Fisher's Loft, Port Rexton

Lori overlooking the view
beyond the two main
buildings at Fishers' Loft

Earlier this spring, Lori and I spent a few days at Fishers' Loft in Port Rexton.  We lucked into perfect weather and had a fantastic time hiking, dining, and exploring the surrounding coasts and communities on the Bonavista Peninsula.  The trip was a much needed breather from a hectic spring and what promises to be an even busier summer.  It also gave me a chance to reconnect with an established Elfshot customer and send out a new order of Newfoundland and Labrador inspired knapped jewellery. Here's a look at Fishers' Loft and the neighbouring towns, plus a sneak peak at the Elfshot jewellery that you can now find in the Fishers' Loft gift shop. 

Port Rexton

Puffins nesting near the town of Elliston.

Moose at Fishers' Loft 

The beautiful dining room and guest house at Fishers Loft.

Sunset glow over Trinity

Reproduction Beothuk earrings available at Fishers' Loft Gift Shop

 

The full order of chert necklaces and earrings, plus a few colourful fibre optic pieces. 

Brilliant fibre optic glass

Dorset Palaeoeskimo necklace and earrings

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Newfoundland Harpoon and Arrow Reproductions

The pointy ends of harpoon and arrow reproductions

I completed a set of artifact reproductions based on artifacts found in Newfoundland and Labrador this week.  The set included a complete Groswater Palaeoeskimo harpoon, a Dorset harpoon head with a tip-fluted endblade, a barbed Maritime Archaic harpoon head, and a Beothuk or Little Passage style arrow.  These pieces are on their way to Nova Scotia right now and will be used by an archaeologist friend of mine in school talks.  

 

The set is intended to represent four different cultures and illustrate some of the different technologies used in the pursuit of food over time.  The complete Groswater harpoon can be used to demonstrate how a toggling harpoon works.  The small Dorset harpoon head fits onto the whalebone foreshaft on the Groswater harpoon, although it lacks an harpoon line.  The barbed Maritime Archaic harpoon head belongs to a completely different time period and cultural group so it isn't compatible with the Palaeoeskimo harpoon.  It shows a contrasting technology that would have been used for the same purpose; hunting seals.

I modeled the main shaft of the harpoon on the wooden harpoon shaft found at L'Anse aux Meadows.   

The Groswater harpoon, with it's distinctive harpoon head and endblade in place.

Ochre staining the Maritime Archaic barbed harpoon.  Unlike the Palaeoeskimo harpoon heads with a line hole centered in the middle of the harpoon head, this style of harpoon head has a single line hole positioned close to the base.  It relies on the barbs for gripping the seal and won't toggle in the wound the same as the Dorset and Groswater harpoon heads.

Another view of the Groswater harpoon head with a shelf cut on one side and lashing holes gouged through the nose to tie the plano-convex, box-based endblade in place.  The endblade is knapped from local Newfoundland chert, the harpoon head is antler, the foreshaft is whalebone, and the mainshaft is wood.  Sinew and sealskin are used to tie the various pieces together and to create the harpoon line.

 

Side views of the reproductions.  From left to right, Maritime Archaic harpoon head, Little Passage Arrow, Dorset harpoon head, and Groswater harpoon.

 

Dorset harpoon head made from antler with a tip-fluted chert endblade.

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Oxbow and Besant Points

Oxbow points (Top)
Besant points (Bottom)

 Last week I knapped reproductions of a couple styles of projectile points found on the prairies; Oxbow and Besant.  Oxbow points are the earlier form and according to Record in Stone: Familiar Projectile Points From Alberta they date from 4500-4100 BP.  They were named for the town of Oxbow in Saskatchewan and have very distinctive ears that result from side notches with a deep concave base.  Besant points are found a little later (2500-1350 BP) and have a few more regional and temporal variants, but they all tend to have wide side-notches or an expanding stem.  Both Oxbow and Besant points were likely used on darts that were launched with atlatls.  I made these for a friend who is building a point typology collection assembled with reproductions made by his knapping buddies.

A page from Record in Stone, showing a variety of Oxbow points.  My reproductions are the two at the bottom corners of the page.

The Besant page from Record in Stone, with my reproductions laying in the lower left and right corners.  The lower right hand corner is made from Knife River Flint.  I don't have access to a lot of common knapping stones from the prairies, but somewhere along the way, someone gave me some KRF to try out.

Read to ship.

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Kettle Lake Discovery Kit

A traveling exhibit for Canada's
northermost National Park

 Here's a look at the (very nearly) completed Kettle Lake Discovery Kit that was put together by Parks Canada to help tell the early archaeological story of Quttinirpaaq National Park on northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut.  I've been involved in making artifact reproductions and sharing stories from Quttinirpaaq since 2010. Most recently, I was asked to make a couple reproductions of Independence I stone tools complete with organic handles for inclusion in this tri-lingual (Inuktitut, French, and English) traveling kit.  A lot of people were involved in the planning, design, and assembly of the contents of this pelican case, but the person coordinating it all was Parks Canada's Patrick Carroll.   Earlier this week Patrick shared photos from Quatro Design of the end result and secured permission for me to share these images on my blog.  I think it all looks fantastic and it shouldn't have any problems being tossed in and out of twin otters and helicopters on it's way to and from Quttinirpaaq.

I haven't seen the case in person, but it looks like there are flat cards that fit in the lid of the box with maps, photos, and information from the Kettle Lake archaeological sites.  In the foam body of the case there is a list of the artifact reproductions included in the kit, a series of individually bagged lithic reproductions, the case containing the hafted artifact reproductions and a copy of Ancient Stone Tools of Nunavut by Douglas Stenton and Robert Park.

Each of the small bags in the kit contains an artifact reproduction that users can handle and a card with a photograph of the original artifact that the reproduction is based on on side.

The flip side of the photo card has the English, French, and Inuktitut name for the stone tool 

The centre box contained a hafted scraper and microblade based on the tools found by Parks Canada archaeologists at Kettle Lake.  There is a sticker label that will go on top of this box when the kit next makes it's way to the Parks Canada office in Iqaluit.

The whole kit fits into a rugged, waterproof pelican case about the size of a brief case.  If you happen to see this case on the ground in Quttinirpaaq - I'd love to see a photo! 

Photo Credits: Quatro Design inc. courtesy of Parks Canada