The Flannagan Site:

A Middle and Late Archaic Site In Oregon's' Willamette Valley

The Flannagan site was inhabited from about 4000 B.C. to about 2000 B.C. during the first half of the West Coast Middle Archaic Period and again during the Late West Coast Archaic Period. During the Middle Archaic of the West Coast the first evidence of houses occurs. Shell middens appear all along the coast as sea level stabilized and groups adopted shellfish into their diets. Fishing makes a broad appearance as well as development of regional styles, trade networks, and mortuary complexes.

The Flannagan Site contained large choppers and earth ovens. The choppers were likely associated with wood for the ovens that were used in the baking of camas, a widely used root crop gathered in the area. Stone grinding tools at the site are suggestive of acorn processing which was important during this time when oak reached its maximum extent in the Willamette Valley. In addition a wide variety of other stone tools were excavated including arrow points (from the Late Archaic period,) knives, drills, bifaces, scrapers, gravers, spokeshaves, utilized flakes, cores, abraders, hammers, mortars, pestles, mill stones, edge-ground cobbles and celts.

The site was excavated in the 1970's by Kathy Toepel in association with the University of Oregon field school. Toepel feels that the Flannagan Site represents a summer and fall hunting and gathering camp where extensive food processing, wood working, animal hide processing, and tool manufacturing occurred repeatedly over long periods of time.

References:

Gilsen, Leland. "The Middle Archaic" Oregon Prehistory 29 May, 1999

Acting Oregon State Archaeologist. Accessed on 2 Nov. 1999 available at http://www.ncn.com/~gilsen/

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