Beothuk Artifacts in the Mary March Museum

Beothuk Necklace

Throughout the school year a lot of students and teachers wind up on this blog looking for information about the Beothuk.  Here are a few photos of Beothuk artifacts that I took through the glass at the Mary March Museum in Grand Falls-Windsor.  The Beothuk were the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland when the Europeans arrived and began settling the Island.

Little Passage/Beothuk Arrowheads

Most of the artifacts in these photos would date to the time period after the Europeans arrived.  Archaeologists call the pre-contact cultural remains of the Beothuk the Little Passage complex.  They're the same people, its just that Little Passage sites are earlier and don't have any European trade items and Beothuk sites are more recent and often contain trade goods.  For a better understanding of how the Beothuk fit into the pre-contact history of Newfoundland, you can check out this recent post on Inside Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeology called: The Dating Game Part 2: Newfoundland.

The Beothuk used a lot of iron brought to the Province by French and English fisherman, and although some items were specifically brought over to trade with the Beothuk, there was never a successful, formal trade relationship in place between the groups.   On occasion, the Europeans weren't done using the items when the Beothuk picked them up and they didn't necessarily  leave anything in exchange. Awkward.

Beothuk bone pendant.

Beothuk bone pendants.

Ochre stained birchbark containers.

Brichbark containers (top view)

Glass beads.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Return to the L'Anse Aux Meadows Harpoon

Un-notched Harpoon Head preforms

After a month of collecting materials, but having to focus on other work, I'm finally getting to sink my teeth into the construction phase of the L'Anse aux Meadows reproductions.  These are a set of 4 Palaeoeskimo tools; a harpoon, knife, scraper and adze.  I'll be taking the pieces that I've started in to The Rooms today for their first side-by-side comparison with the artifacts.

Forest Floors and Paneling

I think that I finally have the tamarack problem sorted.  A traditional furniture maker from Upper Amherst Cove, Mike Paterson, was a big help and selected a couple kiln dried boards from his inventory that were straight grained and relatively knot free.  Which I've learned in the past month is a tall order for tamarack.  Mike also put me in touch with his supplier, Forest Floors and Paneling - the sawmill near Stephenville that cuts and dries the lumber.  It happened to be on the way to the Port au Port chert outcrop, so I stopped in and picked up a few more boards for future projects.

The kiln dried Tamarack

My first impression of working the tamarack is that its as tough as everyone promised it would be.  It really wasn't fun to cut with the circular saw and it has a tendency to split along the growth rings while using the draw knife.  Still, the draw knife planes the wood very nicely and I'll probably spend much of the shaping time on the harpoon shaft working it like a bow with the draw knife.  I don't think it would be as difficult a wood to work while it was green, and the tendency to split along the growth rings would probably be an asset in working the wood with stone tools. 

Two harpoon shafts blocked out

The width of the L'Anse aux Meadows harpoon shaft seems to have been set by splitting the wood between growth rings.  Perhaps working the wood green and using the harpoon outdoors from the very start would help season it slowly enough that warping as it dried wasn't a big issue for the Groswater Palaeoeskimo woodworkers.

Tamarack Interpretive Panel

Last week, while passing through the Mary March Museum in Grand Falls-Windsor, I saw a travelling exhibit of Newfoundland furniture on display in their newly expanded exhibit space.  One of the interpretive panels listed the wood species of the island and it mentioned that tamarack was "oily enough to be water resistant".  That fact is something that I want to follow up on.  The picture that's emerging of tamarack is a softwood that can be worked and split while green, but dries dense, hard and waterproof.  Those all seem like properties that would be assets in a harpoon shaft and for a people whose ancestors came from a treeless environment, it suggests that the Groswater Palaeoeskimo were quite knowledgeable woodworkers, who selected wood with the best properties for the job at hand.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast