286 BUREAU OF AJiIERICAN ETHNOLOGY fBuU. 179 



Burial 7 yielded a number of interesting artifacts. First, there were 

 fragments of several antler wedges. Plate 48, &, /73, /141, and /39 

 were the most photogenic pieces. At least one of these wedges, /141, 

 was 8 or 10 inches long. This is evidence of woodworking, or at least 

 wood splitting. Items /37 and /139, plate, 48 &, are bipointed, heavy 

 bone. They may have been projectile points, barbs, or the central 

 piece of the compound toggling harpoon so usual in the Northwest. 

 The eyed needle, /33, is typical of the shorter mat needles. Although 

 the mat needle is essentially a woman's tool, this one was found with a 

 male. Fragmentary points, /140 and /40, may be needle points, awl 

 fragments, or pomts of pieces such as /139 or /37. Beaver teeth chisels 

 or gravers, /36, appear to be an ubiquitous tool. The U-shaped piece, 

 in poor repair, is one of our minor local mysteries. Items of this type 

 have been found the length and breadth of the Columbia valley. We 

 have no defensible theories as to their use. 



The short, wide, lamellar flakes, /44 and /67, chalcedony, may have 

 been cutting edges or blanks for projectile points. A number of pieces 

 which were interpreted as chipping material were found with 

 burial 7, including a fragment of a nodule of bro^vn jasper. Item /38, 

 j asp-opal, is unfinished as is /43, chalcedony. Item /35 may be a 

 finished knife of the type illustrated by Barth (1952, fig. 36, o). If 

 so it is rather more crude than most of its type. The conclusion is 

 not improbable that burial 7 was buried with his chipping kit. The 

 steatite pipe stem is of the type described by Garth (1952, p. 49, and 

 illustrated in fig. 38, e) . Numbers /136, /137, and possibly /42 (jasper, 

 chert, jasper) may well represent a precontact form. They are 

 elongate but with the square notches and shoulders, and rectangular, 

 small stems that characterize several of the points from the cremation 

 pits (pi. 55, a, /108a) and some to be described from burial 17. A 

 statement as to their relationships is not in order here. They have 

 been found on the lower Snake River in a large precontact housepit 

 village (45-FR-5). Point /42 (pi. 48, h) may be of a different type 

 or may be an awl (Garth, 1952, fig. 36, ;*) . All in all the finds from 

 burial 7 have been most helpful in establishing the complex of its 

 period. Wlien the archeology of the Plateau enters a more synthetic 

 phase such data may be employed much more fully than here. 



Burial 8, a female, has a single artifact, a Columbia Mule Ear knife, 

 agate (pi. 52, a, /32). One wonders if its excurvate edges are not an 

 aspect of the original shape of the pieces and if the incurving ones of 

 No. /6 could not be the result of repeated sharpenings. In that event 

 the straight shoulder sections would form at the region of hafting. 

 A knife might well be buried with a woman. 



Burial 10, an infant with a long basalt pestle, killed, has been men- 

 tioned. As with all of its type this pestle has a square-cut bottom or 

 working face. Three large scars of flakes broken off from tlie bottom, 



