The Wood That Should Not Exist

The most immediately astonishing aspect of the Ozette assemblage is the wood.

In almost any North American archaeological site, wood does not survive.

It decays.

It is consumed by fungi, insects, and bacteria.

It is oxidized over time.

Even in favorable conditions, wood rarely survives more than a few decades in most soils.

The wooden objects in the ethnographic collections of Northwest Coast tribes, gathered by researchers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, document a tradition of extraordinary woodworking.