THE WORLDS LONGEST-LIVED CORPORATE GROUP - LITHIC ANALYSIS REVEALS PREHISTORIC SOCIAL-ORGANIZATION NEAR LILLOOET, BRITISH-COLUMBIA

The ability to identify distinct types of cherts and chalcedonies at t he large prehistoric housepit site of Keatley Creek on the British Col umbia plateau had made it possible to infer important aspects of socio economic organization from ca. 2400 to 1100 B.P. Each large housepit t ested at the site appears to have a distinctive and characteristic com position of chert and chalcedony debitage which remains coherent over time (for at least 1,000 years). Three inferences concerning socioecon omic organization are derived from these observations: (1) residents o f each large housepit probably foraged in distinctly different ranges during nonwinter months where they procured their raw stone materials; (2) residents of each large pithouse formed ''residential corporate g roups'' that differed in their access to stone resources; and (3) the ''residential corporate groups'' that occupied large pithouses retaine d economic rights, corporate identity, and ownership of specific pitho use premises for unusually long time periods spanning more than a mill ennium. Differences between lithic assemblages of housepits were confi rmed by three separate and independent analyses employing successively more sophisticated techniques.