A unique artifact identified as a “Toy War Club” was recovered at Qwu?gwes  and appears to reflect an example of children’s cultural material at the site–please review this find and let us know of any other finds similar to this? 

This artifact was one of the few composite artifacts, combining stone and fiber, found at Qwu?gwes.  It was constructed by attaching a stone pebble head to a red cedar split wood handle using cherry bark strips as the binding material.  Although this artifact was small, the discovery of a toy used in play by a child on the beach 600 years ago is a truly spectacular and very human find. For full report:  Toy War Club

This is a report from Akira Matsui’s and  colleagues’ recent visit to the Paddle to Squaxin and the Ozette site and museum, relating the 1700 mudslide at Ozette to the immediate aftermath of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake of 2011. Akira Matsui has reported the cultural resources damage of the 2011 earthquake in NewsWARP under Announcements. 

By Akira Matsui, Director, Center for Archaeological Operations, Nara National Cultural Properties, National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Nara, Japan and Asia NewsWARP Coordinator

 The Ozette site is not only a site rich with wooden items and basketry textiles in a state of preservation rarely seen around the world, it is also a site in which geology, seismology, tree-ring chronology, as well as the results of research into Japanese historical records regarding tsunamis have been masterfully synthesized to succeed in shedding light on its dramatic history. 

See full report in Japanese and English:  Japanese Version of Paper ; English Version of Paper–The Archeology of the Jomon Period and North American Northwest Coast–translated by Jaered and Dale Croes

Kilgii Gwaay—A 10,700 year old Wet Site Revisited on the Southern Haida Gwaii, B.C., Canada

 By Dale Croes

 Dale Croes, Wet Archaeological Site Specialist, was invited by Parks Canada to volunteer on an expanded investigation of the oldest and most important Northwest Coast wet site discovery. It took place during the lowest tides of the year last June 2012.

Kilgii Gwaay, dating to 10,700 years ago, contains a rich assemblage of stone tools, preserved bone artifacts and fauna and, so important to wet site specialists, wood/fiber artifacts.  The site is in the intertidal zone, so last spring during the lowest tide of the year, the crew visited this protected embayment on small Ellen island (Figure 1) on the southernmost Haida Gwaii (formerly call the Queen Charlette Islands), northern B.C. Canada. See illustrated report here:  Kilgii Gwaay Archaeological Wet Site–Spring 2012 Exceptional Faculty Award Report