A Comment from Mark G. Plew on Kir’yak’s Portable Engravings of the Northeastern Paleoasiatics

Jan Kee and I published a note on incised stones from Idaho (Kee and Plew 2015). The paper was based on a presentation on portable art of Western North America presented at the 2014 SAA meetings and published in JONA . We described four distinct types that occur in different geographic settings in association with different site types and over a period of several thousand years, though more common in the Late Holocene. These included stones with parallel lines located on the face or margins of stones with horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines—or a combination. A second type was characterized by centrally placed hachure, while a third type consisted of irregular/multidirectional lines lacking discernable patterning. A final type included what appeared to be more decorative—combining zig-zags, ladders, parallel lines and chevrons. Reviewing the Kir’yak paper, there appear some similarities in design motifs to those in Idaho—though all would fit our Type 4 (Figures A, B, and C)—being more decorative items.