North America’s arid west is home to one of the world’s most ancient and diverse records offiber artifacts. Native peoples of this region used fibers to make baskets, footwear, leggings, skirts, shawls, hats, nets, sleeping mats, lodge covers, watercraft, armor, fishing weirs, and many other items essential to daily life. Although many such items housed in museums today have come from uncertain contexts, organic artifacts have the advantage of being directly radiocarbon dated. Systematic dating of fiber artifacts has confirmed this region’s 14,000-plusyear history of fiber arts and allows us to determine the age of specific forms or structural types. This effort demonstrates the exceptional persistence of some basketry traditions, and important geographic variation in others.
Mailing address: PO Box 8146 Bend, Oregon 97708-8146
Email: ascoinfomail@gmail.com
"Archaeological Society of Central Oregon" is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
