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In many areas of the desert west, the presence of lava tube caves formed in flows of basalt offers a unique natural setting often associated with archaeological remains. As attractive as these tubes were as a prehistoric environment, sometimes providing a combination of shelter and late season or perennial water sources, they have proven equally compelling in their abilities to attract historic and modern-day amateur archaeologists and pothunters. In this section, we will eventually discuss our experiences and methodological approaches in investigating just such a cave located near Bend, Oregon, Bone Cave. Cultural deposits at this site were severely disturbed and initially it appeared that the degree of disturbance would preclude any significant analysis and interpretation of the archaeological remains. However, the use of a combination of different techniques - faunal analysis, obsidian hydration dating, obsidian source analysis, and lithic analysis - demonstrated that much can still be learned, even when following in the footsteps of ardent pothunters.
Excavation of the cave site was carried out in the summer of 1998 and was limited to the front chamber of the lava tube. Over 25,000 individual items of faunal material, in addition to nearly 3,000 lithic artifacts, were recovered from the site. Two hundred and twenty-one obsidian artifacts were eventually selected for XRF trace element analysis and 45 obsidian hydration rims were successfully measured. An interpretation of the Bone Cave data appears in Ferguson and Skinner (2005). We will soon be posting all ancillary data on this web site - the detailed results of trace element studies of artifacts, obsidian hydration measurements, and any other relevant information.
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Ferguson, Jeffrey R. 1999. Bone Cave: A Special-Use Site in the High Lava Plains. Unpublished Master Thesis, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. Ferguson, Jeffrey R. and Craig E. Skinner. 2005. Bone Cave: A Severely Disturbed Cave Site in Central Oregon. North American Archaeologist 26:221-244. Greeley, Ronald. 1971. Geology of Selected Lava Tubes in the Bend Area, Oregon. Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries Bulletin 71, Portland, Oregon.
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