Shxwexwó:s (Place of the Thunderbird), A Terraced Hillside Settlement on the Harrison River: Examining an Undocumented Form of Residential Landscape.

The hillside settlement of Shxwexwó:s (Place of the Thunderbird) (DhRl-97) is located in the midst of a densely settled residential landscape at the confluence of the Chehalis and Harrison Rivers in southwestern British Columbia. Hillside settlements such as Shxwexwó:s have rarely been investigated archaeologically anywhere in the Salish Sea or Northwest Coast, which may contribute to major gaps in our understanding of past land use and social histories. Our mapping and excavations indicate that as many as 40 family-sized groups created platforms on which they could erect small houses primarily between approximately 1500 and 1200 cal BP. Faunal and botanical evidence reveals people were living on these platforms through much of the year, hunting for deer and other mammals, harvesting plants, and fishing for salmon. Artifact distributions and analyses reveal that wide-ranging activities occurred across a large portion of the site and that people had access to a variety of local and non-local tool stone materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]