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High-Resolution AMS 14C Dates for the Par-Tee Site (35CLT20) and Prehistoric Whale Hunting on the Oregon Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Gabriel M Sanchez ,
Jon M Erlandson ,
Brendan J Culleton ,
Douglas J Kennett  and
Torben C Rick
Gabriel M Sanchez*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 232 Kroeber Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3710.
Jon M Erlandson
Affiliation:
Museum of Natural & Cultural History, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, 1680 E 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 97403-1224.
Brendan J Culleton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University. 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA 16802.
Douglas J Kennett
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University. 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA 16802.
Torben C Rick
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: gabriels@berkeley.edu.
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Abstract

Evidence for aboriginal whale hunting, long thought to be a practice limited to Northwest Coast tribes in northern Washington and British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, was previously reported at the Par-Tee site on the Oregon coast between about cal AD 620 and 990. An age estimate for a humpback whale phalanx with an embedded elk bone harpoon point was based on radiocarbon dates on charcoal not directly associated with the whale bone. We present high-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates for purified bone collagen extracted directly from the whale phalanx and embedded harpoon point. A calibrated date for the harpoon point places the whale hunting event between about cal AD 430 and 550. The apparent 14C age of the whale bone is estimated to be 220±37 14C yr older than the marine model age at that time, consistent with values from the eastern Pacific. These new dates suggest that whale hunting took place on the Oregon coast as much as 200–500 yr earlier than previously reported and more than a millennium before historic contact in the region. Our research highlights the significance of museum collections and high-resolution AMS 14C dating for addressing a variety of issues related to ancient archaeological sites and cultures.

Keywords

aboriginal whale huntingPacific Northwest CoastOregon archaeology
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 397 - 405
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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