Tikchik village: a nineteenth century riverine community in ... - Cluster

VANSTONE: TIKCHIK VILLAGE 259the midden collection, which was not extensive, has been consideredas a single unit.As was expected, the midden consisted almost exclusively of workshopdebris; broken tools, weapons, and other artifacts that wouldhave been made, used or repaired by men in the kashgee. In addition,there were large amounts of charcoal, wood chips, by-products of themanufacture of stone implements, animal and fish bones, and cutpieces of birch bark. At no point was the cultural debris more than95 cm. in depth and it did not extend more than 30 cm. below thepresent surface.T-2This test trench, which measured 6 by 3 m., was opened to uncoverany midden material that might have been deposited in frontof kashgee 1. Before excavation, this area was characterized byvery tall, lush grass but there was no obvious mound. The culturallayer proved not to be thick; no more than 46 cm. at any point andless in some places. Very few artifacts were recovered although therewas a great deal of cut birch bark and at several points in the excavatedarea there were small deposits of charcoal. These doubtlessrepresented hearth debris.T-3This small test trench, measuring 3 m. by 13^ m. and located inback of and between houses 7 and 8, was opened to investigate theCultural debris wassignificance of a pit similar to many on the site.noted to a depth of 46 cm. where sterile sand was encountered. Onlya few bones, flint chips, and can fragments were recovered.A test trench, 7 by 3 m., was opened in front of house 7 and thenextended toward the river bank to determine the depth of culturaldeposit. Again, it was determined that at no point did this exceed46 cm. in depth and in most places it was less than 30 cm. At twoplaces in this test trench small, filled pits were discovered cut intothe brownish-red, sterile subsoil. These were about 60 cm. wide and90 cm. deep. They had been carefully lined with sections of birchbark and contained a few caribou bones. It seems certain that theywere the remains of meat caches.