The Pentlatch Pebbles: Incised stones from an ancient K'omoks village site in Courtenay, British Columbia

Summary

Recent excavations at the K'omoks First Nation ancient village site at Pentlatch resulted in the discovery of 122 incised pebbles and small cobbles. Such artifacts are very rare in the Pacific Northwest, with only one other comparably large assemblage having been reported at Tse-whit-zen in Port Angeles, Washington. The incised stones from the Pentlatch site were found throughout the site area and from all stratigraphic contexts, spanning (at least) several hundreds of years of occupation; nonetheless the artifacts display remarkable consistency in design elements and motifs. The most common motif, described by us as 'parted hair and braids', bears striking resemblance to ethnographic imagery of young women participating in a traditional puberty ritual. This interpretation of the motif is explored and evaluated by drawing on traditional knowledge of K'omoks Nation community members and ethnographic literature from the Salish Sea region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14701