HISTORY OF THE OZETTE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT

            The Ozette Archaeological Project was a long-term excavation and analysis effort conducted by Richard Daugherty and Washington State University (WSU) at Ozette (45CA24), a late prehistoric and early historic Makah settlement located at Cape Alava, a remote location on the Ozette (Makah) Indian Reservation on the northwestern Olympic Peninsula of Washington (Figures 1 and 2). The project focused on ca. 300–400-year-old deposits containing spectacularly preserved water-logged wood and plant fiber artifacts representing at least four large plank longhouses. Daugherty had considerable prior experience with Ozette. He recorded it during a survey of the outer coast of Washington in 1948. Later, as a professor at WSU, he directed field school excavations at Ozette in 1966 and 1967. This work sampled shell midden deposits in several portions of the site and documented almost 2,000 years of occupation. While hints of water-logged deposits were encountered in one portion of the site in 1967, their significance was not appreciated and no follow-up action was taken.

Figure 1.  Location of the Ozette site in Washington State (Kirk 2015:xvi).

Figure 2.  Oblique photograph of Cape Alava, Washington State  (Kirk 2015:cover).

            A powerful winter storm in 1970 caused significant erosion to the cultural deposits at Ozette and a section of the bank collapsed in a previously unsampled portion of the site. The resulting exposure revealed a portion of a preserved longhouse beneath a thick mass of clay representing an old landslide. Slumped sediments now on the beach surface in front of the exposure contained numerous wood and cedar bark artifacts including baskets, cordage, planks, boxes, fish hooks, clubs, etc. The Makah Tribal Council quickly became aware of what had happened and—already having a good working relationship with Daugherty—invited him to return to the site and address the find. 

            This discovery quickly led to the establishment of the Ozette Archaeological Project, a cooperative effort by WSU and the Makah Indian Tribe. It was initially considered to be a salvage effort focused upon the structure revealed in the erosional exposure but, given both the logistical base required to work with the deposits and the early recognition that much more than one preserved house was present, the project developed into a long-term research effort. The transition was accomplished through the support of many entities. The support of the Makah Tribe was crucial. They owned the land at Cape Alava and provided a building to be used as a conservation and analysis laboratory in Neah Bay. More important still, Makah elders helped with the identification of artifacts coming from the site, and younger tribal members worked on the project as excavators, conservators, lab technicians, and in other capacities. Daugherty’s extensive connections resulted in both Federal funding and logistical support from a Marine Corp Helicopter unit stationed in western Washington.

            The initial work in 1970 included establishing a field camp at Cape Alava (Figure 3), including a field laboratory, and learning how to work with the water-logged deposits and the materials recovered from them. Early experience showed that the deposits contained high densities of perishable artifacts which were easily damaged by digging with trowels or shovels and a system was soon set up to use pressurized water to excavate. Water worked well for this purpose, but required an elaborate infrastructure to collect, pump to pressure, distribute to multiple excavators in the site area, and then drain away without damaging anything (Figure 4).  Water-logged plant fiber artifacts could not be allowed to simply dry out and were preserved using a water-soluble wax solution. This treatment began in tanks at the field lab at Cape Alava and continued after they arrived in Neah Bay.

Figure 3.  Aerial photograph of the Ozette field camp, ca. 1970; note the area to be excavated located to the lower left, covered with plastic sheeting to prevent the archaeological deposits from drying (Kirk 2015:25).

Figure 4.  Water from high-pressure hoses washed away the mud overburden blanketing the old house (left); gentle spray freed artifacts without damaging them (right) (Kirk 2015:27).

            Archaeological field schools were conducted at Ozette every summer between 1970 and 1979, and smaller volunteer crews continued to excavate though the fall, winter, and spring during those years. Excavation staff consisted of WSU graduate students who were working on the analysis of various aspects of the site.  Daugherty turned to the use of “professional” crews (mostly students with prior experience working at the site) in 1980 and 1981, and then excavation was terminated later in 1981 (Figure 5). By this time, the Ozette Project had completed the excavation of three contemporaneous longhouses, a portion of a fourth, and a considerable volume of the exterior deposits around them. In doing so, it recovered approximately 60,000 artifacts, 20,000 structural remains, and more than 1,000,000 associated faunal remains (Figure 6). A great majority of this material was preserved beneath an earthquake-driven clay slide that occurred in 1700 AD. Active analysis of some of these materials continued for another five years at WSU. In total, students associated with the Ozette Project completed nine doctoral dissertations and eight master’s theses with these materials. Many of these address aspects of the site’s faunal assemblages, but architecture, household stratigraphy, wood technology, and some artifact classes have also been examined.

Figure 5.  Some excavation squares, measuring two meters by two meters, held as many as 400 artifacts and pieces of artifacts in house-floor deposits; note wale bones at lower right (Kirk 2015:38).

Figure 6.  Wet areas of the site produced remarkably well preserved basketry, cordage and other organic materials (left); a large comb was found among items in a basket (right) (Kirk 2015:16, 33).

            By the mid 1970s, both the increasing size of the Ozette collection and the rise of interest in the collection and related cultural activities led to ideas about a community-based center in Neah Bay to house the collection and support research and cultural education activities related to Ozette and other subjects of interest. Daugherty played a role in supporting this process as well, again helping to secure funding to build a museum. The Makah Cultural and Research Center (MCRC) displaying 500 of the Ozette artifacts (Figure 7), along with research, archival, language, and other resources, opened in Neah Bay in 1979. The original staff included tribal members who had worked at the Ozette excavations. While the MCRC offers wonderful public galleries and significant other space for staff and researchers, this building did not include secure storage space for the entire Ozette collection. Initially, much of the collection and ongoing conservation work continued in the nearby building provided earlier to the Ozette Archaeological Project. The MCRC secured funding and constructed a new environmentally-controlled curatorial facility housing the entire Ozette collection, along with additional laboratory and office space, immediately adjacent to the MCRC, in 1993.

Figure 7.  In the Neah laboratory, WSU staff member and a Makah student re-assembled a whale-fin carving smashed by the mudflow. The whale fin, inlaid with sea otter teeth, can be seen at the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay (Kirk 2015:33).

The content of this page was authored by Gary C. Wessen