Abstract

Archaeological evidence from two village sites in the Prince Rupert lower Skeena River area, the McNichol Creek site and the Clay Creek site, reveals significant increases in house size, as well as changes in construction technique, during the last 1500 years. Correlated with this increase in house size are changes in household form. Clearly, northern Northwest Coast households became larger and more complexly organized after 1500 BP, a period when many archaeologists argue that the ethnographic cultural pattern had become firmly established. We explore some of the implications of these changes in household organization.