Rethinking ribbed stones: Defining a Northwest Coast artifact class

Ribbed stones are ground stone artifacts found primarily at archaeological sites in Prince Rupert Harbour and canyons along the Skeena and Bulkley Rivers. All have deeply incised grooves that extend across at least one face of the artifact, creating a characteristic ribbed pattern of raised bands. This thesis presents an artifact class definition and morphological classification system for ribbed stones, based on the analysis of 31 specimens. Used to describe and interpret the artifact class, the system is based on physical attributes related to form. This approach, while useful, was unable to directly incorporate contextual insights shared by two Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en community members. In response to this limitation, a second classification system, referred to as "circles of belonging," was developed as a complementary method of artifact classification that may more easily engage with community derived insights and information.