Village of Paul Mason Site

The Paul Mason Site, discovered in 1981, is located on a high bedrock bank about 25 metres above the present river level. It is not mentioned in the oral history at all. This village site had been completely lost from the memories of the Gitselasu. This being the case, the only data we have about the Paul Mason Site comes from its archaeological investigation. If you were to visit the Paul Mason Site today, you would find ten depressions in a slope, with a fairly large area of flat ground above. These depressions are actually prepared house floors.

The archaeological excavations at the Paul Mason Site in 1982 and 1983 uncovered the earliest level of human occupation found in the Kitselas Canyon. The radiocarbon date of about 5000 B.P. (before present) is also one of the oldest in the entire Skeena Valley. This date comes from about one metre below today's surface. The soil zone of this early occupation is named the Bornite Phase (5000 B.P. to 4300 B.P.). The most common artifacts from the Bornite Phase are microblades and flaked cobble tools. Microblades are small flat razor sharp blades used for separating meat from hides, cutting leather and processing fish. They are flaked from a core rock that has a very high silica content. Obsidian and quartz crystal are the two rocks of choice for making these blades. Microblades of both materials were recovered from the Bornite Phase. The obsidian from the Bornite Phase tells us that it originated about 350 kilometres south-east of Kitselas Canyon in the Anahim area of the Chilcotin Plateau. This archaeological discovery is intriguing because it indicates that the people of the Bornite Phas had either interior origins or inland trade connections a few hundred years before the earliest occupation found at Gitaus and their trading networks with people from Prince Rupert Harbout. During the Bornite Phase, the Paul Mason Site was a seasonal camp, presumably occupied from mid to late summer. This is based on the fact that there is no evidence of permanent houses at that level.

The next phase represented at the Paul Mason Site is the Gitaus Phase (4300 B.P. to 3600 B.P.). The most drastic change in artifacts between this phase and the previous Bornite Phase is the decline, or almost total absence of microblades. It is likely that the Paul Mason Site and Gitaus were inhabited by the same group of people, as the tools found at both sites are very similar. This phase also indicates a seasonal camp, occupied during the summer, once again based on the lack of evidence of winter dwellings.

The Skeena Phase (3600 B.P. to 3200 B.P.0 was not represented at the Paul Mason Site. The next phase that has any direct relationship to the Paul Mason Site is the Paul Mason Phase (3200 B.P. to 2700 B.P.). It was in this phase that there is the first evidence of permanent dwellings. This is shown by the presence of prepared house floors. There was a decline in the number of chipped tools such as bifacial points. There were more groundstone and cobble tools, indicating the continued importance of salmon in the region. On of the factors that led to the permanent settlement of the Paul Mason Site is the development of drying fish. This was the last Phase detected at the Paul Mason Site.

When the excavation of the Paul Mason Site was done, it provided some interesting data about the houses. Both of the house floors excavated showed two hearths, one at the front of the house and one at the back. This suggets that possibly there were two families living in each house, each with their own hearth. There have been questions asked as to the social organization of the inhabitants of the Paul Mason Site. It is very likely that the people living at this site were members of an egalitarian society. One of the biggest arguments for this point of view is the fact that the ten house floors are of very similar size. The villages of Gitsaex and Gitlaxdzawk displayed a large range of house sizes. The inhabitants of Gitsaex and Gitlaxdzawk were definitely living in a ranked society and we know that the more important chiefs had the larger houses. It is therefore likely that the inhabitants of the Paul Mason Site were living in an egalitarian society. Another piece of evidence that supports this idea is the lack of status indicators, such as labrets and ground slate daggers, at the site.

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