Visual Punning and the Whale's Tail: AMS Dating of a Marpole-Age Art Object Author(s): Alan D. McMillan and D.E. Nelson Source: Canadian Journal of Archaeology / Journal Canadien d'Archéologie , 1989, Vol. 13 (1989), pp. 212-218 Published by: Canadian Archaeological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/41102831 REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.com/stable/41102831?seq=1&cid=pdfreference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Canadian Archaeological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Journal of Archaeology / Journal Canadien d'Archéologie This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 212 Canadian Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 13, 1989 Visual Punning and the Whale's Tail: AMS Dating of a Mar Object Alan D. McMillan Social Sciences Department Douglas College New Westminster, B.C. D.E. Nelson Archaeology Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C. Introduction Among archaeological and biological specimens acquired by Douglas College from a private collection in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, was what appears to be the finely carved handle of a bone club (Fig. 1). The label "found at Hammond, B.C.", in all likelihood referring to the Port Hammond site in Maple Ridge, provided the only clue to its context. Although it would have been possible to date the artifact using traditional radiocarbon techniques, this would have required destruction of much or all of the object, with no certainty that sufficient reliable material would be obtained for the measurement. Now, however, it is possible to date organic artifacts without significant damage. Here we report the result of an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) age determination for this artifact and comment on its significance to the study of the development of Northwest Coast art. Background and description The Port Hammond site, on the north bank of the Fraser River about 40km from its mouth (Figure 2), is famous as the scene of Harlan I. Smith's pioneering excavations in British Columbia in 1897 and 1898 (Smith 1903). Even earlier, Charles Hill-Tout had collected objects, including a decorated stone bowl, from this site (Smith 1903:184; Duff 1 956:69,1 45). Although no dates or detailed analyses of the recovered information exist, the nature of the artifacts, which include numerous decorated pieces, suggests that the site can be classified as a component of the Marpole phase (Burley 1 980; Mitchell 1 985) . The object of this study appears to be the handle of a club made from dense sea mammal bone, presumably whalebone due to its size. Its total length is 228mm. The intact portion of the shaft, which would have served as the grip area for the club and still exhibits considerable polish, extends 1 46mm to a jagged break across the long axis of the artifact. It is a flattened oval in cross-section, 46mm wide and 28mm thick. The carved end of the club is 88mm wide and 30mm thick at its maximum dimensions. In the middle of this carved area, directly above an indentation at the base, is a drilled hole 8mm in diameter. This hole presumably served as the attachment point for a cord or thong to be worn around the wrist of the person carrying the club. The shape of the carved area (Figure 1) suggests in outline a whale's tail, with sides flaring to bluntly pointed flakes. Two small human figures, each about 82mm in height, are skilfully carved into the general outline of the "whale's tail." Both are seen in This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal Canadien d'Archéologie, Vol. 73, 7989 273 Figure 1 The two sides of the artifact, showing the outline of the "whale's tail" containing two small human figures in profile. See text for dimensions. The arrow points to the hole drilled to remove material for dating. profile, gazing out from the flukes with their backs to the central perforation. The carver clearly intended, but did not quite achieve, bilateral symmetry. The figures, each of which consists only of head and arms, were produced by carving away areas of bone, leaving raised, flat, polished surfaces to define the main features. Particularly prominent are the large, heavy, arching eyebrows, their exaggerated nature typical of much of later Northwest Coast art (cf. Holm 1965). Eyes are raised circles below the eyebrows. Complete arms are shown, extending from prominent shoulders to elbows which form the blunt tips of the whale's flukes and back to hands at the faces. The fingers of each figure appear to be stuck in the mouth, for which only a prominent upper lip is indicated. Individual fingers are delineated; five on three of the hands although the fourth appears to have seven. The nose is a blunt wedge shape on the side of the carving. The carved This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 214 Canadian Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 13, 1989 Figure 2 The lower Fraser River area, showing locations of the Port Hammond site and the type-site for the Marpole phase. features of the object are still well-defined, with only slight damage removing part of the elbow on one side and the lip and nose on the other. Prehistoric and ethnographic parallels Clubs of whalebone, stone and wood were widely used along the Northwest Coast, both prehistorically and by ethnographic groups. They were favoured weapons of war, although some were probably also used in hunting, fishing and rituals. Prehistoric whalebone clubs with carved handles have been found at various locations on the Northwest Coast, from the Prince Rupert Harbour, where one has been dated to about 2500 B.P. (MacDonald 1 983), to the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound (Boas 1 907:408; Holm 1987:38-39), and into the interior as far as Kamloopsand Chase (Smith 1900:422; Boas 1907:411; Sänger 1968:119-121). In the early historic period such clubs were common among the Nootka of western Vancouver Island, and most museum specimens were obtained from that area (cf. Boas 1907). The handles were frequently carved into the profile image of a stylized bird head, presumably representing the Thunderbird, although others are clearly anthropomorphic. In either case, the heads are surmounted by the smaller figure of a bird or animal, which may represent a guardian spirit or headdress. Although many variations from this common theme are known, the object reported here appears to be unique. The whale's tail motif occurs early in Northwest Coast art. Borden (1983) illustrates two finely carved prehistoric bone knives, terminating in the distinctive shape of the whale's tail (Figure 3). They were excavated from the Locarno Beach site and date to about 2500 B.P. In style, this carving in many ways foreshadows the well-developed art of historic Northwest Coast cultures. The strong, exaggerated raised features, set off by "negative space," suggest beginnings of the "formline" principle, upon which much of Northwest Coast art was based, particularly further north on the coast (cf. Holm 1965,1983). Bilateral symmetry, where the image was split down the central axis and arranged on each side in profile, is a common feature of the historic art. Another common charac- teristic is the use of "visual punning," where an image gives several simultaneous meanings - in this case the shape of the whale's tail being also the form of the two humans in profile. Historic period artists, with their complex imagery in wood, enjoyed incorporating such visual ambiguities into their masterworks (cf. Holm 1965:89; Hawthorn 1979:20). The Kwakiutl, in particular, exploited the opportunities the whale's tail This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal Canadien d'Archéologie, Vol. 13, 1989 215 Figure 3 Bone knives from the Locarno Beach site, decoratively carved with the whale's tail motif. (Courtesy of the Laboratory of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia.) shape provided, filling the blank space with faces and turning the flukes simultaneously into ears (Figure 4). Radiocarbon age determination The bone was dated without significant damage by drilling a 5mm diameter hole about 20mm deep into the broken portion of the bone shaft, as shown by the arrow in Figure 1. About 390mg of material were obtained. A hole of this size is often not necessary, but in this case the drillings were a soft, white powder, indicating that collagen degradation had taken place. The collagen remnants were extracted following the method of Brown et al. (1988). In short, the drillings were soaked in 0.25N HCI and then filtered to eliminate soluble components. The retentate was refluxed in 0.01 N HCI for 24 hours and filtered again, this time discarding the insoluble portion. The solution was then ultra-filtered to isolate those remnant molecules with weights greater than about 30 kiloDaltons. The resultant solution was then lyophilized to yield about 2.7mg of collagen residue. This material was burned to CO2 in a quartz tube with CuO as oxidant. Half this CO2 was used for a determination of the <513C value. The other was converted to graphite using the method of Vogel et al. (1987), and then radiocarbon dated using AMS equipment and methods as described in Nelson et al. (1986a). This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 276 Canadian Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 13, 1989 Figure 4 Examples of "visual punning" in Kwakiutl depictions of the whale's tail: A, from totem pole in Stanley Park, Vancouver; B and C, from killer whale headdresses in the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, cat nos. A4506, A6316. The ¿13C value obtained was -15.7%o as measured with respect to the international PDB standard. This value is characteristic of the bone collagen of sea mammals rather than land mammals (Tauber 1986), providing further evidence that the material is whalebone. The age obtained, corrected forfractionation, was 1995 ±80 radiocarbon years BP (RIDDL-1142). As the comparisons to be made below are with cultural sequences defined in terms of radiocarbon age, this date has not been converted to calendric age. Discussion The radiocarbon date places the object firmly within the Marpole phase, with an estimated time span of approximately 2500 to 1500 BP (Burley 1980; Fladmark 1982 If attribution to the Port Hammond site is correct, it also provides the first age deter mination forthat important location and confirms assignment of the material recover by Smith (1 903) to the Marpole phase. The club handle now joins a considerable bod of known or supposed Marpole-age art objects in stone, bone, and antler, as well as the recently dated wooden atlatl from the Skagit River (Fladmark et al. 1987). The abundance and complexity of Marpole period artworks testifies to early developmen of the full Northwest Coast carving complex, hints at the social stratification that provided the underlying motivation for art production, and suggests the existence o monumental artworks in wood now lost to decay (cf. Fladmark et al. 1987). The date also indicates that the distinctive features of the ethnographic art form have a considerable time depth. In particularl, stylistic techniques such as splitting figure to create bilateral symmetry and "visual punning" are now known to have bee employed by Northwest Coast artists two millennia ago. AMS dating of such objects as the Port Hammond club handle and the Skagit River atlatl demonstrates the feasibility of directly dating many art objects now held museums or private collections. The technique is relatively inexpensive and non destructive. It can be applied to objects made of organic material (e.g. wood, bone, ivory or antler) or objects that may retain organic remnants such as blood traces o stone tools (Nelson et al. 1986b) or organic inclusions in potsherds (Snow et al. 1986) The contextual information required for traditional age assessments is not necessary. This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal Canadien d'Archéologie, Vol. 73, 7989 277 This method opens up exciting new possibilities for the study o art as it allows direct dating of the objects themselves. I ncreasing the dated prehistoric artworks should allow a much fuller understandin Northwest Coast art and its regional variations than has been prev Acknowledgements We thank Tom Brown, John Vogel, John Southon and Bente work on the radiocarbon and stable isotope determinations. Knut F on the paper. This work was supported by grants from NSERC a University and McMaster University. References cited Boas, F. 1 907 Clubs made of bone of whale. In Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound, by Harlan I. Smith, pp. 403-412. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 4(6):301-441. Borden, C.E. 1983 Prehistoric art of the Lower Fraser region. In Indian Art Traditions of the Northwest Coast, edited by Roy L Carlson, pp. 131-165. Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University. Burnaby. Burley, D.V. 1980 Marpole: Anthropological Reconstructions of a Prehistoric Northwest Coast Culture Type. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University. Burnaby. Brown, TA, D.E. Nelson, J.S. Vogel and J.R. Southon 1988 Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30(2):171-177. Duff, W. 1956 Prehistoric stone sculpture of the Fraser River and Gulf of Georgia. Anthropology in British Columbia 5:15-1 51 . Fladmark, K.R. 1 982 An introduction to the prehistory of British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 6:95-1 56. Fladmark, K.R., D.E. Nelson, T.A. Brown, J.S. Vogel and J.R. Southon 1 987 AMS dating of two wooden artifacts from the Northwest Coast. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 11:1-12. Hawthorn, A. 1979 KwakiutlArt. Douglas and Mclntyre. Vancouver. Holm, B. 1 965 Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. University of Washington Press. Seattle. 1983 Form in Northwest Coast art. In Indian Art Traditions of the Northwest Coast, edited by Roy L Carlson, pp. 33-45. Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University. Burnaby. This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 218 Canadian Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 13, 1989 1 987 Spirit and Ancestor: A Century of Northwest Coast Indian Museum. Douglas and Mclntyre. Vancouver. MacDonald, G. 1 983 Prehistoric art of the northern Northwest Coast. In Indian Art Traditions of the Northwest Coastt edited by Roy L Carlson, pp. 99-120. Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University. Burnaby. Mitchell, D. 1985 The later prehistory of the southern coast of British Columbia and northwestern Washington. Manuscript prepared for the Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. VII, Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution. Washington. Nelson, D.E., J.S. Vogel and J.R. 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Vogel, J.S., D.E. Nelson and J.R. Southon 1987 Catalyst and binder effects in the use of filamentous graphite for AMS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B29.50-56. This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:14:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms