Grant Keddie - Grant Keddie

Quiltanton Atlatl

2007. By Grant Keddie Quiltanton Lake Atlatl (EcRg-Y:1). A Technical Description Introduction An Atlatl is a weapon composed of a flexible light spear or dart and a shorter throwing board that acts as a lever to propel the dart through the air. The throwing boards themselves are often called atlatls. This is currently the only example of the throwing board component of an atlatl weapon found in British Columbia. It was found in 1988 by Pat Rozek, a heavy equipment operator. Pat found it sticking out of the mud at the bottom of the freshly drained Quiltanton Lake – located in the Highland Valley east of Ashcroft in the southern Interior of British Columbia . A radio-carbon date obtained on … Continue reading “Quiltanton Atlatl”

Netting Needles of British Columbia

Originally Published in The Midden, 24(3). 2010. By Grant Keddie There are two basic types of needles used in making and repairing nets found in ethnographic collections in British Columbia. The Eye and Tongue needle and the Prong End needle. The first type (figure 1) has often been presented in publications as a traditional First Nation’s artifact. In fact, it was introduced by Europeans to this region. This example is from the fishing village of Arbroath in my ancestral Scotland. The way the Eye and Tongue needle is strung can be seen in figure 2. This style of needle, by having a thin point and the twine sunk in the broad grooves on the sides, passes more easily through the … Continue reading “Netting Needles of British Columbia”

The Mystery of the Saturna Island Figurine Head

Originally published in The Midden, 24(3). 2011. By Grant Keddie David Scott’s Discovery and the Never Ending Story The topic of trans-Pacific contact is a controversial one. It is often said of academics that they ignore evidence that does not fit the accepted status quo. The story of this case is an interesting scenario of how the discovery of an artifact is dealt with when it does not fit our understanding of local history. This story transcends a period of four Museum Curators and now 62 years later is still unresolved. Are we dealing with evidence of ancient long distance trans-Pacific voyaging, long distant trade between the continents of the New World, or an example of unusual refuse from the … Continue reading “The Mystery of the Saturna Island Figurine Head”

Kootenay Lichen Pounder

Originally published in The Midden, 20(1). February 1988. By Grant Keddie Flat, paddle-shaped, stone hand-mauls are found in some large prehistoric village sites in the southeastern interior of British Columbia. Many people have been curious as to what they were used for and how old they are. The specimen shown in Figure 1 seems to me to represent the native artisan’s “mental template” or perfect idea of what a hand-maul of this type should look like. The specimen is one of several hundred handmauls collected by Keith and Ellen Edgell from intermittently flooded sites along the Arrow Lakes. This particular specimen does not appear to have been used. Many similar artifacts are worn down almost to their handles; the bottoms … Continue reading “Kootenay Lichen Pounder”

Human Images. Clothing the Past

Originally published in The Midden, 41(3), 11-14. 2009. By Grant Keddie An important project launched by the Archaeological Society of British Columbia in the 1970s was the documentation of artifacts in private collections. Many of these collections are now dispersed, making this record an important contribution to the understanding of past human behavior—especially in the case of rarer objects. In the spirit of this project, I will describe four examples of rare human images from private collections and one from the Royal B.C. Museum collection. These human figures, one incised on siltstone and four carved of elk antler, may tell us about the kinds of clothing and other body adornment used by their makers. All examples are undated artifacts with … Continue reading “Human Images. Clothing the Past”

Fish Hook Shanks

2013? By Grant Keddie Fish Hook shanks made of stone, bone, antler and shell are parts of composite fish hooks that are armed with a sharp bone point. These artifacts are often seen as typical “West Coast” of Vancouver Island artifacts. In fact, their distribution extends around the southern end of Vancouver Island, and to a lesser extent, north up the east coast of the Island. The RBCM ethnology collection has only one example of a trolling hook from the Victoria area. This specimen (number 728), however, was not one actually used. It was a model made in 1898, and purchased by Charles Newcombe. The hook was said to represent the kind of trolling hooks that local First Nation used … Continue reading “Fish Hook Shanks”

Aboriginal Use and Context of Pipes, Tobacco, and Smoking in Northwestern North America

Originally published in Perspectives on the Archaeology of Pipes, Tobacco and other Smoke Plants in the Ancient Americas. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Cham. 2016. By Grant Keddie 9.1 Introduction Aboriginal groups in the far northwest of North America were some of most northerly Native peoples throughout the Americas to use tobacco (Turner and Taylor 1972). This chapter provides an overview of tobacco consumption and smoking practices of Native peoples living in British Columbia, Canada, and the Northwest Coast of the United States. The discussion breaks the larger region into three subregions— the Interior Plateau of southern British Columbia, the Northern Coast of Alaska and British Columbia, and the Southern Coast of British Columbia—to compare and contrast the uses of … Continue reading “Aboriginal Use and Context of Pipes, Tobacco, and Smoking in Northwestern North America”

Fine Pallets

Originally published in The Midden, 42(4), 6. 2010. By Grant Keddie These two unidentified stone objects, in the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum, are similar in quality of design to the scribe’s pallets that one finds in Egypt. I would suggest that these are fine paint pallets, possibly used in the process of body painting. One upper pallet has two separate carved-out compartments. One compartment shows wear patterns on both sides typical of what we can observe on modern paint pallets where excessive rubbing at the centre wears into the hard surface under the paint. The upper example (DjRi-Y:156) was collected by Charles Newcombe from the “Lower Fraser” in 1913 (old catalogue # 2518). It is only 60mm long … Continue reading “Fine Pallets”

Disc-Shaped Stones

Originally published in The Midden, 43(4), 8-9. 2011. By Grant Keddie There are a large variety of stone objects in museums often referred to as “Donut Stones” or “Gaming Stones.” Two examples in the Royal B.C. Museum collection are unique and worthy of a detailed description. Artifact DkSf-Y:40 This artifact (Figure 1) was found in 1897 in a “shell-mound” in Comox by Walter B. Anderson, the son of Alexander C. Anderson of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This round, flat-sided, diorite-like stone (77mm by 28mm) has grinding around its edge consistent with the kind of wear patterns produced on a rotated grit stone wheel (Figure 2). The artifact weights 305 grams, and is like other similar shaped stones with a bipolar-pecked … Continue reading “Disc-Shaped Stones”

Bone Awls

Originally published in The Midden, 44(1), 10-12. 2012. By Grant Keddie We can all applaud the fact that some archaeologists are asking more theoretical questions, having moved beyond basic artifact description. However, it is clear that research undertaken to espouse new ideas often depends on poorly classified assemblages. Our knowledge of the timing and distribution of even some of the most common artifacts remains uncertain. The precise use of many of the artifacts that are found is often unknown, and sometimes, mistakenly, a correlation is assumed between archaeological and ethnographic artifacts. In order to judge the accuracy of ethnographic information, archaeologists need to be aware of the process of how ethnographic information builds upon and interacts with the ethnographic and … Continue reading “Bone Awls”