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Oregon's Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dismissed as unreasonably old by most researchers. Now, with evidence of a nearly 15,000-year-old occupation at the nearby Paisley Five Mile Point Caves, we returned to Fort Rock Cave to evaluate the validity of Bedwell's claim, assess the stratigraphic integrity of remaining deposits, and determine the potential for future work at the site. Here, we report the results of additional fieldwork at Fort Rock Cave undertaken in 2015 and 2016, which supports the early Holocene occupation, but does not confirm a pre–10,500 cal B.P. human presence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A proposed bridge replacement over the Nehalem River between the communities of Birkenfeld and Mist in northwest Oregon identified the remains of an early twentieth century logging railroad camp. The railroad line was operated by the Kerry Timber and Logging Company sometime between ca. 1917 and 1925. As the camp bordered an elevated trestle, the entire camp was built on stilts above the ground. Due to this fact, and later highway and bridge construction, archaeological traces of the camp were relatively diffuse. Recovered artifacts were dominated by nails, and by robust white institutional ceramics ("hotel ware") that likely relate to a crew camp mess. Examination of artifacts associated with railroad grades east and west of the project area suggests that the rail line west of the camp was built as a branch-level grade, and the lines east as spur-level grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological work at five sites in the Malhuer River Basin of east-central Oregon was conducted in response to bridge and interchange construction projects. Chronologically diagnostic projectile points and obsidian hydration values suggest occupation histories spanning the Holocene, but geoarchaeological, radiocarbon, and obsidian hydration evidence indicate that the major archaeological components are middle and late Holocene in age (ca. 3700 BP to late pre-Contact). Faunal remains, fishing equipment, and positive test results for fish proteins on projectile points, flake tools, bifaces, and ground stone indicate fishing for trout or salmon was an important activity at the sites. Obsidian sourcing provides insights on changing land use ranges through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of the town of Beatty in Klamath County, Oregon. It particularly examines archaeological excavations at the Klamath Reservation site, undertaken after the Oregon Department of Transportation announced plans to work on Oregon Highway 140 at what is called Beatty Curve. Nineteenth century Klamath Indian leaders Chief Mosenkasket, also known as Moses Brown, and Jim Barkley are considered. The author also comments on the Klamath's relations with the U.S. government and explores excavations at a cabin believed to have belonged to Barkley.

A forgotten late-19th-century cemetery (ca. 1854-1879) with 12 graves was discovered in early 2008 during a construction project in western Oregon. Eight graves had been previously opened during a 1901 disinterment, but four remained intact. All provided information on burial patterns during the decades following American settlement of the Willamette Valley by Oregon Trail pioneers. Although the timeline is both slightly delayed and compressed, trends in burial ornamentation and hardware generally follow those noted in American cemeteries in the East. The unadorned graves of the 1850s are most similar to those of earlier decades on the eastern seaboard. By the end of the 1870s, rail lines had been built through the Willamette Valley, and within a few years the valley was linked to a growing national rail network. A relative immediacy of bicoastal contact was achieved at this time, allowing a measure of synchronicity in funerary trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pane glass thickness increased incrementally throughout the nineteenth century, and archaeologists have found that glass thickness may be a useful chronological tool. Excavations at the Beatty Curve archaeological site (35-KL-95), located on the former Kiamath Indian Reservation in the Sprague River Valley of south-central Oregon, revealed the remains of a nineteenth century cabin with abundant window glass fragments. Pane glass chronologies proposed by other researchers were evaluated using the pane glass assemblage from the site. The estimate best supported by other chronological data provides an age in the latter 1860s, falling within a few years of the establishment of the both Klamath Reservation (1864) or the later Yainax Subagency (ca. 1870). Though historically associated with the allotment of a prominent Klamath family, the cabin was clearly built decades prior to implementation of the Allotment Act in the Klamath Basin (ca. 1895-1910). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Replacing the terminal narrative of Native American culture with themes of resilience and survivance. • Using archaeology to demonstrate selective adoption and adaptation of new materials and practices by a Native (Klamath) community as they negotiated a place between ancient traditions and the new social realities and government-promoted policies in a colonial context. • Review of Klamath tribal history from prehistoric to modern times, including reservation, allotment, termination, and restoration eras. The process of human culture entails a perpetual negotiation between the familiar and the new. In the Americas, this process was much accelerated and amplified within Native communities by the historical processes of colonization. We use the record of the Beatty Curve archaeological site in south-central Oregon to examine how members of the Klamath Tribes and their ancestors selectively adopted, adapted, or repurposed introduced materials and practices most compatible with traditional lifeways and values while also maintaining many traditional practices, both overtly and covertly. Transformations from pre-contact to reservation life, and through Termination and Restoration in the 20th century, are built on enduring traditions that have carried the Klamath Tribes to the present, and help to articulate the strength, resilience, and pride of heritage that characterizes the modern Klamath community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about anthropology research on pre-clovis occupation of the Americas identified by human fecal biomarkers in coprolites from Paisley Caves, Oregon. Topics including the reliance on DNA methods, and present a new radiocarbon date on basketry further supporting pre-Clovis human occupation; and use fecal lipid biomarkers to demonstrate unequivocally that three coprolites dated to pre-Clovis are human.

The Paisley Caves in Oregon record the oldest directly dated human remains (DNA) in the Western Hemisphere. More than 100 high-precision radiocarbon dates show that deposits containing artifacts and coprolites ranging in age from 12,450 to 2295 (14)C years ago are well stratified. Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 (14)C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. "Blind testing" analysis of coprolites by an independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.