User:Scuttlebug Jam/sandbox

Hagwilget Cache

The Hagwilget Cache is a collection of 35 groundstone clubs, crafted from AD 1200-1400, that were discovered and excavated by Gitxsan Chief Johnny Muldoe in 1898.^[1] Muldoe, digging a post-hole, found the clubs 4-5 feet under the surface of the clay, within a depression concealed by a large stone which had been placed atop it.^[2] Found near the eponymous Gitxsan community of Hagwilget, B.C., they were soon transferred to the Arthur Wellesley, the province's Superintendant of Indian Affairs. Interpreted by archaeologists as war clubs, some have symbolic iconography. The bi-phallic club, terminating in two heads, the one at the base having staring eyes that "intrude enquiringly into the world", roughly textured in contrast to the smooth phallus opposite (Marshall, 226). Archaeologist Duff, who exhibited the clubs along with other artifacts, saw them as symbols of "male sexual power" (Marshall, 230). The artifacts have filtered into museum collections over the years; one 18-inch bladed stone club, its base stylized human head with oversized ears, now dwells at the Museum of the American Indian (Marshall, 231). Other clubs feature intricately animal heads; one has an intricately carved raven head and a human head at the other. After entering the collection of Dr. Newcombe (which would contribute 1400 artefacts to what would later become the Newcombe Collection of the Royal B.C. Museum)^[3] some of the Hagwilget Cache clubs - marked as "Tsimshian stone batons" would be donated along with notes and photographs of various smaller clubs from the Cache.^[2]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43915990?saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiI4OGU2NzczNS1kNmMyLTQyNmItYjBkOC1hZmNkY2NiYTI0YjkiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbklkcyI6WyIxMjJiMTFjOS00YWE5LTQzY2UtYWQzZS0xMmUyYTE4YmU3ZWUiXX0

https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_59438

https://www.jstor.org/stable/827867

https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_132712

1. "War club | National Museum of the American Indian". americanindian.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
2. Sutton, A (January 1963). "PROVINCIAL MUSEUM of NATURAL HISTORY and ANTHROPOLOGY REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1962" (PDF). Royal B.C. Museum and Archives: 28. {{cite journal}}: line feed character in |title= at position 19 (help)
3. "Newcombe Collection". Learning Portal. Retrieved 2025-08-15.