Household Cordage in the Ancient Ozette Longhouses, a Mudslide-Covered Village on Northwest Coast of North America

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Rarely can you characterize all the cordage and knots in use within an ancient household. At Ozette Village, three centuries ago, a large mudslide flattened, covered, and preserved large cedar plank long-houses. Thousands of cordage and wood/fiber artifacts were preserved and recovered in situ, in use and stored by the ancient extended families of whalers/fishers/gatherers and their slaves. WSU worked in equal partnership with the Makah Indian Nation, and I was the postdoctorate faculty member who undertook the study of thousands of ancient cordage and yarn weaving items. We computer mapped the distribution of these artifacts, revealing their functions throughout the Ozette Plank House I, a house measuring ~40 × 60 feet, 2,400 square feet. These ancient cordage and weaving items reflect the cedar plank house construction (withes holding poles and wall boards), whaling (harpoon lines/harpoon lanyards), fishing (nets/fish lines/leaders), wealth through blankets and bird down blankets (string warps, loom uprights, cross bars, spindle whorls, wool dog remains), sweeping (braided branches), mud/snow shoes (framed hoops), binding elements (cherry bark elements), and several other cordage roles in this ancient maritime community. Cordage and weaving items reflect a unique example of household archaeology and a new line on Northwest Coast ancestry.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35646.0