The Meier site fine-grained lithic assemblage was used to test the hypothesis that a sedentary group will rely heavily on expedient lithic technologies because they stockpile raw material at the residence. At Meier, expedient core reduction provided blanks for a significant number of curated and expedient tools. I propose that sedentism (stockpiling) minimizes energy investments in raw material procurement and blank production while maintaining the ability to efficiently make both curated and expedient tools. Investment in curation is limited to a few tool classes with specialized functions, not transportable design variables.

The spatial distribution of chipped lithic artifacts excavated at site 35C05, a Chinookan plankhouse of the protohistoric period, was observed to test the hypothesis that a gradient of material culture -- reflecting social status -- should be evident within the plankhouse, ranging from the highest to the lowest social rank. Prior to the spatial analysis, use-wear analysis was used to evaluate the classificatory labels used to describe the assemblage by a previous researcher. The use-wear analysis largely confirmed the functional classification of chipped lithic artifacts used by the previous researcher. The spatial analyses revealed that while most tool types were rather evenly distributed throughout the plankhouse interior (taphonomic factors having been considered), cutting, graving and scraping tools (as well as some characteristics of these tools, such as raw material quality) were significantly unevenly distributed, correlating with the hypothesized gradient of social rank aligned with the long axis of the plankhouse. Further analyses strongly suggested that one or more labor specialists, using high frequencies of graving tools, were inhabitants of the elite portion of the plankhouse. Most domestic activities reflected by the stone tools of this assemblage were engaged in by plankhouse inhabitants of all social ranks. Knowing that this is the case, as well as that in some instances there is compelling evidence for status-determined labor specialization, aids in our understanding of the character of aboriginal social structure on the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Social status was an integral part of the social structure of Northwest Coast societies. The presence of ranked social structures and household space based on rank is reported in the ethnographic literature. Archaeologists have long searched for independent and verifiable means to infer social structure from archaeological deposits. Burial goods have been used to identify status differences. Do other items of material culture also reflect such differences? The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the distribution of certain tools recovered from a Chinookan plank house on the lower Columbia River paralleled the household residence location that was keyed to social status. Among Northwest Coast societies the household was the basic social and economic unit. Ground stone tools were selected for study because they include tools which were instrumental parts of a technology that depended upon highly organized and scheduled activities, i.e. fishing and house construction. If these tools were controlled by particular individuals or families within the household, their archaeological deposition might reflect social status differences. Two questions were asked in this study. (1) What is the correlation between the volume of sediment excavated and the number of ground stone artifacts recovered from the house? (2) What is the relationship between residence location and the density of ground stone artifacts recovered from the house? The ground stone artifacts were identified, classified and counted. Correlation coefficients between the volumes of sediment excavated and the number of ground stone artifacts recovered showed that the correlation was suspiciously weak, in general, and not correlated for fishing net weights. Some factor other than solely excavation volumes was affecting ground stone artifact counts. To answer the second question linear regressions were performed. They revealed that although location was to some degree a function of the density of ground stone artifacts, that relationship was weak at the .05 significance level. However, the relationship was stronger for fishing net weights. It is likely that there are multiple reasons for ground stone tool distributions and sites must be excavated with broad exposures in order to understand the relationship between residence location and artifact densities.