Artifacts – Grant Keddie

Nettle Fibre Beaters in the Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum

There are three wooden artifacts in the RBCM Ethnology Collection known as Nettle Fibre Beaters. Nettle beaters are much lighter than whale bone bark beaters that are designed for pounded larger cedar bark material. (See Keddie 2025; 2024; 2018 and 2016 for related material on Stinging Nettle). The nettle beater, RBCM2071, was purchased May 20, 1914 at Fort Rupert (Port Hardy) by Charles Newcombe. He noted: “Ft. Rupert 20/V/14. Yakuglas” – “Beating stick used in making nettle string found in house rubbish of old foundation”. This was mistakenly labeled on the Museum database as “bark beater”. Later additions to the RBCM database had: Paddle shape nettle beater with design. Kwakwaka’wakw Yellow cedar. Fort Rupert. Tsaxis. RBCN2071 nettle beater is an … Continue reading “Nettle Fibre Beaters in the Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum”

Stinging Nettle. Indigenous Processing and Use

Stinging Nettle, in various species of the genus Urtica, was an important resource for Indigenous people across the northern hemisphere of the planet. Its new shoots were eaten in the spring as a source of vitamins and minerals and the string made from its stalk was used to make everything from nets to the foundations for light clothing. See Skoglund et. al (2025) for overview of European usage. As stinging nettle needs partial shade and mineral rich soil that contains potassium and uric acid, it grows profusely on the cultural deposits built up at old village sites. The importance of nettle (Urtica dioica) in southern British Columbia is made clear in letters between James Douglas and the Hudson’s Bay company … Continue reading “Stinging Nettle. Indigenous Processing and Use”

Observations on the Shape of Adze Blades and Hafts

In the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum there is a unique distal section of an adzing tool composed of an elk antler sleeve with a nephrite adze blade still in place. There has been a debate as to weather these were fit onto the end of a strait chisel or a bent elbow adze and why some adzes were angled toward one side at the proximal end. Many broken to complete elk antler hafts have been found in ancient sites in the general area around the Salish Sea, but finding one with the cutting blade still in-situ is extremely rare. This one, with the Borden number DfRs-Y:11, is a very rare example. It was found in a midden at … Continue reading “Observations on the Shape of Adze Blades and Hafts”

The Archaeology of the Gorge Waterway of Greater Victoria

Part 1. The changing Landscape and Victoria Harbour to Selkirk Waters. The Changing Landscape Twenty-one thousand years ago the Gorge Waterway, Victoria Harbour and all the beaches around Victoria were all deep underwater. This was caused by the glaciers pushing the land down as they approached the Victoria Region (Miskelly 2012; Clague 1983). The land rebounded to 14 meters above the present sea level by Thirteen thousand years ago (Keddie 2019). By 11.200 years ago the land continued to rebounded and the Gorge appeared for a short period of around 1,000 to 2000 years as an ocean inlet. As the land continued to rebound, the upper Gorge became dry land by 9200 years ago. The Gorge and Victoria Harbour became … Continue reading “The Archaeology of the Gorge Waterway of Greater Victoria”

Butchering Sea Lions with Stone Tools

Preface “Carcass butchery is a culturally mediated behavior that reflects the technological, social, economic and ecological factors that influence human diet and foodways. Butchery behavior can thus reveal a great deal about the lives of past peoples” (Egeland et. al. 2024). Egeland. et.al., examined 236 studies on butchery, published between 1860 and 2021, to observe trends. This involved both studies that involved the reconstruction of ethological knowledge and archaeological evidence. The majority of these were undertaken on large bovids. The authors were interested in making recommendations for future studies. They note that one should look for evidence such as: “cut mark frequences on carcasses of different body sizes and taxon”. Part of this study looked at factors such as what … Continue reading “Butchering Sea Lions with Stone Tools”

Fishing Power and Abrading Stones

One of the most common artifacts found in archaeological site on the southern coast of British Columbia are abrading stones. These were used for grinding or abrading in the shaping or sharpening tools made of bone, shell and antler. They were used in shaping ornaments and grinding pigments. Abrading stones come in many shapes and sizes, were made of different raw materials, and like modern sandpaper, they came in many grain sizes. By far, most are made of sandstone and are plain slabs of rectangular, square or irregular shapes. A small number are especially shaped in the form of animals, usually whales or fish. It is these I am interested in here. Figure 1, shows two sides of a sandstone … Continue reading “Fishing Power and Abrading Stones”

Indigenous Bark Shredders of British Columbia

August 05, 2024. Preface The study of the history of bark shredders and bark beaters is important as they were used in the production of one of the most significant raw materials used by Indigenous peoples on the coast of British Columbia – cedar. As Richard Hebda has shown: “Beginning about 5,000 years ago, closed forests dominated by Douglas-fir and including western red cedar (Thuja plicata) and western hemlock developed in the region as climate cooled and moistened” (Hebda 2024). Richard Hebda and Rolf Mathews (1983) showed the correlation between the “maximums of the cedar pollen curves 2000 to 5000 years ago and the development of massive timber working”. They suggested that “it was only during the latter part of … Continue reading “Indigenous Bark Shredders of British Columbia”

Indigenous Bark Beaters in Coastal British Columbia

Were they Introduced from Polynesia? Preface Over the years from the 1970s to 2000, I had interesting discussions with Thor Heyerdahl during his research visits to the Royal B.C. Museum. I came to have a good understanding of his changing philosophy. Thor began his interests in British Columbia when he visited Bella Coola in 1939-1940 to compare petroglyphs at Thorsen Creek with Polynesian art forms. Unlike some of his critics, I read his scientific publications as well as his popular books. He was, on occasion, dismissed in the academic world, for some of his ideas that he had long given up. I assisted Thor in examining Museum artifacts he was interested in for possible Polynesian connections and suggested some myself … Continue reading “Indigenous Bark Beaters in Coastal British Columbia”

A Hat Makers Bone Tool

Introduction Many of the artifacts recovered by archaeologists have no ethnographic counterpart in museum collections. Most Indigenous ethnographic artifacts are made of wood. Rarer examples of bone or antler artifacts in ethnographic collections, with documentation, become important to help identify the use of some archaeological artifacts. The Bone Tool One unique artifact, in the Indigenous collections of the Royal B.C. Museum, is a bone tool described as a hat makers’ knife. The example was collected by Kwakwaka’wakw, George Hunt, in 1899, and sold to Charles Newcombe in 1901. Its ethnic origin is identified as Nahwitti, Kwakwaka’wakw. This artifact, number RBCM1252 (old #19074), was listed in the original catalogue by Charles Newcombe as: “Bone knife (Kwetani). Of the mountain goat. Used … Continue reading “A Hat Makers Bone Tool”

A Tsunami Spear Point

Polynesia to British Columbia By Grant Keddie. Introduction In 1972, I observed the pointed distal end of a broken wooded spear in the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum. Based on its general shape and design patterns, it appeared to be of Pacific Island origin. The wood was most like the Pacific hardwoods Calophyllum inophyllum or Acasia koa. At first, I assumed the artifact must have been buried with some more recent historic debris, but after observing the accession records and talking to the finder, a different picture began to emerge. It was found buried in Tsunami deposits in the Port Renfrew area on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This makes it the first known pre-contact Polynesian artifact found … Continue reading “A Tsunami Spear Point”