Abalone in the Archaeological Record of Barkley Sound

Summary

This report focuses on the northern abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) recovered in the 2016 excavation of Hup’kisakuu7a (Site 93T) in Pacific Rim National Park. This study combines an analysis of the data recovered through archaeological excavation and column sampling at 93T, a review of neighbouring archaeological site reports, and the collection and measurement of a modern assemblage of abalone shells. The aim was to answer three research questions: first, how ubiquitous is the presence of abalone in the archaeological record at 93T; second, how does the ubiquity of the abalone recovered at 93T compare to other sites in Barkley Sound; third, is it possible to estimate the size of archaeological abalone using a modern collection? It was determined that abalone is present in 5.6% of the levels examined at 93T, which represents the lowest ubiquity found amongst the six archaeological excavations reviewed. An assemblage of 22 modern abalone shells was used to create a regression model representing the relationship between hole measurements and total shell length with the intent of allowing researchers to estimate the total shell size of an abalone fragment found in the archaeological record. The strongest of these regressions can explain 59.45% of variability in shell length.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Student Research in Coastal and Community Archaeology at the University of Victoria

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16362