Archaeology
Coast Salish Archaeology Essays
I spent much of my early career studying and working at archaeological sites in Coast Salish territories. My experiences in these important but fragile places have fundamentally shaped my understanding of Coast Salish cultural landscapes and peoples over time.
I acknowledge the problematic history archaeologists have had with Coast Salish ancestral sites, made iconic by the work in the 1890s by Harlan I Smith which I chronicle in some of the articles below.
Harlan I. Smith's 1897-1899 Jesup North Pacific Expedition
Thom, Brian (2001) Harlan I. Smith and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. In Gateways: Exploring the Legacy of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, edited. by I. Krupnik and W. Fitzhugh. Pp. 139-180. Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. https://archive.org/stream/gatewaysexplorin12001krup#page/138/mode/2up [HTML] [Open Access]
Thom, Brian (2000) Precarious Rapport: Harlan I. Smith and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. European Review of Native American Studies. 14(2):3-10. [PDF] [Open Access]
The Scowlitz Site (Harrison River, DhRl 16)
Thom, Brian (1995) The Dead and the Living: Burial Mounds and Cairns and the Development of Social Classes in the Gulf of Georgia Region. MA Thesis, (Anthropology) University of British Columbia. 88 pgs. https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/3859 [Open Access]
Thom, Brian (1994) Excavations of Mound 20 - Burial Cairn. Pp. A1-A25, in R.G. Matson (ed), Report on the 1993 Excavations at Scowlitz, BC Heritage Investigation Permit 1993-45. Archaeology Branch, Victoria. http://www.web.uvic.ca/~bthom1/Media/pdfs/archaeology/Thom_1994_Scowlitz_Mound20_excavation_report.pdf [Open Access]
Blake, Michael, Gary Coupland and Brian Thom (1993) Dating the Scowlitz Site. The Midden. 25(1):7-9. [PDF] [Open Access]
The Whalen Farm Site (Point Roberts, DfRs 3)
Thom, Brian (1992) Whalen Farm Revisited: 40 Year Later. The Midden. 24(5):3-6. [PDF] [HTML] [Open Access]
Thom, Brian (1992) [revised 2008] Chapter X-ii: The Whalen Farm Site (DfRs 3), 1949-50: Re-contextualizing Borden's Whalen Farm. In The Crescent Beach Site and the Place of the Locarno Beach Phase, edited by R.G. Matson. Pp. 10-34. Published online by UBC Laboratory of Archaeology, Vancouver. https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/39218/Matson_Crescent_Beach_CBX_Chpt_10.pdf#page=10 [Open Access]
Thom, Brian (1992) Archaeological Investigations at the Whalen Farm Site (DfRs 3), 1949-1950. Recontextualizing Borden's Whalen Farm. BA Honours Thesis, (Anthropology) University of British Columbia. 132 pgs. https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/29051 [Open Access]
Coast Salish Long-Term Cultural Change and Continuity
Thom, Brian (2012) Can Anarchism be a Useful Model Today? Invited CA Comment on Angelbeck and Grier’s Anarchism in NWC Archaeology. Current Anthropology. 53(5):578. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/667621.pdf#page=33
Thom, Brian (1998) The Marpole-Late Transition in the Gulf of Georgia Region. The Midden. 30(2):2-7. [PDF] [HTML] [Open Access]
Thom, Brian (1996) Maintaining Complexity: Changes in Social Inequality During the Marpole-Late Transition in the Gulf of Georgia Region. Paper presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans. http://www.web.uvic.ca/~bthom1/Media/pdfs/archaeology/saa.htm [Open Access]
Morrison, Sandra, Heather Myles and Brian Thom (1994) Spirit Camp. The Midden. 26(5):9-11. [PDF] [Open Access]
Thom, Brian (1992) An Investigation of Interassemblage Variability Within the Gulf of Georgia Phase. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 16:24-31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41102848
Thom, Brian (1992) [revised 2008] Chapter V-IV: Beads. In The Crescent Beach Site and the Place of the Locarno Beach Phase, edited by R.G. Matson. Pp. 56-65. Published online by UBC Laboratory of Archaeology, Vancouver. https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/39218/Matson_Crescent_Beach_CBV_Chpt_5.pdf#page=56 [Open Access]