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Prehistoric Cultural Collapse in the Lillooet Area

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Brian Hayden  and
June M. Ryder
Brian Hayden
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
June M. Ryder
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5
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Abstract

A series of unusually large hunter-gatherer winter villages emerged along the Fraser River in the Lillooet region of British Columbia during the last 3,000 years. Population estimates for these villages range from 500-1,000. Salmon heavily dominated the subsistence economy of these groups. We believe that these groups were socially and economically more complex than subsequent inhabitants. Village size and complexity seem to achieve maximum development from 1000-2000 B.P. About 1,000 years ago it appears that all of the large villages in the Lillooet region were abandoned and never reoccupied to any significant degree. Numerous causes for this apparent cultural collapse have been considered. Recent geomorphological research on landslides and terraces in the Lillooet region make failure of salmon runs due to catastrophic landslides that dammed the Fraser River the most likely explanation for the apparently abrupt abandonment of the large Lillooet villages.

Résumé

Résumé

Durante los ultimos 3.000 años, una serie de villas invernales cazadoras-colectoras inusitadamente grandes emergió a lo largo del Río Fraser, en la región de Lillooet, Columbia Británica. Se estima que la población de estas villas habría variado entre 500 y 1.000. La economía de subsistencia de estos grupos estuvo fuertemente dominada por el salmón. Creemos que estos grupos fueron social y económicamente más complejos que los habitantes subsiguientes. El tamaño de las villas y su complejidad parecen haber alcanzado su desarrollo máximo entre 1000 y 2000 A.P. Hay evidencia de que hace alrededor de 1.000 años todas las villas grandes en la region de Lillooet fueron abandonadas y nunca reocupadas de manera signijcativa. Se han considerado numerosas causas para este aparente colapso cultural. Investigaciones geomorfológicas recientes en desprendimientos de tierra y terraplenes en la región de Lillooet indican que la explicación más probable para lo que aparece como el repentino abandono de las villas grandes de Lillooet es elfracaso de la migración del salmón al lugar de desove.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 1991 , pp. 50 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1991

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