Artifacts - Grant Keddie

Spindle Whorls of British Columbia Part 3. Large Historic Spindle Whorls in the Indigenous Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum.

By Grant Keddie. March 2023. [Part 4 in this series on Spindle Whorls in British Columbia will deal with the Thunderbird and Lightening Snake Iconography most relevant to Part 3] Introduction Large wooden spindle whorls from the historic post contact period were used primarily for twisting together two already twisted strands of fibre. The fibre consisting mostly of hair of mountain goat, domestic dogs, seal and other mammals as well as bird down and plant material such as the plume of the fireweed. Description of the Large Whorls in the Ethnology Collection There are 30 large spindles whorls in the Royal B.C. Museum Ethnology Collection. The term ethnology is used here to refer to non-archaeological artifacts in the Indigenous collections. … Continue reading “Spindle Whorls of British Columbia Part 3. Large Historic Spindle Whorls in the Indigenous Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum.”

Spindle Whorls of British Columbia: Part 2

October 11,2018. By Grant Keddie. Small Spindle Whorls in the Ethnology Collection of the Royal BC Museum Much of the attention in the literature has focused on the large spindle whorls used by speakers of languages in the Salish linguistic family on the south-eastern coast of British Columbia. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, small spindle whorls were found among peoples belonging to several of the larger linguistic families. The lack of iconography on most of these smaller spindles likely contributed to their being of less concern to researchers than the study of the larger whorls – many of which have geometric, anthropomorphic or zoomorphic design patterns. The resurgence of indigenous weaving with the use of large spindle whorls … Continue reading “Spindle Whorls of British Columbia: Part 2”

Spindle Whorls in British Columbia. Part 1.

December 6, 2016. By Grant Keddie. Introduction and Spindle Whorls in the Archaeology Collection of the Royal BC Museum Introduction In order to provide a broader understanding of the earlier history and origins of both historic and pre-contact spindle whorls used in British Columbia, I will provide a description with images of all the spindle whorls in the Archaeology and Ethnology collection of the Royal B.C. Museum. This will be presented in three Parts: (1) Introduction and Spindle Whorls in the Archaeology Collection of the Royal BC Museum. (2) Small Spindle Whorls in the Ethnology Collection of the Royal BC Museum. (3) Large Spindle whorls from speakers of the Salish language family in the Ethnology Collection of the Royal BC … Continue reading “Spindle Whorls in British Columbia. Part 1.”

The Archaeology and Ethnology of Wedges on the Northwest Coast

2018. By Grant Keddie Introduction Wooden and antler wedges are a common tool found in the Northwest Coast cultural area of North America. The purpose of this article is to drive a wedge into our current thinking about wedges and to stimulate further research by making some observations based on Royal B.C. Museum archaeological and ethnological artifacts. I combine this view of collections with my own background experience in working with wedges. Wedges are commonly known to have been used for splitting fire wood, for the manufacture of posts and planks used in house construction, household items such as boxes and bowls, and for the whole process of canoe making from cutting down trees to splitting the tree trunks and … Continue reading “The Archaeology and Ethnology of Wedges on the Northwest Coast”

Bird Bone Tube Snare Guards in the Archaeology Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum

June 3, 2019. By Grant Keddie Introduction There are many different sizes of bird bone artifacts found in archaeological sites in British Columbia. The function of many of these remains unknown. There is often no comparable artifact type in the ethnographic record. They are sometimes ascribed functions by archaeologists for which there is no evidence. Some of the long bird bone tubes referred to as “drinking tubes” are in fact, what I am calling bird bone snare guards – devices on snares which prevent marmots and ground squirrels from biting through the noose cord and escaping. Here I present the evidence of how I determined, from my own observations and technology experiments, that some of the unidentified bird bone … Continue reading “Bird Bone Tube Snare Guards in the Archaeology Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum”

A First Nations Shell Midden on Raymur Point, Victoria Harbour

September 11, 2017. By Grant Keddie There is an ancient archaeological shell midden – the refuse from what was once, at least, a seasonal camp on Raymur Point at the intersection of St. Laurence Street and Kingston Avenue. Raymur Point is a raised bedrock peninsula on the south side of Victoria’s inner harbour located to the west of Laurel Point and at the east end of Fisherman’s Wharf. The site was not occupied by First Nations in historic times and appears to have had a limited occupation in the distant past. The midden location, known as Archaeological site DcRu-33, includes the extreme northern extension of the point and the shoreline along the wider section of the point extending along the … Continue reading “A First Nations Shell Midden on Raymur Point, Victoria Harbour”

The Dugout Freight Canoe in the Royal BC Museum Indigenous Collection

November 19, 2019 By Grant Keddie Have you ever picked up an old object and wondered what sentient beings had held it before? People like you – that are taking the journey from birth to death. Artifacts are not just things in themselves, they are part of the history of individuals and families. Here I provide what I could piece together of the history of a special large dugout freight canoe in the collection of the Royal BC Museum – artifact number 12048. The genealogy of people and families presented is only a partial one that could be expanded to hundreds of people. I present it to show only some of the family linkages to the canoe and its history … Continue reading “The Dugout Freight Canoe in the Royal BC Museum Indigenous Collection”

Bird Leg Rings on the Northwest Coast?

January 30, 2011 By Grant Keddie There are a variety of small artifacts found on the Northwest Coast that are often assumed to be forms of body adornment. Some of these likely had other functions. Three examples described here might normally be assumed to be pendants, I think we should consider the possibility that these may have been used as bird leg rings for holding live decoy birds or pets. A common type of artifact in Polynesia is the kaka poria or bird leg ring made of stone or whale, bird and human bone. They were used to hold tame kaka birds (Nestor meridionalis) as a decoy for capturing wild birds in the forest (Phillips 1955:145). The leg of the … Continue reading “Bird Leg Rings on the Northwest Coast?”

Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum

By Grant Keddie. 2020. Introduction The bullroarer is an instrument used by many cultures around the world. It comes in many sizes and dates back at least 20,000 years in Europe. In some parts of my ancestral Scotland the bullroarer was known as a “Thunderspell” and in Aberdeen as a “Thunder-bolt”. It was used to protect people from being struck by lightning, but in one known case used by a farm boy to scare the cows home (Haddon 1898:222). It is classed as an aerophone musical devise as it is spun in the open air, as opposed to an instrument that is blown into. It involves the use of a piece of flat wood, bone or other material tied to … Continue reading “Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum”

An Arrow from the Tsitsutl Glacier, British Columbia

Originally Published in Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 29(1), 113-123. By Grant Keddie and Erle Nelson. March 2005. Abstract An almost complete arrow found in British Columbia in the early 20th century has been re-discovered in the Royal BC Museum collections. Speculation as to its antiquity was tested by radiocarbon dating, which reveals that the artifact was likely made in the middle of the second millennium AD. The arrow was compared to recent finds of both arrows and darts from glaciers and ice patches. The failure of this specimen to clearly fit the criteria of either of these weapon technologies raises some new questions. Introduction In 1924, at an elevation over 2,100 meters above sea level, land surveyor John Davidson found … Continue reading “An Arrow from the Tsitsutl Glacier, British Columbia”