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.
No decisive evidence has been found of either warfare or a devastating epidemic, although this as well as an environmental catastrophe or climate change have all been theorized, and aboriginal peoples continued living throughout the region.
[7] Archaeological investigation has concluded the Keatley Creek area was occupied by "residential corporate groups of differing economic and social status"[1] which can also be described as a transegalitarian community.
[7] Tools, baskets and hunting weapons found in excavations of Keatley Creek indicate that its ancient inhabitants had been the Stl'atl'imx, a Salish-speaking people [8] who were gatherer-hunter-fishers living during the cold winter months in pit houses, and engaging in a variety of forms of food storage that included both harvest and material storage, and husbandry of one domesticated animal, the dog.
An early researcher in this area, James Teit recorded that people constructed them by first digging a pit and then acquiring wood for upright posts and horizontal beams.
Such sedentism is widespread in the archaeological record (such as the Middle Jōmon culture of Japan, the northern European Mesolithic, the Natufian of the Near East, the Thule tradition of North America's Western Arctic, etc.).
"[5] Archaeologists have argued for at least a basic level of cultural continuity in the region, noting the consistency between traditional knowledge, oral and written historical records with the archaeological evidence.
This suggests that the yearly round or seasonal life movements of the inhabitants of Keatley Creek were likely in general accord with those recorded in traditional ethnography.
When cold weather set in, everyone would retreat to winter villages on the terraces of the Fraser River, where fish, meat, and plant foods were stored.
Entry was generally via a ladder protruding through the smoke hole of the roof; and we think that people were relatively tightly bunched together in these houses for warmth during the frigid winters.
[4] Trade and exchange for dried salmon also brought together goods from considerable distances away, like ground stone bowls, obsidian, and nephrite jade.
[12] Studies indicate an early socioeconomic strategy[7] and signs of sociopolitical complexity suggesting domestic subgroups within households and within the community at large, especially in the final centuries of Keatley Creek's occupation.
[2] The biggest dwellings have the largest storage capacity, more prestige foods (i.e. chinook salmon) and lithics such as obsidian, steatite and nephrite which would have been difficult to obtain.
Dogs were also kept by higher status dwellings for "hunting, transportation, protection and companionship, clothing (hides), weaving materials (hair), ritual, and food.
"[4] Hayden's group was also interested in the cultural continuity in the region[4] and exploring houses where multiple families lived in what were described as "residential corporate groups"[4] Hayden's expedition examined the botanical, faunal, and lithic remains at the site[13] and explored the formation of different types of strata and construction, closely examining floors, roofs, middens, and hearths.
They sought to identify activities and social habits that occurred at Keatley Creek through examining stone artifacts and debitage (waste products from manufacture).
"[7] Her study of Keatley Creek Site contributes to her exploration of the "rise and fall of human societies during that long time span we call the Archaic.
The area also provided the village access to a wide array of natural resources (game for hunting, wood for construction, stone for tools).
[1] Entrance to the housepit was made possible by a log ladder that emerged through an opening located somewhat centrally in the roof[1] protruding through the smoke hole.
Pit houses, like other First Nations boreal forest home structures, were environmentally friendly leaving almost no footprint on the landscape when abandoned.
Deposits here indicate some elements of wealth, larger storage pits, some higher grade food products, and probable access to better fishing sites than the residents of the smaller housepits.
[4] High quality foods were available including more meat products (such as fox, bear, and sheep) and some unexpected species (such as scallops which would have been obtained in trade from the coast).
[1] Evidence indicates that the major housepits were continuously occupied over several generations, perhaps more than 1,000 years, by "a single, identifiable social group" which maintained the structure's roof, storage areas, and basic organization.
As the villages in the mid-Fraser Canyon contained one of the highest population densities in the Pacific Northwest, their breakup must have had significant repercussions for social life throughout the entire region.
Significant climatic warming was taking place during the initial period of village formation, increasing vegetation and likely decreasing the salmon population.
[5] Perhaps summarizing the common ground in the discussion, Morin and others have written: Rather than a static, timeless picture of the aboriginal past, research in the Mid-Fraser offers a glimpse of the rich history of these peoples and their settlements [like Keatley Creek].
Although archaeology can illuminate no more than an outline of this rich and varied history, researchers will continue to question current understandings of and add information about the long and extraordinary human past of this remarkable region.
"[13] It earned this distinction not only because its excavation is important for understanding the development of complex hunting and gathering cultures[4] but also because it is well preserved, clearly visible, and easily accessed from a nearby highway.
[4] The Keatley Creek Site includes well-defined architectural features and provides valuable evidence of complex socioeconomic organization.
[13] Recently, the site has earned attention at a UNESCO conference hosted as part of its 2013 World Heritage Thematic Programme, at Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Mexico City.