Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations at Seaside, Oregon: Vertebrate Fauna From the Palmrose and Par-Tee Sites

Abstract

Archaeological investigations at two sites in Seaside, Oregon, during the 1960s and 1970s produced a substantial coastal faunal assemblage, among the largest ever recovered from western North America. The two sites, Palmrose (35CLT47) and Par-Tee (35CLT20), were occupied between about 2,700 and 800 years ago. Analysis of a sample of the vertebrate fauna indicates differences between the two assemblages despite overlapping ages and close proximity. While there is similarity in the predominance of marine mammals and fish in both samples, the habitats represented by the fauna vary and the fish assemblages are strikingly different. Alternative explanations for the differences in the assemblages are considered including the possibility that the two sites were occupied by different ethnic groups. These data are relevant to broad issues of culture change on the southern Northwest Coast, marine resource exploitation, and hunter-gatherer coastal adaptations and this analysis demonstrates the value of museum collections for archaeological research.

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