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Ancient America: A collection of Columbia River stone artifacts (museum exhibit 205) [1]

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Date: 2023-10-29  

The Cashmere Museum in Cashmere, Washington includes several exhibits of collections of ancient American Indian artifacts found in the Columbia River area. Artifacts such as these can provide important clues about prehistory—that period of time for which there are no written accounts. Unfortunately, when such artifacts are removed from the sites where they had been for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, they tell us almost nothing about life in the past.

In terms of geography, Cashmere is located in the Plateau Culture Area and the items in this exhibit seem to be Plateau Indian artifacts. This is an area which has been inhabited by American Indians for tens of thousands of years.

Shown below is the collection of artifacts in the museum exhibit 205.

Decorated Stone Bowls and Mortars

Paint Palettes

Red ocher (hematite) would be ground into a powder and then mixed with binder to produce paint. This paint could then be used for decorating clothing and tools, for body and face paint, and for making pictographs.

Smudge Bowl

Sage and other plants would be burned and the smoke (smudge) used to ritually purify people and objects.

Decorated Stones

The bottom piece appears to be a broken paint palette.

The piece on the right appears to be a paint palette.

Stone Pipes

Smoking—more specifically, the use of the pipe—is a cultural pattern that goes back for more than 2,000 years according to the archaeological data. Along the Columbia River, there were two types of stone pipes: an elbow pipe which was associated with the Upper Chinookans and a tubular pipe used by the Columbia Sahaptins. Tobacco (Nicotania attenuata) was cultivated by broadcasting the seeds in a plot which had been burned. When tobacco was not available, the people used kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) and when tobacco was available it was often mixed with kinnikinnick.

Adze Blades

The adze is a woodworking tool used for cutting, scraping, planning, or gouging. The stone blade is set in an arched handle at right angles to the handle.

Unidentified

The piece in the upper right appears to be a paint palette.

More Ancient America

Ancient America: The Fowler collection of Washington artifacts (museum exhibit)

Ancient America: A collection of Plateau Indian artifacts (museum exhibit 212)

Ancient America: A collection of hunting and gathering artifacts (museum exhibit 21)

Ancient America: The atlatl and the bow (museum exhibit)

Ancient America: An arrowhead display (museum tour)

Ancient America: Fort Ancient offerings (museum tour)

Ancient America: A collection of stone tools (photo diary)

Ancient America: The East Wenatchee Clovis Site (museum tour)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/29/2202084/-Ancient-America-A-collection-of-Columbia-River-stone-artifacts-museum-exhibit-205

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