丁香园AV

As Lasquetians are well aware, especially when gardening or building, we are surrounded by rock. In fact, we have even nicknamed our home, 鈥淭he Rock鈥�. While sometimes a nuisance today, past Indigenous inhabitants of the island needed a choice of rock types. Fine-grained rocks were used to form precise shapes of chipped tools for arrow and spear points, hide, bark, and fiber scrapers, and knives of various forms. Such tools could also be created with slate or similar materials that could be ground into needed shapes. Hammerstones and grinding stones required coarse materials, mauls and adzes required especially hard materials, and boiling stones needed to be spherical and porous.  

    For those who came to the Xwe鈥檈tay/Lasqueti Archaeology Project (XLAP) table at the Fall Fair, you learned from geochemist Rhy McMillan and archaeologist Jerram Ritchie that we 鈥渟ource鈥� the raw material of tools (aka 鈥渢oolstones鈥�) using a technique call X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) which determines the trace elements in a rock. With comparative geological data, we can determine the potential source of a toolstone. Some sources (e.g., discrete lava flows), are spatially specific, while others are part of large geological formations. In the latter case, we turn to what we know about past social relations to determine toolstone origins.

    Through XLAP, we have learned much about where past islanders got their toolstone. As I have written, by conducting XRF on the artifacts/ belongings in islanders鈥� personal collections, we know that like most places in the southern Salish Sea, Lasqueti obsidian artifacts come from a range of sources to the south. Xwe鈥檈tay stands out in the region, however, as having some unique sources represented. The most stunning is the obsidian boulder found at Marshall鈥檚 Beach 80 years ago by Ralph and then bartered to Tom Weinerth 30 years later for an 陆 hour excavator time. The boulder originated from a flow in SE Idaho! Its immense size is unparalleled for sites in this region. It took an enormous effort to bring it here, but it would have been valued beyond our comprehension 鈥� as a local source of the highest quality toolstone that then could be traded or gifted for potentially 100鈥檚 of artifacts. This boulder has only a few chips removed from it. Stunningly, a few weeks ago, Rhy sourced some small obsidian chips from a northern Vancouver Island site that were from the same source 鈥� likely from this boulder!

    In addition to obsidian, ancestral Lasquetians relied on their social networks to obtain other non-local toolstones. Slate, for instance, which was ground into knives and projectiles, had to be imported. We assume that the source was Jervis Inlet, but our team is undertaking a geochemical analysis to confirm this. Our analyses tell us that the stone adzes and chisels are made primarily of nephrite, but one piece found on the Windy Bay beach is made of jadeite. Since jadeite breaks more easily than nephrite, this tool would have been valued less. Nephrite likely came here from the southern Interior of BC via well-established trade routes.

    While these non-local toolstones played central roles in the social and economic spheres of Xwe鈥檈tay, the majority of local tools are not made from these sources. Rather, the projectiles, knives, and 鈥渇lakes鈥� are largely made from relatively low quality, black toolstone. Given its inferior quality and abundance, I always assumed that the ancestral peoples got the rocks from local sources. But, where??  

    After visiting several locations, Rhy (geophysicist) and Jerram (archaeologist) were able to crack the local toolstone code on the Fall Fair weekend. This was partly thanks to Tom Weinerth who visited the archaeology table with an assortment of beautiful, rounded cobbles that he collected from the Boot Point conglomerates. Rhy 鈥渮apped鈥� Tom鈥檚 rocks and found the elemental composition to be intriguingly similar to that of the archaeological tools. Additional analysis of the elements in the conglomerates on the beaches of Boot Point and Squitty Bay confirmed that the ancient Lasquetians were indeed using the cobbles in the conglomerates as a local quarry for their toolstones. Furthermore, Rhy and Jerram found a cobble sitting on the Boot Point conglomerate shelf from which someone had removed many flakes.

    And it turns out, the conglomerates weren鈥檛 the only local toolstone source. Rhy noticed a rock shelter on the cliff behind Michael and Judy鈥檚 house that was large enough to have been used in the archaeological past. Although the ground was disturbed (from goats and kids), the surface was clearly leveled, likely by Indigenous People. But, more pertinent to this discussion, further along the cliff is exposed limestone 鈥� which would have been a source of chert. And sure enough, Rhy found 鈥渇lake scars鈥� on the rock that indicate that the ancestral Lasquetians quarried toolstone there.

Rhy McMillan, Faren Wolfe, and Dana Lepofsky 鈥渮apping鈥� artifacts/belongings at theFall Fair to determine the source of the toolstone.

Local source of fine-grained material behind Judy and Michael鈥檚 house

Conglomerate at Boot Point with cobbles the ancestral islanders quarried for their toolstone.

Chipped cobble found on the conglomerate waiting for centuries for an archaeologist to find it!