Virginia L Butler
Biographic Data
| ID | 194119 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Virginia L Butler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Virginia L |
| FAMILY NAME | Butler |
| SIGNATURE | BUTLER V L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Portland State University |
| ORCID | 0009-0005-6121-6926 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 399 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Documenting the Effects of Laboratory Sorting in Zooarchaeology: Lessons Learned from the Čḯx w icən Project
Zooarchaeologists routinely analyze assemblages that were initially sorted into major animal type (birds, mammals, fish, invertebrates) by students or lab technicians with varied backgrounds in zooarchaeology. Sorting errors are probably made in this initial phase, which can affect taxonomic representation and understanding of human–animal relationships. Recent study of the immense faunal assemblage (over 1 million NSP [Number of Specimens]) from…
Reflections on zooarchaeology in East Polynesia: Human‐animal interactions and human ecodynamics
The essay summarizes the key pillars of human ecodynamics (HE) research and then highlights the most trenchant ideas from each of the seven papers in the Special Issue, especially as they intersect with HE
When less is more: Element selection as sampling strategy in zooarchaeology
The Čḯxwicən project of Northwest Washington State, U.S.A: Opportunity lost, opportunity found
Čḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son) is a 2700 year-old ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (LEKT), located on the northwest coast of Washington State, U.S.A. The Čḯxwicən project has scientific values that broadly contribute to research in human ecodynamics and maritime foragers, given the scale of the project, excavation methods, and enormous quantities of faunal materials recovered. The village holds great significance to the LEKT…
Exploring ecodynamics of coastal foragers using integrated faunal records from Čḯxwicən village (Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington, U.S.A.)
Extensive 2004 excavation of Čḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son), traditional home of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington State, U.S.A., documented human occupation spanning the last 2700 years with fine geo-stratigraphic control and 102 radiocarbon samples. Remains of multiple plankhouses were documented. Occupation spans large-magnitude earthquakes, periods of climate change, and change in nearshore habitat. Our project began i…
Impacts of resource fluctuations and recurrent tsunamis on the occupational history of Čḯxwicən, a Salishan village on the southern shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State, U.S.A
A summed probability density function (spdf), generated from the catalog of 101 radiocarbon ages on wood and charcoal from the Čḯxwicən archaeological site (Washington State, USA), serves as a proxy for the site's occupational history over the last 2500 years. Significant differences between spdfs derived from a null model of population growth (a bootstrapped logistic equation) and the observed index suggest relatively less cultural activity at Č…
Human ecodynamics: A perspective for the study of long-term change in socioecological systems
Human ecodynamics (H.E.) refers to processes of stability, resilience, and change in socio-ecological relationships or systems. H.E. research involves interdisciplinary study of the human condition as it affects and is affected by the rest of the non-human world. In this paper, we review the intellectual history of the human ecodynamics concept over the past several decades, as it has emerged out of classical ecology, anthropology, behavioral eco…
Guest editor preface
The sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) of Čḯxwicən: Socioenvironmental lessons from an unusually abundant species
We analyzed sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) remains from Čḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a 2700 year-old ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington state, U.S.A., to improve understanding of how this species was used by Native American/First Nations peoples in the past. Though sablefish are abundant at Čḯxwicən, and limited ethnographic accounts indicate they were highly prized in northwestern North America, the…
Increasing the Robustness of Meta-analysis Through Life History and Middle-Range Models: An Example from the Northeast Pacific
Using bone fragmentation records to investigate coastal human ecodynamics: A case study from Čḯxwicən (Washington State, USA)
Coastal shell middens are known for their generally excellent preservation and abundant identifiable faunal remains, including delicate fish and bird bones that are often rare or poorly preserved at non-shell midden sites. Thus, when we began our human ecodynamics research project focused on the fauna from Čḯxwicən (45CA523, pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a large ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, located on the shore of the Strait of…
Fish Remains from Tangatatau Rockshelter
On the validity of the radiographic method for determining age of ancient salmon
Assessing reproducibility in faunal analysis using blind tests: A case study from northwestern North America
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin: Younger Dryas-aged faunal remains from the Botanical Lens, Paisley Cave 2, Oregon
Tracking Fish and Human Response to Earthquakes on the Northwest Coast of Washington State, USA: A Preliminary Study at Tse-whit-zen
Evidence of large earthquakes occurring along the Pacific Northwest Coast is reflected in coastal stratigraphy from Oregon to British Columbia, where there also exists an extensive archaeological record of Native American occupation. Tse-whit-zen, a large Native American village dating between ∼2800 yrs BP and the historic era, located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, was excavated with exceptionally fine stratigraphic control allowi…
Chronology and Ecology of Late Pleistocene Megafauna in the Northern Willamette Valley, Oregon
Since the mid-19th century, western Oregon's Willamette Valley has been a source of remains from a wide variety of extinct megafauna. Few of these have been previously described or dated, but new chronologic and isotopic analyses in conjunction with updated evaluations of stratigraphic context provide substantial new information on the species present, timing of losses, and paleoenvironmental conditions. Using subfossil material from the northern…
New Scholarship on Victorian India
A plethora of fine books on Victorian India have been published in the last decade or so, a number of them in the past three years. These works cover a wide range of postcolonial thought: histories of Indian sub-cultures (Bhavani Raman's Document Raj , on scribal culture in the Madras East India company and Davesh Soneji's study of the devadāsī of South India in Unfinished Gestures ); histories of English dissident subcultures (late Victorian hom…
Stable isotope and ancient DNA analysis of dog remains from Cathlapotle (45CL1), a contact-era site on the Lower Columbia River
On the Role of Coastal Landscape Evolution in Detecting Fish Weirs: A Pacific Northwest Coast Example From Washington State
In North America's Pacific Northwest, archaeologists have extensively researched coastal fish weirs—one of several types of mass fish capture technologies used by precontact peoples—and their role in the development of delayed return economies and implications for social organization. Fish weirs, however, are typically situated in areas that are susceptible to a range of geomorphic and anthropogenic factors that affect their preservation and visi…
Introduction to Zooarchaeological Method and Theory: A Special Issue Honoring R. Lee Lyman
Seeking Balance in “Human Impacts” Research. Comment on Julio Baisre's “Setting a Baseline for Caribbean Fisheries”
Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases
Review of Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases. Amber M. VanDerwarker and Tanya M. Peres, eds. 2010. Springer, New York. Pp. 317, 13 color illustrations, 13 black-and-white illustrations. $129.00 (hardback). ISBN 9781441909343
Local and Traditional Knowledge and the Historical Ecologyof Pacific Herring in Alaska
Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) have long been a critical resource in the marine food web of the Gulf of Alaska. While the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 wreaked havoc on Prince William Sound herring populations in the northern Gulf, the southern Gulf also has been impacted, if less severely, by commercial fishing, habitat degradation, and environmental changes over the past century. Just how much Southeast Alaska’s herring have been affected i…
Archaeological Evidence for Resilience of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations and the Socioecological System over the last ~7,500 years
Campbell, S. K., and V. L. Butler. 2010. Archaeological evidence for resilience of Pacific Northwest salmon populations and the socioecological system over the last ~7,500 years. Ecology and Society 15(1): 17. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03151-150117
The Role of Bone Density in Structuring Prehistoric Salmon Bone Assemblages
Do Digestive Processes Leave Diagnostic Traces on Fish Bones
Fish feeding behaviour and fish capture: The case for variation in Lapita fishing strategies
Relationships between fish feeding behavior and human predation strategies are examined in order to identify Lapita fishing strategies. Inherent properties of herbivores/omnivores versus carnivores suggest the kinds of fishing strategies best able to catch fishes representing these feeding groups. Comparison of fish faunal assemblages from nine Lapita sites distributed from the Mussau Islands, Papua New Guinea to Western Polynesia reveals some st…
Tui Chub Taphonomy and the Importance of Marsh Resources in the Western Great Basin of North America
Debates about the importance of marsh resources to prehistoric human subsistence in the western Great Basin are longstanding. Recent questions regarding the natural vs. cultural origin of fish remains in lakeside archaeological sites further impede understanding of ancient subsistence patterns. Taphonomic study of a huge assemblage of tui chub (Gila bicolor) remains from an archaeological site in Stillwater Marsh, western Nevada, was undertaken t…
Natural Versus Cultural Salmonid Remains: Origin of The Dalles Roadcut Bones, Columbia River, Oregon, U.S.A
Resource depression on the Northwest Coast of North America
The mammal and fish faunal record from eight sites on the Columbia River [Oregon, USA) dating to the last 2200 years is examined to study subsistence change before and after European contact. Results show an increased use of low-ranked resources before contact and increased use of high-ranked resources after contact, trends that are predicted from changing demography and human predation pressure
Changing fish use on Mangaia, southern Cook Islands: Resource Depression and the Prey Choice Model
This study applies the prey choice model from foraging theory to explain changing human use of fish during the 700-year occupation of Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, southern Cook Islands. The prey choice model suggests that predators will focus initially on high ranked prey, turning to lower ranked prey if abundance of higher ranked prey declines. It is suggested that increasing human population size would have resulted in increases in harvesti…
Archaeological Evidence for Resilience of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations and the Socioecological System over the last ~7,500 years
Campbell, S. K., and V. L. Butler. 2010. Archaeological evidence for resilience of Pacific Northwest salmon populations and the socioecological system over the last ~7,500 years. Ecology and Society 15(1): 17. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03151-150117
Assessing reproducibility in faunal analysis using blind tests: A case study from northwestern North America
Human ecodynamics: A perspective for the study of long-term change in socioecological systems
Human ecodynamics (H.E.) refers to processes of stability, resilience, and change in socio-ecological relationships or systems. H.E. research involves interdisciplinary study of the human condition as it affects and is affected by the rest of the non-human world. In this paper, we review the intellectual history of the human ecodynamics concept over the past several decades, as it has emerged out of classical ecology, anthropology, behavioral eco…
Is there an early Far Western Lapita province? Sample size effects and new evidence from Eloaua Island
Stable isotope and ancient DNA analysis of dog remains from Cathlapotle (45CL1), a contact-era site on the Lower Columbia River
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin: Younger Dryas-aged faunal remains from the Botanical Lens, Paisley Cave 2, Oregon
Increasing the Robustness of Meta-analysis Through Life History and Middle-Range Models: An Example from the Northeast Pacific
Local and Traditional Knowledge and the Historical Ecologyof Pacific Herring in Alaska
Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) have long been a critical resource in the marine food web of the Gulf of Alaska. While the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 wreaked havoc on Prince William Sound herring populations in the northern Gulf, the southern Gulf also has been impacted, if less severely, by commercial fishing, habitat degradation, and environmental changes over the past century. Just how much Southeast Alaska’s herring have been affected i…
When less is more: Element selection as sampling strategy in zooarchaeology
Using bone fragmentation records to investigate coastal human ecodynamics: A case study from Čḯxwicən (Washington State, USA)
Coastal shell middens are known for their generally excellent preservation and abundant identifiable faunal remains, including delicate fish and bird bones that are often rare or poorly preserved at non-shell midden sites. Thus, when we began our human ecodynamics research project focused on the fauna from Čḯxwicən (45CA523, pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a large ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, located on the shore of the Strait of…
On the validity of the radiographic method for determining age of ancient salmon
Seeking Balance in “Human Impacts” Research. Comment on Julio Baisre's “Setting a Baseline for Caribbean Fisheries”
Relic Hunting, Archaeology, and Loss of Native American Heritage at the Dalles
VIRGINIA L. BUTLER Relic Hunting, Archaeology, and Loss of Native American Heritage at The Dalles Excavation of WakeMap mound will be resumedthissummerbyuniversity students who willfind their excavationof last year sadlyaddled by pot huntersdisclaimed by the Oregon Archaeological Society... most of thearea around it [the mound] are beginningto look as iftheyhad beenworked overbya gold dredge.... The Indians dont likeitbut arent doing anythingabou…
Where Have All the Native Fish Gone? The Fate of Fish That Lewis and Clark Encountered on the Lower Columbia River
Virginia L. Butler Where Have All the Mive Fish Gone? TheFate ofFishThatLewisandClark Encountered onthe LowerColumbia River Fish have been part of the fabric ofNorthwest peoples' lives for thousands of years. History, archaeology, and oral tradi tions of living peoples make this long-term connection clear.A nineteenth-century engraving by JohnMix Stanley shows a group of Indians camped on a large sandbar near The Dalles, Oregon Terri tory, in 185…
The sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) of Čḯxwicən: Socioenvironmental lessons from an unusually abundant species
We analyzed sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) remains from Čḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a 2700 year-old ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington state, U.S.A., to improve understanding of how this species was used by Native American/First Nations peoples in the past. Though sablefish are abundant at Čḯxwicən, and limited ethnographic accounts indicate they were highly prized in northwestern North America, the…
On the Role of Coastal Landscape Evolution in Detecting Fish Weirs: A Pacific Northwest Coast Example From Washington State
In North America's Pacific Northwest, archaeologists have extensively researched coastal fish weirs—one of several types of mass fish capture technologies used by precontact peoples—and their role in the development of delayed return economies and implications for social organization. Fish weirs, however, are typically situated in areas that are susceptible to a range of geomorphic and anthropogenic factors that affect their preservation and visi…
Introduction to Zooarchaeological Method and Theory: A Special Issue Honoring R. Lee Lyman
Is there an early Far Western Lapita province? Sample size effects and new evidence from Eloaua Island
Comment on “Changing Late Holocene Flooding Frequencies on the Columbia River, Washington” by James C. Chatters and Karin A. Hoover
Natural Versus Cultural Salmonid Remains: Origin of The Dalles Roadcut Bones, Columbia River, Oregon, U.S.A
The Role of Bone Density in Structuring Prehistoric Salmon Bone Assemblages
Fish feeding behaviour and fish capture: The case for variation in Lapita fishing strategies
Relationships between fish feeding behavior and human predation strategies are examined in order to identify Lapita fishing strategies. Inherent properties of herbivores/omnivores versus carnivores suggest the kinds of fishing strategies best able to catch fishes representing these feeding groups. Comparison of fish faunal assemblages from nine Lapita sites distributed from the Mussau Islands, Papua New Guinea to Western Polynesia reveals some st…
Prehistory and human ecology in Eastern Polynesia: Excavations at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, Cook Islands
The Tangatatau Rockshelter (site MAN‐44, Mangaia, Cook Islands) has produced one of Eastern Polynesia's most comprehensive chrono‐stratigraphic sequences of artifacts, vertebrate and invertebrate fauna, and botanical materials. Two seasons of excavation exposed 29 m 2 out of an estimated total floor area of 225 m 2 . A suite of 30 radiocarbon age determinations indicates that human use of the shelter spanned the period from ca. 1000 to 1700 cal A…
Tui Chub Taphonomy and the Importance of Marsh Resources in the Western Great Basin of North America
Debates about the importance of marsh resources to prehistoric human subsistence in the western Great Basin are longstanding. Recent questions regarding the natural vs. cultural origin of fish remains in lakeside archaeological sites further impede understanding of ancient subsistence patterns. Taphonomic study of a huge assemblage of tui chub (Gila bicolor) remains from an archaeological site in Stillwater Marsh, western Nevada, was undertaken t…
Do Digestive Processes Leave Diagnostic Traces on Fish Bones
Resource depression on the Northwest Coast of North America
The mammal and fish faunal record from eight sites on the Columbia River [Oregon, USA) dating to the last 2200 years is examined to study subsistence change before and after European contact. Results show an increased use of low-ranked resources before contact and increased use of high-ranked resources after contact, trends that are predicted from changing demography and human predation pressure
Changing fish use on Mangaia, southern Cook Islands: Resource Depression and the Prey Choice Model
This study applies the prey choice model from foraging theory to explain changing human use of fish during the 700-year occupation of Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, southern Cook Islands. The prey choice model suggests that predators will focus initially on high ranked prey, turning to lower ranked prey if abundance of higher ranked prey declines. It is suggested that increasing human population size would have resulted in increases in harvesti…
Years of salmon fishing on the Columbia River, North America
A large assemblage of salmon bones excavated 50 yr ago from an ∼10,000-yr-old archaeological site near The Dalles, Oregon, USA, has been the primary evidence that early native people along the Columbia River subsisted on salmon. Recent debate about the human role in creating the deposit prompted excavation of additional deposits and analysis of archaeologic, geologic, and hydrologic conditions at the site. Results indicate an anthropogenic source…
Resource Intensification and Resource Depression in the Pacific Northwest of North America: A Zooarchaeological Review
Where Have All the Native Fish Gone? The Fate of Fish That Lewis and Clark Encountered on the Lower Columbia River
Virginia L. Butler Where Have All the Mive Fish Gone? TheFate ofFishThatLewisandClark Encountered onthe LowerColumbia River Fish have been part of the fabric ofNorthwest peoples' lives for thousands of years. History, archaeology, and oral tradi tions of living peoples make this long-term connection clear.A nineteenth-century engraving by JohnMix Stanley shows a group of Indians camped on a large sandbar near The Dalles, Oregon Terri tory, in 185…
Relic Hunting, Archaeology, and Loss of Native American Heritage at the Dalles
VIRGINIA L. BUTLER Relic Hunting, Archaeology, and Loss of Native American Heritage at The Dalles Excavation of WakeMap mound will be resumedthissummerbyuniversity students who willfind their excavationof last year sadlyaddled by pot huntersdisclaimed by the Oregon Archaeological Society... most of thearea around it [the mound] are beginningto look as iftheyhad beenworked overbya gold dredge.... The Indians dont likeitbut arent doing anythingabou…
Seeking Balance in “Human Impacts” Research. Comment on Julio Baisre's “Setting a Baseline for Caribbean Fisheries”
Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases
Review of Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases. Amber M. VanDerwarker and Tanya M. Peres, eds. 2010. Springer, New York. Pp. 317, 13 color illustrations, 13 black-and-white illustrations. $129.00 (hardback). ISBN 9781441909343
Local and Traditional Knowledge and the Historical Ecologyof Pacific Herring in Alaska
Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) have long been a critical resource in the marine food web of the Gulf of Alaska. While the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 wreaked havoc on Prince William Sound herring populations in the northern Gulf, the southern Gulf also has been impacted, if less severely, by commercial fishing, habitat degradation, and environmental changes over the past century. Just how much Southeast Alaska’s herring have been affected i…
Archaeological Evidence for Resilience of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations and the Socioecological System over the last ~7,500 years
Campbell, S. K., and V. L. Butler. 2010. Archaeological evidence for resilience of Pacific Northwest salmon populations and the socioecological system over the last ~7,500 years. Ecology and Society 15(1): 17. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03151-150117
Introduction to Zooarchaeological Method and Theory: A Special Issue Honoring R. Lee Lyman
On the Role of Coastal Landscape Evolution in Detecting Fish Weirs: A Pacific Northwest Coast Example From Washington State
In North America's Pacific Northwest, archaeologists have extensively researched coastal fish weirs—one of several types of mass fish capture technologies used by precontact peoples—and their role in the development of delayed return economies and implications for social organization. Fish weirs, however, are typically situated in areas that are susceptible to a range of geomorphic and anthropogenic factors that affect their preservation and visi…
Chronology and Ecology of Late Pleistocene Megafauna in the Northern Willamette Valley, Oregon
Since the mid-19th century, western Oregon's Willamette Valley has been a source of remains from a wide variety of extinct megafauna. Few of these have been previously described or dated, but new chronologic and isotopic analyses in conjunction with updated evaluations of stratigraphic context provide substantial new information on the species present, timing of losses, and paleoenvironmental conditions. Using subfossil material from the northern…
New Scholarship on Victorian India
A plethora of fine books on Victorian India have been published in the last decade or so, a number of them in the past three years. These works cover a wide range of postcolonial thought: histories of Indian sub-cultures (Bhavani Raman's Document Raj , on scribal culture in the Madras East India company and Davesh Soneji's study of the devadāsī of South India in Unfinished Gestures ); histories of English dissident subcultures (late Victorian hom…
Stable isotope and ancient DNA analysis of dog remains from Cathlapotle (45CL1), a contact-era site on the Lower Columbia River
Tracking Fish and Human Response to Earthquakes on the Northwest Coast of Washington State, USA: A Preliminary Study at Tse-whit-zen
Evidence of large earthquakes occurring along the Pacific Northwest Coast is reflected in coastal stratigraphy from Oregon to British Columbia, where there also exists an extensive archaeological record of Native American occupation. Tse-whit-zen, a large Native American village dating between ∼2800 yrs BP and the historic era, located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, was excavated with exceptionally fine stratigraphic control allowi…
Fish Remains from Tangatatau Rockshelter
Geography (31 works) · Biology (29 works) · Archaeology (28 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (26 works) · Ecology (19 works) · Fishery (17 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (15 works) · Fish (14 works) · History (12 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (11 works)