Prehistoric Settlement Patterns on the Central Coast of British Columbia

Abstract

Over the past half century, archaeologists have been interested in how the environmental variation of the Central Coast has affected settlement patterns. Archaeologists relied on ethnography and subsistence models to explain settlement distribution but were unable to analytically demonstrate influencing factors. The objectives of this thesis were to investigate: (1) the spatial arrangement of sites to examine the types of locations people utilized; and (2) test if the occupational history of a site is reflected by its geographic locations. In this project, site dimension was used as a relative indicator of settlement occupational intensity, and over twenty environmental attributes were tested. Analysis was systematically conducted at multiple spatial scales using GIS. In the first stage the location of shell middens (n=351) were compared against an environmental baseline, derived from a sample of random points. For the second stage, small and large shell middens were compared to test if their locations significantly differed. It was found that shell middens do show an association with certain environmental settings. For some attributes, there was an observable difference in the location of large and small shell middens. However, immense variability was identified and the environmental context of sites greatly determined whether locational preferences could be empirically demonstrated. Overall, large middens, more so than small middens, are located in areas with higher resource diversity. These conclusions support other studies that indicate the relevance of multiple determinants and emphasizes the local nuances of settlement patterning affected by environmental and cultural factors. My results oppose the simplistic and static notion about a prehistoric annual cycle of sedentary winter villages and seasonal resource-specific camps. Improvements to an understanding of settlement distribution can aid in contextualizing specific sites within their regional setting and contribute to our knowledge regarding larger cultural practices such as subsistence and land use practices.