Cetacean Hunting on the northern Oregon Coast: Evidence from the Par-Tee Site (35CLT20)

Author(s): Gabriel Sanchez

Year: 2017

Summary

Indigenous whale hunting on the Pacific Northwest Coast is predominately associated with whaling cultures north of Oregon in northern Washington and British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. Ethnographic and ethno-historical records from the northern Oregon Coast suggests whaling occurred locally, at least opportunistically. To date the only physical evidence of local whaling is a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) phalanx with an embedded elk (Cervus elaphus) bone harpoon point. A calibrated date for the embedded harpoon places the whale-hunting event between ~ cal AD 430 and 550. These dates suggest that whale hunting took place on the Oregon Coast more than a millennium before historic contact. This paper synthesizes recent research on Oregon Coast whaling including ethnographic and ethno-historical data, artifact analysis, and blood residue analysis to investigate whale hunting during prehistoric times along the northern Oregon Coast.

Cite this Record

Cetacean Hunting on the northern Oregon Coast: Evidence from the Par-Tee Site (35CLT20). Gabriel Sanchez. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 430924)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -169.717; min lat: 42.553 ; max long: -122.607; max lat: 71.301 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15122