Searching for Evidence of Past Peoples within Submerged Landscapes, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Abstract:

People rely on rivers as travel corridors and are attracted to the abundant food resources along their banks. As a result, riverbanks often expose important archaeological sites. Within the Willamette Valley, the flow of many rivers is now temporarily stored in reservoirs—seasonally submerging their relic floodplains and the surrounding landscape. This complex dynamic between natural and human controlled systems creates a challenging opportunity to model where evidence of past environments and human activities are likely to be exposed, destroyed, or preserved. Archaeological sites buried by sediments of slow-moving waters can be well preserved but are often deeply buried. This necessitates identification of landforms of appropriate age and type to contain these preserved remains for testing. Here we report on our ongoing work to identify these landforms for targeted remote sensing and coring activities that will lead to a better understanding of how cultural and environmental histories relate in this region and provide a framework for identification of archaeological sites of different ages.