Sacred Artifact or Personal Totem: Results of an Analysis of a Carved Animal Sacrum Discovered Off the Oregon Coast

Summary

In March 2009, a couple walking along Oregon's central coast found a large, old looking, animal sacrum floating in a tide pool that had been modified to look like the head of an animal with a garnet used as an eye. Where this bone had originated, whether it represented an artifact that could have eroded from a local shell midden, or was placed on the beach to stump local scientists all remained in question. Since its discovery, many scientists have volunteered their time to try and unravel this mystery. Lines of inquiry included an effort to determine what animal the bone originated from; its age and how it arrived on the Oregon coast; the origin of the garnet; type of glue used to attach the garnet to the sacrum; and the type of tool used to modify the bone to hold the garnet. This paper summarizes the findings of a four-year investigation.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage