Keatley Creek Archaeological Site

Keatley Creek is a significant archaeological site in the interior of British Columbia and in the traditional territory of the St'at'imc peoples. Its location is in the Glen Fraser area of the Fraser Canyon ranchlands about 18 miles from the town of Lillooet on a benchland flanking Keatley Creek, whose name derives from a former ranch owner, and from which the site takes its name.

The site is home to more than 115 pit house (quiggly hole or kekuli) depressions, left from semi-subterranean wooden dwellings, some of which would have been 18 to 21 meters in diameter. The site is one of the largest and well-studied house pit village sites in Canada, home to some of the biggest house pit depressions in the archaeological record.

Researchers believe that the site was first inhabited as early as 7,000 Before Present. A large complex community whose economy centered around gathering, fishing, and hunting began developing from 4,800 BP. The Keatley Creek site blossomed from around 2,400 BP with a population of about 1,000 people. At this time the network of villages in the Mid-Fraser region would have been one of the largest pre-contact aboriginal communities in the modern borders of Canada. Although there is continued debate about the sites occupation and abandonment or depopulation, the community was vacated perhaps as early as 1,000 BP or as late as 800 BP, as were the other neighboring villages. No decisive evidence has been found of either warfare or a devastating epidemic, although this as well as a environmental catastrophe or climate change have all been theorized, and aboriginal peoples continued living throughout the region.

Keatley Creek holds a special heritage importance to First Nations communities. Since the mid-1980s the site has also been the subject of the Simon Fraser University's Fraser River Investigations into Corporate Group Archaeology Project, led by Dr. Brian Hayden, as well as other research projects led by Dr. Anne Marie Prentiss. It is now a provincially recognized cultural heritage area and also gaining international attention through interest at a UNESCO research forum.

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