I'm away visiting the farm in Alberta for a few days. So I've lined up a few more pre-scheduled posts.
This is a walrus ivory polar bear head carving that I did in 2006 for the Gateway to Labrador Visitor Centre in L'Anse au Clair, Labrador.
Its a reproduction of polar bear head amulets that are found in Dorset Palaeoeskimo contexts throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. They are designed with a hole that runs into the bear's mouth and down its throat, presumably some kind of string or cord would run through this opening.
This post is a follow-up to Monday's look at whale effigies from Newfoundland archaeological contexts. Remember the odd triangular biface from North Cove? The one that looks like a killer whale or perhaps a whale tail? Matt Betts (whose name you'll recall from Wednesday's VZAP post) sent this intriguing suggestion:
"I had a thought about that worked stone artifact from North Cove you posted recently. I believe it could potentially be a shark tooth effigy. I’ve been working on a paper about shark teeth in burial contexts with colleagues at UNB, and we’ve discovered that they are much more common in the Atlantic Provinces than previously understood. Great white and mako shark teeth have been recovered from the Maritime Archaic burials at Cow Point in New Brunswick, and there are even shark teeth (salmon shark) in the assemblage from Port aux Choix. Later, extant and fossil shark teeth occur in burials throughout the northeast. They are most common in the Early and Middle Woodland periods, ca. 3000-1500 BP, though we have just recently found evidence of them being used as pendants as late as 1000 BP. Some of the fossil shark teeth are sometimes modified by chipping around their exterior.
Mako Shark Tooth
Here’s a picture of a very large extant mako shark tooth. The shape (and colour) is very similar to the artifact you describe.
I’m not really married to the concept of it being a shark effigy, but it’s a possibility. Either way, shark or whale, it doesn’t real matter. Both are apex marine predators, and they probably would have played similar roles in local ideational systems."
Non-Archaeological Recent Indian Shark Effigy
Sharks are at least as common in Newfoundland's waters as Killer Whales. In fact, just last week, a mako shark made the news here in the Province, when someone hacked it up and butchered it near the shore.
I forwarded Matt's information on to Steve Hull (who found the North Cove artifact) and he is intrigued by the resemblance as well. It looks like there are at least 3 equally plausible competing theories for the artifact that all fit the data and are consistent with the cultures in the region;
I read about VZAP, Virtual Zooarchaeology of the Arctic on Anne Jensen's fantastic arctic archaeology blog, Out of Ice and Time, last week. Anne was in France attending a zooarchaeology conference and mentioned a paper by Matt Betts of the Canadian Museum of Civilization that dealt with this useful new online tool. In addition to being a really nice guy, Matt is one of the Project PIs, along with Herbert Maschner and Corey Schou. VZAP is an online collection of animal bones from the Arctic.
VZAP: The Mammal Index
The resource is continuing to grow, but already contains 2D and 3D images of the bones of several dozen bird, fish, and mammal species found in the Arctic. The 2D photos show the various elements from different angles and the goal of the project is to create a resource that researchers can access and use from anywhere in the world to assist in the identification of faunal elements from archaeological sites.
VZAP: Elements from the Common Murre
To initially view the site you need to download and install Silverlight to run the Dynamic Image Engine. Your browser should walk you through the process. Basically, Silverlight is just a piece of software that helps you navigate through the thousands of high resolution images that make up the collection.
VZAP: 3D Polar Bear skull model
I'm not a hardcore faunal guy, and I don't have any bone collections at the moment that I can use to test the function of VZAP as a comparative collection. However, I couldn't resist playing around with the 3D models. The models are .pdfs that can be viewed and manipulated in Adobe Reader. They are available in 3 different sizes with different surface textures, including high resolution full colour texture mapped images. These models can be rotated, flipped, measured, mapped in different perspectives, lit by a variety of virtual light sources and viewed as everything from photo realistic images to wireframes and illustrations.
Left; VZAP Arctic Fox skull model, Right; photo of an Arctic fox skull from Baffin Island
As a tourist in the world of faunal analysis, VZAP is one of the most fun online tools I've ever played around with and I'm sure one of the most useful as well. I know a lot of students, researchers, and artists who will be bookmarking this page - I know I did.
Whales of all shapes and sizes are common in the waters around Newfoundland, but over the past several weeks its the Orcas that are making the news. There have been at least three separate incidents of orcas hunting and feeding on minke whales captured on film.
There are some pretty amazing moments in the videos, although the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been reminding people to give the pods some space while they are hunting, and not pursue them in boats in search of a good video.
Killer Whale Effigy from Port au Choix
People living in Newfoundland have a long history with whales and whale effigies show up in archaeological sites, from time to time. The killer whale effigy from the Maritime Archaic Indian cemetery at Port au Choix is one of the most iconic artifacts to come from this province. It dates from 4400-3300 years ago and is carved from stone. Its believed to be a killer whale because of the prominent dorsal fin - no other whale in the waters around Newfoundland have such pronounced dorsal fins. You can see how the mouth of the animal was incised on the carving. There is at least one other stone whale from the site, although its a little smaller and not so well made.
Much more recently, Shanawdithit, the last known Beothuk showed us what a Beothuk whale effigy looked like. Although we don't have a physical example of the piece, Shanawdithit illustrated a series of six "Totems? or Emblems of Mythology" belonging to the Beothuk. These six pieces were 6 foot long staffs, covered in red ochre and each mounted with a different figure. One of these figures was a whale tail, and in the notes on the drawing it is named and identified as "ow-as-posh-no-un? Emblematic of the Whales tail, considered the greatest prize by the hunter."
Shanawdithit's drawings of Beothuk staffs - the second from the left is a whale tail
Whale Effigy from North Cove, Newfoundland
There's a third intriguing example of potential whale art in Newfoundland archaeology that comes from North Cove, near Bird Cove on the Northern Peninsula. Its a chipped stone triangle of rock that doesn't appear to be a functional tool of any kind. Its not typical of any known tool type from the province. Its from a Recent Indian context and the site dates between 1200-1000 BP. Steve Hull, the archaeologist who researched the site for his M.A. at MUN, believes it could be a whale effigy and I think he's probably correct. Although I can't quite decide whether its a body and dorsal fin like the Port au Choix effigy or if one of the three points could be hafted in a staff as a whale tail, like the staff drawn by Shanawdithit.
Maritime Archaic Indian Killer Whale
Curiously, all three of these examples come from Indian contexts, as opposed to Palaeoeskimo sites. Of the two groups (Indians and Palaeoeskimos), the Palaeoeskimos are better known for their artwork, but whales don't tend to show up in their carvings or amulets. On the other hand, the Indian groups in Newfoundland seem to have put some importance in the animals and their form for thousands of years.
This post is a thinly veiled excuse to show a few more pictures from the summer, but I'll build it around a review of the camera I used to take all the photos. This summer I was shooting with a Nikon Coolpix P100. This is the third Coolpix that Lori and I have owned - the first one was lost in my luggage by Canadian North, so we bought a Nikon Coolpix P80 to replace it. Lori needed that one in Labrador this summer, so I picked up the P100. All three cameras were in the same price range; $400-$500 and I've liked each one more than the last. Most of the photos on this blog that were taken before July 2010 were taken on the P80.
Nikon Coolpix P100 (L) & P80 (R)
The Coolpix P100 is the biggest digital camera that I've owned and although it looks like a SLR, it doesn't have interchangeable lenses, so its still basically a point-and-shoot. It has all of the features that I liked about the P80, with 4 new features that I really love: 26x optical zoom, HD video, a movable monitor, and internal USB battery charging.
Caribou Lichen photo from the P100
Snow Bunting - They're too nervous to approach
26x optical zoom: This was the single most important feature for me. I knew that I'd be taking a lot of wildlife shots this summer and animals are always smaller in photos than they appear in real life. The 26x zoom is one of the highest on the market at the moment - by comparison the P80 has an 18x optical zoom, which is still very handy. Camera makers seem to be getting away from listing the digital zoom, which is a good thing, because its a misleading bit of information. Digital zoom doesn't give you any increased detail in your photo, it just digitally zooms and crops the middle of your photo. The only zoom that really makes a difference is the optical.
Polar Bear - I'm too nervous to approach
The P100s 26x zoom is very good and is best appreciated with a tripod and a stationary or slow moving subject. By the time you zoom in that close on a subject your window on the world is very small, especially if you compound it by using the digital zoom as well. Its like looking through a pinhole, so the slightest movement will nudge your subject out of the frame and its tough to reacquire your target without zooming out and in again. The tripod helps a lot with that and using the timer helps get sharper images. The slight pressure of pushing the shutter button is enough to affect the framing of the shot and cause motion blur at the highest magnification.
Hi Def Video: This was not an option that I ever intended to use, but it turned out to be one of my favourite features. I especially liked using it to capture wildlife shots at 26x magnification with full digital zoom. Its the first instance where digital zoom actually seemed to help make a better image. In a photograph, at the highest magnification the photos would appear soft around the edges due to the digital zoom, but the HD video could record at full digital and optical zoom and the video would seem much sharper by comparison.
Ringed seals on ice. This image is how the seals appeared at 26x optical zoom.
This is a detail of the seals taken from the image above. I did this on the computer afterwards, but its basically the same result as using the digital zoom on the camera. The video below was done using 26x optical zoom and maximum digital zoom.
Screen capture from HD video
If there is a downside to the video files, its that they would tend to get quite large fairly quickly, but that's really only an issue for moving the files around or uploading them to YouTube. I used an 8 gig memory card and would download my photos and videos every day and storage was never an issue. The HD video is sharp enough that I've been able to take screen captures from individual frames that make good low resolution photographs, certainly good enough for online use.
The monitor flips out
Movable Monitor: I never really understood cameras with a movable monitor before, but I can certainly appreciate them now. By the end of the summer I was always flipping the monitor out so that it faced up and I would use the camera by looking down at it, just like an old fashioned box camera. This was especially handy because I used a mini tripod and the camera was often low to the ground. Rather than lie on my stomach to use it I could just flip the monitor out and see what the camera saw. It was also nice to not have something in front of my face all the time. When I was walking or riding in a helicopter I could have the camera on and ready continuously, but it never seemed to be in the way. I could just glance down to operate it.
The movable monitor makes low angle shots like this photo of beluga bones much easier to compose.
The P100 charges while plugged into a computer
Internal USB Battery Charging: This is such a good idea. The camera is the battery charger and as long as its plugged into a computer it is recharging. It saves having to use a separate battery charger and, more importantly, if you forget to turn the camera off after downloading your pictures you don't come back to a dead camera. I used to do that all the time with the P80. With the P100, if you forget to turn the camera off while its attached to the computer you come back to a fully charged battery. That's such a nice difference. There's also an AC adapter, so you can plug it in and charge it from a wall outlet, as well. The P80 and P100 use the same batteries so I still have the external charger from the P80 around to use. There's no more excuses for having dead camera batteries.
A scenic shot from the P100
This little endblade is 1cm wide at the base
There are many other features on the camera that come in handy in other situations. Like the P80, it has very good macro capabilities for artifact pictures, panorama assist for landscape shots, and a good sport continuous mode (handy when you are bobbing in a boat trying or trying to take pictures of fast moving animals). I was perfectly happy with the P80, and the four improvements that I outlined above; the 26x zoom, HD video, movable monitor and internal USB battery charging make the Nikon Coolpix P100 a very enjoyable camera to own and use.
I'm home now and taking a little bit of a breather before starting on fall work. I have a couple little jobs lined up for September, as well as a trip to Alberta. Tomorrow morning I have a Craft Council executive meeting, so I need to get caught up on all the news there.
One corner of my messy office
Coming back from the field is a good opportunity to set up new routines. All the old ruts and routines are forgotten and the days and weeks seem wide open. I'd like to get back into running and my office could really use a good clean up. I've put up a picture of the mess as an incentive to clean this place up and post an "After" picture later on. Its a good time to clean -- I don't feel nearly as attached to all my piles of office debris as I did 6 weeks ago.
. This is the third Coolpix that Lori and I have owned - the first one was lost in my luggage by Canadian North, so we bought a Nikon Coolpix P80 to replace it. Lori needed that one in Labrador this summer, so I picked up the P100. All three cameras were in the same price range; $400-$500 and I've liked each one more than the last. Most of the photos on this blog that were taken before July 2010 were taken on the P80.
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