Abstract

Basketry artifacts, which comprise some of the more culturally distinctive archaeological finds on the Northwest Coast, have been of little use in the Coast Salish area for tracking continuity into modern times. The introduction of coiled basketry very early in the post-contact era combined with a dearth of archaeological specimens from the past 1,500 years obscure the heuristic potential of basketry. New insight is provided by a waterlogged specimen made entirely in cross-stitch wrapping that was found at a site (DhRq 19) in the Fraser estuary. Dated to 900±100 BP, it is technologically analogous to baskets made with exotic materials (raffia) by Coast Salish basket-makers in Washington state.