The Native Village Buried By A Mudslide For 500 Years — And The 55,000 Artifacts Found Preserved Beneath The Mud
Not every object in this inventory is extraordinary.
But the extraordinary objects exist within the context of the full inventory, and the full inventory provides information that the extraordinary objects alone cannot.
The full documentation of a household and community inventory is itself a significant archaeological achievement, independent of the specific quality of individual objects.
The complete picture of what was present in these houses, including the ordinary objects alongside the remarkable ones, is what allows researchers to understand the full range of material life in the pre-contact Makah community.
The End of the Excavation and What Remained