288 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY IBull. 179 



The long, slender bone implement (pi. 50, 5, /83) was at first 

 thought to be a fishhook barb. It is possible that, in view of the 

 situation, it may be a weapon. 



Other than the dentalia which were often associated with infants 

 (when they had nonperishable grave goods) a Haliotis pendant was 

 fomid with burial 11. It will be of interest if further sites show a 

 correlation of shell and infants. Such a situation might hark back 

 to a period when dentalium shells were beads and not money. This 

 occurrence of Haliotis at an early level in the Columbia Valley be- 

 speaks connections to the south or west that might be looked upon as 

 cultural straws in the wind. It is not possible to state whether the 

 shell is a Calif omian or Northwest coastal species; it is probably 

 the latter. 



An aspect of the burial pattern, which cannot be well delineated, 

 partly because of the loose sand in which the burials lay, is the nature 

 of the shrouding. Enough fragments of matting were observed 

 with the bones to indicate that wrapping in mats was standard 

 burial practice. Sometimes, perhaps, a wood cover or bark covering 

 of the corpse may have served. Fire remains associated with the 

 grave are too few to enable us to suggest the use of the element in a 

 mourning ceremony. 



ARTIFACTS FROM THE MIDDEN 



Strictly speaking, true midden in the sense of living accumulation 

 was absent at BN-55. No animal bone was fomid. There was, how- 

 ever, a disturbed stained fill both above and below the silt levels that 

 is here called midden. Other than nmnerous flakes, some fragments, 

 and two chipped pieces (pi. 54, /2, /29) all the artifacts found in 

 the general fill were heavy digging tools or choppers. The chipped 

 pieces are so few that they may have resulted from graves disturbed 

 possibly by the Indians, or they may have been lost. Artifact /2, 

 a basalt point, is the same type as plate 52, a, /ll, which had a burial 

 association. The quartzite piece (pi. 54, /29) , probably a knife blade, 

 is an unusual artifact. The type has been found nearby in a contact 

 site (45-BN-3, Osborne, 1957, fig. 3, Ikd, p. 75). The piece is per- 

 cussion chipped; the edges and point are dulled intentionally, or at 

 least so it appears. No wear facets or areas of use chipping can be 

 seen on the peculiar piece. 



The heavy tools, probably nearly all quickly made digging aids, 

 hammering or chopping tools, were not numerous. All were no doubt 

 used in working around the burials or cremations (and sheds, if such 

 ever existed). Garth (1952, p. 50, fig. 39) calls the implements that 

 are illustrated in plate 53, a, /25 and /48, hand adzes and suggests 

 that they were used in canoe manufacture. We find ourselves in 



