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The Middle Fraser Canyon contains some of the most important archaeological sites in British Columbia, including the remains of ancient villages that supported hundreds, if not thousands, of people. How and why did these villages come into being? Why were they abandoned? In search of answers to these questions, Anna Marie Prentiss and Ian Kuijt take readers on a voyage of discovery into the ancient history of the Stâátâimc, or Upper Lillooet people, from eight thousand years ago to the present. Drawing on evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations and from the knowledge of Stâátâimc people as acquired in interviews, they follow the human occupation of the region from the early peopling of the Interior to the emergence of the first villages. Explanations for the villagesâ establishment and collapse, they argue, lie in the evolution of food-gathering and -processing techniques, climate change, the development of social complexity, and the arrival of Europeans. Prentiss and Kuijtâs wide-ranging vision of culture and ancient history in British Columbia is brought to vivid life through photographs, illustrations, artist renderings and fictionalized accounts of life in the villages, a glossary and pronunciation guide for the Stâátâimc language, and sidebars on archaeological methods, theories, and debates. |
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