Keatley Creek Archaeological Site facts for kids

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Keatley Creek is an important archaeological site in British Columbia, Canada. It's located in the traditional territory of the St'at'imc First Nations people, near the town of Lillooet. The site is named after a former ranch owner and sits on a flat area next to Keatley Creek.

This special place has more than 115 round dips in the ground. These are what's left of ancient homes called pit houses or kekuli. Some of these homes were huge, about 18 to 21 meters (60-70 feet) wide! Keatley Creek is one of the largest and most studied pit house villages in Canada. It has some of the biggest pit house remains ever found by archaeologists.

Experts believe people first lived here as far back as 7,000 years ago. A large, organized community started to grow around 4,800 years ago. Their way of life focused on gathering plants, fishing, and hunting. Keatley Creek really grew around 2,400 years ago, with about 1,000 people living there. At that time, the villages in the Mid-Fraser region were some of the biggest Indigenous communities in what is now Canada, before Europeans arrived.

People aren't sure exactly when or why the community left Keatley Creek. It might have been around 1,000 to 800 years ago. Other nearby villages were also left around the same time. Some ideas include a big natural disaster like a rockslide that stopped fish from swimming upstream, or even climate change. However, there's no clear proof of war or a widespread sickness. First Nations people continued to live in the wider region.

Keatley Creek is very important to First Nations communities. Since the 1980s, it has been studied by Simon Fraser University and other researchers. It's now a recognized cultural heritage area in British Columbia. It's also getting attention from around the world through groups like UNESCO.

Exploring the Keatley Creek Site

Where is Keatley Creek?

The Keatley Creek Site (also known as Borden Number EeR17) is an archaeological dig site in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the traditional lands of the St'at'imc First Nation. The site is on the British Columbia Plateau, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) up the Fraser River. This area is called the Middle Fraser Canyon.

Keatley Creek is found in a small valley, high above the Fraser River. It's about 360 meters (1,200 feet) above the river. The village was built on flat areas, or "benchlands," above the river's deep gorge.

This ancient village was close to many other communities. Some of these, like Lillooet, Fountain, and Pavilion, have been destroyed over time. Today, only a few large pit house villages remain in the Mid-Fraser region, like Kelly Creek and Keatley Creek. These large villages, with over 100 house depressions, were part of a network during a time called the Classic Lillooet Phase.

What is the Site Like?

The Keatley Creek site stretches for over a kilometer. The main part, with the most pit houses, covers an area of about four hectares. People lived here for a very long time. It was one of the biggest villages in the Mid-Fraser region. The earliest carbon dating shows people were there around 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. The site was lived in pretty steadily for thousands of years.

The site has 119 house depressions, which are the remains of pit houses or kekuli. Keatley Creek is famous for how big some of these houses were. Some were more than 20 meters (65 feet) across! However, many were smaller, about 5 meters (16 feet) wide. Studies show that different families or groups lived in these houses. They had different levels of wealth and social standing.

Life in the Ancient Village

At its busiest, around 700 A.D., Keatley Creek had between 700 and 1,000 people. Tools, baskets, and hunting weapons found here tell us that the ancient people were likely the St'at'imc (also called Stl'atl'imx). They spoke a Salish language. These people were gatherer-hunter-fishers. They lived in pit houses during the cold winter months. They stored lots of food and even kept dogs as their only domesticated animal.

Life in these ancient villages was fascinating. Archaeologists have learned a lot about how people lived. They built pit houses by digging a pit first. Then, they used strong wooden posts and beams to create a roof. Layers of wood, mats, and even dirt covered the roof for insulation. Inside, they dug pits lined with birch bark to store food. They also had fireplaces and built benches for sitting and sleeping.

A family could live in a pit house for up to 20 years without major repairs. But eventually, the wood would get old, or pests might move in. When that happened, people would save any good wood and burn the old roof. When families returned from their summer food-gathering trips, they would rebuild their homes. Sometimes they would clear out everything, and other times they would just add new dirt over the old floors, which helped preserve even more details about daily life!

A Year of Activities

Archaeologists believe that the yearly life of the Keatley Creek people was similar to what has been recorded about later First Nations groups.

In the fall, they caught and dried large amounts of salmon along the Fraser River for winter food. After fishing, they would have a big deer hunt in the mountains. When it got cold, everyone moved into their winter villages on the river terraces. Here, they had stored fish, meat, and plants. During winter, families lived closely together in their pit houses to stay warm. They usually entered through a ladder that came out of the smoke hole in the roof.

By March, people were ready to move outside and look for the first edible plants, like young raspberry shoots and wild onions. Spring was often a hungry time if winter food stores ran low. Everyone eagerly awaited the first spring salmon. When the mountain snow melted, many groups went to dig for "mountain potatoes" and lilies. They also hunted and fished in mountain lakes. In summer, they gathered berries like saskatoon berries. By late summer, everyone was back at the river, preparing fish for winter and trading with visitors.

Salmon fishing was a key part of their diet. They caught Sockeye, Chinook, Chum, and Coho salmon from August to October. These were dried and stored for winter. Chinook and Sockeye were preferred because they tasted richer. People also traded dried salmon for goods from far away, like stone bowls, obsidian, and jade.

The climate changed over time, which affected salmon populations. Cooler, wetter periods meant more salmon, while warmer, drier times meant fewer. These changes likely affected the yearly activities of the people.

How Society Was Organized

The pit houses at Keatley Creek were not all the same size. Some were much bigger, and some had more storage pits. Also, the types of food and stone tools found varied between houses. This has led to discussions about how social inequality developed in the village.

Early research suggested that storing large amounts of food, especially salmon, allowed people to stay in one place. This also led to some people having more wealth and power than others. Winter survival depended heavily on stored food, especially as the village grew.

Archaeologists have identified different types of groups living in Keatley Creek. Some houses might have held several families, while others were for a single family. The largest houses had the most storage space and more valuable items. These items included "prestige foods" like Chinook salmon, and special stones like obsidian, steatite, and nephrite, which were hard to get. The four largest pit houses might have belonged to multi-family clans or higher-status social groups. Dogs were also kept by wealthier households for hunting, transport, protection, and even for their hair for weaving.

Later research has suggested that differences in wealth were present but perhaps not as extreme as first thought. Some archaeologists also believe that social differences might have grown during times when the population was shrinking, possibly due to stress or challenges faced by the community. This suggests that inequality might have come from changes in how food was shared and used during difficult times, rather than just from population growth or new technologies.

Studying Keatley Creek: Excavations and Research

Keatley Creek has been actively excavated since 1986. The main projects have been led by Brian Hayden and Anna Marie Prentiss.

The Hayden Project

In 1986, Brian Hayden from Simon Fraser University started the first big project at Keatley Creek. His team wanted to understand why the site was so large and why some of the individual pit houses were so big. Hayden's group also looked at how different families lived together in "residential corporate groups."

Hayden's team studied plant remains, animal bones, and stone tools found at the site. They carefully examined floors, roofs, and fireplaces to understand daily activities and social habits. They also looked at the waste products from making stone tools. Their goal was to compare the economic and social organization of different homes. Hayden's work has continued for many years and has been shared in several publications.

The Prentiss Project

Anna Marie Prentiss from the University of Montana has also studied Keatley Creek as part of her research on Plateau villages. She has explored how these villages changed over time. She wanted to understand the differences between communities that were "economically complex" (had different levels of wealth) and those that were "socially complex" (had different social roles or power).

Prentiss's work at Keatley Creek helps us understand how human societies grew and changed over long periods. Her studies have been published in many articles.

Keatley Creek Pit Houses

The Keatley Creek winter village was built near the Fraser River. This location gave people easy access to important salmon resources. The area also provided many other natural resources, like game for hunting, wood for building, and stone for tools.

How Pit Houses Were Built

The pit houses at Keatley Creek were semi-underground structures. Building them took a lot of work! They were usually round with cone-shaped or pyramid-shaped roofs. People entered the house through a log ladder that came out of an opening in the roof, which also served as a smoke hole. Each person in a pit house had about 2.5 square meters (27 square feet) of floor space.

Like other First Nations homes in the boreal forest, pit houses were environmentally friendly. They left almost no trace on the land once they were abandoned.

Small Pit Houses

Hayden's team studied Housepit 12, one of the smaller pit houses. It was 9 meters (30 feet) wide, while most small ones were about 7 meters (23 feet). Housepit 12 had a strong roof, suggesting its residents weren't the poorest, but they still had less than those in larger homes. There was little sign of a fire hearth, meaning food might have been eaten cold. People likely huddled together for warmth. This house had evidence of lower-quality foods and clothing. There was also very little storage space. The space was divided into areas for butchering, stonework, and open communal areas. There were no special sleeping areas, unlike in larger pit houses.

Medium Pit Houses

Housepit No. 3, a medium-sized pit house, was 14 meters (46 feet) wide. It's estimated that about 30 people, or five to six families, lived here. Finds in this house showed some signs of wealth, like larger storage pits and better food. These residents likely had access to better fishing spots. They used the same type of wood for fuel as the small houses, but there was more evidence of fire use. They had bedding materials along the walls and some raised sleeping platforms. The medium pit house had separate family spaces and a central communal area with a main fireplace.

Large Pit Houses

The large pit houses were very important for Hayden's study of family groups. His team excavated Housepit #7, which was 19 meters (62 feet) wide. They estimated that at least 45 people, perhaps eight separate families, lived there at one time. The items found here showed that these residents had many resources and were wealthy compared to those in smaller houses. They used better building materials. There were multiple fireplaces, some very large, and much more storage space per person.

These occupants had high-quality foods, including more meat like fox, bear, and sheep. They even had scallops, which must have been traded from the coast! They had many valuable items and were generally well-off. They might have even kept dogs as pets. Each family unit in the large pit house had its own fireplace, tools, and comforts. The structure also had a central communal area with a very large fireplace. The way the space was divided suggests different work areas, possibly even a social division, with some families controlling the household and others working for them. It's possible that some members of this household had high status in the whole community. Evidence suggests these major pit houses were lived in continuously for many generations, perhaps over 1,000 years, by the same social group.

Other Structures

Of the 119 pit houses at Keatley Creek, some were used for storage. There were also communal roasting pits outside the homes.

Why Did People Leave?

There's some debate about when Keatley Creek was lived in and why people left. It's hard to be exact because of the small errors that can happen with radiocarbon dating. However, all researchers agree that the large villages disappeared long before Europeans arrived. Even so, Indigenous people never completely left the area, and the population grew again before contact. The Mid-Fraser Canyon villages had one of the highest populations in the Pacific Northwest, so their breakup must have had a big impact on the whole region.

Researchers don't fully agree on the exact reasons for this change. Two main ideas have been suggested: Brian Hayden focuses on new technologies, while Anna Marie Prentiss emphasizes environmental factors.

Early Life and a Big Disaster?

Hayden believes Keatley Creek was lived in from about 2,600 to 1,000 years ago (around 400 BC to 1000 AD). He thinks villages grew when new technologies allowed people to catch and store lots of salmon. This led to social differences and competitive feasts.

Hayden suggests the villages lasted a long time until a major problem with salmon populations. He thinks a huge rockslide near Lillooet at Texas Creek blocked the salmon runs around 1000 AD. This would have created a long-lasting dam, stopping salmon from reaching their spawning grounds. This sudden crisis might have caused people to leave Keatley Creek. However, the exact date of this rockslide and evidence of a large lake behind it are still debated.

Population Growth and Limits

Prentiss, on the other hand, estimates people lived there from about 1,700 to 800 years ago (around 300 to 1200 AD). She thinks the climate was warming when the villages first formed, which might have increased plants but decreased salmon. Small villages might have formed to help manage scarce salmon resources. Later, when the climate became better for salmon, the population grew.

Prentiss suggests that people left in two waves, around 800 years ago (1200 AD). This was during a time of climate change called the Medieval warm period. Stress on these communities was likely made worse by running out of local roots and tubers. Dietary records show that people had to search for food farther away and relied more on lower-quality foods like seeds. This suggests they reached a "Malthusian ceiling," meaning the population grew too large for the available resources, leading to social change and eventually, people leaving the villages.

War, Sickness, or Crisis?

Another researcher, Morin, found that the highest population at Keatley Creek was between 1,550 and 1,150 years ago (400 AD and 800 AD), peaking around 1,200 years ago (700 AD). He believes Keatley Creek's population dropped sharply starting in the 9th century. By 950 years ago (1000 AD), the population was less than half of what it was three centuries before.

Morin also looks at problems within the Mid-Fraser society. While there's little proof of warfare, it might have increased with the introduction of the bow and arrow. Morin and others also suggest that changes in salmon populations, combined with a dense population, could have made people more vulnerable to diseases.

In summary, researchers agree that the Mid-Fraser region had a rich history. It included the growth of many large villages with very high populations, much higher than today. These settlements were abandoned at least six centuries before Europeans arrived. The history of these communities likely involved new villages being founded, powerful leaders rising and falling, shifting alliances, new technologies and rituals spreading, and times of both conflict and peace, plenty and scarcity. While archaeology can only show us a general outline, researchers continue to learn more about the long and amazing human past of this remarkable region.

Keatley Creek: A Special Heritage Site

Keatley Creek is very important to local First Nations peoples. For over a century, colonial policies tried to destroy their culture. Now, they are working to reclaim their history, language, and identities.

Because Keatley Creek was home to a large community for a very long time, it's extremely important for archaeological study. It shows the result of centuries of human experience with pit house living. The site adds to our knowledge of North American history and communities. It suggests a past that was more complex and diverse than previously thought. Today, the site is recognized as a special heritage resource for British Columbia.

Keatley Creek has also been called a "world heritage quality site." It earned this title because its excavation helps us understand how complex hunting and gathering cultures developed. It's also well-preserved, easy to see, and accessible from a nearby highway. The Keatley Creek Site has clear architectural features and provides valuable evidence of complex social organization. Recently, the site gained attention at a UNESCO conference in Mexico City.

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