Investigations by Julie Schablitsky
Fall 2005
Currently, research archaeologists are working on an assemblage of historic Chinese artifacts recovered during an excavation in the fall of 2005, from the town of John Day in eastern Oregon. Early Chinese miners during the late 19th and early 20th Century lived within what is now the town of John Day. The miners settled a small Chinatown adjacent to a 1860s building that was purchased by Chinese doctor Ing Hay and his partner Lung On, around 1887. The building is known as Kam Wah Chung, where Ing Hay and Lung On lived, practiced medicine, and operated their store until the 1940s. Artifacts were recovered adjacent to the building of Kam Wah Chung (now a State Parks Museum), and include cut nails, bottle glass, and fragmented pieces of Chinese ceramics, including mint green glazed porcelain (Celadon) and Chinese brown stoneware. Some of the fragmented Chinese brown stoneware pieces are the remains of jars. Several fragments of redware opium bowls were also collected across the site. Of particular interest are three Chinese game pieces, made of white opaque glass. They are the size of small buttons, and round in shape. These game pieces were likely used in the game of "Go", also known as "Wei Ch'i", or in the game of fan tan. Wei Ch'i is a very ancient game, dating to around 3,000 years ago in China, and introduced in Japan about 1, 200 years ago. The game is played with 180 white pieces, and 181 black pieces, on a grid of 19 horizontal and vertical lines. Today Wei Ch'I is played all over Asia in much the original form. The artifacts from Kam Wah Chung are unique in that they give us some insight into the social traditions of the early Chinese immigrants of John Day, who brought their games with them to the New World.
Opium bowl fragments
Gaming "go" pieces
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