The Quilomene Bar Phase

[34] The Quilomene Bar Phase is a wholly new designation, never before proposed for any area in the Plateau. It is being offered here primarily on the strength of data from 45KT28, and is thought to have existed between 800 B.C. and the beginning of the Christian Era.

CULTURAL COMPONENT VI

Stratigraphy. Cultural Component VI, the only Quilomene Bar Phase component at the site, is identified with numerous interfingering lenses of cultural debris found in the upper three-fourths of Stratum 5 and concentrated at the northern end of the site, between House Pit 2 and House Pit 26 (Fig. 4). Two separate series of these lenses were tested, one at House Pit 15 and one in the [34/35] vicinity of House Pit 13. In each area four distinct culture-bearing deposits were encountered. The four subcomponents which were found in the excavations beneath House Pit 15 were restricted to the upper three feet of Stratum 5. The stratigraphically earliest and most extensive of these covered a roughly triangular area of about 90 square feet (Fig. 5). Near its center there were two distinct hearths which were separated from one another by a distance of three feet. They were filled with fire-cracked rock and sand which had been oxidized to a brilliant brown-orange. Bone detritus, probably all of deer, was abundant. Five cervical vertebrae were found fully articulated; other bones were split and scattered. One fish vertebra and a small fragment of freshwater mussel shell also were recovered. Artifacts were especially plentiful near the central hearth area and included end scrapers, core tools, knives, and utilized flakes. Two chipped stone projectile point fragments were recovered; both were Quilomene Bar Base-Notched points (Fig. 15, c). In addition the tip of a biconical antler projectile point (Style 1) was recovered (Fig. 16, b).

   To keep within the final publication budget, it was necessary to shorten the report by removing a number of figures and the accompanying text. This figure, which shows the excavation units in Cultural Component VI in the House Pit 15 excavation area, was one such figure. During the final three years of excavation, the river partially flooded the excavation, so each year a new excavation had to be established. The figure below combines work done in the second and third years of the excavation in Stratum IV. The filled area is a spread of charcoal stained sand with the remains of two hearths near it's center. Most of the artifacts came from the charcoal stained area, as described above.

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The remaining three lenses occurred in the upper eighteen inches of Stratum 5 and were little more than the telltale remains of small hearths (Fig. 20 and 21). One contained a large antler wedge, some bone detritus, several flakes, and four fragments of freshwater mussel shell. Another yielded only a stemmed point of aberrant form (Fig. 15, n). The third lens likewise contained but a single artifact (Fig. 15, m), a later variety of The Quilomene Bar Base-Notched point, characteristic of the Cayuse Phase and also in a morphological line between earlier forms of the Quilomene Bar Base-Notched point and the Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched point (Type 6). In some ways, then, the uppermost Quilomene Bar subcomponents resemble components of the Cayuse Phase, though broadly considered they appear to be more representative of the Quilomeme Bar Phase.

In the House Pit 13 area, four Quilomeme Bar Phase subcomponents were encountered in the upper three-fourths of Stratum 5. Like the three small lenses described above, the most recent of these subcomponents was located only fourteen inches below the surface of Stratum 5 and consisted of a hearth remnant about six feet in diameter. It contained split deer bone, flakes, and a small quantity of artifacts, including an unusual form of pentagonal knife (Fig. 15, l).

The three deeper subcomponents extended throughout the test area (Fig. 10), and unlike their more recent counterparts were not characterized by a dark midden stain. In fact the only thing which set them physically apart from their sandy matrix were layered concentrations of bone detritus, waste flakes, fire-cracked rock, and artifacts. These items were essentially the same in each subcomponent, deer being the major or possibly only animal represented in the faunal assemblage. No fish vertebrae were recovered, and only one minute fragment of freshwater mussel was encountered. Artifacts included Quilomene Bar Base-Notched points (Type Variant 5A), triangular points (or point blanks), knives, gravers, scrapers, core tools, utilized flakes, and cut bone detritus.

Three features were noted, two of them, a post mold and a hearth, coming from the earliest of the four subcomponents. The hearth, which was about three feet in diameter, was marked by charcoal-stained sand and contained a large amount of fire-cracked rock. The post mold was located about fifteen feet away; it was marked by a light midden stain which was one-half an inch in diameter and extended four inches below the surface of the subcomponent. The third feature, located in the next to the earliest subcomponent, was a cache or unusually high concentration of artifacts, including four gravers, two end scrapers, a side scraper, three knife fragments, a core tool (Type 2), and six utilized flakes.

   The samples from the several individual occupational components are small, but grouped into early, middle and late series, some changes can be seen. The late series contains points that are transitional in form to those of the Cayuse Phase. The middle series includes a series of blades and blade tools that are similar to those from 45SN100 (CM Nelson 1962b) in the western foothills of the Cascades.

Artifact Assemblage. As the discernibly important differences between the artifact assemblages from the various subcomponents have been described above, individual subcomponent catalogs would take up more space than they are worth. Therefore, all of the subcomponent assemblages have been unified into the following catalog. [35]

  [36] Artifact Catalog.

Total number of artifacts (207)

		45KT28/B2137. VI. House Pit 15 Test Area 20 Test Pit 5 0-6" Scale bar 1 cm.
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DISCUSSION

Because 45KT28 is the only site at which the Quilomene Bar Phase has been adequately defined, our overview of the phase as a whole must necessarily be quite limited. Based on estimates for the end of the Frenchman Springs Phase and the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, it is thought to have lasted from ca. 800 B.C. to about the beginning of the Christian Era.

Published comparative data are almost nonexistant, being limited to material from Bed B3 at Schaake Village (Swanson 1962b) and possibly from the earlier deposits at Sam's Cave, a rock-shelter opposite Steamboat Rock in Grant County (Osborne 1959).

As of the writing of this report, the single reliably diagnostic artifact type is the Quilomene Bar Base-Notched projectile point (Type 5), which is also of minor importance very late in the Frenchman Springs Phase and the Cayuse Phase. During the Quilomene Bar Phase it appears to be restricted largely to Type Variant 5A, a particular variation characterized by deep base-notches and large, square barbs. However, at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase a whole new series of variants appear to develop out of this early form.

Quantitative differences may include the abundant use of well-made end and side scrapers, though it must be emphasized that this apparent trend may be a function of inadequate sample size or the site's particular position in the yearly economic round. Similarly, other distinguishing features may include the introduction of chopper-like implements which were used for crushing rather than cutting (see stone implements of percussion). [37]

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LAST REVISED: 18 FEB 2016