My Favourite Artifact - A Dorset Soapstone Lamp

It'll fit in the palm of your hand

Archaeologists are frequently asked about their favourite artifact.  This little soapstone lamp is mine.  We found it in 25 pieces at Peat Garden North while I was working at Bird Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2000.  Putting it together was like piecing together a puzzle and as it went together it had more and more of a story to tell.  There is a sooty buildup inside the top half of the lamp.  The bottom half would have been filled with oil, most likely seal oil, and the light and heat would come from a floating wick.  The inside of the lamp below the surface of the oil was clean and the interior walls above the surface of the oil were scorched black by the burning wick.

Notice the gouged holes on either end

Some of the cracks in the lamp were repaired by the Dorset Palaeoeskimos who made it.  The lamp had very thin walls and an even thinner base.  At some point in its life the lamp cracked lengthwise through the middle.  There are several gouged holes at each end on either side of this crack where the soapstone was laced back together.  After I first put it back together I though it was odd that it would break like that through the long axis, if it was going to break through the middle - wouldn't it make more sense to crack across the short axis? 

 

I make them with thicker walls now

I made a reproduction for the museum in Bird Cove and experimented with filling it with oil and burning a floating wick.  I think I used bacon grease to simulate the seal fat and burned a little cotton wick.  Things started out great, but within the first 30 minutes the thin walled lamp cracked lengthwise down the long axis.  The fracture in the reproduction was identical to that initial, repaired crack in the artifact.  I think that the unusual lengthwise fracture in the original was probably a result of thermal shock very early in the lamp's life.  I thought it was really cool that the folks who made the lamp 1500 years ago suffered exactly the same set back that I did when I tried to burn oil in my little lamp.

Dorset Palaeoeskimo Lamp, ca. 1500 years old

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Cover Models

I made these tiny points just for fun.  The white one is based on a tiny Dorset endblade found in 2009 at Stock Cove, Trinity Bay that was featured on the cover of the Provincial Archaeology Office 2009 Archaeology Review.

Coincidentally, I also knapped a reproduction of the other point on the Review's cover.  This one became a necklace for the archaeologist in Labrador who found the original artifact.

Photo Credit: Tim Rast

Arctic Animal Skulls

Wolf

Bowhead Whale (There's one skull in the foreground and another eroding out of the bank in the upper lefthand corner.  Sea level would have been 6 or 7 metres higher when that animal was beached.)

Bowhead Whale: The circular hole at the top of the skull is the foramen magnum, where the spinal column attaches to the skull.  The long maxilla bones (roof of the mouth) are missing, but would have attached to the jagged, broken bones at the bottom of the picture.

Beluga Whale: The bulbous part of the skull is about the size of a tea kettle.  Its facing left and the maxilla is overgrown by willows.  The holes on the upper left side are the nostrils, and the hole on the right is the foramen magnum.

Fox

Fox

Lemming

Lemming

Lemming

Caribou

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Stroll back in Time: L'Anse Amour Burial, Labrador

Lori visiting the L'Anse Amour burial in 2006

Elfshot reproductions of the burial artifacts on display in the Gateway to Labrador Visitor Centre, L'Anse au Clair.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Arctic Hare

We are approaching the midway point in the field season.  The camp I'm in now is relatively small, with a core group of 5 archaeologists plus a camp manager and his assistant, although that number can swell by a few people at a time as other researchers pass through the area.  We had a conservation officer and bird biologist staying with us last week and we are expecting some water scientists to come through next week.  Our survey work is taking us on long hikes overland and we are seeing lots of wildlife.  The arctic hares are cautious around people, but the young ones will come right into camp.

 

 

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Musk Ox on Devon Island, Nunavut

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Dorset Palaeoeskimo Snow Goggles

One of the Dorset goggle eyepieces

One of the things that I like about making artifact reproductions is that it often shows that people in the past weren't so different from people today.  By making and using the same tools from the same materials you feel connected to the individuals who made the originals hundreds or thousands of years ago.  But sometimes an artifact comes up that reminds you of the differences, too.  These snow goggles were like that.  They are based on artifacts from a cave site in Port au Choix, Newfoundland and Labrador and I love the look of them.  They aren't like later Thule or Inuit snow goggles and I don't know of any other snow goggles from this culture or time period.  When The Rooms asked me to make a pair to use in hands-on programming I was happy at the prospect of seeing the world through Palaeoeskimo goggles.   I copied the original artifacts exactly and laced them together like the larger Inuit goggles shown below.  But when I tried them on, they didn't fit at all.  Imagine my disappointment when they didn't work on my face.  Instead of sitting comfortably on my nose and temples, the rested firmly on my eyeballs.  There might be missing pieces that would make them fit correctly, but I don't think so.  I think the problem is the shape of my skull.  They may have fit comfortably on a Palaeoeskimo person, but they don't work at all on my narrow, pointy Caucasian face.

Dorset Palaeoeskimo snow goggles in the middle, bone reproductions above and below

Inuit snow goggles above the Dorset Palaeoeskimo artifacts

Notice how flat the Dorset goggles are compared to the Inuit goggles

Photo Credits: Tim Rast