Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-26T21:14:12.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Artifact Transport by Migratory Animals and Other Means

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Robert F. Heizer
Robert F. Heizer*
Affiliation:
Department of AnthropologyUniversity of California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Two recent papers, one by Arthur Woodward, the other by J. Alden Mason, have called attention to the transportation of artifacts by the process of animal migrations. The impulse for both of these works derived from the finding of an Eskimo arrowhead imbedded in the breast of a duck shot at Bakersfield, California. Similar cases from the states of Indiana, North Carolina, and Nebraska are on record in these reports. Undoubtedly there are other known instances, but these four should serve to illustrate the fact that sizeable migrating birds may import projectiles of outland origin from tremendous distances.

I should like to present some additional instances which have come to my attention. These deal chiefly with transport of artifacts by migrating sea mammals and fish. The larger sea mammals are peculiarly suited,to carrying weapon points, since they have a thick protective fat covering in which a projectile could remain imbedded without having a harmful or hindering effect on the animal's health or movement.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , April 1944 , pp. 395 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1944

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bodfish, H. H. 1936. Chasing the Bowhead. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, C. W. 1876. “Japanese Wrecks Stranded and Picked Up Adrift in the North Pacific Ocean.” Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Vol. 6, pp. 50–66.Google Scholar
California Academy Of Sciences 1873. Proceedings, Vol. 4, 1868–1872.Google Scholar
Charlevoix, Pierre Francois Xavier De 1736. Histoire et Description Generate du Japon. Paris, Vol. 6.Google Scholar
Collins, H. B. 1941. “Prehistoric Eskimo Harpoon Heads from Bering Strait.” Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 31, pp. 318–324.Google Scholar
Dall, W. H. 1877. “On Succession in the Shell-Heaps of the Aleutian Islands.” Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. 1, pp. 41–91.Google Scholar
Dall, W. H. 1899. “How Long a Whale May Carry a Harpoon.” National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 10.Google Scholar
Gudger, E. W. 1922. “Foreign Bodies Found Embedded in the Tissues of Fishes.” Natural History, Vol. 22, pp. 452–457.Google Scholar
Heizer, R. F. 1938 “An Inquiry into the Status of the Santa Barbara Spear-Thrower.” American Antiquity, Vol. 4, pp. 137–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heizer, R. F. 1941. “The Introduction of Monterey Shells to the Indians of the Northwest Coast.” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 31, pp. 399–402.Google Scholar
Holmberg, H. J. 1855. “Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des russischen Amerika.” Acta Societatis Scientarum Fennicae. Helsingfors, Vol. 4.Google Scholar
Kotzebue, Otto Von 1821. A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits…. London, 3 Vols.Google Scholar
Loud, L. L. 1918. Ethnogeography and Archaeology of the Wiyot Territory. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 14, No. 3.Google Scholar
Mason, J. A. 1934. “Transportation of Artifacts by Migration.” American Anthropologist, Vol. 36, pp. 314-315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, O. T. 1902. “Aboriginal American Harpoons.” U. S. National Museum, Annual Report for 1900, pp. 189–304.Google Scholar
Murie, O. J. 1936. “Notes on the Mammals of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.” In Geist, O. W. and Rainey, F. G., Archaeological Investigations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Miscellaneous Publications of the University of Alaska, Vol. 2.Google Scholar
Nuttall, Zelia 1906. The Earliest Historial Relations between Mexico and Japan. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 4, No. 1.Google Scholar
Rickard, T. A. 1939. “The Use of Iron and Copper by the Indians of British Columbia.” British Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 3, pp. 25–50.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. 1942. Shell Fishhooks of the California Coast. Occasional Papers of the Bishop Museum, Vol. 17, No. 4.Google Scholar
Science News Letter 1934. “Eskimo Arrowhead Found in Duck Killed in California.” In issue of February 10, 1934, p. 87.Google Scholar
Scoresby, W. 1820. An Account of the Arctic Regions with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery. London, 2 Vols.Google Scholar
Steller, G. 1774. Beschriebung von dent Lande Kamtschatka. Frankfurt und Leipzig.Google Scholar
Stokes, J. F. G. 1934. “Japanese Cultural Influences in Hawaii.” Proceedings of the Fifth Pacific Science Congress. Toronto, pp. 2791–2803.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. 1941. “Distribution of Artifacts by Natural Means.” Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, Vol. 40, pp. 13–15.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. 1942. “Haliotis Shells on the Northwest Coast.” Society for American Archaeology, Notebook, Vol. 2, pp. 40–43.Google Scholar