To the North there lies a Cove...

I'm going to the Bloody Bay Cove Rhyolite quarry for a couple days on Friday.

There is a short documentary being shot on some of the archaeology that is being done by Parks Canada and the Burnside Heritage Foundation. Archaeologists Jenneth Curtis and Laurie McLean are the stars, but I've been cast in the role of "Tim the Flintknapper". Tim lurks on jagged mountain tops, and demonstrates lithic reduction techniques at all who venture too near.

I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been to the quarry since 1997. There's no other site like it on the Island. There's no other chipped stone quarry that covers as great an area or has such deep deposits - everything you see is a flake, core, or hammerstone. Nearly every precontact culture that lived in Newfoundland used stone from this quarry to make cutting and scraping tools, especially those looking for large, durable tools.

I've known about the filming for a while, but the dates for the trip just got firmed up on Monday. I've juggled my schedule a bit so that I'll have the Korea order delivered to DevonHouse before I leave town as well as an order for the Burnside Archaeology Centre's gift shop ready to take with me. I'll be back in town by lunch on Sunday.

Drop by the Johnson GEO CENTRE for the flintknapping demo on Sunday afternoon. I'm still planning to work Ramah chert, but who kows, maybe I'll have some Bloody Bay Cove rhyolite to try as well.

Photo Credits:
Top: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Middle, Bottom: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Tim
Middle: Laurie McLean at the Charlie Site (Bloody Bay Cove Quarry), 1997
Bottom: A hammerstone sitting on large rhyolite flakes and core fragments at the quarry