THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF A LATE 
PREHISTORIC VILLAGE IN 
NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA 
By 
Frank Leon.hardy 
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THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF A LATE 
PREHISTORIC VILLAGE IN 
NORTHWESTERN CAI~IFORNIA 

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF A LATE 
PREHISTORIC VILLAGE IN 
NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA 
by 
FRANK C. LEONHARDY 
Bulletin No. 4 
Museum of Natural History 
University of Oregon 
Eugene, Oregon 
March 1967 

CONTENTS 
In trod ucti on -- ·-------------------------------------------- 1 
Acknowledgements ____________________________________ 2 
Descriptive Archaeology____________________________ 4 
Excavation Techniques________________ __ _____ ___ 4 
Houses ____________________ ------------------------------- 4 
House Pit L ______________________________________ 5 
House Pit 2 ___ _______________________________ ______ 7 
House Pit 3 ________________________________________ 8 
House Pit 4 ·--------------------------------------- 8 
Discussion _____________ --------------------------- 10 
Artifacts ------------------------------------------------ 13 
Stone Artifacts --------------------------------- 14 
Bone and Antler Artifacts __________________ 25 
Miscellaneous Artifacts______________________ 27 
Discussion ___ ________ ---------------------------- 28 
Fa unal Remains ------------------------------------ 29 
Chronology____ ____ __ _____________ ___ ___________________ 30 
Comparison and Interpretation__________________ 30 
Distribution of Houses__________________________ 30 
Comparison of Artifacts ________________________ 34 
Comparison with other sites ____________________ 37 
Relationship to Historic Cultures __________ 37 
Ethnographic Parallels __________________________ 38 
Taxonomic Considerations ____________________ 39 
6. Floor 4, House Pit 4 ---------------------- 10 
7. Floor 3, Floor 2 and profile, 
House Pit 4 ------------------------------------ 11 
8. Floor 1, House Pit 4 ________________________ 11 
9. Projectile point forms -------------------- 13 
10. Projectile points ---------------------------- 15 
11. Knives, scrapers and drills ____________ 20 
12. Miscellaneous stone artifacts __________ 21 
13. Bone implements ---------------------------- 26 
14. Miscellaneous artifacts __________________ 27 
15. A reconstruction of the 
Iron Gate House ---------------------------- 31 
16. Distribution of conical, 
bark-covered houses 
----------------------
32 
17. Archaeological sits and areas 
mentioned in this report ------------------ 34 
Plate 
1. View of the Iron Gate site ________________ 3 
2. House Pit 1 before excavation ________ 5 
3. Burned bark above Floor 2, 
House Pit 1 ------------------------------------ 7 
4. House Pit 4 excavated to Floor 1 ____ 12 
5. Large stone artifacts ---------------------- 22 
Summary and Conclusions________________________ 40 
References Cited ________________________________________ 41 Table 
1. Distribution of major classes 
Figure of artifacts __________________________________ 16-18 
1. Locality map ---------------------------------- 2 2. Metric attributes of projectile 
2. Contour map of the Iron Gate Site____ 4 point classes ---------------------------------- 19 
3. Floor plans and profile, 3. Distribution of projectile points 23-25 
House Pit 1 ------------------------------------ 6 4. Identified faunal remains _____ __ _______ 29 
4. Floor 4, House Pit 2 ______________________ 8 5. Comparison of house traits ____________ 33 
5. Diagram of excavation in House Pit 6. Comparison of projectile point 
2 below Floor 4 ------------------------------ 9 forms, Iron Gate and The Dalles ______ 35 

1 
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF A LATE 
PREHISTORIC VILLAGE IN 
NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA 
by 
FRANK C. LEONHARDY 
Laboratory of Anthropology 
Washington State University 
ABSTRACT 
The Iron Gate site is a single component village located on the Klamath River is Siskiyou County, Cali-
fornia. On the basis of radio-carbon dates occupation is estimated to have been between 1400 A.D. and 
1600 A.D. The excavated houses were conical, bark-covered structures differing from the house type re-
corded in the area in historic time but resembling those recorded further south. Artifacts, particularly pro-
jectile points, are similar to those found in northwestern California and Oregon. Stone working traditions 
appear more closely related to those of the Klamath Lakes and Columbia Plateau regions of Oregon than to 
those of central California. Analysis indicates patterns of community organization and economy virtually 
identical to those of the ethnographic period. The site is considered representative of a phase in Shasta 
culture history even though direct historical connections cannot be established. In terms of cultural affilia-
tions on a larger scale, the culture represented by the Iron Gate site is viewed as transitional between the 
Columbia Plateau and central California. There is no evidence of close affiliations with the cultures of the 
northwest California coast. 
INTRODUCTION 
The Iron Gate site is one of three sites dis-
covered by a University of Oregon survey of the 
Iron Gate Reservoir in Siskiyou County, Cali-
fornia. It is a small village situated on a ter-
race on the south hank of the Klamath River 
about 100 meters above the confluence of the 
Klamath River and Jenny Creek. The location 
is in the SEl4 of the NEl4 of Sec. 34, T48N, 
RSW, Mt. Diahlo Meridian, only three miles 
south of the Oregon border and nine miles east 
of Hornbrook, California (Fig. 1). 
On the east end of the terrace were thirteen 
house pit depressions varying from 6 to 10 
meters in diameter and 20 to 50 centimete;rs in 
depth. Most depressions had clusters of rocks 
in the center and, occasionally, on the edge. 
Cultural debris was visible on the surface. No 
house pits were found on the west end of the 
terrace, although artifacts were found in an 
eroding hank. Because of time limitations, ex-
cavation was limited to the house pits. 
Vegetational cover on the site was grass and 
sagebrush; around the site, and in the immedi-
ate vicinity, grow manzanita, mountain mahog-
2 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
124° 123• 122• 121• 120• 
43 + .!-1 + + O Crater Lake 
G ;· Upper Klamath Lake 
Medford 
Klamath Fall, 
lflPJt-ffil - -1- -o --, Hornbrook 
K 60011 Lake I 
"' .. 
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I 
c A L I F 0 R N I A I 
+ + + + 
Figure 1. Locality map. 
any, oak, juniper, cedar, and pine. The vegeta-
tion of the area may be classed in the Transi-
tion Life Zone (Bailey, 1936) . Animal life 
observed was varied and plentiful. Deer are 
surprisingly numerous, but to what extent this 
might reflect the aboriginal condition is not 
certain. Among the smaller mammals noted 
were rabbits, skunks, marmots and ground 
squirrels. Reptiles observed were turtles, small 
lizards and a variety of snakes. Crayfish, mus-
sels and trout are plentiful in the river and 
salmon and steelhead migrate in large num-
bers. The birds observed included blue herons, 
buzzards, and a diving duck. 
Crews from the University of Oregon worked 
at the site on two separate occasions: from 
June 11 to June 21 and from September 5 to 
September 14, 1960. During the first session 
House Pits 1 and 2 were partially excavated 
and House Pit 3 was tested. During the second 
session House Pit 4 was completely excavated 
and additional work was done in House Pit 2. 
In all, 785 artifacts, details of 11 house floors 
and abundant cultural debris were recovered. 
Comparative data are not plentiful for there 
are few excavated sites in northwestern Cali-
fornia and southwestern Oregon.1 Sites which 
have been excavated are usually of limited time 
depth and the artifacts are not greatly different 
from ethnographic material culture. Archaeo-
logical data on prehistoric houses in the region 
are virtually non-existent and, as a conse-
quence, the discussion of the Iron Gate houses 
depends almost exclusively on ethnographic 
data. 
The site is located in the eastern part of the 
tribal area of the Shasta Indians. To the east 
was the boundary between the Shasta and the 
Modoc; to the north, generally following the 
summit of the Siskiyou Mountains, was the 
boundary between the Shasta and the Takelma. 
To the south and southeast the Shasta were in 
contact with the Wintu and Achomawi; to the 
west, down river, they were in contact with the 
Karok and, through them, the Y urok. Kroeber 
( 1939: 55) classed Shasta culture as transi -
tional between the Northwestern Californian 
and Central Californian Culture Provinces and 
Holt (1947: 348) described it as basically 
Central Californian but having developed 
under strong influences from Northwestern 
California. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
Field work in the Iron Gate Reservoir was 
supported by grants from the California-Ore-
gon Power Company ( now the COPCO Divi-
sion of Pacific Power and Light Company). To 
COPCO, Mr. J. C. Boyle, Vice-President and 
General Manager, and Mr. Robert L. Byer, 
Project Engineer, I express thanks. Members 
of the crews who worked at the site were Mr. 
and Mrs. Don L. Dumond, Lionel A. Brown, 
1 Since completion of the Iron Gate Project, the Univer· 
sity of Oregon conducted a three-year program of excavation 
along the Klamath River in the Salt Caves Reservoir area, 
only a few miles upstream from Iron Gate. The data recovered 
by the Salt Caves Project have not yet been completely ana· 
lyzed and are not available for detailed comparison. The col· 
lections were examined in January, 1966, and no information 
which would alter the conclusions of this report was found. 
Indeed, LeRoy Johnson, Jr., (personal communication) feels 
that some of the houses in the Salt Caves area are closely 
comparable to those herein reported. 
----~- -
f 
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1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 3 
Plate 1. View of the Iron Gate site from the north, across the Klamath River. The area shown in the 
photo is slightly less than the area shown in Figure 2. 
Ted L. Murphy, James A. Lehman and James 
Gillis; David L. Cole was field director. The 
hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Al Kutzkey made 
our stay on the Klamath River a memorable 
one. 
This report is a condensed and modestly re-
vised version of a 1961 Master of Arts thesis 
written under the direction of Dr. L. S. Cress-
man. The guidance of Dr. Cressman and the 
assistance of David L. Cole and W. Raymond 
Wood are sincerely appreciated-all were ex-
tremely generous with their time and experi-
ence. Dr. J. Arnold Shotwell identified the 
mammal remains from the site; Dr. Loye Mil-
ler identified the bird remains; and Dr. Leroy 
Detling identified the botanical specimens. Mr. 
James Lehman prepared the artifact illustra-
tions used in Figures 12 ( d-g) and 14. I also 
express appreciation to Deward E. Walker, 
Roald Fryxell, Mrs. Barbara Purdy and David 
Rice for reading and criticizing various parts 
of the revised manuscript. James Lehman pre-
pared the illustrations used in Figures 1-14, 
16-17; Roald Fryxell made the drawing of the 
reconstruction of the Iron Gate house type 
(Figure 15 and cover). 
4 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
KLAMATH R I V E R 
----
..... 
96.00 
97.00 
98.00 
99.00 
100.00 
I I ,.. ..._ 
(-', HOUSEPIT DEPRESSIONS 
.... .,,, 
EXCAVATED AREAS 
CONTOUR INTERVAL ONE METER 
Figure 2. Contour map of the Iron Gate site. 
DESCRIPTIVE ARCHAEOLOGY 
ExcA v A TION TECHNIQUES 
Although the house floor was the primary 
unit of excavation, a grid of 2-meter squares 
was established on the site to facilitate hori-
zontal control. Excavation of each floor pro-
ceeded one square at a time in order to mini-
mize any error and to provide an accurate 
record of artifact provenience. All fill was 
sifted through 4-mesh screens to insure com· 
plete recovery of artifact material and cultural 
debris. 
The surfaces of the house pits to be exca-
vated were first cleared of grass and brush and 
the sod was removed; any large stones associ-
ated with the surface were left in situ. At first 
an attempt was made to find the rim of House 
Pit 1 by excavating one square by arbitrary 
10-centimeter levels. A rim was found, but 
higher floors which had not been distinguished 
during excavation were found in the profiles. 
A second test pit was then excavated in the 
center of House Pit 3 to determine the char-
acteristics of the floors, the location of firepits, 
and a possible sequence of floors. On the basis 
of information about the composition of house 
l 
-/ 
ABM 
pits gained from the tests, the technique 
adopted was to begin excavation in the center, 
find the top floor, and then follow it to the out-
side of the pit. Because floors were generally 
more distinct in the center where they were 
marked by a layer of ash or an abrupt change 
in fill, this method proved successful. 
During excavation the floors in each house 
pit were numbered in sequence from the top. 
In this report, however, the floors have been 
renumbered in sequence of occupation. Thus, 
Floor 1 in each house pit is the lowest, and 
earliest, floor. 
HOUSES 
The houses at the Iron Gate site differ from 
those used in the area during the ethnographic 
period. Shasta houses were basically rectangu-
lar plank structures, whereas the Iron Gate 
houses were circular, bark-covered structures. 
Further, the Iron Gate houses differ in details 
of construction from the circular houses found 
upriver among the Klamath and Modoc. The 
data described below indicate a house form 
very similar to the conical, bark-covered house 
which had a wide distribution in northern 
California. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 5 
Plate 2. House Pit 1 before excavation. Note the 
cluster of rocks in the center of the depression. 
HOUSE PIT 1 
SURF ACE FEATURES: In the center of the de-
pression was a cluster of 12 rocks ranging in 
size from 15 x 15 cm. to 30 x 50 cm. None were 
artifacts. Directly beneath the rocks, but sepa-
rated from them by 3 to 4 cm. of fill, was a 
firepit associated with Floor 3. 
FLOOR 3 (Fig. 3): 
Maximum diameter: 5.25 m. 
Depth from surf ace: 5 to 15 cm. 
Description of firepit: An oval, rock-lined 
firepit 40 cm. long, 25 cm. wide and 4 cm. deep 
was centrally located. It was surrounded by a 
large, thin layer of ash. 
Features noted: The remains of two large, 
incompletely burned pieces of wood, large 
pieces of charcoal and fragments of burned 
bark were found in the northwest quadrant. 
Small pieces of charcoal and burned bark 
marked the rim on the west and south sides of 
the floor. A mano, a metate, and a hopper mor-
tar stone were closely associated in the north-
east quadrant. 
FLOOR 2 (Fig. 3): 
Maximum diameter: 6 m. 
Depth from surf ace: 15 to 35 cm. 
Description of firepits: ( 1) A layer of ash, 
as much as 5 cm. thick, covered the center of 
the floor. This was directly beneath, but sepa-
rated from, the ash covering Floor 3. ( 2) An 
oval firepit, 52 cm. long, 40 cm. wide and 5 
cm. deep, was located on the south side of the 
floor. The earth around it was oxidized to a 
bright orange color. ( 3) An area of ash and 
burned earth approximately 45 cm. long and 
35 cm. wide was near the rim in the southeast 
quadrant associated with burned bone, antler, 
and wood. 
Features noted: There were two very dis-
tinct layers of fill between Floor 3 and Floor 2. 
The uppermost of these was a discontinuous 
stratum of hard, yellowish-colored fill which 
lay around the circumference of the pit extend-
ing inward a maximum of 2 meters. In plan 
view this layer was generally circular; the out-
side edge, although irregular, generally coin-
cided with the rim of the floor; the inside edge 
was very irregular and not always well defined. 
The cross section was lenticular, about 10 cm. 
thick at the outside, tapering toward the inside. 
This stratum could have been formed by earth 
falling into the pit from around the outside. 
If the house had burned and collapsed, an oc-
currence for which there is good evidence, then 
any earth banked up on the outside would have 
fallen into the pit, forming a circular band of 
fill such as this stratum. Beneath the hard fill, 
and immediately above the floor, was a layer 
of loose, black dirt containing large numbers of 
bone fragments and artifacts. 
Part of the southwest quadrant was covered 
with partially burned bark which lay just 
above the floor beginning at the rim and ex-
tending into the pit ( Fig. 3; Plate 3). Under 
the bark were the remains of at least three 
wooden beams or poles. The bark was not well 
enough preserved to permit specific identifica-
6 
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BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
. ' 
' .. \ 
\•, 
·, 
~ BURNED PLANKS 
ROCK·LINED 
FIREPLACE 
;-RIM 
FLOOR 3 
~-,_ 
,,,,. ' 
/ \ 
MORTAR 
@ 
\® 
MET ATE 
/ \ 
I \ 
\ 
\ MANO 
0 
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\ INCLINED METATE W, 
,• PLANKS <::::7' 
~·-.... @ 
', c.,'t-
....... 0 
--- ()~ <o«; 
FLOOR 1 
.,,... ________.....--, 
/ ' 
/ ' 
/ ' 
I ' 
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I ' I \ / @ MORTAR \ 
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FLOOR 2 
PROFILE 
HOUSE PIT 1 
Figure 3. Floor plans and profile, House Pi,t, 1. Scale is 2 meters. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 7 
Plate 3. Burned bark above Floor 2, House Pit 1. 
Arrow indicates a pole beneath the bark. Com-
pare Figure 3 for scale. 
tion, but Dr. LeRoy Detling (personal commu-
nication) considered pine a likely possibility. 
Two small, adjacent depressions were found 
in the floor beneath the bark. Both were oval, 
30 cm. long, 20 cm. wide, and 5 cm. deep, with 
rounded bottoms. What function these might 
have had in the construction of the house, if 
any, is not certain. 
Just beneath the floor, near the rim in the 
southwest quadrant, was a series of poles, or 
narrow planks, in a nearly vertical position, 
leaning slightly toward the outside of the pit. 
Projecting through Floor 2 on the south side 
of the pit was an outcrop of stone which con-
tinued downward through Floor 1. 
FLOOR 1 (Fig. 3): 
Maximum diameter: 4.5 m. (estimated) 
Depth from surface: 35 cm. 
Description of firepit: Unknown 
Features noted: The rim was quite irregular 
where it was excavated, and the outline of the 
floor shown in Figure 3 is no more than a guess. 
A mano, a broken metate, and two large stones 
were in close association in the one square 
excavated. Two shotgun shell bases and an in-
cised Dentalium shell were found near the rim 
in an area of extensive rodent burrowing. 
The wood beneath Floor 2, mentioned above, 
was probably associated with this floor and, 
perhaps, marked part of the rim. The outcrop 
of stone which projected through the floor 
seems to have been partially inside and par-
tially outside the house. Floor 1 was dug into 
the hard, cemented subsoil which formed the 
base of the site and was the lowest floor in the 
house pit. 
HOUSE PIT 2 
House Pit 2 was the most prominent of the 
depressions on the site and the one floor which 
was completely excavated was 3 meters larger 
than any other excavated floor. Other than size, 
however, there is no indication that the houses 
built over this pit were unlike the others, nor 
are there any differences in the artifact inven-
tory indicative of differing functions for the 
structures. 
SURFACE FEATURES: Small rocks were scat-
tered about the surface of the pit. Those near 
the rim were generally larger than those in 
the center. 
FLOOR 4 (Fig 4): 
Maximum diameter: 9 m. 
Depth from surface: 5 to 15 cm. 
Description of firepits: ( 1) A circular fire-
pit, 40 cm. in diameter and 11 cm. deep, was 
centrally located. It was covered and surround-
ed by an ash layer 2 to 3 cm. thick. ( 2) A 
small, oval firepit, 25 cm. long, 15 cm. wide 
and 5 cm. deep, was near the east rim. 
Features noted: A pestle and two hammer-
stones were closely associated with the layer 
of ash in the center of the floor. Several clusters 
of small rocks were near the periphery, and 
two clusters of rocks were near the center. 
8 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
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\ 
\ 
\ 
' 
LIMITS OF EXCAVATION BELOW 
FLOOR 4 
,, ..• "----/,!" 
I I 
: I 
I I L ________ _J 
Figure 4. Floor 4, House Pit 2. Scale is 2 meters. 
FLOOR 3 (Fig. 5): 
Maximum diameter: Not determined 
Depth from surf ace: 15 to 20 cm. 
Description of firepit: The one firepit un-
covered was in the center of the depression, but 
its size is not known. It had not been completely 
excavated during the first session at the site and 
was destroyed by pothunters. 
FLOOR 2 (Fig. 5): 
Maximum diameter: Not determined 
Depth from surface: 40 cm. 
Description of firepit: A roughly triangular 
firepit, 58 cm. long, 50 cm. wide and 4 cm. 
deep, was centrally located. 
Features noted: A profusion of burned and 
partially burned beams, large rocks, and arti-
facts was on and above the floor. The fill 
around the beams was yellowish in color and 
very hard, but next to the beams the fill was 
black and quite soft. Inclusions of soft black 
dirt were scattered throughout the harder fill. 
Several large stones and a metate were on the 
floor beneath the beams. A depression, 15 cm. 
in diameter and 10 cm. deep, was found in the 
northeast corner of the excavation. 
FLOOR 1 (Fig. 5): 
Maximum diameter: Not determined 
Depth from surf ace: 50 cm. 
Description of firepit: A centrally located 
firepit was found, but its size and form were 
not determined. 
Features noted: Remains of three beams in 
a remarkably good state of preservation and 
the remains of two nodules of obsidian were 
on the floor. This floor, like the lowest floors in 
the other house pits, was dug into the subsoil. 
HOUSE PIT 3 
Excavation in House Pit 3 consisted of a 
1 x 2 meter test pit in the center of the depres-
sion. The test revealed the presence of a mini-
mum of three floors, two of which were marked 
by ash lenses. 
HOUSE PIT 4 
SURF ACE FEATURES: The surface of the depres-
sion had been disturbed to some extent by a 
pothunter and by a bulldozer. Except for the 
pothole, the disturbed fill was only 2 or 3 cm. 
deep. Unlike the other pits, there were no stones 
on the surface. The first assumption was that 
these might have been removed by the pot-
hunter, but when excavation began the usual 
cluster of rocks was found just beneath the 
surface, separated from the top floor by 3 to 
4 cm. of fill. 
FLOOR 4 (Fig. 6): 
Maximum diameter: 6 m. 
Depth from surface: 10 to 15 cm. 
Description of firepit: Charcoal stain and 
fire-cracked rocks were found on either side 
of the pothole in the center of the floor. No ash 
was found in the back dirt, indicating that if 
any firepit was present, it was probably not 
very large. 
Features noted: Most of the floor was com-
posed of a light yellow clay resembling that 
found in the river bank west of the site. The 
clay was 10 cm. thick in the center, tapering 
only slightly toward the outside; the edges 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 9 
SURFACE 
BEAMS ABOVE FLOOR 2 
98.00 
FIREPITS 
FLOOR 4 
98.00 
97.50 
""'-FLOOR 1 
Figure 5. Diagram of excavation in House Pit 2 below Floor 4. 
were irregular but distinct. An irregular area 
of yellow clay, presumably part of a separate 
structure, and two small firepits were found 
south of the rim. A small depression 10 cm. in 
diameter and 5 cm. deep was found on the 
north side of the floor; two similar depressions 
were found outside the rim. An extensive area 
of ash was outside the rim in the southern part 
of the excavation. If this were associated with 
the floor, it could account for the absence of 
a firepit inside the house. The only human 
skeletal remains found in the site, the right 
malar, part of a right maxilla and the upper· 
right third molar of a single individual, were 
found just outside the rim in the northeast 
quadrant. 
FLOOR 3 (Fig. 7): 
Maximum diameter: 6 meters 
Depth from surf ace: 15 to 20 cm. 
Description of firepit: None 
Features noted: A piece of wood, 45 x 15 x 5 
cm. was near the rim in the southwest quadrant; 
near the center of the floor was a concentration 
of stones. 
FLOOR 2 (Fig. 7): 
Maximum diameter: 8.85 m. 
Depth from surf ace: 20 to 30 cm. 
Description of firepit: A small, oval firepit 
60 cm. long, 25 cm. wide and 2 cm. deep, was 
centrally located. 
Features noted: A large rock was near the 
rim in the northwest quadrant. 
FLOOR 1 (Fig. 8): 
Maximum diameter: 5 m. 
Depth from surface: 30 to 50 cm. 
Description of firepits: (1) A rock-lined 
fireplace, 70 cm. in diameter, was centrally 
10 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
Figure 6. Floor 4, House Pit 4. Scale is 2 meters. 
located. ( 2) A small, oval firepit, 50 cm. long, 
25 cm. wide and 3 cm. deep, was in the south-
east quadrant near the center. 
Features noted: A rock-lined cache pit con-
taining a projectile point, two manos, and sev-
eral fragments of hone was located on the south 
side of the floor next to the rim. Opposite this, 
near the rim on the north side of the floor, was 
a second cache pit. Both were 25 cm. deep. 
A mano, a metate, and two pestles were 
closely associated in the southeast quadrant; a 
hopper mortar stone was near the rim on the 
north side of the floor. The remains of a deer 
skull, several stones and a piece of hark were 
on the south side of the pit, next to the rim, 
hut above the floor. Near the center of the pit 
HARD·PACKED CLAY~ 
DISTURBED AREAS m 
were several stones and what appeared to he 
an outcrop of bedrock. 
DISCUSSION 
There are no marked differences in floor 
plan among the three house pits excavated ex-
cept that Floor 4 of House Pit 2 was larger 
than any other excavated floor. All floors were 
round or slightly oval in general outline, rang-
ing from a conservatively estimated 4.5 meters 
to 9 meters maximum diameter. Between the 
two extremes, diameters range from 4.85 to 6 
meters. Although firepits were found in various 
parts of the floors, a centrally located firepit, 
sometimes elaborately made, was found on 
most. Cache pits were found in one floor only. 
1967 LEON HARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 
~ DISTURBED 
AREA 
FLOOR 3 
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ASH 
FLOOR 2 
11 
~w '-1( ~FLOOR4 
:r!t ~FLOOR3 
FLOOR 2 ---_____ r 
FLOOR 1 _......._ 
Figure 7. Floor 3, Floor 2 and profile, House Pit 4. Scale is 2 meters. 
Much of the fill between the floors appears 
to have been washed into the pits, although in 
some instances part of the fill was probably 
formed by earth falling into the pits with a 
collapsing wall. Some dirt may have been 
thrown into the pit deliberately to cover debris 
from a preceding occupation. Clusters of rocks 
on the floors and in the center of each of the 
house pits were recurrent, but unexplained, 
features. The clay floor in House Pit 4 was not 
a completely unique detail, for what was pre-
sumbaly part of another clay floor was found 
nearby. 
Figure 8. Floor 1, House Pit 4. Scale is 2 meters. 
/ 
/ ___ ,,,.. (i\ 
,,..,....- MORTAR~ 
/ 
ROCK-LINED 
FIREPLACE 
ASH~ ~ 
STON~ (J CACHE PIT 
OMANO 
{fjMETATE 
'PESTLES 
12 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
Plate 4. House Pit 4 excavated to Floor 1. Com-pare Figure 8. 
Evidence of house structure recovered sug-
gests a conical, bark-covered house similar to 
the type which had a wide distribution in the 
mountainous regions of northern California. 
In most instances where parts of beams were 
found, they were lying lengthwise along the 
radius of the floor. Where this was not the case 
(particularly House Pit 2, Floor 2) the pieces 
were small or in a jumble of debris. The bark 
found in House Pits 1 and 4 constitutes good 
evidence that the framework was covered with 
bark and the deposition of fill on the perimeter 
of some of the floors suggests that the structures 
were also partially earth-covered. No post 
holes were identified with certainty, although 
depressions found on some floors might be in-
terpreted as such. The positions of these de-
pressions do not, however, suggest any pattern 
of post placement in the construction of the 
houses. 
Two large pieces of wood found on Floor 3 
of House Pit 1 had the appearance of planks, 
but whether they were planks rather than large 
splinters could not be determined. Since there 
are no wedges in the artifact inventory, tech-
niques for splitting planks were probably not 
well developed, if they were known. 
Reconstructing the archaeological data, the 
houses at the Iron Gate site are described as 
follows: A conical framework of poles was 
erected over a circular pit 5 to 6 meters in 
diameter and 20 to 30 centimeters deep. Large 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 13 
1-A i-e 1-C 1-0 1-E 1-F 
1-G 1-H 1-1 1-J 1-K 1-L 
2-A 2-8 2-C 2-0 2-E 2-F 
2-G 2-H 2-1 2-J 2-K 
3-A 3-B 3-C 
Figure 9. Projectile point forms. 
slabs of bark and perhaps planks or large 
splinters of wood were laid over the frame-
work. Dirt was banked up against the sides of 
the house and rocks may have been set on the 
walls to hold the bark in place. Vertical posts 
may have been used occasionally to support 
the framework. No information about the entry 
to the house was recovered. House pits were 
reused, but when a new house was constructed 
over an abandoned pit, the debris and accumu-
lated fill from the previous occupation were 
not removed. 
3-0 3-E 3-F 
ARTIFACTS 
The artifacts from the site are generally 
categorized on the basis of the material from 
which they were manufactured-stone, bone 
and antler, shell and wood. Of these, stone im-
plements are by far the most common. Chipped 
artifacts were made primarily of obsidian, but 
artifacts of jasper and chalcedony are also 
plentiful. Basalt was used for larger imple-
ments. The limited variety of stone is notable, 
and is interpreted as indicating that very few 
sources of raw material were regularly utilized 
by the inhabitants of the site. 
14 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
Most artifacts display a calibre of workman-
ship best described as adequate. Small artifacts 
were chipped from thin flakes, but there seems 
to have been no well-developed method for 
producing flakes for the cores from the site 
exhibit irregular, haphazard flaking. Two ob-
sidian nodules found in situ appear to have 
been smashed repeatedly and the usuable flakes 
sorted out. 
Distribution of major classes of artifacts 
within the site is presented in Table 1. 
STONE ARTIFACTS 
PROJECTILE POINTS 
Projectile points from the site are classified 
by a system used at the Museum of Natural 
History, University of Oregon. The system is a 
descriptive one intended to isolate individ-
ual attributes and associations of attributes. 
For convenience, the various categories are 
grouped into three classes on the basis of the 
least variable attribute, the form of the edges. 
Subclasses were determined on the basis of 
variations in the bases of the points. There has 
been no attempt to determine the relative sig-
nificance of attributes or clusters of attributes 
and recombine the categories according to pre-
sumed cultural patterns, or types. Projectile 
point typology in the Pacific Northwest is not 
yet well developed and comparison was facil-
itated by comparing minimal groups of attri-
butes rather than general patterns. The group-
ings of projectile points reported here are suf-
ficiently atomistic that others should have no 
great problem utilizing the data for compara-
tive or typological studies. Metric attributes of 
the projectile point categories are summarized 
in Table 2. Data included in the table are num-
ber of specimens; mean length, width and 
thickness; range of variation; and mean devia-
tion. Distribution of projectile points within 
the site is given in Table 3; the forms are illus-
trated in Figures 9 and 10. 
The descriptive criteria for segregating the 
categories are based on those defined by Cole 
(1954: 86-89): 
1. The general form, or outline, of the point. 
There are three forms: convex sides ( Class 1) ; 
straight sides ( Class 2) ; and concave sides 
(Class 3). 
2. The form of the base. There are three stem 
forms: contracting, with the sides of the stem 
converging toward the proximal end; straight, 
with the sides of the stem parallel; expanding, 
with the sides of the stem diverging toward the 
proximal end. Stemless points have concave, 
straight, convex or pointed bases. In some in-
stances stemless points have been notched, 
either vertically from the base or laterally 
from the sides. 
3. The form of the juncture between the side 
and the stem of the point. There are three 
forms: shouldered, with an angle of 90° be-
tween the stem and the side of the point; incipi-
ent barbs formed by a concavity between the 
side of the point and the stem; barbs, which 
are distinguished from incipient barbs by a 
convex, rather than concave, edge between the 
side of the point and the distal end of the stem. 
CLASS 1 
1-A (Fig. 10 a-b) Sides convex; stemless, 
the base is convex; maximum width between 
the center and the base. 
1-B (Fig. 10 c-d) Sides convex; stemless; 
the base is convex; maximum width between 
the center and the base. 
1-C ( Fig. 10 e) Sides convex; the base is 
pointed; maximum width approximately at 
mid-length. 
1-D (Fig. 10 f) Sides convex; the base is 
pointed; shallow side notches removed at mid-
length. 
1-E (Fig. 10 g-h) Sides convex; stemless; 
the base is concave. 
1-F (Fig. 10 i) Sides convex; shouldered; 
expanding stem with a rounded butt. 
1-G (Fig. 10 j-k) Sides convex; one side 
formed by a compound curve convex at the 
base, becoming straight or slightly concave 
near the tip; incipient barbs; contracting stem 
with a rounded butt. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 
a 
' 
Z ,· t,li 
• 
; '\ 
•
-.-; 
. 
-
J k 
b 
r s 
aa bb 
ii JJ 
rr 
• c d e 
m n 
,, 
I\ 
,,, 
t u v 
cc dd 
kk II mm 
SS tt 
" I ' I \ 
I \ 
• f g h
0 
w x y 
ff gg 
nn 
00 
uu vv 
15 
Q 
z 
hh 
pp 
WW 
Figure 10. Projectile points. a-b Class 1-A; c-d 1-B; e 1-C; f 1-D; g-h 1-E; i 1-F; j-k 1-G; l 1-l; n-o 
1-J; p-q 1-K; r-s 1-L; t-w Class 2-A; x-z 2-B; aa-bb 2-C; cc-dd 2-D; ee-ff 2-E; gg-hh 2-F; ii-jj 2-G; 
kk 2-H ; II-mm 2-l; nn 2-] ; oo-pp 2-K; qq Class 3-A; rr 3-B; ss-tt 3-C; uu-vv 3-D ; ww 3-E. All spe-
cimens natural size. 
16 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
TABLE 1 
DISTRIBUTION OF MAJOR CLASSES OF ARTIFACTS 
Projectile Point 
Points Fragments Knives Scrapers Drills Gravers 
No. % No. % No. 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 13 1.7 9 1.2 4 
Floor 2 11 1.4 9 1.2 3 
Floor 1 0 0 0 0 0 
Subtotal 24 3.1 18 2.3 7 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 21 2.7 23 3.0 3 
Floor 3 15 2.0 2 0.3 1 
Floor 2 21 2.7 5 0.7 6 
Floor 1 10 1.3 10 1.3 1 
Subtotal 67 8.7 40 5.2 11 
House pit 3 2 0.3 0 0 2 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 19 2.5 12 1.6 6 
Floor 3 15 2.0 4 0.5 3 
Floor 2 13 1.7 8 LO 3 
Floor 1 47 6.1 14 1.8 7 
Subtotal 94 12.2 38 4.9 19 
Total 187 24.3 96 12.5 39 
1-H (Fig. 10 1) The same as 1-G except the 
stem is straight. 
1-I (Fig. 10 m) The same as 1-G except the 
stem is expanding. 
1-J (Fig. 10 n-o) Sides convex; barbs long 
and of unequal length, the longest barb com-
prises approximately one-third the total length 
of the point and usually extends beyond the 
stem; stem is straight. 
1-K (Fig. 10 p-q ) Sides convex; one side 
formed by a compound curve convex at the 
base, becoming straight or slightly concave 
near the tip; barbs long and of unequal length, 
the longest barb comprises approximately one-
third the total length of the point and usually 
extends beyond the stem. Contracting stem. 
1-L ( Fig. 10 r-s) The same as 1-K except the 
stem is straight. 
% No. % No. % No. % 
0.5 9 1.2 1 0.1 2 0.3 
0.4 4 0.5 2 0.3 2 0.3 
0 1 0.1 0 0 0 0 
0.9 14 1.8 3 0.4, 4 0.5 
0.4 14 1.8 1 0.1 4 0.5 
0.1 2 0.3 1 0.1 0 0 
0.8 3 0.4 1 0.1 0 0 
0.1 6 0.8 0 0 0 0 
1.4 25 3.2 3 0.4 4 0.5 
0.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 
0.8 15 2.0 1 0.1 2 0.3 
0.4 5 0.7 0 0 1 0.1 
0.4 9 1.2 0 0 1 0.1 
0.9 15 2.0 6 0.8 5 0.7 
2.5 44 5.7 7 0.9 9 1.2 
5.0 83 10.8 13 1.7 17 2.2 
CLASS 2 
2-A (Fig. 10 t-w) Sides straight; double 
indentation in the base forms incipient stem 
and barbs. 
2-B (Fig. 10 x-z) Sides straight; shouldered; 
contracting stem. 
2-C (Fig. 10 aa-bb ) Sides straight; incipient 
barbs; contracting stem. 
2-D (Fig. 10 cc-dd) The same as 2-C except 
the stem is straight. 
2-E (Fig. 10 ee-ff) Sides straight; barbed; 
contracting stem. 
2-F (Fig. 10 gg-hh) The same as 2-E except 
the stem is straight. 
2-G (Fig. 10 ii-jj) The same as 2-E except 
the stem is expanding. 
2-H (Fig. 10 kk) Sides straight; base slight-
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 17 
TABLE 1 
Continued 
Worked Unclassifiable Worked Basalt 
Flakes Fragments Choppers Flakes Pestles Mortars 
No. % No. % No. 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 10 1.3 5 0.7 1 
Floor 2 9 1.2 0 0 1 
Floor 1 0 0 1 0.1 0 
Subtotal 19 2.5 6 0.8 2 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 22 2.9 9 1.2 3 
Floor 3 4 0.5 4 0.5 1 
Floor 2 5 0.7 5 0.7 0 
Floor 1 6 0.8 1 0.1 4 
Subtotal 37 4.8 19 2.5 8 
House pit 3 2 0.3 0 0 0 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 18 2.3 6 0.8 9 
Floor 3 17 2.2 5 0.7 4 
Floor 2 12 1.6 5 0.7 1 
Floor 1 27 3.5 5 0.7 3 
Subtotal 74 9.6 21 2.7 17 
Total 132 17.2 46 6.0 27 
ly convex; two notches removed vertically from 
the base form a straight stem. 
2-1 (Fig. 10 11-mm) Sides straight; base 
concave; narrow notches with parallel edges 
removed laterally from the side of the point. 
2-J (Fig. 10 nn) The same as 2-1 except that 
a single notch has been removed vertically 
from the base of the point. 
2-K (Fig. 10 oo-pp) Sides straight; expand-
ing stem; the butt is straight or slightly concave 
and is nearly as wide as the maximum width 
of the point. 
CLASS 3 
3-A (Fig. 10 qq) Sides concave; stemless; 
base concave. 
3-B (Fig. 10 rr) Sides concave; incipient 
barbs; contracting stem. 
3-C (Fig. 10 ss-tt) Sides concave; long barbs 
% No. % No. % No. % 
0.1 1 0.1 1 0.1 2 0.3 
0.1 3 0.4 0 0 3 0.4 
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
0.3 4 0.5 1 0.1 5 0.6 
0.4 3 0.4 2 0.3 0 0 
0.1 2 0.3 0 0 0 0 
0 4 0.5 1 0.1 0 0 
0.5 0 0 1 0.1 0 0 
1.0 9 1.2 4 0.5 0 0 
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
1.2 3 0.4 1 0.1 0 0 
0.5 2 0.3 0 0 0 0 
0.1 2 0.3 1 0.1 0 0 
0.4 2 0.3 2 0.3 1 0.1 
2.2 9 1.2 4 0.5 1 0.1 
3.5 22 2.9 9 1.2 6 0.8 
generally extending beyond the stem; contract-
ing stem. 
3-D (Fig. 10 uu-vv) Sides concave; long 
barbs of unequal length, the longest is approxi-
mately one-third the total length of the point; 
stem straight. 
3-E (Fig. 10 ww) Sides concave; stemless; 
base concave; a single notch removed from the 
base to one side of the center line. 
3-F A reworked point with straight sides 
which expand abruptly near the distal end to 
form a "wing"; notches removed from the base 
form a straight stem. 
In addition to the 187 classifiable projectile 
points, there are 86 fragments which could be 
separated on the basis of only one or two of 
the three criteria. An estimated 50 percent of 
these would have been included in Class 2. 
18 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
TABLE 1 
Continued 
Fragments of Bone and All 
Manos Metates Grinding Stones Antler Other Totals 
No. % No. % No. 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 3 0.4 1 0.1 2 
Floor 2 4 0.5 0 0 1 
Floor 1 1 0.1 1 0.1 0 
Subtotal 8 1.0 2 0.3 3 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 
Floor 3 0 0 0 0 0 
Floor 2 0 0 0 0 0 
Floor 1 0 0 1 0.1 1 
Subtotal 2 0.3 3 0.4 3 
House pit 3 0 0 0 0 0 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 4 0.5 0 0 2 
Floor 3 6 0.8 0 0 0 
Floor 2 0 0 0 0 0 
Floor 1 4 0.5 1 0.1 0 
Subtotal 14 1.8 1 0.1 2 
Total 24 3.1 6 0.8 8 
KNIVES 
CLASS 1: Bifacially worked pieces of vein chal-
cedony (Fig. 11 a-b) 
Small pieces of translucent vein chalcedony 
which have been retouched along the edge 
form a distinct group of artifacts which are 
classed as knives because their function was 
almost certainly cutting and slicing. Most spec-
imens have been worked on one edge only, but 
a few have two edges worked to a point. The 
largest specimen measures 57 x 31 mm. 21 
specimens. 
CLASS 2: Shaped kives (Fig. 11 c-d) 
The "shaped knives" have a generally lan-
ceolate form and were manufactured by over-
all percussion or pressure flaking, although 
some specimens are large, thick flakes worked 
on one end only. The largest complete speci-
men is 45 x 23 mm. 18 specimens. 
% No. % No. % No. % 
0.3 7 0.9 2 0.3 73 9.5 
0.1 1 0.1 2 0.3 55 7.2 
0 0 0 2 0.3 6 0.8 
0.4 8 1.0 6 0.8 134 17.4 
0.3 2 0.3 7 0.9 120 15.6 
0 2 0.3 5 0.6 39 5.0 
0 2 0.3 5 0.6 58 7.5 
0.1 4 0.5 0 0 45 5.8 
0.4 10 1.3 17 2.2 262 33.5 
0 0 0 0 0 6 0.8 
0.3 2 0.3 3 0.4 103 13.4 
0 2 0.3 2 0.3 66 8.6 
0 6 0.8 3 0.4 64 8.3 
0 7 0.9 5 0.5 150 19.5 
0.3 17 2.2 12 1.6 383 49.8 
1.0 35 4.6 36 4.6 785 
SCRAPERS 
CLASS 1: Crude scrapers 
The "crude scrapers" were made from cores 
or large flakes by percussion flaking. Some ex-
hibit secondary percussion flaking; only one is 
flaked overall. The largest complete specimen 
measures 60 x 52 mm. 1 7 specimens. 
CLASS 2: End scrapers (Fig. 11 e) 
The "end scrapers" were made from rela-
tively thick flakes and, characteristically, have 
a blunt, rounded end. These are often referred 
to as snub-nosed scrapers, plane scrapers or 
plano-convex scrapers. However, the forms in-
corporated in this class are not distinct enough 
to permit more specific classification. 13 spec-
imens. 
CLASS 3: Triangular end scrapers (Fig. 11 f-g) 
The "triangular end scrapers" are triangu-
1967 
Class No. 
1-A 2 
1-B 3 
1-C 1 
1-D 1 
1-E 6 
1-F 1 
1-G 6 
1-H 1 
1-1 1 
1-J 7 
1-K 6 
1-L 6 
2-A 29 
2-B 14 
2-C 21 
2-D 5 
2-E 26 
2-F 7 
2-G 6 
2-H 4 
2-1 5 
2-J 3 
2-K 8 
3-A 4 
3-B 3 
3-C 7 
3-D 2 
3-E 1 
3-F 1 
LEON HARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 19 
TABLE 2 
METRIC ATTRIBUTES OF PROJECTILE POINT CLASSES 
Length 
Range M 
26.0 .... .. 26.00 
22.0-30.0 26.00 
·-·- -· ---- --
25.00 
·----- -- -- --
19.00 
23.0-38.0 30.25 
---- -- -- ----
34.00 
22.0-30.5 24.75 
---- -- -- ----
22.00 
---- ·· -- ----
22.50 
19.0-37.0 26.25 
25.0-30.5 27.75 
22.0-29.0 24.30 
15.5-28.0 22.92 
12.0-45.5 24.46 
17.0-32.0 24.43 
19.5-25.0 21.90 
17.0-47.0 26.44 
20.0-38.0 25.60 
17.0-29.0 21.10 
17.5-25.0 22.40 
15.0-30.5 21.10 
18.0-30.0 23.60 
16.5-40.5 27.00 
19.0-25.0 22.60 
15.5-25.0 20.00 
15.0-35.5 23.20 
21.0-26.5 23.75 
---- -- ------
24.00 
·- · ··· ··· -·· 
42.50 
( Measurements in Millimeters) 
MD 
0.00 
4.00 
6.00 
3.15 
5.30 
1.83 
1.30 
4.09 
6.10 
4.02 
1.95 
5.80 
4.50 
3.90 
2.62 
4.70 
4.20 
7.00 
1.80 
3.15 
5.50 
2.75 
Width Thickness 
Range M MD Range M MD 
16.0-19.5 17.75 1.75 4.0-4.5 4.25 0.25 
12.0-13.5 12.80 0.56 3.0-6.0 4.30 0.76 
------ --- ---
12.00 5.50 
------ --- -- · 
9.00 3.50 
12.0-19.5 14.60 2.45 3.0-4.0 3.50 0.30 
·· ···- ---- --
14.50 6.00 
12.5-16.0 14.40 1.10 2.5-3.5 3.10 0.35 
...... ----- - 16.50 3.50 
--- --- --- ---
13.00 3.00 
16.0-18.0 16.75 0.75 3.0-3.5 3.18 0.23 
16.0-21.5 18.50 1.41 3.0-4.0 3.50 0.50 
17.0-20.0 18.60 1.15 3.0-4.0 3.60 0.40 
10.0-25.0 13.70 2.60 2.0-6.0 3.30 0.68 
9.0-22.0 14.80 2.55 2.0-6.0 3.46 2.55 
11.5-17.0 14.43 1.48 2.0-5.0 3.30 0.79 
16.5-22.0 18.00 3.20 3.0-4.0 3.60 0.32 
12.0-29.0 17.70 3.14 3.0-5.0 3.70 0.63 
12.0-18.0 15.20 1.46 2.5-4.0 3.10 0.45 
14.5-18.0 15.70 1.10 2.5-3.0 2.75 0.25 
15.5-22.0 17.60 2.17 3.0-4.0 3.25 0.50 
11.5-15.0 11.10 2.50 2.0-4.0 3.10 0.62 
14.0-22.5 17.80 3.43 3.0-5.0 3.80 0.76 
13.0-17.0 14.40 1.55 3.5-7.0 4.90 1.08 
13.0-17.5 14.50 2.00 2.0-5.0 3.66 1.25 
11.5-13.0 12.00 0.66 3.0 .. .. 3.00 0.00 
12.0-19.0 14.85 2.02 2.5-4.5 3.50 0.77 
16.5-21.0 18.75 2.25 2.0-3.5 2.75 0.75 
--- -·- ---- --
13.00 3.00 
--- --- ------
22.00 3.50 
regular, flakes with a worked edge similar to 
that found on scrapers with a well-defined 
form. Size varies from 27 x 18 mm. to 65 x 43 
mm. 25 specimens. 
DRILLS 
(Fig. 11 h-i) 
lar in plan view and bi-convex in cross section. 
The base, or working edge, varies from slightly 
concave to convex. All specimens are bifaci-
ally pressure flaked overall. Some of these 
implements might seem to be projectile points, 
but the thickness of most specimens would have 
made hafting difficult. Further, microscopic 
examination revealed wear and use fractures 
along the basal edge of most specimens. Size 
varies from 18 x 12 x 3 mm. to 37 x 28 x 8 mm. 
28 specimens. 
CLASS 4: Flake scrapers 
Flake scrapers are relatively large, but ir-
Of the 13 drills recovered, three appear to 
be reworked projectile points. Only five, in-
cluding the reworked points, are flaked over-
all; the remainder consist of a drill shaft 
worked onto a flake. The largest specimen is 
26 mm. long. 
20 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
0 d 
f g h 
Figure 11. Knives, scrapers and drills. a-b worked pieces of vein chalcedony; c-d shaped knives; e large 
end scraper; f-g tr-iangular end scrapers; h-i drills. All specimens natural size. 
GRAVERS 
(Fig. 12 a) 
There is nothing distinctive about the grav-
ers in the collection. All are flakes with a point 
worked onto a convenient projection. The few 
pieces of cut bone recovered were apparently 
cut by gravers. 
WORKED FLAKES 
Most flakes with a worked or retouched edge 
are unifacially flaked, but it is often impos-
sible to determine if the modification was in-
tentional or the result of use. The implements 
were probably made and discarded as a matter 
of momentary expedience, but 17 of them have 
a concave, or "spokeshave" edge (Fig. 12 b) 
which may have served a specific purpose. Cos-
ner (1956: 300-301) suggests that such spoke-
shave-like implements were possibly saws for 
cutting arrow shafts. 132 specimens. 
PROBLEMATICAL STONE ART IF ACTS 
(Fig. 12 c) 
There are three chipped-stone artifacts of 
uncertain function. The form is an elongated 
oval in plan view; the cross section is approxi-
mately diamond in two instances and flat in 
the third. These could have been drills, but 
none shows signs of wear or use on either end. 
The sizes are 24 x 8 mm.; 19 x 7 mm.; and 
16 x 7 mm. 
CHOPPERS 
(Plate 5 a-c) 
Two of the choppers in the collection are 
unifacially percussion flaked; the remainder 
are bifacially percussion flaked. One specimen 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 21 
b 
c 
a 
MANOS 
CLASS 1: Unshaped manos 
The unshaped manos are river cobbles with 
a conveniently flat surface used for grinding. 
The largest specimen measures 135 x 105 mm. 
11 specimens. 
CLASS 2: Shaped manos ( Plate 5 d) 
Five of the shaped manos are distinctive in 
that they were flaked into a tear-drop shape. 
Three of these are made of a green conglomer-
ate, the others are made of a fine-grained ba-
salt. Six of the shaped manos were formed by 
grinding the edges of a flat river cobble more 
or less perpendicular to the grinding surface. 
The outline of the tools shows no consistent 
pattern and, in all probability, follows the 
shape of the original cobble. The remaining 
.,_ two shaped manos are pieces of coarse-grained 
sandstone battered down to a convenient size. 
Materials, except as noted, are river cobbles 
of fine-grained basalt or metamorphic rock. 
e-=-- g 
Figure 12. Miscellaneous stone artifacts. a graver; 
b spokeshave; c problematical object; d-g pieces 
of fossil wood inscribed with red pigment. All 
specimens natural size. 
is chalcedony; the others are basalt. One speci-
men ( Plate 5 a) which is trapezoidal in out-
line, rather than round or oval, might be con-
sidered an axe or an adz. 27 specimens. 
WORKED BASALT FLAKES 
(Plate 5 e-f) 
Large basalt flakes with a crudely retouched 
edge were found throughout the site. In some 
instances modification may have been the re-
sult of use, but in most instances it appears 
intentional. In these latte-r instances all flaking 
is unifacial. The largest specimen is 101 x 88 
mm. 22 specimens. 
Total number of specimens: 13. 
MET ATES 
The unusual aspect of most of the metates 
from the site is their thinness-about 3 cm. 
The largest complete specimen measures 45 x 
40 x 6 cm. Material is basalt. 6 specimens. 
PESTLES 
( Plate 5 g-h) 
The pestles are circular in cross section; 
complete specimens are tapering and were used 
on the larger end only. Lengths of the three 
complete specimens are 185 mm., 215 mm., 
and 258 mm. Material is basalt. 6 specimens. 
MORTARS 
The mortars are round river cobbles about 
30 cm. in diameter and 10 to 15 cm. thick; all 
have shallow depressions about 10 cm. in di-
ameter on both surfaces. These stones were 
probably used in conjunction wtih a basket to 
form a hopper mortar and are referred to as 
"hopper mortar stones." 6 specimens. 
22 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 
cm 
0 
2 
4 
6 
8 
10 
c 
No.4 
Plate 5. Large stone artifacts. a-c choppers; d shaped mano; e-f worked basalt flakes; g-h pestles; i 
steatite pipe. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 23 
TABLE 3 
DISTRIBUTION OF PROJECTILE POINTS 
CLASS 1 
1-A 1-B 1-C 1-D 1-E 1-F 1-G 
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 1 2.4 
Floor 2 1 2.4 2 4.8 
Floor 1 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 1 , 2.4 
Floor 3 1 2.4 1 2.4 
Floor 2 1 2.4 1 2.4 
Floor 1 
House pit 3 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 1 2.4 2 4.8 
Floor 3 1 2.4 
Floor 2 1 2.4 
Floor 1 1 2.4 1 2.4 1 2.4 1 2.4 1 2.4 1 2.4 
Total 2 4.8 3 7.2 1 2.4 1 2.4 6 14.4 1 2.4 6 14.4 
TABLE 3 
Continued 
CLASS 1 
1-H 1-1 1-J 1-K 1-L Class 1 Total 
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 1 2.4 2 4.8 
Floor 2 1 2.4 1 2.4 5 12.0 
Floor 1 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 1 2.4 1 2.4 3 7.2 
Floor 3 2 4.8 1 2.4 5 12.0 
Floor 2 1 2.4 3 7.2 
Floor 1 2 4.8 2 4.8 
House pit 3 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 1 2.4 2 4.8 1 2.4 7 16.8 
Floor 3 1 2.4 2 ''~4.8 
Floor 2 1 2.4 
Floor 1 2 4.8 2 4.8 1 2.4 11 26.4 
Total 1 2.4 1 2.4 7 16.8 6 14.4 6 14.4 41 
24 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
TABLE 3 
Continued 
CLASS 2 
2-A 2-B 2-C 2-D 2-E 2-F 
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 3 2.4 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 
Floor 2 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 
Floor 1 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 2 1.6 2 1.6 4 3.2 3 2.4 
Floor 3 2 1.6 2 1.6 4 3.2 1 0.8 
Floor 2 2 1.6 2 1.6 2 1.6 1 0.8 6 4.8 1 0.8 
Floor 1 2 1.6 2 1.6 2 1.6 
House pit 3 1 0.8 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 2 1.6 3 2.4 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 
Floor 3 5 4.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 
Floor 2 5 4.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 
Floor 1 9 7.2 3 2.4 8 6.4 7 5.6 1 0.8 
Total 29 23.2 14 11.2 21 16.8 5 4.0 26 20.8 7 5.6 
TABLE 3 
Continued 
CLASS 2 
2-G 2-H 2-1 2-J 2-K Class 2 Total 
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 1 0.8 2 1.6 10 8.0 
Floor 2 1 0.8 1 0.8 5 4.0 
Floor 1 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 2 1.6 1 0.8 1 0.8 15 12.0 
Floor 3 1 0.8 10 8.0 
Floor 2 2 1.6 1 0.8 17 13.6 
Floor 1 1 0.8 1 0.8 8 6.4 
House pit 3 1 0.8 2 1.6 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 8 6.4 
floor 3 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 11 8.8 
Floor 2 1 0.8 2 1.6 10 8.0 
Floor 1 1 0.8 1 0.8 2 1.6 32 25.6 
Total 6 4.8 4 3.2 5 4.0 3 2.4 8 6.4 128 
1967 LEON HARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 25 
TABLE 3 
Continued 
CLASS 3 
3-A 3-B 3-C 
No. % No. % No. % 
House pit 1 
Floor 3 1 5.5 
Floor 2 1 5.5 
Floor l 
House pit 2 
Floor 4 l 5.5 
Floor 3 
Floor 2 1 5.5 
Floor l 
House pit 3 
House pit 4 
Floor 4 1 5.5 2 11.0 
Floor 3 2 11.0 
Floor 2 1 5.5 1 5.5 
Floor 1 1 5.5 1 5.5 1 5.5 
Total 4 22.0 3 16.5 7 38.5 
MISCELLANEOUS STONE ARTIFACTS 
The remaining stone artifacts in the collec-
tion recovered from the Iron Gate site are: 
1. Unclassifiable fragments of chipped stone. 
46 specimens. 
2. Fragments of grinding stones. These could 
be either mano or metate fragments, but 
their size precludes determination. 8 spec-
imens. 
3. Pounding stones, i.e., cobbles or pieces of 
basalt with a worn and battered edge. 
4 . Small round stones which show abrasion. 
2 specimens. 
5. Sinkers made from flat, oval pebbles. 
Notches are on the smaller axis. 4 speci-
mens. 
6. Small grinding or abrading stones. 3 speci-
mens. 
7. A piece of fine-grained sandstone, 125 
mm. long and 45 mm. in diameter, which 
was flaked and mashed, probably to shape 
it preparatory to grinding and polishing. 
3-D 3-E 3-F Class 3 Total 
No. % No. % No. % No. % 
1 5.5 
l 5.5 
l 5.5 l 5.5 3 16.5 
l 5.5 
1 5.5 4 22.0 
2 11.0 
2 11.0 
1 5.5 4 22.0 
2 11.0 1 5.5 1 5.5 18 
The intended form is not apparent. 
8. A fragment of polished serpentine (?) . 
9. A small rod of serpentine (?) 34 mm. long 
and 4 mm. in diame~er. 
10. A tubular steatite pipe (Plate 5 i). The 
tube is 132 mm. long; the outside diame-
ter of the mouthpiece is 13 mm.; the out-
side diameter of the bowl is 24 mm. 
11. A fragment of stone tube made of scoria-
ceous basalt (?) . The fragment is 26 mm. 
long; the outside diameter is 15 mm.; the 
diameter of the hole is 7 mm. Parallel 
longitudinal striations are visible on the 
inside of the tube. 
BONE AND ANTLER ARTIFACTS 
Like the stone artifacts, artifacts made of 
bone and antler show little elaboration beyond 
the requisites of necessity. Because bone re-
covered in the excavation was well preserved, 
it may be assumed that the artifacts of bone 
and antler from the site are a representative 
sample. 
26 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
Figure 13. Bone Implements. a "net shuttle"; b 
fragment of spatulate implement; C splinter awl. 
All specimens natural size. 
BONE AWLS 
CLASS 1: Ulna awls 
There are three awls made of deer ulnae. 
Two are broken. The complete specimen is 114 
mm. long. 
CLASS 2: Splinter awls (Fig. 13 c) 
Two splinter awls were recovered. One is a 
splinter 90 mm. long worked to a sharp point. 
The second is a splinter 104 mm. long with a 
natural point worn and polished by use. 
NET SHUTTLE 
(Fig. 13 a) 
One bone artifact is called a "net shuttle" 
because the form of one end is suggestive of 
such an implement. The other end was broken 
and then subsequently worn and polished. The 
piece is 72 mm. long and 23 mm. wide. It is 
flat in cross section. The distal end is concave 
with an indentation 12 mm. deep. A transverse 
V-cut nearly encircles the piece 30 mm. below 
the distal end. 
SPATULATE BONE IMPLEMENTS 
(Fig. 13 b) 
Three fragmentary implements of bone have 
rounded, highly polished ends. One is quite 
well made and was probably worked overall; 
the other two are utilized splinters. Artifacts 
similar to these have been called variously 
"sweat scrapers" or "hide polishers." The 
well-made specimen is reminiscent of the 
"louse killer" illustrated by Loud (1918: 
Plate 20, No. 17). 
FLAKED BONE SCRAPER 
(Fig. 14 d) 
A scraper-like implement was made from 
a fragment of bone by bifacial flaking. The end 
is slightly worn and polished. It measures 20 x 
15 mm. 
BONE BEADS 
Two tublar bone beads found m the site 
were cut from the long bone of a small mam-
mal (rabbit?). One was worked into a square 
cross section; the other is unmodified except 
for polishing on the ends. Lengths are 16 mm. 
and 13 mm., respectively. 
INCISED BONE FRAGMENTS 
(Fig. 14 a-b) 
Two small splinters of bone have short par-
allel incisions on the edge. One is 32 mm. long 
and 7 mm. wide; it has eight pairs of incisions 
which are about 2.5 mm. long and spaced 
about 3 mm. apart. The other is 24 mm. long 
and 5 mm. wide; it has 22 incisions of unequal 
length irregularly spaced along one edge. The 
decoration on these fragments is very much 
like that on a bone tube and bone pins found 
in a cave in Lassen County (Riddell, 1956: 
Plate 1). 
FRAGMENTS OF BONE ART IF ACTS 
1. A rod with a rounded end. Cross section is 
oval; length is 78 mm. ; maximum diameter 
is 9 mm. ; minimum diameter is 6 mm. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 27 
-
a 
r c::::0i"11 · ·• · · ·1,1 
~e 
f 
Figure 14. Miscellaneous artifacts. a-b incised 
bone fragments; C fragment of horn tube; d 
flaked-bone end scraper; e Olivella bread; f in-
cised Dentalium; g charcoal with drilled hole; 
h baked clay rod with punct,ate design. All speci-
mens natural size. 
2. A fragment of bone with a transverse V-cut. 
Dimensions are 30 x 13 mm. 
3. Small bone rods. In the six instances where 
a worked end is present, four are rounded 
and two are pointed. The largest fragment 
measures 25 x 6 x 3 mm. 9 specimens. 
4. A piece of bird bone, 31 mm. long, worked 
to a sharp point. This was, perhaps, an awl 
or needle. 
5. Two fragments of longitudinally cut bone. 
In both instances the cut edges are rounded 
and polished. The larger piece is 41 mm. 
long. 
ANTLER TINE FLAKERS 
Four antler tines with rounded tips were 
found. Three are roken; one is complete. The 
complete specimen is 102 mm. long. 
PROBLEMATICAL ANTLER ART IF ACT 
An unfinished antler artifact is 106 mm. 
long, 21 mm. wide and 8 mm. in maximum 
thickness. The dorsal side has been hacked or 
chopped, but lacks smoothing; the ventral side 
is a fracture surface. In dorsal view, the right 
side has been cut or sawed and there is an in-
complete cut on the proximal end of the left 
side which has a corresponding cut on the ven-
tral side. The distal end is rounded and some-
what smoothed. 
ANTLER FRAGMENT 
A fragment of longitudinally cut antler with 
the cancellous tissue cut away ,is 47 mm. long 
and 22 mm. wide. 
MISCELLANEOUS ARTIFACTS 
SHELL ARTIFACTS 
1. AnOlivella (0. biplicata) bead (Fig. 14 e) 
was made from a small, whole shell by 
grinding the spire off square to the axis of 
the shell. This specimen is of Type la in the 
bead typology of Lillard, Heizer, and Fen-
enga (1939: 12). 
2. A pendant was made from a Protothaca 
shell by grinding the umbo off square to the 
axis of the shell to make a perforation. Pro-
tothaca is a marine genus found in estuar-
ine or intertidal areas. 
3. An incised Dentalium (Fig. 14 f) bears two 
sets of incisions. The first is a row of short 
parallel cuts which runs the full length of 
the shell and which makes a nearly com-
plete spiral around it. The second is a zig-
zag line which runs two-thirds of the length. 
The shell is 25 mm. long. 
HORN ARTIFACT 
(Fig. 14 c) 
The end of a tube made of horn was found 
on Floor 1 of House Pit 4. The length is 7 mm.; 
28 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
external diameter of the smaller end is 7 mm.; 
diameter of the ortifice is 5 mm.; diameter of 
the broken end is 13 mm. The inside of the 
object is quite soft and stained grey and black. 
The only source of horn in aboriginal times 
would have been the mountain sheep and, in-
terestingly enough, the teeth of a mountain 
sheep ( Ovus) were found on the same floor as 
this artifact. 
CERAMIC ARTIFACTS 
1. A fragment of a ceramic artifact is too small 
to determine anything other than that it was 
possibly part of a rod. The piece is 15 mm. 
long; the maximum diameter is 12 mm. In 
cross section it is oval at one end, expanding 
to round at the other. Hardness of the mate-
rial is between Moh 3 and 4. 
2. A fragment of tapering rod (Fig. 14 h) is 
29 mm. long; maximum diameter is 9.5 
mm.; minimum diameter is 7 mm. The piece 
is decorated with a zig-zag line of dots made 
by impressing the unfired clay with a hol-
low shaft of very small diameter. Hardness 
of the piece is Moh 3. 
WOODEN ARTIFACT 
(Fig. 14 g) 
On Floor 1 of House Pit 1 was a piece of 
charcoal with a hole in it which seems to repre-
sent a hole drilled in the original wood. The 
charcoal measures 36 x 20 x 16 mm.; the grain 
is along the width. The diameter of the hole is 
8 mm.; depth is 7 mm. The bottom seems to 
have been concave, but precise determination 
is impossible. The hole is not natural for it cuts 
through a straight grain and has parallel sides 
whereas if it were a knot hole the grain would 
separate and go around the hole and the sides 
of the hole would taper. Also, there would be 
some sign of grain separation on the side of the 
wood opposite the hole. Such is not the case. 
INSCRIBED FOSSIL WOOD 
1. ( Fig. 12 d) One end of a piece of fossil 
wood found on Floor 4 of House Pit 2 is 
stained red; the stain extends up the side of 
the piece less than 1 mm. giving the appear-
ance of a line inscribed around the end. 
Measurements are 40 x 10 x 6 mm. 
2. (Fig. 12 e) One of the two pieces of fossil 
wood found on Floor 3 of House Pit 2 is 
inscribed with a design consisting of two 
parallel lines over a half circle which is 
open to the edge. The design on one side is 
the mirror image of that on the other and if 
the design were spread out, it would be two 
lines over a circle. The dimensions are 37 x 
6 x 2 mm. 
3. (Fig. 12 f) The second piece from Floor 3 
of House Pit 2 is roughly triangular in out-
line. At the widest end a red line encircles 
the piece following the arc of the end on one 
side and making a reverse of the arc on the 
other side. Measurements are 30 x 9 x 3 
mm. 
4. (Fig. 12 g) The fourth piece, which was 
found on Floor 2 of House Pit 2, has lines 
of red pigment along two edges. On one side 
the line has been partly obliterated, prob-
ably from grinding in the sifter. Measure-
ments are 30 x 7 x 3 mm. 
DISCUSSION 
Probably the most notable aspect of the arti-
fact inventory is the extremely high percentage 
of projectile points which, including fragments, 
comprise 36.8 percent of the total artifact 
count. The low percentage of knives contrasts 
sharply with the high percentage of projec-
tile points for, including the bifacially flaked 
pieces of vein chalcedony, knives comprise only 
5 percent of the total artifact count. Further, 
the knives are all small and without well-
defined forms. The significance of this dispar-
ity is not immediately apparent, but it may 
relate to the importance of small, waste flakes 
used as cutting implements. 
The lack of artifacts connected with fishing 
is also notable, for fishing was of niajor im-
portance along the Klamath River in historic 
times. Most fishing, however, was done with 
nets, rather than with hook and line ( Kroeber 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 29 
TABLE 4 
IDENTIFIED FAUN AL REMAINS 
MINIMUM NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS PER FLOOR 
House Pit 1 
Floor 3 2 1 
Fox (Vulpes) 
Porcupine (Erethizon) 1 
Raccoon (Procyon} 
Mountain Sheep (Ovis) 
Coyote (Canis} 1 
Wood Rat (Neotoma) 1 
Marmot (Marmota) 
River Otter (Lutra} 
Badger (Taxidea) 
Beaver (Castor) 1 
Bear (Ursus) 1 
Brush Rabbit ( Sylvilagus) 2 2 1 
Jack Rabbit (Lepus) 3 2 
Gopher (Thomomys) 1 
Ground Squirrel (Citellus) 1 1 
Deer (Odocoileus) 2 6 1 
Turtle 1 1 1 
and Barrett, 1960). Therefore, it is doubtful if 
the lack of fishing gear in the artifact inventory 
is to be construed as indicative of the unimpor-
tance of fishing in the economy. 
Hopper mortar stones indicate the use of 
acorns as a foodstuff, an indication supported 
by charred acorns ( Quercus garryana) recov-
ered in the excavations. The distribution of 
these artifacts is virtually coterminous with the 
use of acorns in California and their presence 
is suggestive of a Californian orientation in the 
economy. 
FAUNAL REMAINS 
(Table 4) 
Bird bone from the site was sent to Dr. Loye 
Miller of the University of California at Davis 
for identification. In a letter dated April 7, 
1961, Dr. Miller made the following state-
ment: 
2 4 
4 3 2 1 4 3 2 
1 
1 1 
1 
1 1 
1 
1 
1 1 1 
2 1 1 2 2 2 3 
2 1 1 2 1 2 
1 
1 1 1 1 2 1 
2 2 2 1 1 1 1 
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
Practically all of the bird bones are from 
small goose and a variety of ducks. One excep· 
tion is a single ulna of a flicker. 
1 
1 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 
5 
1 
2 
6 
2 
1 
Dr. J. Arnold Shotwell of the Museum of 
Natural History, University of Oregon, iden-
tified the mammal bone. The identified re-
mains are predominantly deer and rabbit, in-
dicating the importance of these animals in the 
economy. Whether or not the small rodents 
were used for food is uncertain. Burrows of 
these animals were found throughout the ex-
cavations, so many of the bones could be intru-
sive. The remains of ground squirrel (Citel-
lus), however, are numerous enough to war-
rant the supposition that this animal was used 
for food as it was during the ethnographic 
period. The minimum number of individual 
animals represented by the identified faunal 
remains is presented in Table 4. 
30 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
CHRONOLOGY 
Two radiocarbon dates were obtained 
through the facilities of Isotopes, Incorporated, 
of Westwood, New Jersey: 
1. 1-230 
Sample: Charcoal 
510±75 
1440 A.D. 
Provenience: Burned pole from fill between 
Floor 2 and Floor 3 of House Pit 2. 
Significance: Dates a pole used in the struc-
ture associated with Floor 2 of House 
Pit 2. 
2. 1-231 
Sample: Wood 
400 ± 75 
1550 A.D. 
Provenience: Fragment of pole found on 
Floor 1 of House Pit 2. 
Significance: Dates a pole presumably used 
in the structure associated with Floor 1 
of House Pit 2. 
The two dates conflict in the sense that the 
earlier date is from the higher floor. However, 
the combined range is only 260 years, which 
is no greater than might be obtained on two 
samples from the same tree. The conflict is 
likely a result of the age of the trees used in 
the structures and is not considered significant. 
Because the dates are relevant to the wood 
used in the construction of houses, they can 
only be considered as limiting dates for the 
floors with which the poles were associated. 
On this basis the occupation of Floor 1 began 
during or after the period 1475 A.D. to 1625 
A.D. and the occupation of Floor 2 began dur-
ing or after the period 1365 A.D. to 1515 A.D. 
For convenient reference, the approximate 
median of the combined ranges, 1500 A.D. 
( 450± 75), is considered the minimum initial 
date for occupation of the house pit and, by 
association, the site. 
No trade goods or other artifacts of non-
aboriginal manufacture were found associated 
with the houses, indicating that the site was 
abandoned before 1850 when contact with 
Whites became frequent in northern California. 
Furthermore, the site was apparently not known 
as a place of habitation by Shasta informants. 
It neither is mentioned in Shasta ethnographies 
nor noted on maps of Shasta territory, whereas 
a village located just west of Jenny Creek, no 
more than 200 meters downstream, is noted 
by Holt ( 194 7: Map 1). Thus, it might be 
assumed that the site was abandoned for a 
considerable time before-1850. 
COMPARISON AND INTERPRETATION 
DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSES 
The Iron Gate houses have been recon-
structed in the form of a conical framework of 
poles, perhaps with center supports, set over 
a shallow depression. The framework was cov-
ered with bark and, perhaps, planks, and the 
walls were banked with earth. The position or 
form of the entrance is not known, but it was 
probably no more than an opening in the side. 
This is nearly identical to the more elaborate 
versions of the conical, bark-covered houses 
widely used in the northern half of California, 
particularly in the mountainous regions sur-
rounding the Sacramento Valley. The distri-
bution of this house type is not mutually ex-
clusive with other house types in northern Cali-
fornia since most of the people for whom it is 
reported used two or three types of houses, and 
even the types themselves were not always too 
distinct: 
The houses of native California are difficult to 
classify except in summary fashion. The ex-
treme forms are well differentiated but are all 
connected by transitions. The frame house of 
the Yurok and the Hupa is a definite type whose 
affinity with the larger plank house of the North 
Pacific is sufficiently evident. Southward and 
eastward from the Yurok it becomes smaller 
and more crudely made. Bark begins to replace 
the split or hewn planks, and before long a 
conical form made wholly of bark slabs is at· 
tained. This in turn also, provided with a center 
post, need only be covered with soil to serve as 
the simple prototype of the large semisubter-
ranean house of the Sacramento Valley. Again, 
the bark is often partly replaced with poles and 
sticks. If these are covered with thatch we have 
a simple form of the conical brush house (Kroe-
ber, 1925: 809). 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 31 
~-... ,o F~-<~-'._, 
,_r 
Figure 15. A reconstruction of the Iron Gate house type showing details of construction as inferred from 
archaeological data and ethnographic comparison. (Drawing by Roald Fryxell} 
Of the several descriptions of conical houses 
in the literature, the best is probably that of 
the Northern Maidu hobo given by Dixon 
( 1905: 1 72) : 
The second type of house, or hobo, was a 
much ruder affair than the earth lodge. In its 
simplest form, an excavation was made to a 
depth of from twenty-five to fifty centimeters 
over a circular area from two·and-a-half to 
five meters in diameter. Several poles ( usually, 
when obtainable, of second-growth pine) were 
leaned together from the circumference and 
securely tied in the center, forming a conical 
frame. On this frame, branches, slabs of bark 
and splinters of wood from large fallen trees 
were leaned, and then pine needles and leaves 
added; the final touch being given by banking 
up around the edge, to a height of about one 
meter, the earth removed in excavating. At one 
side an opening was left for a door, closed by 
pieces of skin or a slab of bark. At the apex of 
the rude conical structure thus constructed, a 
smoke hole was left. In this type of house, how-
ever, this neither served as an entrance or exit. 
In some cases apparently, a center pole was 
erected, and to it the other poles were tied .. .. 
A comparison of details of the Maidu hobo 
and the Iron Gate houses is presented in Table 
5. Close parallels are evident and where the 
comparison is uncertain it is because of lack 
of data and not contradiction of data. 
Reports are available for similar houses 
from three different archaeological sites. For 
the Thomas site ( 4-Mrn-115 ) in Marin County, 
California, the following summary description 
32 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
ETHNOGRAPHIC 
DISTRIBUTION 
OREGON 
CALIFORNIA 
• 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
OCCURRENCE 
POST ULA TED ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
DISTRIBUTION 
Figure 16. Distribution of conical, bark-covered 
houses. 
of an excavated house is given by Meighan 
(1953 : 4): 
To sum up the traits observable from the 
house ruin, the structure had a circular plan, 
conical or dome shape (probably the former) , 
a pole framework of redwood, grass covering, 
central fire hearth, and clay plastered over part 
of the interior (probably just over the fire area). 
This type of house is closely similar to that 
ethnographically described for Central Califor-
ma. 
This house, although smaller, compared with 
the Iron Gate houses in general detail: prob-
ably conical structure of poles; central fire-
place; excavated pit; and earth banked up at 
the base of the house. The major difference 
was the use of grass rather than bark for cover-
ing the framework, a detail already noted as 
variable in the ethnographic descriptions. This 
house was at the top of a midden deposit which 
has a probable terminal date of 1800 A.D. 
Judging from the chronological data, the house 
was occupied about 1700 A.D. or shortly after. 
Excavations in the Trinity Reservoir area 
provided further data on houses. At site Tri-47 
were house pits with ill-defined floors and little 
evidence of structure, although some wood, 
possibly indicating a pole framework, was 
found. At Tri-48 two superimposed house 
floors were excavated. Associated with the 
floors were rock cairns and rock-lined fire-
places (Treganza, 1958). 
Other excavations in the Trinity Reservoir 
provided information on semi-subterranean 
ceremonial houses and sudatories. Other small 
dwelling houses were excavated but they 
yielded scant information (Treganza, 1959). 
In his initial report on the excavation in the 
reservoir, Treganza (1958 :19) states that: 
... no traces of post holes could be observed 
and it was concluded that where these features 
were absent the former presence of a conical 
bark house . .. must be indicated. 
The sites in the Trinity Reservoir are iden-
tified as ancestral to the culture of the Wintu 
people who inhabited the area in historic times. 
Although specific chronology of the sites was 
not determined, the area was probably first 
occupied about 900 A.D. There is little or no 
change evident in the subsequent archaeologi-
cal record ( Treganza, 1959: 26). 
The Iron Gate houses are different from the 
ethnographic descriptions given for the semi-
subterranean houses of the Klamath (Spier, 
1930: 197-203) and are generally different 
from the Klamath houses excavated by Cress-
man ( 1956), although in some cases the dif-
ferences may be more apparent than real. As 
Cressman describes them, the houses excavated 
in the old Klamath villages are considerably 
larger than the Iron Gate houses, ranging in 
diameter from 4 meters to nearly 18 meters. 
Further, the house pits were more deeply ex-
cavated than those at Iron Gate and were 
marked by a pronounced "bench," a feature 
totally lacking in the Iron Gate houses. Some 
1967 LEON HARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 33 
TABLE 5 
COMPARISON OF HOUSE TRAITS 
Trait Maidu Hobo Iron Gate Houses 
House pit 
diameter 2.5-5 meters 4.5-9 meters 
6 meters most common 
depth 25-50 centimeters up to 50 centimeters 
Framework 
poles Yes Yes 
centerpost Optional Uncertain 
conical form Yes Inferred 
Covering 
bark Yes Yes 
wood Yes Un.certain 
leaves Yes Not determined 
Door Simple opening Not determined 
Smokehole Yes Inferred 
used as entrance No Unknown 
Pits re-used Not stated Yes 
Fireplace Not stated Central 
Storage pits Not stated In one floor 
of the Klamath house pits had post holes, but 
these were generally more conspicuous by 
their absence, even in some of the very large 
house pits. Apart from the "bench," the single 
most significant difference between the Kla-
math house pits · and those excavated at the 
Iron Gate site is the presence of stratified floors 
in the latter. 
Because the Iron Gate site is in an area 
where rectangular plank houses were used in 
historic times, it is necessary to conclude that 
the conical house was once more widely dis-
tributed than the ethnographic data indicate. 
Aside from the Iron Gate site there are hints 
of a former distribution of circular houses fur-
ther down the Klamath River. In several Yurok 
villages were shallow, round depressions which 
the people referred to as the house pits of their 
folklore characters. Waterman ( 1920) states 
that these are natural, not artificial, depres-
sions, an opinion which should be verified by 
archaeology. H. G. Barnett (personal commu-
nication) reports that he also collected state-
ments from the Hupa identifying round de-
pressions in their villages as the house pits of 
supernatural beings. 
Reetz ( 1948: 78) has argued that the plank 
houses of northwestern California are more 
closely related to the circular semi-subterra-
nean houses of California and the Columbia 
Plateau than to the plank houses of the North-
west Coast Culture Area. Such an argument is 
supported by Newman's work on the Oregon 
coast. In his conclusions Newman (1959: 95) 
states: 
No direct historical relationship is seen be-
tween the cultures of the northern and southern 
segments of the Oregon coast. Cultures from 
about the Coquille River southward into Cali-
fornia appear to form an internally related unit 
with an independent history. 
Such evidence, although indirect, is suffi-
cient to warrant the hypothesis that circular 
houses, probably similar to those at the Iron 
Gate site, preceded the plank houses in north-
western California in time and were replaced 
34 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No. 4 
G O N 
------- I ----------- I 
I 
., 
I 
.. ,14 
/I 
NE V-
t 
N 
I 
0 50 
L.......o...... 
Figure 17. Archaeological sites and areas men-
tioned in this report. 1. Iron Gate site; 2. Sis-13; 
3. Trinity Reservoir; 4. Shasta Dam area; 5. Mc-
Cloud River; 6. Thomas site; 7. Humboldt Bay; 
1 8. Lone Ranch Creek (Chetco); 9. Gold Hill; 
10. Klamath villages; 11. Kawumkan Springs; 
12. Sauvies Island; 13. The Dalles; 14. Southern 
limit of comparable artifacts (approximate). 
Refer to text for explanation. 
by the latter. Both the ethnographic distribu-
tion of conical, bark-covered houses and the 
postulated archaeological distribution form a 
large arc around northern California (Fig. 
16). Just how far this house type may have ex-
tended into Oregon is uncertain, but the Rogue 
River seems· a fair guess for the approximate 
northern limit. Chronology is not considered in 
the hypothesis. The only certainty is that the 
rectangular house had not replaced the conical 
house in Shasta territory before 1500 A.D. 
COMPARISON OF ARTIFACTS 
As a whole, the artifacts from Iron Gate are 
not greatly different from artifacts of late pre-
historic age in much of California and Oregon. 
The well-developed assemblage of bone arti-
facts typical of the coastal maritime and river-
ine cultures is absent, but the small, pressure-
fl.aked projectile points, knives, scrapers, drills, 
splinter and ulna awls, manos and metates are 
common to many sites dating from the past 
1,000 years. When compared in detail, how-
ever, a well-defined idea of cultural affinities 
emerges. There is a southern limit in Califor-
nia beyond which the Iron Gate artifacts are 
not closely comparable. This limit is not sharp-
ly defined, but it seems to extend roughly 
through Mendocino County from the coast to 
the edge of the Sacramento Valley and then 
north to the Klamath Mountains. The eastern 
limit is the Great Basin; the southeastern limit 
includes Lassen County and probably does not 
extend much farther south ( see Fig. 16). 
There are two facets to this lack of com-
parability: the first is a marked difference in 
artifact inventory; the second is a difference 
in projectile point forms. The charmstones in 
their many varieties, clam shell disc beads, the 
many types of Olivella shell beads and Hali-
otis ornaments, the variety of large, well-
worked knives and the varieties of pestles and 
bowl mortars characteristic of archaeological 
sites in central California are conspicuously ab-
sent from sites north of the Sacramento Valley. 
Only a few of the projectile points of central 
Californian types are comparable with those 
from northern California. The projectile points 
from central California are generally larger; 
the most common forms are ovate ( Class 1) 
rather than triangular ( Class 2) and the deep 
serration characteristic of most Late Horizon 
points is lacking in the north. Serration on the 
Iron Gate points, for instance, is rare. Of the 
point types illustrated in Lillard, Heizer and 
Fenenga (1939: 13) only eight or nine of the 
25 types can be duplicated, in general form, 
at least, in the Iron Gate collection. However, 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 35 
TABLE 6 
COMPARISON OF PROJECTILE POINT FORMS, 
IRON GATE AND THE DALLES 
IRON GATE 
Class 1, 12 varieties 
1-A 
1-B 
1-C 
1-D 
1-E 
1-F 
1-G 
1-H 
1-1 
1-J 
1-K 
1-L 
Class 2, 11 varieties 
2-A 
2-B 
2-C 
2-D 
2-E 
2-F 
2-G 
2-H 
2-1 
2-J 
2-K 
Class 3, 6 varieties 
3-A 
3-B 
3-C 
3-D 
3-E 
3-F 
1 Data from Cressman et al., 1960: 44-46 
2 Found elsewhere on the Columbia River 
of the Late Horizon points illustrated (Lillard, 
Heizer and Fenenga, 1939: Plate 24) only six 
fit the Iron Gate classification. Beardsley 
(1954a: Fig. 2; 1954b: 108-109) describes 
ten projectile point types of which three or, at 
most, four are comparable to the Iron Gate 
forms. 
THE DALLES1 
Type I, 17 varieties 
I-A 
1-F 
1-Q 
1-L 
Type II, 17 varieties 
11-B 
11-D 
11-1 
11-H 
11-J 
11-K 
2 
2 
11-L 
Type III, 9 varieties 
III-H 
III-F 
III-E 
On the other hand, most of the Iron Gate 
points can be duplicated form for form by 
points from sites in northern California, the 
Klamath Lakes region and from sites along the 
Columbia River ( and, presumably, from sites 
in between). Of the 187 classifiable projectile 
points from the Iron Gate site, all but 23 can 
36 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
be classed in eight of the nineteen point types 
from Kawumkan Spring midden on the Klam-
ath Reservation ( Cressman, 1956: Fig. 45) . 
Because the Iron Gate points were classified 
by the same criteria used for material from 
WS-1 and WS-4 at The Dalles, Oregon, a close 
comparison can be made (Table 6). Of the 
seven basic forms found at The Dalles, three 
are found at Iron Gate. Of the 27 varieties of 
points from Iron Gate, fourteen, or slightly 
more than 50 percent, are specifically compa-
rable to the points from The Dalles. The re-
mainder, for the most part, differ only in slight 
detail, such as the form of the stem. To reverse 
the comparison, of the 45 varieties of Type I, 
II and III points found at The Dalles, fourteen, 
or 31 percent, were found at Iron Gate. These 
percentages must be considered minimal, for 
there are chronological differences in the mate-
rial from The Dalles which were not consid-
ered in the typological descriptions. The per-
centages of comparable forms might be higher 
if groups of the same approximate temporal 
order were compared. 
This comparison does not imply direct cul-
tural affiliation, but in view of the general lack 
of comparability with projectile points in other 
areas in California, both in terms of "style" 
and specific detail, the implications of relation-
ships to the north, with the Klamath-Modoc 
region and the Columbia Plateau, are strong. 
Projectile points with one short barb and 
one long barb which extends beyond the stem 
(Classes 1-J, 1-K, 1-L and 3-D) may well be 
an index artifact for northwestern California 
and adjacent regions. The Class 1 varieties of 
these points are found in northwestern Cali-
fornia and southwestern Oregon with a prob-
able center of distribution near the mouth of 
the Klamath River. They have been illustrated 
by Loud (1918: Plate 15) for sites around 
Humboldt Bay and Gunther Island; by Berre-
man ( 1944: Plate 7) for the Lone Ranch Creek 
site near Brookings, Oregon; by Cressman 
( 1933: Plate 6) for the Gold Hill burial site; 
by Wallace and Taylor (1952) for Sis-13, a 
rock shelter near Iron Gate; and by Treganza 
( 1958: Fig. 1) for sites in the Trinity Reser-
voir area. In his 1958 report, Treganza propos-
ed the name "Gunther Barbed" for these and 
other, less distinctive, projectile points. These 
forms have not been found in excavations in 
Curry and Tillamook Counties on the Oregon 
coast, but there are specimens in the University 
of Oregon survey collections from Coos 
County. The southern limit to the distribution 
of these forms is uncertain, but Meighan 
( 1955) illustrates no examples for sites in 
Mendocino County. 
The Class 3 (concave-sided) variety of these 
points is evidently rare. One specimen from 
Gold Hill is illustrated by Cressman ( 1933). 
Similar forms have been found along the Co-
lumbia River at The Dalles ( Cressman et al., 
1960: Fig. 19) and as far east as Blalock, Ore-
gon. Neither the Class 1 nor the Class 3 variety 
was found in collections from Sauvies Island 
at the confluence of the Columbia and Willam-
ette Rivers ( Brown, 1960). The break in the 
distribution of this particular form is both 
large and puzzling. Cressman (1933 : 16) 
thinks they may have been points for fish 
spears. if so, the occurrence of identical forms 
in widely separated areas may be a result of 
parallel development. Such a development 
would be: a good hypothesis when one considers 
that the stone-working traditions may have 
been related and that in both areas there was a 
hunting-gathering-fishing economy exploiting a 
common food resource-salmon. But, one must 
also consider that there are few excavated sites 
between the two areas and that the break in 
distribution could well be a function of the 
comparative sample. 
Other artifacts have not been as useful for 
determining cultural relationships as projectile 
points, but they provide additional informa-
tion, none-the-less. The hopper mortar stones 
have a wide distribution in California, Oregon 
and Washington. The Olivella and Protothaca 
shell beads are indicative of trade relations 
with the coast, either through the Sacramento 
Valley or up the Klamath River, and the baked 
clay rods may be indicative of contacts to the 
t: 
f 
,, 
r 
.. 
·. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 37 
south. The shaped manos are similar to some 
illustrated by Cressman ( 1956: Fig. 13) but 
the bell-shaped and two-ho~ned manos found 
in the Klamath area do not occur in the Iron 
Gate collection. 
COMPARISON WITH OTHER SITES 
At Sis-13, a rock shelter about 20 miles 
south of Iron Gate, artifacts were found which, 
with the exception of basketry, cordage, and 
wooden implements, compare closely with the 
Iron Gate material. The collection from the 
rock shelter probably dates to the 18th century 
and the first half of the 19th century and is 
virtually identical with ethnographic material 
culture. A comparison of 39 traits demonstrates 
the close parallels with historic cultures of 
northern California. Primarily on the basis of 
basketry, the trait comparison: 
... strongly hints that the shelter people were 
intruders from the east or northeast [ Achomawi 
or Modoc] who came each year to hunt moun-
tain sheep and perhaps to raid or trade. It is, of 
course, equally plausable that they were Eastern 
Shasta strongly influenced by their neighbors 
across the mountains (Wallace and Taylor, 
1952: 33). 
Of the 39 traits, 20 can be compared to the 
Iron Gate collection. Of these 20, 18 corre-
spond, indicating the close similarity in the 
material cultures from the two sites. The clos-
est similarities are between the projectile points 
and drills, for of the projectile point forms 
from Sis-13, only one is not found at Iron Gate. 
An unusually high percentage of projectile 
points and a low percentage of knives is also 
notable in the artifact inventory. No direct his-
torical connection can be established between 
these two sites, but the close similarity of lithic 
artifacts and their geographical proximity sug-
gests that the cultures represented are related. 
The sites in the Trinity Reservoir area were 
mentioned earlier in conjunction with the dis-
cussion of houses. Iron Gate and Trinity Res-
ervoir artifacts compare favorably: hoppered 
mortar stones, pestles, metates and small manos 
occur in both. Further, there is a virtual iden-
tity in projectile point forms, although some of 
the infrequent Iron Gate varieties were not re-
ported for the Trinity area. The asymetrically 
barbed projectile points which comprise 12 
percent of the Iron Gate points, comprise an 
estimated 5 percent of the points from all of 
the Trinity reservoir sites, and, except for some 
serrated varieties, there are no forms from the 
Trinity area which are not found in the Iron 
Gate collection. 
Excavations along the McCloud River in the 
reservoir area of the Shasta Dam revealed that 
the area probably had not been occupied much 
more than 350 years ago by people probably 
directly related to the historic Wintu (Smith 
and Weymouth, 1952: 29-31 ) . The excavated 
materials from this area are generally compa-
rable to the Iron Gate materials, but they ap-
pear transitional between artifacts from the 
Sacramento Valley and those from further to 
the north and northeast. Hoppered mortar 
stones, pestles, tubular steatite pipes and at 
least 11 of the 21 projectile point forms from 
the McCloud River sites compare with the Iron 
Gate collection. Artifacts from this area which 
were not found at Iron Gate include slate pal-
lets, large knivers, and pine nut beads as well 
as a variety of non-aboriginal artifacts. 
RELATIONSHIP TO HISTORIC CULTURES 
The Iron Gate site is in the territory of the 
Western Shasta, but because of a fundamental 
difference in house type it is not possible to 
demonstrate a historical connection between the 
two. Nor will a comparison of items of mate-
rial culture aid in demonstrating such a con-
nection for directly comparable data are not 
included in the ethnographic accounts of Shas-
ta material culture. 
Two alternative relationships to historic cul-
tures are possible. The first possibility is that 
the site was occupied by a southern group, per-
haps ancestors of the Pit River tribes. The im-
plications of this are that the Shasta moved in 
from down river, displacing people who had 
lived in the area for possibly as long as 200 
38 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No.4 
years. On the other hand, there is the possibil-
ity that the culture represented by the Iron 
Gate site might well be antecedent to that of the 
Shasta. The implication, of course, is that in 
the years between the termination of occupa-
tion at Iron Gate and the first contact with the 
Anglo-Americans, the Shasta had adopted an 
approximation of the down-river rectangular 
house and used it to the complete exclusion of 
the circular type. Either of these possibilities 
would account for the circular house outside 
the range of the ethnographic distribution. The 
problem is to decide which is the more likely; 
the first is the more obvious, and easier, ex-
planation, but the second, in view of other evi-
dence, may just as well be the correct interpre-
tation. 
All ethnographers who have worked with the 
Shasta, beginning with Dixon ( 1907) in the 
first decade of the century, and later Kroeber 
( 1925) and Holt ( 194 7), have noted that Shas-
ta culture was transitional between the Central 
and Northwestern California Culture Provin-
ces. Holt ( 194 7: 348) describes Shasta culture 
as one which was basically central Californian 
but which had undergone development under 
strong influences from down river. Of primary 
interest here is the fact that the Shasta house 
was a poor copy of the Karok house retaining 
such central Californian features as the use of 
bark in the construction and the use of peeled 
poles rather than hewn beams for ridge poles. 
Given the central Californian character of 
Shasta culture, it is not unreasonable to sup-
pose that a central Californian house type was 
used before the rectangular house. On this sup-
position it is reasonable to hypothesize that the 
people who inhabited the Iron Gate site were 
ancestral to the historic Shasta, and that the 
site represents a phase in the development of 
Shasta culture. 
ETHNOGRAPHIC p ARALLELS 
Ethnographies of the peoples of northwest-
ern California indicate lifeways of a very sim-
ilar pattern. The general description below is 
for the Shasta, but, excepting the Modoc, it 
would differ only in detail for neighboring 
groups. 
The Shasta lived in small villages of sub-
stantial houses which were occupied principal-
ly during the winter months. In other seasons 
the people were partially dispersed on various 
economic pursuits. During these times the vil-
lages were by no means abandoned, but served 
as centers of activity. Village populations were 
small. A population of 40 persons would have 
been a maximal one; the average population 
was probably considerably less. Even though 
most information indicates that only a nuclear 
family resided in one house, the basic residen-
tial unit was likely an extended family. Data 
are conflicting, but men, especially unmarried 
men, may have slept either in the sweat house 
or the "big house," a separate structure which 
was a center of community activity in a village 
large enough and rich enough to have one. 
Community organization was probably on a 
kinship basis, for such is the general pattern 
among hunting-gathering peoples everywhere. 
Villages were autonomous. The local leader 
was, presumably, an influential individual. 
There were also regional headmen who settled 
disputes between communities and individuals 
of different communities. Among the Shasta 
the shamens were women and had no political 
power as did male shamans among the Klam-
ath, for instance. 
Recreations were simple, consisting of in-
formal dances and games for the most part. 
Formalized social ceremonies were girls' pu-
berty ceremonies, shamans' ceremonies, war 
dances and burials. Of these, the girls' puberty 
rites were singularly important, for friends 
and relatives from distant villages would 
attend . 
Ethnographic accounts indicate that the 
Shasta were about equally dependent on hunt-
ing, fishing and gathering plants for their food. 
The principal plant food utilized were acorns 
and a tuberous root called ipos ( Calochortus 
sp.). The only economic activity in which the 
entire village took part was the acorn harvest. 
Except for oc<;:asional cooperative hunting par-
,, 
' ,· ,, 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 39 
ties, food collecting seems to have been essen-
tially a family activity. 
Food resources were abundant enough to 
support a semi-sedentary existence. Fish, 
acorns and roots could be accumulated and 
preserved in quantities sufficient to last through 
the winter. Deer, the principal game animal, 
was hunted in the fall and winter. Ground 
squirrels, rabbits and other game were utilized 
principally during the spring and summer. 
Bears were also hunted, but seemingly more as 
a matter of prestige than economy. In all, the 
economic resources were rich enough that the 
Shasta could afford such institutions as bride 
price and blood money and could trade for 
such luxury items as Dentalium and Olivella 
shells. The Dentalium served as a form of 
money. 
The Iron Gate site suggests a very similar, 
if not identical, pattern of existence. The com-
munity was a small village of houses large 
enough for a single family. Assuming that no 
more than five houses were occupied at any one 
time and assuming an average family size of 
six, the population would have been 30 people. 
There is no functional evidence to support such 
a statement, but House Pit 2, because of its 
size, may have been a "big house," or ceremon-
ial center for the community. In such a village 
there would have been one or two men who 
served as leaders and, undoubtedly, shamans 
to care for illnesses and accidents. If the ethno-
graphic analogies hold, the shamans would 
have been women. 
There is evidence that much of the day-to-
day activity took place within the house. Grind-
ing stones and fireplaces attest to food prepara-
tion, while the artifacts and debitage found on 
the floors indicate tool manufacture inside the 
house. Such domicile-centered activities imply 
winter residence. The abundant deer remains 
also indicate fall and winter occupation but 
turtle and ground squirrel remains indicate at 
least some occupation during the spring, sum-
mer or fall. 
Faunal remains indicate a subsistence pat-
tern similar to that recorded in the ethnograph-
ies. Deer were an obviously important resource, 
but other animals-rabbits, ground squirrels, 
mountain sheep, bear and turtles-were uti-
lized. Acorns, hopper mortars and food grind-
ing implements indicate the utilization of 
plants. The importance of fishing has been 
assumed. 
Such parallels between ethnographic and 
archaeological data are necessarily general-
ized. They indicate, however, that the basic 
community and economic patterns recorded in 
the ethnographjies of northwestern California 
were established and well-developed by the 
time the Iron Gate site was occupied, nearly 
500 years ago. 
TAXONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS 
The homogeneity within the various classes 
of artifacts, including houses, and the short 
timespan inferred from chronological data are 
indicative of but a single component in the site. 
Following McKern, Willey and Phillips 
( 1958: 21) regard a component as a manifes-
tation of a phase, so the existence of one com-
ponent implies other, related, components. A 
phase is: 
. . . an archaeological unit possessing traits 
sufficiently characteristic to distinguish it from 
all other units similarly conceived, whether of 
the same or other cultures or civilizations, spa-
tially limited to the magnitude of a locality or 
region and chronologically limited to a rela-
tively brief interval of time (Willey and Phillips 
1958: 22). 
Given these criteria, one site is not sufficient 
basis for definition of a phase. 
Even though a formal definition would be 
premature, at least a preliminary characteriza-
tion of a phase based on the Iron Gate site can 
be made. Basic communities would be small 
villages with evidence of a combined hunting-
gathering-fishing economy. The house type 
would be a well-made conical, bark-covered 
structure set over a shallow pit. Ideally, there 
should be a rock-lined firepit in the center of 
the floor. Secondary characteristics would in-
clude small, basically triangular, stemmed and 
40 BULLETIN, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON No. 4 
barbed projectile points made from thin flakes 
and an assortment of crudely shaped cutting 
implements. Food processing tools would in-
clude thin slab metates, manos which show 
some attempt at shaping, simple pestles and 
hopper mortars. The houses, of course, would 
be the primary basis for distinguishing this 
phase from "other units similarly conceived." 
The minimal distribution of the postulated 
phase will probably be centered along the 
Klamath River at least from its confluence with 
the Shasta River upstream into Oregon; its 
temporal distribution would be from sometime 
before 1300 or 1400 A.D. to about 1600 A.D. 
Hypothetically, this phase would succeed one 
characterized by a less well-developed house 
type and possibly differing artifact forms; it 
would be replaced by one nearly identical in 
all respects but house type. Succeeding houses 
should be rectangular plank structures similar 
to those recorded ethnographically, although 
there might be an intervening period when both 
house types were used. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
The Iron Gate site is a prehistoric village 
believed to have been occupied sometime be-
tween 1400 and 1600 A.D. The lower occupa-
tion of one house pit is placed at 1500 A.D. on 
the basis of two radiocarbon dates. The houses 
at the site were conical, bark-covered structures 
typical of northern California; the artifacts 
from the site are more comparable to those 
from the Klamath Lakes region and the Colum-
bia Plateau than to those from central Cali-
fornia. 
Primary cultural affiliations are evident 
with northwest California, meaning, generally, 
that part of California west of the Cascade-
Sierra ranges and north of the Sacramento Val-
ley, but excluding the coastal region. This con-
clusion is based on the close similarities be-
tween the Iron Gate site and other sites reported 
in the region. Close parallels are evident in 
terms of corresponding house forms, projectile 
point forms and general artifact inventories. 
With the exception of a single distinctive form 
of projectile point there is no evidence of affili-
ation with the culture center on the Lower 
Klamath River. Lack of an assemblage of bone 
a1tifacts and large obsidian blades and the 
presence of circular, r~ther than rectangular, 
houses precludes any ciose relationships with 
the Northwestern California Culture Province 
proper, at least on an archaeological basis. 
In terms of cultural affiliations on a larger 
scale, the culture represented by the Iron Gate 
site may be viewed as one which is transitional 
between central California and the Klamath 
Lakes-Columbia Plateau regions. The house 
type and the utilization of acorns and hopper 
mortars are Californian traits, whereas the ar-
tifact inventory and the projectile point forms 
are more like those to the north and northeast. 
Kroeber (1939: 55) classed the ethnographic 
gtoups inhabiting the area of the site as transi-
tional between the Central California and 
Northwestern California Culture Provinces. 
The differing interpretations may be because 
of the limitations of the archaeological data or 
they may be because there were significant 
changes in the three or four hundred years 
since the Iron Gate site was occupied. The Iron 
Gate houses are good evidence for the latter. 
It is not known when the rectangular houses re-
placed the circular house in the area, but it is 
certain that it was after 1500 A.D., thus indi-
cating that strong cultural influences from the 
lower Klamath River are probably late in the 
Iron Gate region. 
The culture represented by the Iron Gate 
site cannot be directly associated with the cul-
ture of the Shasta Indians, in whose territory 
the site is located. However, the site is consid-
ered to represent a phase in Shasta culture 
history. 
1967 LEONHARDY: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PREHISTORIC VILLAGE 41 
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1"3258 

PUBLICATIONS 
Museum of Natural History 
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Bulletins Titles Price 
No. 1 Cenozoic Stratigraphy of the Owyhee Region, Southeastern Oregon; Kittle-
man, L. R. et al., 45 pp., 9 plates 11 figures, (December 1965) $1.50 
No. 2 Notes on some Upper Miocene Shrews from Oregon, Hutchison, J. H., 17 
figures, (March 1966) $1.25 
No. 3 A New Archaic Cetacean from the Oligocene of Northwest Oregon, Emlong, 
D., (October 1966) $1.50 
No. 4 The Archaeology of a Late Prehistoric Village in Northwestern California; 
Leonhardy, Frank C. (March 1967) $1.00 
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