Structure, function, and dating of external cooking features at the Bridge River Site

Structure, Function, and Dating of External Cooking Features at the Bridge River Site.The Bridge River site is a large housepit village in British Columbia with a significant number of cooking features or earth ovens scattered throughout the site.One of the purposes of the Bridge River project is to determine the structure, Sanction, and date ranges of the cooking features.In order to better interpret the structure and possible use life of the features, modem era root roasting pits used by the native people in the area were excavated.The results of that excavation are compared to the prehistoric cooking features in the village in order to better interpret the formation processes and possible use life of the feature as well as to look for correlations between the prehistoric and modem cooking features.Investigations focusing on the earth ovens at the Bridge River site have the potential to answer questions about subsistence strategies, social organization within the village while it was occupied and seasonal use of the village during occupation and after abandonment.The research will also begin to create a working chronology of the use of earth ovens at the Bridge River site.These objectives will be achieved by building a frame of reference fi"om ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological research, and by using specific archaeological indicators to recognize evidence of past cooking strategies and "recipes" employed in those strategies.The use of earth ovens for the purpose of processing large amounts of plant foods for winter consumption has been documented both ethnographically and archaeologically in terms of in the upland root processing locations.It is possible that earth ovens encountered in the villages may be indicative of another pattern of use altogether.The purpose of this research is to determine if the patterns established in the upland earth ovens carry over into the earth ovens located in the villages.If the earth ovens at the Bridge River site are similar in morphology, contents, and date ranges to those of the uplands, then a previously unidentified pattern of intense food production for storage in the villages will be established and confirmed.If the earth ovens at the Bridge River site do not share the same patterning to those of the upland ovens, then a new model would be necessary.Committee Chair: William Prentiss and valuable advice in the course of seeing this project to its conclusion.Special thanks goes to Bill Prentiss, who chaired my committee, helped to provided funds for the ethnoarchaeological part of this research, has been my constant mentor, and has been my ear to whine in.Thank you for pushing me harder than I wanted and for reminding me again and again that this is important research.Thank you to my other committee members, Thom Poor and Sarah Halvorson for the great feedback and enthusiasm.Thank you to the Stl' atl'imx Nation and the folks from the Bridge River Band, the Cayoose Band, and the Seton Portage Band for their hospitality, ceremonies, feasts, jokes, stories, and most of all, for the opportunity to conduct research on their ancestral lands.A big thanks to Tanja Hoffman for all of her help in providing initial introductions to everyone, allowing me to stay in her house, and for all of her encouragement and help.Thanks to Bradley Jack and Bo Bo for all of their help in working at the Bridge River site.Thanks to Carl for the opening ceremonies and spiritual help