value of collaborations between archaeologists and First Nations. Together, contributors present a Fur Trade period aboriginal society at a level of intimacy unparalleled elsewhere.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/960641968
Primary URL Description: World Cat link
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 1607815435
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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