ISSN 0047-7222 Vol.21, No.4 October 1989 INSIDE: In memoriam- Moira Irvine ... page 1. Circum Pacific Prehistory Conference ... page 3. News bits ... page 4. Water Hazard -a wet link ... page 6. Book review ... page 10. Permits ... page 12. 1989-90 ASBC Executive ... page 13. The Midden Publication of the Archaeological Society of British Columbia Editor: Kathryn Bernick Subscription is by membership in the A.S.B.C. jsee below), or non-member Subscriptions and Mailing: Helmi Braches rates of $12.00 a year 15 issues). U.S.A. and overseas $14.00 a year. Check or Submissions and exchange publications should be directed to postal money order in Canadian funds the Editor. Contributions on subjects germane to B.C. payable to the A.S.B.C. Address to: Midden Subcriptions, P.O. Box 520, archaeology are welcomed: maximum length 1,500 words, no Station A, Vancouver, B.C. V6C footnotes, and only a brief bibliography (if necessary at all). 2N3. Guidelines available. Telephone inquiries: 873-5958. The contents of The Midden are The next issue of The Midden will appear mid-December, 1989. copyrighted by the A.S.B.C. It is unlawful to reproduce all or part by any means whatsoever, without permission Contributors this issue: Kathryn Bernick, Don Bunyan, Deb of the Society, which is usually gladly Hayles, Phyllis Mason, Hilary Stewart. given. Production assistants: Toni Crittenden, Phyllis Mason. Publication of The Midden is made possible in part by a grant from the Government of British Columbia THE COVER: Basket woven in open twining from cedar-wood through the British Columbia Heritage Trust and British Columbia Lotteries. splints. Recovered from 2, 000-year-old Water Hazard wet site in Tsawwassen, B. C. See story on page 6. UBC Laboratory of Archaeology photo by Michael Lay. The Society The Archaeological Society of British President: Terry Spurgeon (464-1984) Columbia is dedicated to the protection of Vice President: Bill Paull (980-5186) archaeological resources and the spread of Membership Secretary: Helen Smith (224-1426) archaeological knowledge. Membership year runs September 1 to August Meetings featuring illustrated lectures are held 31. Fees: single- $20.00; family- $25.00; senior on the second Wednesday of each month citizen - $15.00; student - $15.00. Membership (except July and August) at 8:00 p.m. in the includes Midden subscription. Address to: Vancouver Museum Auditorium. Visitors and A.S.B.C. Membership Secretary, P.O. Box 520, new members are welcome! Station A, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2N3. Affiliated Chapters: COMING TOPICS: Fraser Valley. Meetings featuring illustrated lectures are held on the third Tuesday of each November 8: Anne Underhill (UBC): Neolithic month (September to May) at 7:45p.m. on the pottery in China. Fraser Valley College campus. President: Bill Koberstein (859-1921) . Secretary: Andy Purdy December 13 Dr. James Hester (Univ. of (823-4920). Colorado): topic to be announced. Victoria. President: Shirley Cuthbertson (c/o Royal B.C. Museum). Moira- an Appreciation by Don Bunyan She was a very private person­ warm, friendly, and generous, but nonetheless guarded her privacy and remained true to herself. As a co-worker, Moira Irvine was Drawing by Hilary Stewart. invaluable; as a friend, she is forever irreplaceable. Our friendship seemed almost large insurance company. In the house on Haywood Avenue. casual, based on common interests Calgary, both joined the Alpine Although bright in school, she hid and quirky senses of humour, and a Club of Canada and met as fellow her light and drew no attention to shared love of music and good members in 1937; they were herself. A former class-mate reports writing. Yet, and yet... it seems I married the same year. In 1942, his that in high school, Moira kept mourn her death more than I employers transferred Geroge herself so inconspicuous as to be mourned the deaths of closer, Irvine to the Vancouver area. They almost invisible. Even so, she longer-known, more-tested friends. bought and moved into the then graduated m the Accelerated Moira was unique anti her dying 20-year-old house at 1565 Haywood Academic Program from West leaves a unique void m my Avenue in West Vancouver, where Vancouver Senior Secondary affections. they lived until they died, and School, in 1958. Four years later she Moira Irvine was born on Sunday where Moira lived, with two short graduated form UBC, with a B.A. in March 9, 1941, in Calgary, Alberta. absences, until she died. Anthropology. Her term paper She died of cancer on Sunday June Moira's interest in history and written at the end of the 11, in North Vancouver's Lions antiquities, her pleasure in doing archaeological field school, was Gate Hospital. Her parents came things with her own hands, and her entitled ''The Antler Industry at from the United Kingdom, her independence showed up at an Musqueam Southeast." mother fron: England and her early age. As a child, she made a In 1962, she set off for Europe, father from a remote island off the suit of armour, in which she fought where she travelled in Britain and coast of Scotland. They immigrated many mock battles with a son of the on the Continent and worked for to Canada independently and both neighbours. The remnants of her about a year in a London bookstore. came to Calgary, where she worked tinplate and cardboard creation are Returning to Vancouver, she began as a secretary and he worked for a still to be found in the basement of working as Dr. Charles E. Borden's The Midden · 1 archaeological assistant, at first on dependency on a drug did not, Moira loved music, particularly an informal, ex-gratia basis; the however, inhibit her active life-she early music, so she built a position was formalized later. She kept up her climbing, canoeing, and clavichord, from a kit. She enjoyed directed field excavations at skiing, as well as her work as gardening, but the front yard of the Musqueam in 1968 and at the South Curatorial Assistant in UBC' s house lies deep in a tree shaded Yale Site (D}Ri 7} in 1973. Laboratory of Archaeology. ravine, so she gardened in pots and boxes on her balcony, on the roof, She became the most effective In 1974, she was appointed editpr and in well-lit windows. I suspect factotum that any archaeological of the Canadian Alpine journal, a that Moira loved keeping the garden group could possibly have. post she held until1986. as a wilderness barrier to Everything undertaken by the discourage casual visitors and anthro-archaeologists at UBC would In 1975, while on a climb with preserve her privacy. She always depend in part on Moira's help. the Alpine Club, Moira met Jane directed friends to the back door, From equipping a field expedition Gilchrist, a fellow-spirit. The two the only way to enter the house. to drawing and photographing the soon became steadfast friends. They artifacts, preparing museum shared an apartment in Kitsilano Moira's patience, kindness, and displays, and laying-out articles and and started a series of wilderness generosity were demonstrated fully books for publication, Moira could canoe trips among the Gulf Islands, when her parents' climbing be counted on to do a first-class job. during which they managed to companion Ev Gee suffered a record a number of archaeological severe stroke three years ago. For a Moira followed the family sites. year, Moira · looked after Ev' s tradition of an active outdoor life. affairs, got her house in order, She was a mountaineer, a canoer, Then came the Laughing Oyster. organized visitors, and arranged for and a cross-country skier. One Moira, Jane and another friend, a housekeeper to look after her might imagine that she was enrolled Eleanor Hardwick, bought a when she was able to return home. in the Alpine Club of Canada at bookstore in Courtenay B.C. The As executor, Moira cleared up the birth! She was with a group from previous owners had named it the estate and disposed of Ev' s effects the ACC on a trek near Annapurna Laughing Oyster, after their aged after her death. in 1970 when she began feeling cleaning lady who used to entertain unaccountably weak and tired. them with horrific stories of injuries That sad job is now being done Invalided out of Nepal, she was sustained during her former for Moira by Jane. Mercifully, hospitalized in Hong Kong, where employment as an oyster-shucker­ Moira's time of suffering was diabetes was diagnosed. From then the worse the injury, the louder the relatively short. Much as we all on, Moira was dependent on regular old girl laughed. The three partners shall miss her, we can at least be injections of insulin. Total kept the store from 1978 to 1986. grateful for that. D Research Fund Established UBC archaeologists Richard Pearson, R.G. Matson, David Pokotylo, and Michael Blake announce establishment of The Moira Irvine Archaeological Research Fund at UBC to honour the memory of Moira's generous work with students. The fund will provide small awards to help undergraduate archaeological research including fieldwork, analysis of archaeological collections, report preparation for publication, and travel to conferences to present research results. When they suggested the , idea to Moira before she passed away, she heartily approved of the plan and then, typically, made a sizeable contribution herself. If you would like to help in setting up this lasting memory of Moira, please make a donation to: The Moira Irvine Fund, Laboratory of Archaeology, Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology, U.B.C., 6303 N.W.