Category: Archaeology

A Well Curated Perspective On BC Archaeology

This issue of The Midden highlights accomplishments of Grant Keddie, Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) curator of archaeology. Grant has recently been honoured with a public service award celebrating fifty years of archeological service in British Columbia. Grant was also the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2012 for his contributions to archaeology. The Midden took this opportunity to interview Grant, select topics of interest of which he has written, and dredged up a list of archived Midden articles from past issues.

Spirited Divers and Spirited Diggers

Originally Published in The Midden, 23(3), 6-7. June 1991. By Grant Keddie Introduction  THE PICTURESQUE Gorge narrows near Victoria is a place where native Songhees dove deep into the water to gain special spirit powers. Here, at the beginning of time, Halys the transformer-being turned a young girl named Camossung into stone. Her name survives today as Camosun College and Camosun Street. Just above the reversible falls caused by the shifting tides, members of the Victoria chapter of the Archaeological Society of B.C. dig into the oldest recorded shell midden on southern Vancouver Island. Two years ago, a small area of the South Gorge Bridge shell midden /DcRu 5) was exposed during construction of a walkway under­neath the Tillicum Road … Continue reading “Spirited Divers and Spirited Diggers”

Boyhood of Adventure

Originally Published in Discovery. Magazine of the Royal BC Museum. 2007. 35:3:4-6 2007. By Robert Moyes Grant Keddie and the Boyhood of Adventure – How the child was father to the archaeologist. Grant Keddie (left) at age 6 with his older brother Graham. Grant Keddie is proud of being a curious fellow. And up on the 11th floor of the Royal BC Museum’s Fannin Building, this long-time curator of Archaeology uses that curiosity to help him interpret nearly 150,000 artifacts that reflect the pre-contact history, ethnography and cultural development of our many First Nations groups. “I’m one of the few archaeologists who still does experiments on tools,” says Keddie, who pursues many of his so-called “projects” in his spare time. … Continue reading “Boyhood of Adventure”

Aboriginal Defensive Sites

By Grant Keddie 1996. Part 1: Settlements for Unsettling Times Over time, glaciers, sea level changes and climate have reshaped our landscape. Around us today is the evidence of how humans have utilized that environment over thousands of years. By studying types of settlements, archaeologists can get a glimpse of how people related both to the natural world and to other people. In the Victoria area, bounded by Cowichan Head to the north and Metchosin to the west, there are about 100 shoreline shell-midden sites which represent the remains of old aboriginal villages. At least 18 of these have been recorded as defensive sites or villages with large wooden defensive walls and/or defensive ditches. In spite of the many observations … Continue reading “Aboriginal Defensive Sites”

Cultural Change in the Gulf of Georgia. Asking the Right Questions

Originally Published in The Midden, 24(3), 3-4. 1992. By Grant Keddie One of the things I find intriguing is the attempts some archaeologists make in trying to fit an artifact collection that is obviously too small, into poorly supported cultural phases. One or two widely divergent radiocarbon dates from a site serve as evidence for a continuous occupation of several thou­sand years. We seem to be preoccu­pied with having to fit every­thing into a nice neat evolutionary scheme when, in fact, human cultures rarely follow such continuous sequencing in environmen­tally rich areas. In the Gulf of Georgia it is most likely that a diversity of cultures moved from different direc­tions, at different times, to merge with and/or displace each other over … Continue reading “Cultural Change in the Gulf of Georgia. Asking the Right Questions”

The Chilcotin Archaeological and Ecological Survey Project

By Grant Keddie. 1978. Introduction: The Chilcotin Archaeological and Ecological Survey Project was initially proposed by Paul Sneed of the University of B.C. The project was to be part of a long term program utilizing the latest, as well as new experimental methods, in the regional approach to cultural ecology. As a result of a brief reconnaissance to the lower Chilcotin River area during the summer of 1970 by Mr. Sneed and the author, it was decided that this region – heavily utilized in prehistoric times, was in need of an information recovery project before it was engulfed by the energies of modern man. A major threat to the area involved the construction of the proposed Moran Dam, seventy river … Continue reading “The Chilcotin Archaeological and Ecological Survey Project”

The Atlatl Weapon

By Grant Keddie. 1988. Introduction The atlatl (pronounced at-ul-at-ul) is a fascinating weapon, used long before the bow and arrow. An atlatl is made of wood or antler, often thin and flat, and ranges from 30 cm to 1 meter in length. One end is held in the hand while the butt of a light spear is placed in a surface groove at the other end. At the end of the groove is a raised spur or attached pin to hold the bottom of the spear in place while it is held in a slightly raised position by the same hand that holds the handle end of the atlatl. Using the leverage of this short board, which functioned like an … Continue reading “The Atlatl Weapon”

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”

Bone Body Armour?

Originally published in The Midden, 44(2), 22-23. 2012. Grant Keddie A unique artifact from the collection of the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM), DhRs-1:9482, is made from a ground and shaped piece of whale scapula (Figures 1 and 2 above). It was part of a collection originally donated in 1950 to the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History by P.T.O. Menzies. Menzies had collected these artifacts from the Eburne or Marpole site in 1931. I suggest that this is another example of the unique pair of whale bone armlets (DgRw-4:3012) found at the False Narrows site on Gabriola Island. These armlets were extremely fragmented when uncovered but were meticu­lously reconstructed by the conservation unit at the RBCM (Figure 4). Before reburial, … Continue reading “Bone Body Armour?”

An Archer’s Wrist Guard

Originally published in The Midden, 42(1-2), 12-13. 2010. By Grant Keddie This unique artifact from the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum has never been identified. The 8cm by 21 cm object is made from a thin one-centimetre piece of whalebone. Dr. Charles Newcombe found the artifact (DcRu-32:22) in 1914, during the construction of the Ogden Point breakwater at the entrance to Victoria’s Outer harbour. An archaeological shell midden (DcRu32), which now lies buried under Dallas Road, was once the location of a small village site at the head of the now filled in Ogden Bay. The small assemble of artifacts, which includes bone tools made using an iron file, and the lack of any oral tradition or other historic … Continue reading “An Archer’s Wrist Guard”