Hidden Dimensions: Cultural Significance of Wetland Archaeology

384 Pages·1998·27.54 MB·English

by  Kathryn Bernick

Hidden Dimensions
Pacific Rim Archaeology
This series is an initiative of UBC Laboratory of Archaeology and UBC Press
It provides a source of scholarly reporting on significant new archaeological
research along the entire Pacific Rim - spanning the region from Southeast
Asia to western North America and Pacific Latin America. The series will
publish reports on archaeological fieldwork in longer monograph form as
well as edited volumes of shorter works dealing with contemporary themes.
The general editors of the series are Michael Blake and R.G. Matson, both
faculty members in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the
University of British Columbia.
The first volume in the series is Hidden Dimensions: The Cultural Signifi-
cance of Wetland Archaeology, edited by Kathryn Bernick. It presents the best
papers from a conference on the topic held in Vancouver, British Columbia,
in April 1995.
Edited by Kathryn Bernick
Hidden Dimensions:
The Cultural Significance of
Wetland Archaeology
Pacific Rim Archaeology
and
Wetland Archaeology Research Project (WARP)
UBCPress Occasional Paper Number II
© UBC Press 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior
written permission of the publisher, or, in Canada, in the case of photocopying or
other reprographic copying, a licence from CANCOPY (Canadian Copyright
Licensing Agency), 900 - 6 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 1H6.
Text of "Wetland Worlds and the Past Preserved" ® J.M. Coles
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
ISBN 0-7748-0633-8
Pacific Rim Archaeology (ISSN 1483-2283)
WARP Occasional Paper No. 11 (ISBN 0951911732)
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Hidden dimensions
(Pacific Rim archaeology, ISSN 1483-2283)
Papers presented at a conference in Vancouver, 1995.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN O-7748-0632-X (bound); 0-7748-0633-8 (pbk.)
1. Water-saturated sites (Archaeology) - Congresses. I. Bernick, Kathryn N.
II. Series: Pacific Rim archaeology series.
GN786.H52 1998 930.1 C97-910982-5
UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support to its publishing program
from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the
Department of Canadian Heritage of the Government of Canada.
Cover illustrations: basket drawings by K. Bernick; basket fragment from Tsawwassen,
BC, photo by M. Lay, courtesy UBC Laboratory of Archaeology; flint daggers,
courtesy Aime Bocquet, Centre de Documentation de la Prehistoire Alpine; and
wooden bowl from archaeological site in New Zealand
UBC Press
University of British Columbia
6344 Memorial Road
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments / viii
Introduction / xi
Kathryn Bernick
Prologue: Wetland Worlds and the Past Preserved / 3
JM. Coles
Part 1: Human Adaptations to Wetland Environments
Introduction / 27
Wetlands and Hunter-Gatherer Land Use in North America / 31
George P. Nicholas
Wetland Archaeological Sites in Aotearoa (New Zealand) Prehistory / 47
Cathryn Ban
Wetlands-Associated Sites in the Russian Far East:
A Review of Environment, Chronology, and Paleoeconomy / 56
Yaroslav V. Kuzmin
Prehistoric Wetland Sites in Sweden / 64
Lars Larsson
Part 2: Wet-Site Perspectives, Past and Present
Introduction / 85
The Importance of the Biskupin Wet Site for Twentieth-Century
Polish Archaeology / 89
Wojciech Piotrowski
vi Contents
Ancient Maya Use of Wetlands in Northern Quintana Roo, Mexico / 107
Scott L. Fedick
The Death of the Wildwood and the Birth of Woodmanship in
Southeast England / 130
DM. Goodburn
Stylistic Characteristics of Basketry from Coast Salish Area Wet Sites /139
Kathryn Bernick
The Boston Back Bay Fish Weirs / 157
Elena B. Decima and Dena F. Dincauze
Part 3: Fishing Technologies on the Northwest Coast
Introduction / 175
A Comparative Chronology of Northwest Coast Fishing Features /180
Madonna L. Moss and Jon M. Erlandson
Fishing Weirs in Oregon Coast Estuaries / 199
Scott Byram
Wet-Site Contributions to Developmental Models of Fraser River
Fishing Technology / 220
Ann Stevenson
The Montana Creek Fish Trap I: Archaeological Investigations in
Southeast Alaska / 239
Robert C. Betts
The Montana Creek Fish Trap II: Stratigraphic Interpretation in the
Context of Southeastern Alaska Geomorphology / 252
Greg Chaney
Part 4: Preservation and Conservation in Practice
Introduction / 269
Essex Fish Traps and Fisheries: An Integrated Approach to Survey,
Recording, and Management / 273
Paul}. Gilman
The Humber Wetlands Survey: An Integrated Approach to Wetland
Research and Management / 290
Robert Van de Noort
Contents vii
The Role of Monitoring in the Assessment and Management of
Archaeological Sites / 302
Mike Corfield
Observations Resulting from the Treatment of Waterlogged Wood Bowls
in Aotearoa (New Zealand) / 317
Dilys A. Johns
Supercritical Drying of Waterlogged Archaeological Wood / 329
Barry Kaye and David J. Cole-Hamilton
Footing the Bill: Conservation Costs in the Private Sector / 340
Katherine Singley
Contributors / 357
Index / 359
Preface and Acknowledgments
The first waterlogged archaeological artifact I remember seeing came from
the bottom of a two-metre-deep excavation pit at the Musqueam Northeast
site in Vancouver. My sister Ruthie found it while screening a bucketful of
sludge on a rainy day in June 1973. Further work at the site, under the
direction of Charles E. Borden and David J.W. Archer, produced a large and
varied assemblage of perishable artifacts and drew my attention to wet-site
archaeology.
I have excavated several wet sites and analyzed a number of collections of
basketry, cordage, and wooden artifacts. Until recently, I had assumed that
such specimens are rarely preserved. This misconception was derived, in
part, from the low profile wetland archaeology has within the profession
and the tendency for a few spectacular finds, such as Ozette Village in Wash-
ington state, to eclipse ordinary water-saturated archaeological sites. In 1991
I conducted an overview study of wet sites in the lower Fraser River region
of British Columbia, originally designed to generate leads for planning a
field project. I was amazed at the large number of wet sites I "discovered"
by looking at forgotten collections in local museums and reading field jour-
nals and unpublished reports. I concluded that, in addition to attention
from researchers and resource managers, wet sites need and deserve public
access - including the dissemination of information through publication.
This volume represents one step in that direction.
As editor of a book mainly written by others, my greatest debt is to the
authors who submitted their work to be published in it. I especially appreci-
ate everyone's conscientious attention to details, indulgence of my editorial
eccentricities, and patience with the publishing schedule.
The UBC Laboratory of Archaeology has played an instrumental role in
the creation of this book. I sincerely thank R.G. Matson and Mike Blake for
their time and advice and for trusting that a collection of conference papers
could be transformed into a monograph. They took on the task of soliciting
anonymous peer assessments, encouraged and facilitated completion of
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
revisions recommended by the assessors, and directed the final manuscript
to UBC Press. The UBC Laboratory of Archaeology, the Department of
Anthropology and Sociology, and the Museum of Anthropology generously
provided logistical support while I worked on the manuscript, for which I
am grateful. Joyce Johnson of the UBC Laboratory of Archaeology deserves
my very special thanks for myriad practical services.
I thank Ann Stevenson for facilitating the book project. As co-organizer
of the conference that generated the contributions published here, Ann
collaborated with me in the early stages of publication planning, performed
miracles with budgets, shared crises, and gave constructive comments on
introductory sections. I acknowledge Silvia Bergersen, Bryony and John
Coles, Dale Croes, David Grattan, Warren Hill, Sharon Keen, Al Mackie,
Madonna Moss, Phyllis and Jim Mason, Linda Vanden Berg, and many other
friends and colleagues who have provided advice, practical assistance, and
moral support over the past two years. Scott Byram and Phil Hobler gener-
ously provided illustrations for the introductions; Mike Blake, Joyce Johnson,
and David Pokotylo facilitated my learning CorelDraw to computer-draft
maps. I am grateful to Jean Wilson at UBC Press for supporting this publish-
ing project and to Holly Keller-Brohman for overseeing conversion of the
manuscript into a book. The copyediting was done by Judy Phillips.
This volume originated in a 1995 conference of the same name, Hidden
Dimensions: The Cultural Significance of Wetland Archaeology. As a spin-off of
the conference, the publication owes its existence to the success of that
event and international participation that exceeded expectations. I take this
opportunity to thank the UBC Museum of Anthropology for hosting the
conference, the Archaeological Society of British Columbia and the Wetland
Archaeology Research Project (WARP) for co-sponsoring it, and the Katzie,
Musqueam, Tsawwassen, and Sto:lo nations for helping to develop the pro-
gram. A modest financial subsidy of publication costs has been provided to
UBC Press through the UBC Laboratory of Archaeology with residual funds
from the 1995 Hidden Dimensions conference. I gratefully acknowledge fi-
nancial support for the conference from the Government of Canada through
the Department of Canadian Heritage's Access to Archaeology Program; the
British Columbia Ministry of Small Business, Culture, and Tourism through
the British Columbia Heritage Trust; and the British Columbia Ministry of
Investment and Job Training through a Partners in Science Awareness grant.
In-kind and/or financial support of the conference was also provided by
the University of British Columbia First Nations House of Learning, the
Museum of Anthropology, the Department of Anthropology and Sociology,
the Laboratory of Archaeology, the Museum of Anthropology Volunteer
Associates, and the Department of Botany; the Simon Fraser University
Department of Archaeology; and the Archaeological Society of British
Columbia.