Revisiting the Locarno Beach Site (DhRt-6), Vancouver, BC

As the type-site for the Locarno Beach phase (ca. 3300-2400 BP) in the Gulf of Georgia regional chronology, the Locarno Beach site is important to Coast Salish culture history. Despite multiple site investigations, lack of data integration hinders our understanding. This thesis critically examines the 60-year history of archaeological investigations at the Locarno Beach site and re-evaluates the site’s lithics assemblage. I compile project summaries to evaluate the impacts that past work had on site investigations and site interpretations over time and to assess the representativeness of extant data. I explore temporal variability using a newly-created data set of already-collected lithic artifacts and radiocarbon dates from four excavations (two previously unanalyzed). Observed trends are then compared with expected patterning for the Locarno Beach phase. Results indicate that while small, sampled portions of the site align with current site interpretations, more spatial and temporal variability is evident for the site as a whole than its designation as a Locarno Beach phase type site suggests.