The Virtual Meier Site

Caches

A cache is a discrete group of items believed by the archaeologist to bave been deposited by ancient peoples at a single moment in time; a cache, then, is not an accumulation of items, representing several episodes of activity, but a depost resulting from a single, discrete action. This action, furthermore, deposited like or associated items. Several types of caches were found at Meier. A new weight cache (as shown above) was found in the northern 1/3 of the plankhouse, consisting of a neat stack of six basalt netweights. Other caches include deposits of lithic cores, hammerstones and antler tines (probably pressure-flaking tools), caches of deer metapodials (lower-limb bones used for making bone tools, such as points and awls) and caches of metal items, such as copper tubes (obtained from Euroamerican traders after contact in the early 1790's AD).

Caches are fascinating features, because (if properly identified) they represent a very brief but meaningful moment in time, in which the mind of a person in the past is rather more 'accessible' than usual in archaeology: here we may observe what was considered to be associated with what; how many of such an item are deemed worthy of caching, suggesting their value, and so on. Theoretically, caches may also be used in the inference of abandonment behaviour, because people will cache different types of items depending on the circumstances of their leaving their residences. At Meier, unfortunately, we cannot be sure which caches are the latest (most recent), and which are the oldest, because it seems a constant or near-constant lower elevation was maintained in the pits throughout the 400-year occupation, and because

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