The Archaeology of the Yakima ValleySmith, Harlan Ingersoll
History
The Archaeology of the Yakima Valley
Smith, Harlan Ingersoll
Yakima River Valley (Wash.) -- Antiquities
On the other hand, many differences in culture are observable. Thus
objects made of nephrite and mica which occur, the former being common
in the Thompson River valley, were not found in the Yakima area.
Quarries and terraced rock-slides such as were seen here are not known
to us in the Thompson River region. The bone of the whale occasionally
found in the Thompson River country is lacking in Yakima collections.
That glassy basalt was not the chief material for chipped implements, as
it was in the Thompson River region, is probably due to the scarcity of
this material and its use is perhaps as rare in the Yakima valley as on
the coast. Chipped implements were made of a greater variety of stone
than in the interior of British Columbia, and a greater proportion were
of the more beautifully colored materials. No harpoon points made of a
unio (?) shell, such as the object found in the Thompson River region or
other objects made of such a shell, were seen. Notched sinkers and large
grooved sinkers were more commonly found than in the Thompson Valley,
while sap scrapers which were common there, were not found in the Yakima
district. A great number of pestles made from short cylindrical pebbles,
forming a type rather rare in the Thompson River region; many long
pestles, of which only four or five have been found in interior British
Columbia; and one with a zigzag design not represented among the finds
from that region, were found in the Yakima area. Saucer-shaped
depressions marking summer lodge sites were not noted by the writer.
Clubs made of stone were more numerous and all are of a different type.
Clubs or other objects made of the bone of the whale or drilled pendants
either circular or elongated were not found. Petroglyphs, pictographs
in white, and representations of feather headdresses were not found
among the archaeological objects in the Thompson region. Graves in
knolls, some with a cyst made of thin slabs of stones constitute another
distinct trait of the Yakima area.
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