Copper Inuit Harpoon Reproduction

Copper Inuit Harpoon Reproduction

This reproduction of a Copper Inuit sealing harpoon in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization is reproduction number 14 of 17 in the Central Arctic set.  It's based on photos of a disassembled harpoon from the online artifact catalog at the CMC.  I wasn't around when the original was made and used, so take my reconstruction with a grain of salt.  I think all of the pieces are there, so I feel confident about the way everything looks and fits, but I'm still working out the arrangement and position of the sealskin lines and sinew lashing. You can view the original artifact here:

Harpoon: IV-D-692

Disassembled Copper Inuit harpoon reproduction as the original appeared in the reference photos.  The main shaft is 95.5 cm long.  When its fully assembled the reproduction is 143 cm long, with a line that is approximately twice the length of the complete harpoon.

Antler socket, riveted to wood shaft

The main shaft of the harpoon is wood and antler.  I used tamarack for the wood, because I know it was used for harpoon shafts in the past and would give the relatively small diameter shaft a good weight.  A spruce or pine shaft would feel feather light by comparison.  The socket is a round section of caribou antler that has been spliced and riveted onto the wood shaft.  

The long bent antler foreshaft fits tightly into the socket.  For the reproduction, I was asked by the client to permanently fix the foreshaft into the socket.  Which isn't a problem.  Given the size and shape of the proximal end of these foreshafts they appear to be designed to be fixed rigidly in place.  Some foreshafts at meant to rotate out of the socket on impact, but I don't think that is the case with this one.  Everything here seems designed for a permanently fixed foreshaft, held in place with friction and reinforced with a braided sinew cord that is threaded through a hole through a hole near the base of the foreshaft.

Braided Sinew 

Tying on the foreshaft was one of the puzzles.  There is a length of braided sinew cord wrapped around the socket of the harpoon in the reference photos, but its obviously just been wound there so it doesn't become separated from the rest of the harpoon.  I assume that this is the braided sinew line used to tie the foreshaft in place.  One end of the line is tied around the neck of the socket on the mainshaft, it loops up through the foreshaft and back down the length of the mainshaft.  It gets tied back on at the neck of the socket and then at two more points along the main shaft.  That's the part that I don't quite understand; I'm not sure what the function is of the extra length of line running down the mainshaft.  

The line is knotted in two places like this

I've copied what I've seen in photos and illustrations, and learned a cool new knot, but I don't really understand the purpose of the line.  I think that it must link up with the harpoon line somehow to create tension in the harpoon line, but I'd don't exactly know how.

I've wrapped the length of the harpoon line around the butt of the mainshaft and then threaded it back through the sinew lashing.  I've seen European whaling harpoons rigged in a similar way and it makes use of the braided sinew cord, but I'm not certain if its the correct rigging for this particular harpoon.

Lori has gripped the harpoon and line where its threaded back through the braided loop and is ready to throw or thrust with it.

Is this right?

Harpoon head on the foreshaft

The harpoon head on the original artifact is antler, with a steel endblade, but we went for antler with a copper endblade on this one.  With the bent foreshaft there are a few options on how to orient the harpoon head on the foreshaft.  The spur of the harpoon head could go on the outside, inside, or on the left or right side of the bend.  I've seen photos and illustrations showing the spur both inside and outside the curve of the foreshaft, but I think that outside the curve is more likely.   Boas illustrates the spur on the outside of the curve in his book, The Central Eskimo, and it would seem to accentuate the spur and the toggling action of the harpoon head as it catches in the seal and slides off.  If the spur were inside the curve, it would be more hidden and it would seem more likely to get caught up in the line instead of toggling unimpeded.

The lanyard is very long and split

That leaves the placement of the sealskin harpoon line when the harpoon head is in place.  Does it lie inside or outside the curve of the foreshaft?  If it was a straight foreshaft, the line would usually lie on the opposite side of the foreshaft as the spur, which would place it inside the curve of the bent foreshaft.  I suspect that's how this line should be positioned as well, because it sets the harpoon head up to slide off and toggle with the least potential for entanglement.  The only thing that makes me pause is that the line on this artifact seems to have a very long split lanyard attached to the harpoon head.  The split is even longer than it appears in the photos here, because it seems to be tied together in one or two spots, creating a series of long split openings in the line.  The split in the line seems so long, that it makes me wonder if the foreshaft is meant to run through the middle of it somehow.  It seems to be an intentional part of the design of the line and I don't think that split is explained or used if the line simply extends down the inside of the curve of the bent foreshaft.  Maybe someone reading knows the answer or has an idea.

With the spur of the harpoon head outside the curve in the foreshaft and the line on the inside, the harpoon head is primed to toggle. 

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

   

Brass and Steel Harpoon Head

Brass and steel harpoon head, toggled

This brass and steel harpoon head with a sealskin line is artifact reproduction number 13 of 17 in the Central Arctic set.  I've been working on this project for a couple of months and I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  As with the other pieces in this contract, I'm working from reference photos on the Canadian Museum of Civilization's website.  You can see the harpoon head and line that this reproduction is based on here:

Harpoon Head IV-D-307

Brass and steel harpoon head with steel rivet and sealskin line

Similar form, different materials and sizes

I'm not 100% certain that this specific artifact is brass - it's tough to tell from the photos - it's possible that its antler, but either way it serves as a good model for an all metal harpoon head.  All three harpoon heads in this set are similar in design, with a single spur and a riveted harpoon oriented in the same way.  However, they vary in size and raw material; with copper or steel endblades, copper or steel rivets, and antler or brass harpoon heads.

Ulu and Endblade share a parent

For the endblade, I used one of the corners from the cleaver that I cut off when I was making the ulu.  I ground it down to match the beveled edge on the endblade in the reference photo and gave it the slight flare at the very tip.  I'm not exactly sure if that flare is a functional design element or purely a decoration, but it shows up on all the endblades in this set.  If it's functional, perhaps its there to strengthen the tip.  That purpose doesn't really seem necessary on the steel harpoon heads, but the copper is a relatively soft metal, so perhaps its there to keep the tip from bending or even blunting on impact.  I'm not sure, that's just a guess.  I gave the endblade a few spots of rust with muriatic acid and riveted it in place using a section of wire coat hanger for the rivet.

Tuna harpoons make good seal harpoons

This was my first all metal harpoon head and I wasn't really sure how to approach it until I found brass tuna harpoon heads on the internet.  I bought a couple from Capt. Harry's Fishing Supply in Florida.  Based on the measurements and the photos in their catalog it seemed like I could use the tuna harpoon as a blank and carve the Central Arctic style seal harpoon head out of it.  The only thing I wasn't certain about was how hard the brass would be.  It turned out to be pretty soft.  I cut the barbs off and trimmed the spurs with my angle grinder, but in a pinch I could have used a hacksaw.  I did most of the shaping with the angle grinder and my rotary tool, but I finished it with hand files and the wet grinder.

brass harpoon head from Igloolik, 2010

The metal was soft enough that I could have done all the shaping with the hand tools, I just used the power tools to speed things up.  However, I wanted to finish it with a few file marks on the surface.  My experience with brass harpoon heads is that they aren't ground or polished to a completely smooth finish and that the file marks should be visible, as with the modern harpoon head from Igloolik on the right.  To antique my harpoon head I used the miracle gro and vinegar solution to darken the surface and gave it a few quick passes with the blow torch.

The bottom line has been softened

The line is hooded sealskin.  Ideally it should be bearded seal, but the hooded seal thong that I have on hand is a serviceable substitute.  The thin outer layer of the skin is dark brown or black, but its a lighter grey-buff colour inside.  I'm still fussing with it - scraping it and sanding it to try and lighten the colour up to match the worn look of the line in the artifact.  Its a slow process.  I haven't found a quick way to soften and age sealskin.

Copper and Antler harpoon head above the completed Brass and Steel harpoon head.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Calgary Flintknapping Follow-up

Make the tool, Use the Tool

Here are a few shots from the Flintknapping Workshop I lead in Calgary on February 27, 2011.  This class was sponsored by the Archaeological Society of Alberta - Calgary Centre  - they did a great job of organizing the event and filling seats!  Jason Roe's class was bursting at the seams with folks wanting to learn how to knap stone tools.  My session was for people who already had some knapping experience and wanted to be challenged with something new.  We made knapped stone drill bits, hafted them onto wood shafts and used them to drill slate and wood to make ground stone ulus.

The finished chert drills and the ground stone ulus made using them

I've known about this course for 6 months and it kept me up more than one night trying to figure out a theme that would be interesting for the participants and challenging, but not overwhelming or frustrating.  Last year we made hoko knives in the morning and then used them to carve handles for other knives and points in the afternoon.  I'd debated doing something with ground stone, but it was a flintknapping course and I wasn't sure how to bring in the flintknapping angle until just a few hours before I flew out to Calgary.  I got out of bed in the middle of the night and went out to the workshop to pack my bow drills.

Nephrite and chert (middle) drills

My toolkit is a little biased towards nephrite drills inspired by Thule and Inuit artifacts from Labrador, but the first drills that I learned to make were the knapped "T" shaped bits found on the plains.  Sometimes the archaeological specimens are made on old projectile points and when you are first learning to flintknap arrowheads its not uncommon to make lots of of accidental drillbits.  If you are having a tough time thinning your arrowhead and it gets narrower faster than it gets thin, it will wind up looking more like a drill than a projectile point.

Everyone made a drillbit first thing in the morning and hafted it onto a square wooden drill shaft using 5 minute epoxy and artificial sinew.  We used the epoxy to create a quick, solid bond so that we could use the drills immediately after they were made.

The ulu blanks and handles roughed out

When I do ground stone workshops with kids, I cut the ulu blanks ahead of time and the kids just file an edge on them and drill the holes.  With this class we started with the same Home Depot 12 x 12 slate tiles, but the participants prepared their own blanks.  We split the tiles to a good thickness using a hammer and chisel and then everyone trimmed their ulu blanks by carefully chipping the edge unifacially with their hammerstones against wooden anvils.  After the blanks were made, everyone filed their blades sharp, used their drills to sink holes through them and then tied them to their carved wood handles with sinew and hide glue.

These workshops are pretty loosely structured and people work at their own pace, but I like the format of making a simple tool from scratch in the morning and then using the first tool to make a second, more complex tool in the afternoon.  That's worked for the past two years.  I think arrows or spears with foreshafts might be a fun plan for a future session.  Although there's still lots of ground stone options and we were even joking about moving up to copper - after all we've moved from the palaeolithic (knapping) to the neolithic (ground stone) in just 12 months, so we could just keep on rolling into the chalcolithic (copper).

I had a great time!

On a personal note, I was really happy to have Don Hanna attended the workshop.  Don taught me how to knap back in the mid-1990s when I was an undergrad at the University of Calgary.  It was really great to sit down and chat with him about knapping again.  At one point someone at the opposite end of the room was talking about how to hold a biface for knapping and we overheard; "See, Tim hangs it over his knee and Don does it the same as Tim..."  Don barely glanced up, but he said; "No.  Tim does it the same as Don, not the other way around.  And Don does it the same as Don Crabtree."  With everyone's pedigree established, we went back to work.

Photo Credits: Michael Turney

Hafting Stemmed Quartz Microblades

End hafted quartz microblade reproductions

Quartz crystals are a relatively common geological find in Newfoundland and Labrador.  To the Palaeoeskimos who lived here several thousand years ago, a well formed, hexagonal quartz crystal made a neat, natural microblade core.    The long parallel ridges and natural angles of the crystals help guide the first microblades detached from the core.  Quartz microblades are common at Groswater and Dorset Palaeoeskimo sites within the Province.

Dorset Microblades from Bird Cove

On average, quartz microblades are smaller than chert microblades.  This was probably beyond the control of the Palaeoeskimo knappers, because quartz crystals tend to be small to begin with.  However, quartz microblades are also frequently retouched at one end to create a small stem, which suggests that Palaeoeskimo knappers preferred to end haft them in small handles.  The stems are quite narrow, so the handles must have been equally slight.

I think that the small stemmed quartz microblades found at Dorset and Groswater Palaeoeskimo sites in Newfoundland and Labrador woud have been hafted into handles similar to these antler handles.

Delicate, but very sharp tool

I'm working on a large order of reproductions for the Port au Choix National Historic Site which needs to be completed before the end of March.  There are two hafted microblades in the order.  One of them is a side hafted chert microblade, but the other is an end-hafted quartz microblade.   I know that I've seen at least one bone or antler handle that would fit these little microblades.  I can't put my finger on it right now, but I'm sure it was in a collection from the Province, although I can't recall exactly which site it was from. It was probably from Port au Choix, but I'm not certain.  I searched through my archives and couldn't find a photo of it, so I'm working from memory.  If I recall correctly, it had round or perhaps slightly squarish cross-section and had a slight curve to it.

Side-hafted chert microblade (top)
End-hafted quartz microblade (bottom)

Hafted Quartz Microblade

I made the handles from antler and tied the microblades in with sinew and hide glue.  I made a couple extras to choose from.  I tried to build slight differences into the handles by giving them different lengths and cross-sections.  I gouged holes into two of the handles and antiqued two, just to experiment with different looks.  So far, I'm leaning towards sending the one with the natural, light coloured handle to Port au Choix, because I think it compliments the side hafted microblade in the wood handle (above).

Photo Credits: 
1, 3-6: Tim Rast
2: From Hartery and Rast 2002, Bird Cove Archaeology Project 2001 Field Season: Final Report. manuscript in possession of the author. St. John's.

Why Does Pyrite Make a Spark?

Pyrite fire making set

Iron Pyrites were used by all of the pre-contact cultures in Newfoundland for fire starting.  There have been pyrite strikers found in the Maritime Archaic Indian burials at Port au Choix, in Palaeoeskimo sites across the Island and in Recent Indian contexts.  Even in Labrador, where the bow drill was used by the Inuit, iron pyrites were apparently prefered (Hawkes 1916:97).

Pyrite nodules

Striking a pyrite nodule against another piece of pyrite or chert might sound like an unusual way to make fire, but its basically the same method that a lighter uses to create a spark and start the liquid fuel burning.  The Vikings would have used flint and steel to start their fires 1000 years ago, and the earliest firearms in the Province were flintlock muskets that used percussion sparks to ignite the gunpowder charge.  Today, we're probably more familiar with matches and sparks from electric ignitions to start fires and fuel burning, but just a few hundred years ago, everyone would have been familiar with flint and steel, and probably pyrite, for starting fires.

Pea-sized pyrite in a chert biface

Pyrite, or iron disulphide (FeS2), is a brassy-yellow mineral that will oxidize to a brownish red.  Sometimes it is quite crumbly and friable, but the most useful form for fire-starting are solid nodules or angular lumps.  In Newfoundland, good pyrite nodules can be found on beaches on the Port au Port peninsula and can often be found in the same locations as chert.

Why Does Pyrite Make A Spark? When you strike a pyrite nodule with a sharp piece of chert, iron, or another pyrite nodule, tiny flecks of the pyrite are struck off and they instantly react with oxygen in the air, creating a hot spark.  You'll smell the sulphur burning.  If you direct these sparks into a flammable tinder you can ignite a glowing ember, which can be fanned into a flame to ignite tinder and build a fire.  In these photos I've used a bit of dryer lint. My pyrite nodules work fine for lighting fires, but they are several times larger than the pyrite fire starters that I've seen from archaeological sites.

Hold the pyrite with your fingers out of the way

Strike the pyrite with a sweeping, brushing motion (can you see the glowing sparks?)

You'll need a very flammable tinder to catch the spark, like this piece of dryer lint.

The pyrite fire starters that I'm familiar with from archaeological sites in the Province are about the size and shape of small, rust-coloured golf balls.  As they are used, the sharp edges and irregularities are worn off and they become more spherical or egg shaped.  They usually aren't too spectacular to look at, but they tend to get noticed in digs because of their weight.  Even under the dirt, you know that you are holding a chunk of metal and not an ordinary rock.

Pyrite fire starters (#5) illustrated in Howley 1915.  Image modified from the online version of the book.

Smoking tinder

If you want to know more about pyrite fire-starting - take a look at this page, which has good explanations, examples, and a how-to video clip: Paleolithic Stone on Stone Fire Technology.


Photo Credits:
1-6, 8: Tim Rast
7: Modified from: http://www.mun.ca/rels/native/beothuk/beo2gifs/texts/plateXXXIV.html


References:
Ernest William Hawkes, 1916. The Labrador Eskimo
James Patrick Howley, 1915. The Beothucks, or Red Indians, the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland: The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland

Open Minds demo days are the best demo days

Two talented artists

What a great way to head into the weekend!  I just got home from doing a flintknapping demo for a grade 5 class participating in the Open Minds program at The Rooms.   These demonstration days are always a lot of fun, but this class was particularly enthusiastic and talented. They asked lots of questions about the work and tools and some even asked for photos and autographs at the end.  Stephanie Slaney, the Open Minds Co-ordinator at The Rooms, has the following quote in her e-mail signature that I think sums up the philosophy of the program:

"The way children best learn the complex skills and dispositions of adulthood is through keeping real company with the type of experts they hope to become (and....through keeping company with the real things of the world)."

Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust

Demonstration props

The kids had the option to record the presentation how ever they wanted.  Some took notes, most drew the artifact reproductions, one girl took a video of the whole hour and a half demonstration on her camera, and a few drew me flintknapping.  Some of the students gave me photocopies of their drawings from their journals, so I thought I'd share them.    I felt like a star and got some great new Facebook profile images - check them out!

Photo Credits: Tim Rast / Drawings by an awesome 5th grade class!

Leaving Alberta

Snowy Owl

 I had another great trip back to Alberta.  The Archaeological Society of Alberta Flintknapping Workshop on Sunday was a blast and during the rest of the trip I saw lots of family that I hadn't seen in years.  The temperature was cold - as low as -33 degrees Celsius, and often in the -20 range.  I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera on the day of the workshop, but I received a few photos from the official photographer that I think I can share with you on Friday.  In the meantime, here's some of the scenery from around the countryside.

I was only on the farm for a couple hours when this frosty coyote trotted through the yard.  It was minus 25 and he led the dogs on a leisurely chase across the pasture.

These four coyotes were born last summer a few miles north of the home place.

This is the farm where I grew up in Southern Alberta and where I stay when I come for a visit.  I miss the big sky.

I've never seen so many snowy owls.  You can spot them sitting on the power poles every few miles.

Can you spot the owl in this shot?

The Great Horned Owls seemed more comfortable in the trees.

The snowy owls were just as at home on the ground.  They look big when you see them walking through a pasture.  I thought this one was a coyote when I first saw it from the road.

Snowy Owl in flight.  Beautiful birds.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast