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Several decades ago, the holdings of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History were split into separate anthropology, paleontology, and zoology collections. With few exceptions, all archaeological and anthropological materials ended up in the charge of the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology. The
brief tale presented here concerns one of those exceptions, the Cressman Box.
As many of the readers already know, Luther S. Cressman founded both the State Museum of Anthropology and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon. He has long been considered the "Father of Oregon Archaeology" and carried out pioneering archaeological research in many areas of the state.
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Through an odd series of coincidences, I recently became aware of a box of artifacts currently being
curated in the Museum of Natural History's paleontology collection. Written on the top of the box are
the words "Cressman" and "Flaked Stone" (Figure 1). Stamped on the side of the used Kodak
photographic paper box is the date "J '48 21".
Figure 1 (left): Top of film box in which the artifacts are stored.
Figure 2 (right): Caramel box lid used in packing.
Packed inside under the protection of a piece of cardboard from a "Kraft Dairy Fresh Caramels" box (Figure 2) are 108 flaked stone artifacts, primarily an assortment of bifaces, biface fragments, and projectile point fragments. There are no notes associated with this small collection and there is absolutely no clue as to the origins or archaeological provenance of the artifacts.
So where might these artifacts have originated? And when? Just the sort of minor armchair archaeological mystery to explore on a rainy winter Oregon afternoon at the lab. The main clues come from both the types of raw material and an analysis of several of them.
Almost all of the artifacts (N=103) fall into the generalized category of cryptocrystalline silicates (CCS - quartz, jasper, chalcedony, etc). Overall, the assortment of types of lithic materials present in the collection is suggestive of those that might be found along the Oregon coast. A single piece of metamorphic rock is also included in the collection and further hints that the artifacts may have originally been collected at southern Oregon coastal sites (where metamorphic rocks from the Klamath Mountains may have been locally available).
Four of the artifacts are obsidian tools and these provide the most concrete evidence for the original provenience of the collection. I subjected these to X-ray fluorescence trace element analysis (Table 1) and found that all were correlated with northern California obsidian sources. Three of the four artifacts originated from the GF/LIW/RS source, a composite geochemical obsidian source located on the flanks of Medicine Lake Volcano in northern California. The fourth artifact came from the Sugar Hill source located in the northern Warner Mountains of northeastern California. The sources are described elsewhere by Hughes (1986). Analytical methods used in the analysis of the artifacts are detailed at www.obsidianlab.com. Obsidian from these two areas has often proven to be the source of the very limited amount of natural glass recovered from southern Oregon coastal sites (Unpublished research, Northwest Research Obsidian Studies Laboratory).
| Table 1. Results of trace element analysis of obsidian artifacts. |
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Obsidian Artifacts |
| Element * |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
| Rubidium |
137 |
141 |
140 |
149 |
| Strontium |
57 |
72 |
71 |
70 |
| Yttrium |
23 |
29 |
22 |
30 |
| Zirconium |
126 |
181 |
175 |
182 |
| Niobium |
13 |
9 |
13 |
11 |
| Fe:Mn |
28.9 |
55.2 |
55.3 |
50.8 |
| Fe:Ti |
43.4 |
36.0 |
36.1 |
36.9 |
| Barium |
643 |
730 |
658 |
699 |
| Geologic Source |
Sugar Hill,
Warner Mts. |
GF/LIW/RS
Medicine Lake
Volcano |
GF/LIW/RS
Medicine Lake
Volcano
| GF/LIW/RS
Medicine Lake
Volcano
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* Trace element values are reported in parts per million
1: Fragment of large biface midsection.
2: Projectile point midsection, probably a corner notched point.
3: Biface fragment, probably a projectile point tip.
4: Unformed complete biface. | |
Although Cressman was known primarily for his groundbreaking work in the northwestern Great Basin of Oregon, he was also actively engaged in Oregon coastal archaeological research throughout the 1950's. Under his direction, the Oregon Coast Prehistory Program began a survey of coastal sites in 1951 and carried out several excavations during the remainder of the decade (Cressman 1952, 1953; Newman 1959).
Figure 3. Locations of obsidian sources identified by trace element analysis of "Cressman Box" artifacts.
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Given the overall composition of the lithic materials in the mystery box, the geologic origins of the four obsidian artifacts, and the age of the packing materials, it seems likely that the 108 artifacts were collected along the southern Oregon coast sometime during the 1950's. How and why they ended up in
the museum box is the final question in this minor archaeological mystery that I guess we'll never be able to answer.
Acknowledgments. My thanks to Elizabeth Orr, curator of the Museum of Natural History Paleontology Collection, for bringing the box of artifacts to my attention. Additional thanks go to Leonard Skinner and William Orr for facilitating the process.
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Cressman. Luther S. 1952. Oregon Coast Prehistory. American Philosophical Society Yearbook, pp. 256-260.
Cressman. Luther S. 1953. Oregon Coast Prehistory: Problems and Progress. Oregon Historical Quarterly 54:291-300.
Hughes, Richard E. 1986. Diachronic Variability in Obsidian Procurement Patterns in Northeastern California and Southcentral Oregon. University of California Publications in Anthropology 17, Berkeley, California.
Newman, Thomas M. 1959. Tillamook Prehistory and Its Relation to the Northwest Coast Culture Area. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.
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