Monterey Shells and Trade Copper: A Glimpse into the Early Contact Period from a Nuu-Chah-Nulth Outer-Coast Lookout Site

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Alan D. McMillan ◽  
Denis E. St. Claire
Keyword(s):  
Fur Trade ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Traditional Form ◽  
Sea Mammals ◽  
New Goods ◽  
Outer Coast

The Nuu-chah-nulth of western Vancouver Island used lookout sites on small outer-coast islands to observe the movements of sea mammals and canoes, and later the trading ships arriving with cargoes of new goods. A trench excavated across the upper surface of one such site yielded an artifact assemblage typical of late Nuu-chah-nulth sites, along with radiocarbon dates indicating use over the few centuries prior to contact with Europeans. Three artifacts of introduced materials reveal that this location continued in use into the early decades of contact. Copper and California abalone shells (“Monterey shells”) were two of the earliest and most important trade materials during the maritime fur trade. Indigenous demand was for the raw material, which was re-worked into decorative items of traditional form. The excavation results provide a rare glimpse into this early contact period, with no admixture of later manufactured objects. Ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources provide context to interpret these discoveries.

Inca Imperial Strategies and Installations in Central Bolivia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
János Gyarmati ◽  
Carola Condarco
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Inca Empire ◽  
Agricultural Potential ◽  
Scale Population ◽  
The Creation

The local ethnohistoric sources and the archaeological evidence, as well as the radiocarbon dates, indicate that the Inca Empire conquered the mighty polities of Central Bolivia around the mid-fifteenth century, and then created a well-structured imperial infrastructure. The rationale behind the creation of this infrastructure can be sought in the region’s agricultural potential and raw material deposits. In order to fully exploit these resources, the Inca performed a large-scale population resettlement, principally of groups from the altiplano and the mountain regions to the eastern valleys. The goods produced in these agricultural and craft centers ensured the defense of the empire’s eastern frontiers, and contributed to the provisioning of its heartland.

Cultural Forests in Cross Section: Clear-Cuts Reveal 1,100 Years of Bark Harvesting on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 516-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob K. Earnshaw
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Growth Ring ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Ancient Forest ◽  
Post Impact ◽  
Bark Peeling

Culturally modified trees (CMTs) provide tangible evidence of long-term forest use by Indigenous peoples. In Northwest Coast cedar forests, this record rarely spans beyond the last three centuries because older bark-harvest scars have been obscured through taphonomic processes such as natural healing and decay. Thus, archaeological visibility and identification are hindered. Here, I recover chronologies of ancient forest harvesting using a post-impact assessment methodology of targeting old-growth clear-cuts in southern Nuu-chah-nulth territories on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Bark-peeling scars are identified and dated in cross section by growth-ring patterns of recently logged trees. Approximately half of all bark-peeling scars are “embedded” inside healing lobes, suggesting at least half of all such CMTs are effectively invisible in standing forests. Features in these post-impact surveys predated those discovered in conventional archaeological impact assessments by a mean of almost a century. Additionally, one of the oldest continually used cultural forests ever recorded, dating to AD 908, is found in the Toquaht Nation traditional territory. These findings uncover measurable frequencies of cedar-bark harvesting generations prior to the contact period and reveal the inadequacy of heritage protections for old-growth cedar stands.

Over the hills and far away: Middle to Late Woodland archaeology and toolstone conveyance at Hyre Mound (46RD1), West Virginia

2020 ◽  
pp. 019769312097631
Author(s):  
Richard L Rosencrance ◽  
Amy J Hirshman
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Lithic Raw Material

The archaeology of the eastern West Virginia uplands remains significantly understudied compared to other areas of the Appalachian Plateau. Bettye Broyles’ excavations at the Hyre Mound site (46RD1) in 1963 recovered a variety of artifacts within and directly adjacent to a burial mound but the excavations remain largely unpublished. We provide a report of Broyles’ excavations, new radiocarbon dates, and an analysis of the lithic raw material frequencies at the site. Material culture and ceremonial practices suggest the initial mound construction dates to the Middle Woodland period. Radiocarbon dating of cultural features confirms that people also used the locality during the Late Woodland period. Lithic raw material frequencies indicate a preference for non-local, Hillsdale chert found ∼100 km from the site throughout both time periods. The directionality of toolstone conveyance supports existing models that emphasize the quality and location of raw material sources and the orientation of the region’s physiography.

Description of Mycale bamfieldense n.sp. (Porifera, Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida) from Vancouver Island, British Columbia

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 674-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. M. Reiswig ◽  
H. Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
New Species ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Pacific Basin ◽  
Cytoplasmic Vacuoles ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Sponge Spicules ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Outer Coast

A new species of Porifera, Mycale banfieldense (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida), is described from a semiobscure, intertidal cavern of the outer coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. This is the first species of Mycale from the Pacific basin known to possess micracanthoxea microscleres, and only the second such species worldwide. These microscleres, which average 4.2 × 0.2 μm, are the smallest sponge spicules discovered to date. They are formed individually within cytoplasmic vacuoles of anucleolate scleroblasts but each scleroblast contains 20 to 50 similar spicules.

scholarly journals Design theory analysis of biface technology at the Botanie Lake Dam site (EcRj 15), south-central British Columbia

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Ewonus
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Contact Materials ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
South Central ◽  
Dam Site ◽  
Lithic Artifacts

Editor’s note: This article appears as a reprint from Volume 18 due to printing errors. Nexus apologizes to the author for the delay in publishing the work in its entirety. A design analysis is applied to six bifacial tools recovered from the Botanie Lake Dam site (EcRj 15) on the Plateau of southern British Columbia. While these artifacts, selected from the lithic assemblage of this late pre-contact period mat lodge campsite, show some internal variation, they share important characteristics indicative of their use by Plateau peoples. Acute edge angles and less durable raw material suggests that these bifacial tools were used to cut relatively soft contact materials such as herbaceous plants. Their lengthy use lives and multifunctionality make them effective solutions for the requirements of plant and animal processing during a mobile seasonal round. This application of design theory to a small sample of lithic artifacts from a seasonal camp site with an hypothesized focus on root resource harvesting and processing adds to the growing number of studies employing this approach to lithic analysis.

scholarly journals Bracelet from an Elunino burial at the Teleut Vzvoz-I site

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
I.A. Valkov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Trace Analysis ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Average Diameter ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article studies a stone bead bracelet found in an Early Bronze Age burial of the Elunino archaeological culture during the excavation of the Teleut Vzvoz-I burial ground (heterogeneous in time) in the south of Western Siberia (Forest-Steppe Altai). According to a series of calibrated radiocarbon dates, the Elunino burial ground at the Teleut Vzvoz-I site was used in the 22nd–18th centuries BC. The artefact under study was found in double burial No. 16 of the indicated burial ground, on the wrist of an adult (gender is not established). The bracelet in-cludes 66 stone beads, as well as one stone base. This piece of jewellery is unique in terms of technique, as well as the sacral meaning embedded in it. The ornament found on the beads bears no analogies to those discovered in the well-known Bronze Age archaeological sites of Western and Eastern Siberia. The present publication con-siders the morphological and raw material characteristics of the bracelet, as well as the specifics of its production and use. In this study, trace analysis was performed, i.e. the analysis of macro- and micro-traces left on the sur-face of the item as a result of its production and subsequent use. All traces were examined using an MBS-10 stereoscopic microscope at a magnification of ×16–56. It was found that some of the beads in the bracelet were made of serpentinite. The nearest sources of this stone are at least 250–300 km away from Teleut Vzvoz-I. The beads are made by counter-drilling, drilling of blind holes, polishing and grinding. This find is unique due to orna-mental compositions found on several beads in the form of oblique notches on side faces. The extremely small size of the beads (average diameter of 3.3 mm; average thickness of 1.4 mm) makes the pattern invisible to the naked eye. Thus, it is concluded that the ornament had a sacred meaning, and the bracelet itself served as an amulet. Despite no finds of ornamented bracelets dating back to the Bronze Age in Western Siberia and adjacent territories, typologically the bracelet bears analogies to the antiquities of the Okunevo culture, the Yamna cultural and historical community, as well as in the materials of the Bronze Age archaeological site of Gonur Depe (Turk-menistan). The study of the bracelet demonstrates the relevance of performing trace analysis of such items from other archaeological sites.

scholarly journals Between two worlds: Cova Eirós and the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in NW Iberia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo de LOMBERA-HERMIDA ◽  
Xose-Pedro RODRÍGUEZ-ÁLVAREZ ◽  
Alicia AMEIJENDA IGLESIAS ◽  
Mikel DÍAZ RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
undefined Iván REY-RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Nw Iberia ◽  
Early Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Late Survival ◽  
Early Upper

Iberia, a natural cul-de-sac peninsula, plays a major role in the study of the Neanderthals demise and its eventual relationship with the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in Europe. The site of Cova Eirós (Galicia, Spain), located in NW Iberia, contains Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels, based on the cultural remains recovered at the site. No human remains directly associated with those levels were discovered yet. The available radiocarbon dates from the levels 2 (c. 35 ka cal BP, Early Upper Paleolithic) and 3 (c. 41 ka cal BP, Late Middle Paleolithic), point to a late survival of Neanderthal groups in North Iberia and to a relative quick arrival of the AMH, c. 35-36 ka cal BP, with respect to other territories of the Iberian Peninsula. The archaeological record shows clear differences between the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic occupations, regarding raw-material acquisition, lithic technology and subsistence strategies. The location of Cova Eirós in the westernmost margin of the Cantabrian Rim and in the Atlantic Façade, makes this site a key place to understand the spread of the first AMH and the progressive demise of Neanderthal populations.

The Pembroke Site: Thule Inuit Migrants on Southern Victoria Island

ARCTIC ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Max Friesen ◽  
Lauren E.Y. Norman
Keyword(s):  
Lake Trout ◽  
Arctic Char ◽  
Island Region ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Sea Mammals ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Victoria Island ◽  
Minimal Consumption ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

This paper presents description and interpretation of the Pembroke site, the earliest known Thule Inuit occupation in the southeastern Victoria Island region, Nunavut. The site has 11 extant dwellings, including five heavy tent rings, five light semi-subterranean dwellings, and a <em>qalgiq </em>(large communal structure). The site’s economy revolved mainly around the acquisition of caribou, Arctic char, and lake trout, with minimal consumption of sea mammals. Radiocarbon dates, reinforced by artifact analyses, indicate an occupation around AD 1400. Based on several lines of evidence, including the extremely small artifact samples, the site is interpreted as having been occupied relatively briefly. It represents the first colonization of the region by Thule people, approximately 200 years after the initial Thule migration from Alaska into the eastern Arctic. Thus, it documents a second migration wave: an expansion of Thule peoples from their initially occupied territories to other, in some ways less optimal, regions

Sea Lions Wintering Along the Outer Coast of Vancouver Island

1972 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 1764-1766
Author(s):  
Ian D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Sea Lions ◽  
The North ◽  
Outer Coast

Aerial counts conducted on the north and west coasts of Vancouver Island during four periods in the 1970–71 winter indicated that more than 1980 sea lions used a total of 15 haul-out areas. Evidence is presented indicating that many winter haul-out areas are often deserted in summer.

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