Snake River Civilization Planning Thread
- Thread starter Eparkhos
- Start date
Outline of Agricultural Development
Eparkhos
Banned
Here's my overhauled timeline for the rise of civilization, now with actual research.
Names
The names the greater Ktunaxa sphere would call themselves would be Ktsawakanintik, which means ‘Children of the Bear’ in all or most of their languages.
Outline of Agricultural Development
The migration of the proto-Ktaxna to the Western Plains occurs around 5000 BC. At this point, the rivers would be more or less fishable, and they would subside upon the populations of salmon, trout, eels, sturgeon and shellfish. This would allow their population to rise dramatically, and they would begin to develop a method of fish farming along the flatter parts of the river. By the time the trouble in the river began around 3500 BC, their population would be a great deal higher than could be sustained by typical hunter-gatherer methods, which leads to an increasing reliance upon the camas and amaranth of the region. As they had always harvested camas, it’s just too important, they would have developed the burn clearance methods of the historic region. They begin to intensify their harvesting from around 4000 BC, getting quite good at it and selecting for increasing tuber size and shorter growing periods, as well as developing boiling and burying methods of cooking camas, which reduces food loss from cooking to a minimum, further increasing food and thus population. A hybrid form of amaranth with a high yield and caloric value is also domesticated (not that hard given the number of prosperous species used OTL), which is used for seed grain and greatly increases food stores while camas is waiting to be harvested. By around 1500 BC, the basics of an agricultural package were developed: Biannual Camas, Bigseed Amaranth and a Balsamroot hybrid with edible leaves, seed and tubers. Rise of horticulture into agriculture allows for increased sedentarism and population numbers. The combination of fish farming, silviculture and the horticulture kick-starts the process of plant domestication, and material complexes grow rapidly in size and number throughout this period, reaching ‘the peak of hunter-gatherer’, to quote Arkenfolm. The steadying of rain patterns and more frequent rain that begins around 800 BC allows for the development of the first cities and true civilization.
The Nature of Agriculture
The Snake-Columbia Agricultural Complex is a rather unique thing, a mixture of farming and fishing that in its early stages would only be possible along those two rivers and their tributaries. Large clay trays, tens of feet long and wide, would sit atop barren ground, containing colonies of the Western Ridged Mussel that were one of the many sources of food derived from the river, while ponds containing eels, trout and sturgeon crowded along the banks of the river, providing even more food. Of course, all of these paled in comparison to the millions of salmon that would swarm upwiver in August through October, who were caught by the thousands and whose dried meat would last throughout the year as a constant source of nourishment for those who fished them; alas, the salmon could not be successfully bred in great numbers. Meanwhile, on land, the chief crops grew in the fertile volcanic soils that had been left by millions of years of volcanism, watered by the extensive network of irrigation canals their tenders had built. Camas could only be harvested after two years of growing, but the farmers knew this and planned around it, burying bulbs in November (not summer, as was customary) so they could be harvested the spring after the next, ending the winter famine and giving them maximum storage time until the next harvest came in. They were also planted in shifts, so there was always a set number of bulbs in the ground, waiting to be harvested. The chief grains, meanwhile, could be harvested much more frequently. Two crops of amaranth would be planted, one in late February and another in mid-June, both of which could be harvested and dried relatively quickly, albeit with a high loss percentage due to the haste needed to preserve them before they began to rot, while balsamroot and the other crops would be planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. All in all, the constant harvesting and fishing left little free time, but the average farmer in the Snake-Columbia Complex would be much healthier, have better nutrition and would have to worry about hunger far less than most of his contemporaries worldwide.
Timeline Proper
~5000 BC: Ancestral Ktanaxa migrate into western Snake River Valley and adopt a mixture of fishing and horticulture
~4000 BC: Domestication of camas begins, accidentally at first then somewhat intentional (spiritual, not scientific) in response to rising population
~3500 BC: Irregularities begin along the Snake forcing increasing reliance upon horticulture and early fish and mussel farming
~1500 BC: The development of an agricultural package, a series of massive population increases and bad weather leads to a period of migration. The Ancestral Ktanaxa expand outwards in all directions, colonizing oases and the Humboldt River in the south, pushing into fellow Ktanaxic peoples on the northern side of Hells Gorge and conquering or displacing the Algic peoples living along the eastern side of the Snake Valley. The only holdouts are the Elkweku in the Bear Valley region.
~1000 BC: The expansion reaches its limit, as the migrants come up against the eastern mountains and/or the limit of arable land. The towns and settlements in the Western Plains use the population movement to colonize the land they left behind, and they begin to grow.
~500 BC: The Snake begins to run fully again, and frequent and steady rainfall brings prosperity and more productive farmland. This gives the long-term trends the kick in the pants they need, and by 300 BC the first era of true civilization has begun.
Names
The names the greater Ktunaxa sphere would call themselves would be Ktsawakanintik, which means ‘Children of the Bear’ in all or most of their languages.
Outline of Agricultural Development
The migration of the proto-Ktaxna to the Western Plains occurs around 5000 BC. At this point, the rivers would be more or less fishable, and they would subside upon the populations of salmon, trout, eels, sturgeon and shellfish. This would allow their population to rise dramatically, and they would begin to develop a method of fish farming along the flatter parts of the river. By the time the trouble in the river began around 3500 BC, their population would be a great deal higher than could be sustained by typical hunter-gatherer methods, which leads to an increasing reliance upon the camas and amaranth of the region. As they had always harvested camas, it’s just too important, they would have developed the burn clearance methods of the historic region. They begin to intensify their harvesting from around 4000 BC, getting quite good at it and selecting for increasing tuber size and shorter growing periods, as well as developing boiling and burying methods of cooking camas, which reduces food loss from cooking to a minimum, further increasing food and thus population. A hybrid form of amaranth with a high yield and caloric value is also domesticated (not that hard given the number of prosperous species used OTL), which is used for seed grain and greatly increases food stores while camas is waiting to be harvested. By around 1500 BC, the basics of an agricultural package were developed: Biannual Camas, Bigseed Amaranth and a Balsamroot hybrid with edible leaves, seed and tubers. Rise of horticulture into agriculture allows for increased sedentarism and population numbers. The combination of fish farming, silviculture and the horticulture kick-starts the process of plant domestication, and material complexes grow rapidly in size and number throughout this period, reaching ‘the peak of hunter-gatherer’, to quote Arkenfolm. The steadying of rain patterns and more frequent rain that begins around 800 BC allows for the development of the first cities and true civilization.
The Nature of Agriculture
The Snake-Columbia Agricultural Complex is a rather unique thing, a mixture of farming and fishing that in its early stages would only be possible along those two rivers and their tributaries. Large clay trays, tens of feet long and wide, would sit atop barren ground, containing colonies of the Western Ridged Mussel that were one of the many sources of food derived from the river, while ponds containing eels, trout and sturgeon crowded along the banks of the river, providing even more food. Of course, all of these paled in comparison to the millions of salmon that would swarm upwiver in August through October, who were caught by the thousands and whose dried meat would last throughout the year as a constant source of nourishment for those who fished them; alas, the salmon could not be successfully bred in great numbers. Meanwhile, on land, the chief crops grew in the fertile volcanic soils that had been left by millions of years of volcanism, watered by the extensive network of irrigation canals their tenders had built. Camas could only be harvested after two years of growing, but the farmers knew this and planned around it, burying bulbs in November (not summer, as was customary) so they could be harvested the spring after the next, ending the winter famine and giving them maximum storage time until the next harvest came in. They were also planted in shifts, so there was always a set number of bulbs in the ground, waiting to be harvested. The chief grains, meanwhile, could be harvested much more frequently. Two crops of amaranth would be planted, one in late February and another in mid-June, both of which could be harvested and dried relatively quickly, albeit with a high loss percentage due to the haste needed to preserve them before they began to rot, while balsamroot and the other crops would be planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. All in all, the constant harvesting and fishing left little free time, but the average farmer in the Snake-Columbia Complex would be much healthier, have better nutrition and would have to worry about hunger far less than most of his contemporaries worldwide.
Timeline Proper
~5000 BC: Ancestral Ktanaxa migrate into western Snake River Valley and adopt a mixture of fishing and horticulture
~4000 BC: Domestication of camas begins, accidentally at first then somewhat intentional (spiritual, not scientific) in response to rising population
~3500 BC: Irregularities begin along the Snake forcing increasing reliance upon horticulture and early fish and mussel farming
~1500 BC: The development of an agricultural package, a series of massive population increases and bad weather leads to a period of migration. The Ancestral Ktanaxa expand outwards in all directions, colonizing oases and the Humboldt River in the south, pushing into fellow Ktanaxic peoples on the northern side of Hells Gorge and conquering or displacing the Algic peoples living along the eastern side of the Snake Valley. The only holdouts are the Elkweku in the Bear Valley region.
~1000 BC: The expansion reaches its limit, as the migrants come up against the eastern mountains and/or the limit of arable land. The towns and settlements in the Western Plains use the population movement to colonize the land they left behind, and they begin to grow.
~500 BC: The Snake begins to run fully again, and frequent and steady rainfall brings prosperity and more productive farmland. This gives the long-term trends the kick in the pants they need, and by 300 BC the first era of true civilization has begun.
Development of States
Eparkhos
Banned
Also, this is something of a plausibility check. I've outline what I think is the most likely way for states to emerge along the western Middle Snake, and if anyone has criticisms I'd like to hear them know, so I can change plans to account for that. @Arkenfolm, if I may.
Development of States
1. The ancient towns and villages that were scattered along the Snake and its tributaries would have cooperated heavily to make the best of the annual salmon runs.
2. The villages that controlled the best fishing locations would have grown larger than the others, and gradually a system would have evolved where the chief villages would have started to take larger cuts of the catch. They balance this out by leading the ritual gift-giving ceremonies and ritual hunts, binding the smaller villages closer towards them with friendly bonds.
3. Gradually, the smaller villages are forced to give up parts of their own catch to continue fishing at the good runs and the gifts given out at the ceremonies only help the headmen, and many of the best warriors and hunters from the smaller settlements move into the towns seeking greater payment from more powerful chiefs and better chances at making a name for themselves.
4. This leads to the rise of a dedicated martial class within the larger towns, which now have both a demographic and military advantage over their subjects. The old gift system becomes limited to the rulers, who are chosen by the major towns, and relations begin to resemble a tribute system. The towns justify their rule over villages by protecting them from raiders and supporting their claims over fields, weirs and hunting ground against other settlements.
5. Increasing amounts of land being tilled and more and more villages subject to towns, the acolytes of the shamans begin to adopt administrative duties, and although there is no record keeping beyond primitive notch-carving and pebble boards, this is the beginning of the first state, with taxes and tribute to support the population of their town.
6. Rising populations leads to conflict between these towns over weirs and fields, which causes an effective arms race of states where those who are able to make the best use of their resources become dominant, which leads to these powerful towns evolving into city-states proper with dedicated martial and administrative castes; the Era of the City-States has begun.
The description of the process makes it seem like the major towns were the only ones gaining, but many of the villages would have willingly (or at least reluctantly) accepted this state of affairs: With the movement of the ex-Humboldt population into the region as raiders in the 1st millenium BC, there are suddenly a lot more barbarian raiders than there were before, and the MAACs of the city-states would be a lot better equipped to fight them off than some little town militia. Also, the increasing pop. would lead to more disputes over land, and if the village next to you outnumberes you by a bit and is currently squating on 'your' land, the local hegemon could be a real help in running them off. In short, the trade-off (paying tribute and losing some of the village's internal power) was worth the rewards (security, an advocate in disputes with other settlements and the 'spiritual power' of the larger town's shaman) for a number of towns.
Development of States
1. The ancient towns and villages that were scattered along the Snake and its tributaries would have cooperated heavily to make the best of the annual salmon runs.
2. The villages that controlled the best fishing locations would have grown larger than the others, and gradually a system would have evolved where the chief villages would have started to take larger cuts of the catch. They balance this out by leading the ritual gift-giving ceremonies and ritual hunts, binding the smaller villages closer towards them with friendly bonds.
3. Gradually, the smaller villages are forced to give up parts of their own catch to continue fishing at the good runs and the gifts given out at the ceremonies only help the headmen, and many of the best warriors and hunters from the smaller settlements move into the towns seeking greater payment from more powerful chiefs and better chances at making a name for themselves.
4. This leads to the rise of a dedicated martial class within the larger towns, which now have both a demographic and military advantage over their subjects. The old gift system becomes limited to the rulers, who are chosen by the major towns, and relations begin to resemble a tribute system. The towns justify their rule over villages by protecting them from raiders and supporting their claims over fields, weirs and hunting ground against other settlements.
5. Increasing amounts of land being tilled and more and more villages subject to towns, the acolytes of the shamans begin to adopt administrative duties, and although there is no record keeping beyond primitive notch-carving and pebble boards, this is the beginning of the first state, with taxes and tribute to support the population of their town.
6. Rising populations leads to conflict between these towns over weirs and fields, which causes an effective arms race of states where those who are able to make the best use of their resources become dominant, which leads to these powerful towns evolving into city-states proper with dedicated martial and administrative castes; the Era of the City-States has begun.
The description of the process makes it seem like the major towns were the only ones gaining, but many of the villages would have willingly (or at least reluctantly) accepted this state of affairs: With the movement of the ex-Humboldt population into the region as raiders in the 1st millenium BC, there are suddenly a lot more barbarian raiders than there were before, and the MAACs of the city-states would be a lot better equipped to fight them off than some little town militia. Also, the increasing pop. would lead to more disputes over land, and if the village next to you outnumberes you by a bit and is currently squating on 'your' land, the local hegemon could be a real help in running them off. In short, the trade-off (paying tribute and losing some of the village's internal power) was worth the rewards (security, an advocate in disputes with other settlements and the 'spiritual power' of the larger town's shaman) for a number of towns.
Looks good so far! I don't know anything about the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest or the development of agriculture, so I can't assess it's accuracy, but it all makes sense to me.
Salmon would've been unreliable in much of the Columbia River system (including the Snake River) upstream from Celilo Falls (near the Dalles) between around 4000 BC and around 1450 AD. Essentially, it's because that by the former date river had cut such a deep channel in the Columbia River Gorge that salmon needed high water to migrate so a drought would affect not just crops, but salmon numbers too. The latter date is because the Columbia River Gorge was dammed by a huge landslide (Bonneville Slide aka "Bridge of the Gods") and the remnants of the natural dam allowed for a more "gradual" natural drop (the Cascades rapids) that is essentially a natural fish ladder. Archaeology confirms this since Plateau cultures borrowed a lot from the desert cultures to the south of them in Nevada and didn't rely on salmon to nearly the degree later cultures in the region did.
Is that what you were referring to by "trouble in the river?" When I started my TL I unfortunately did not fully take this into account or realise how important it was to the history of that region (there is so much I'd do differently if I knew what I know now, even if I always had a few concepts in mind I wanted to build to).
I do like your descriptions of how state formation emerges, but I don't know if it would be the shamans doing it. They would be wealthy individuals, but feared because of their deep connection with spiritual power. Having bureaucrats associated with shamans would get a bit "interesting", given it was acceptable to lynch them for any alleged misuse of their powers. Being too successful was also a serious danger since jealous rival shamans would attempt to assassinate you. So I think instead you'd have people of moderate status associated with headman doing the tribute collection/redistribution duties.
Eparkhos
Banned
I was unaware of this and several of my sources reference salmon runs near the Snake-Malheuser junction c.1500 BC, so are there any sources you have about this? Not questioning you, I'd just like to be able to better incorporate it.
Now that I've done a bit more reading I'm going to rework this, as it appears the Kutenai had shamanistic fraternities not too dissimilar to the lodges of California. I might update the outline to reflect this, but I think that most of the bureaucrats would likely be associated with the headman or maybe subchief rather than the shaman, as you state.
Thanks! Any questions?
I haven't been able to find the actual paper(s) that go in-depth into the scientific mechanics of it, but one of the papers that discusses the landslide and its effects on local culture was "Prehistory of the Pacific Northwest Plateau as Seen from the Interior of British Columbia" (1967).
Would people be able to realize what the problem was, and could an organized state do anything about it?
Salmon were considered a gift from ancient times that would always be there as long as people followed certain rules and rituals and avoided tabooed behavior. There were also mythological explanations as to why certain lakes did not have salmon or other fish. It would be a huge challenge to the local worldview, to say the least, and cause some level of crisis given that even in an organised, agricultural state salmon will be an important source of protein, calories, and fertiliser.
Eparkhos
Banned
Main thread's up. Look forward to seeing y'all there. Especially @Arkenfolm, I don't want to come off as a creepy stalker but your timeline basically inspired mine and I feel like I ought to give a head nod.
Lands of Buttes and Salmon: A Snake River Civilization
NINI`ASHUKWA ~4000 BC Southwestern Idaho Twisting columns of sickly-sweet smoke rose from the fires at the rim of the tent, filling it with an intoxicating haze that stung the shaman’s eyes and made each breath heavier than the last. The feeling of spirits passing through his body was already...
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