Guy Tasa

AN EARLY HOLOCENE/LATE PLEISTOCENE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE ON THE OREGON COAST? COMMENTS ON HALL ET AL. (2005)

In the journal Radiocarbon, Hall et al. (2005:383) claim that 35-CS-9, located in Bandon Ocean Wayside State Park on the southern Oregon coast, is one of the few Oregon coast sites that includes sediments and artifacts dating to the early Holocene and possibly to the late Pleistocene. Their claim for an early Holocene or late Pleistocene human occupation rests on a single radiocarbon date of 11,000 140 BP (12,71012,680 cal BP) taken from charcoal found at least 20 cm below the nearest artifact. Although Hall et al. compile various kinds of geoarchaeological evidence to support this claim, their case is not convincing. While we applaud aspects of their analyses, the inferences they have drawn are not substantiated by the evidence they present. We agree that 35-CS-9 is a significant site but believe claims for the antiquity of its human use have been exaggerated.

The Archaeology of a Pioneer Family Cemetery in Western Oregon, 1854–1879

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.