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The origin of art has been an enduring issue in archaeology since the nineteenth century with many contending theories. While we are not concerned here with the origins of simple image-making (images consisting of patterned scratches or minimal representations), we would like to propose that one important reason for the elaboration and widespread use of more labor intensive and complex images--especially those requiring considerable time, effort, and training--may be the need for impressive images by traditional secret societies. We document such elaborations ethnographically and point out the inherent reasons for investing in them by secret societies. Beginning with complex hunter/gatherers, secret societies had the motivations, the resources, and the psychological insights to develop sophisticated art and architecture, resulting in some of the most impressive displays in prehistory. We use the remarkable petroglyph site of Thorsen Creek in British Columbia as a prime case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prentiss et al. (2003) have argued for a relatively recent, short (1600-1100 B.P.), and noncontinuous occupation of large villages and large housepits on the British Columbian Plateau. They argue that these developments resulted from climatically induced resource impoverishment in the region. I maintain that their database is inadequate for such conclusions and that their interpretations are in conflict with dates that 1 obtained from large housepits as well as with the distribution of early point styles (dating from 1200-4800 B.P.) that concentrate in the rim middens of large and medium-sized housepits. These data indicate that large villages and housepits that emerged by 2600 B.P., or earlier, were continuously occupied and corresponded more to the development of collector-based technologies rather than any climatic deteriorations or the introduction of the bow and arrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several unusual wood and plant artifactual remains were recovered from the Keatley Creek site in the Interior of British Columbia. The most important of these is a charred fragment of a coiled basket recovered from a Protohistoric Period ritual structure dated to 250 BP. This is the only archaeological example of coiled basketry from the Interior, and such examples are extremely rare on the Coast also. While it may have served as a cooking or water container, we also suggest that it may have been a prestige item, possibly used in ritual contexts. The other artifacts described include a section of a wooden shaft implement like a bow or hoop frame dated to 1410 BP, and a bifacial stone knife from a storage pit that still retained a bark wrapping probably dating to ca. 1000 BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]