ART. H PEEHISTOEIC PIT HOUSE VILLAGE SITE KRIEGER 13 



Species of shell from the Pacific coast other than dentalium and 

 haliotis/ perforated either at the apex or lip, were used as objects of 

 personal adornment. Several examples mounted on necklace cords 

 of hemp, cedar bark, and sinew were found among the burial offerings 

 in graves at Wahluke, also at Vantage Ferry; several with fragments 

 of cord still intact. Varieties of shell identified are Diadora aspera, 

 Olivella hipUcata, Glycymneris suhohsoleta, and a Columbia River 

 species of bivalve belonging to the Protothaca. 



Among the many objects of personal adornment recovered from 

 the cemeter}^ at Wahluke are rectangular, perforated pendants, scrolled 

 ear bangles, laminated wristlets, and tubular beads hammered and 

 rolled from nuggets of native copper brought from the Cascades 

 or obtained by barter from the coast tribes. Pendant cords of 

 twisted fiber or of sinew wer'" recovered only in part. Ornamental 

 pendants and necklaces of <5lk and beaver teeth, hawk and eagle 

 claws were still in situ as they were when attached to the body at 

 the time of cremation. Such ornaments like those of horn and bone 

 were incrusted with copper salts and thus preserved more completely 

 than might otherwise have resulted. Etched bone tubes and gam- 

 ing sticks of antler in sets of six, similar to those described by Teit 

 and Smith from British Columbia, were exhumed. 



Stone ornaments, implements, and weapon points were shaped from 

 semiprecious agatized and petrified woods, opal, chalcedony, and jasper 

 taken from the river bluffs 40 miles to the north beyond Saddle Moun- 

 tains. Ornaments, implements, and weapon points shaped from such 

 materials are expressions of some of the most beautiful examples of 

 the stone-chipping art. Small, narrow-stemmed, and symmetrically 

 worked arrow points of agate, chalcedony, carnelian, jasper, and flint 

 were found with the burials at Wahluke. 



No weapon points or chipped blades of black obsidian, which is so 

 abundant farther south, were obtained. A chipped elongated, dia- 

 mond-shape "ceremonial" object of mottled black and red obsidian, 

 8 inches in length, is the only specimen of obsidian obtained from 

 burial offerings at Wahluke. Five similar "obsidian ceremonials" 

 are represented in individual collections obtained from various sites 

 along the middle and upper Columbia. 



To convey an idea of the abundance of resources in stone and of 

 the great variety of uses to which such material was put by the early 

 inhabitants of Wahluke, the following hst is appended. 



Materials Uses 



Agatized wood Drills; weapon points; scrapers; reamers; knives. 



Agate - Drills; weapon points; scrapers; etching tools; 



knives. 



Andesite Fish knives; net sinkers. 



Argillite.. Knives; weapon points; weaving implements; beads. 



