This thesis presents the results of recent sampling of the Q’umu?xs Village site (DkSf-19) at Comox Harbour, British Columbia. Bucket auger and column sampling was undertaken to ascertain resource use patterns associated with the unique abundance of wooden stake fish traps located in Comox Harbour through zooarchaeological analysis of fish remains. Fish remains were identified and quantified to trace changes in resource use and linked to the chronology of fish trap use. Incorporating the theoretical frameworks of human behavioural ecology (optimal foraging models), intensification, household archaeology, and the archaeology of complex hunter-gatherers, this thesis discusses the use of fish traps in Comox Harbour in relation to larger questions of Northwest Coast social and economic complexity, in particular the emphasis on herring seen in the fish remains. / October 2008

This thesis presents the results of recent sampling of the Q’umu?xs Village site (DkSf-19) at Comox Harbour, British Columbia. Bucket auger and column sampling was undertaken to ascertain resource use patterns associated with the unique abundance of wooden stake fish traps located in Comox Harbour through zooarchaeological analysis of fish remains. Fish remains were identified and quantified to trace changes in resource use and linked to the chronology of fish trap use. Incorporating the theoretical frameworks of human behavioural ecology (optimal foraging models), intensification, household archaeology, and the archaeology of complex hunter-gatherers, this thesis discusses the use of fish traps in Comox Harbour in relation to larger questions of Northwest Coast social and economic complexity, in particular the emphasis on herring seen in the fish remains.

This thesis presents the results of recent sampling of the Q’umu?xs Village site (DkSf-19) at Comox Harbour, British Columbia. Bucket auger and column sampling was undertaken to ascertain resource use patterns associated with the unique abundance of wooden stake fish traps located in Comox Harbour through zooarchaeological analysis of fish remains. Fish remains were identified and quantified to trace changes in resource use and linked to the chronology of fish trap use. Incorporating the theoretical frameworks of human behavioural ecology (optimal foraging models), intensification, household archaeology, and the archaeology of complex hunter-gatherers, this thesis discusses the use of fish traps in Comox Harbour in relation to larger questions of Northwest Coast social and economic complexity, in particular the emphasis on herring seen in the fish remains.