Artifacts - Grant Keddie

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”

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”

The Early Introduction of Iron Among the First Nations of British Columbia

2006. By Grant Keddie This article documents both the historical and archaeological evidence for the movement of European manufactured iron goods across Canada from the 16th to 18th centuries and overviews the late 18th century accounts of Iron observed in the possession of First Nations in British Columbia. Introduction It is a commonly held belief that iron was not used by aboriginal peoples of British Columbia before the arrival of Europeans in the late 18th century. The evidence indicates that this is not the case. The following is an overview of the evidence for the movement of iron from various directions toward British Columbia in the period before European contact and during the very early contact period. After 1799 the … Continue reading “The Early Introduction of Iron Among the First Nations of British Columbia”

A New Look at Northwest Coast
Stone Bowls

Originally Published in Archaeology of Coastal British Columbia: Essays in Honour of Professor Philip M. Hobler. SFU Archaeology Press. 2003. By Grant Keddie Introduction One morning in the spring of 1969, I went with my field-school professor, Phil Hobler, to rediscover the Bella Coola village of Anutcix (FaSu 10) near the mouth of the Kwatna River. When we located the site and its distinct shell mound features, Phil commented on how each site is different and can tell us different things. His teaching style was to have us ask questions rather than just listen to answers. When I found the first donut stone, Phil asked me to look at the evidence and tell him what it was. Today when I … Continue reading “A New Look at Northwest Coast
Stone Bowls”