Basketry fragment

Museum number:

1-127351

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21010127351

Accession number:

Acc.UCAS-89

Description:

Basketry fragment. According to Richard F. Ambro, "See Heizer and Hester 1973, pp. 85 & 86; also plate 4e; concur. Note: twine basket with coiled 'patch'

Donor:

University of California Archaeological Survey

Collection place:

CA-Ama-3 (Bamert Cave), Amador County, California

Collector:

Adán Eduardo Treganza

Collection date:

October 1950

Object type:

archaeology

Object class:

Baskets (containers) and Coiled weaving

Accession date:

October 3, 1950

Department:

Native California (archaeology and ethnology)

Comment:

According to Lawrence Dawson (1973:85-86): "Large Fragment of Twined Conical Basket With Coiled Patch (1-127351). Size of fragment: 31 cm. wide, 31 cm. long. Work habit features: woven from point of base upward and leftward, the exterior face held toward the weaver. Weft strands pulled to the back face with each turn of twining. Warp material: whole peeled shoots. Start: (not present) Warp arrangement: apparently conical from the start. Warp insertions: butts sharpened (not with a metal knife) and wedged into a row of twining so that they projected on neither face (some now project because of break-outs in the weft). Degree of warp slant: 2º to 5º to the left of vertical. Warp selvage: (not present) Weft face: round face of strand toward the weaver (exterior face of basket). Main construction weave: two strand twill twining over pairs of warp elements (diagonal twining). Spacing of weft rows: 2 to 3 mm. space between rows; warp shows clearly. Slant of turns in the weft helix: down to the right (except for three rows in the design band). Splices: fag ends caught under a turn of the alternate strand on the back face, ends project downward behind the first warp crossed by the new strand; moving ends pass over only one warp stick in the last turn, the same one crossed first by the new strand, and is trimmed on the back face with the stub appearing directly underneath and a little behind the fag end. Weft turn count: 4.3 weft turns per inch, 4.4 weft rows per inch, 18.9 turns per square inch. Decoration: a horizontal band of chevron design four weft rows wide crosses the middle of the fragment. It is carried out in alternating dark and light weft strands, the light one being the sedge root used elsewhere in the basket. The dark strand appears to be an unsplit rootstock fiber, perhaps of an Equisetum rush. The weave is the same twill twining as in the rest of the basket, but the three upper weft rows of the band have up-to-the-right slant of turns accomplished by drawing the wefts to the work face, instead of to the back, with each turn of twining. The black strands are abraded away on the work face of the basket, but are preserved on the back face. Use patterns: much abrasion and many break-outs of weft elements on the work face, but almost none on the back face. In the lower margin of the fragment is a patch done in coiling to mend a hole 10 cm. wide by 6 cm. high. The patch is coiled downward from the upper periphery of the hole. The foundation used is a bundle of whole and split peeled shoots; the stitch type is mixed interlocking and split on the back face. The sewing strand is sedge root, the same as the twining weft. Interpretations and comparison: This fragment is almost certainly from a twine conical burden basket, yet is so different from that of the burial (1-164170c) that it seems unlikely to belong to the same line of tradition. Nor does the piece compare to any basket in the Lowie Museum's extensive ethnographic collections. Only one basket (1-51459, unfortunately lacking provenience, (but of general Miwok type) has the same unusual black root material used in the designs.

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