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

288 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 56A narrow strip of brass has been curved to form a small, adjustablering, probably for a child.A single cut can fragment and a rectangular piece of light metal28 cm. long and 2.8 cm. wide, possibly a section of barrel coopering,appear to have been used as reinforcement pieces. The can fragmenthas a number of holes around the sides through one of which a pieceof wire protrudes. The long rectangular fragment has a series ofSuchpunched holes running down the center at irregular intervals.reinforcement pieces might be used to strengthen the cracked shaftof a lance or to repair wooden artifacts in a variety of ways.Two long nails and a small spike show signs of having been partiallyprepared for a secondary use. The nails, one of them squarecut, have had their heads flattened (PI. 7,io), while the spike hasbeen flattened at the distal end, perhaps in preparation for its useas a knife blade (PL 7,11).In addition to the metal artifacts described above, six pieces ofheavy metal were recovered which show signs of having been cut,but have not been worked into any identifiable artifact. Probablythey are the by-products of artifact manufacture. Also recoveredwere 170 cut can fragments, all but ten of which were counted anddiscarded in the field. These show a variety of lengths and shapesand indicate by their abundance the extent to which can metal wasused as a raw material for implement manufacture.Two sections ofbucket handles have been cut for future use and ten fragments ofcut brass were also recovered.Imported Manufactured GoodsThe artifacts described under this heading are what normally arereferred to as trade goods. They were made elsewhere by non-Eskimos and traded to the residents of Tikchik, probably in exchangefor furs or labor. For a more detailed statement concerningthe occurrence of various types of trade goods in a nineteenth centurysite in southwestern Alaska, see Oswalt and VanStone (1967).Non-Eskimo PotteryThe excavations at the Tikchik site resulted in the recovery of223 sherds of non-Eskimo pottery including five identifiable saucerfragments and 11 cup fragments. All the collected sherds are fragmentsof ironstone china, a stoneware variant that was extremelypopular during the nineteenth century. In spite of the uniformity