The identification of specific object forms, the recognition of their function within a broader technological system, and the understanding of their social and cultural meanings all drew on living knowledge that the Makah community maintained.

The reciprocal contribution of the excavation to the community was the recovery of physical objects that documented practices and forms that had been disrupted or transformed by the changes following contact.

Objects whose forms were remembered in oral tradition but which had not been made in that earlier style for generations could now be seen in their original context.

The specific proportions of a harpoon shaft, the exact form of a particular type of hook, the decorative elements on a box: these details, preserved in the mud, added physical specificity to cultural memories.

The Conservation Challenge