CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF THE

DORSET PALAEO-ESKIMOS

Edited by Patricia D. Sutherland

MERCURY SERIES

ARCHAEOLOGY PAPER 167

CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION

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Contributions to the study of the Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos

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"The annual meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association in May 2000 included a session called "The Dorset Culture, 75 Years After Jenness".Of the twelve papers in the session, seven appear in this vol-ume." —Introd.

Includes an abstract in French. ISBN 0-660-19414-7 Cat. no. NM23-1/167E

1. Dorset culture — Arctic Regions — Congresses. 2. Dorset culture — Newfoundland and Labrador —

Congresses. 3. Dorset culture — Greenland — Congresses. 4. Antiquities, Prehistoric — Arctic Regions —

Congresses. 5. Land settlements patterns, Prehistoric — Arctic

Regions — Congresses. I. Sutherland, Patricia D. II. Canadian Museum of Civilization. III. Series. IV. Series:Archaeology paper (Canadian Museum

of Civlization) ; no. 167.

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ABSTRACT This collection of papers addresses topics related to the Dorset Palaeo-Eskimo occupation of Arctic Canada, Newfoundland and Greenland. All report the results of recent research, directed toward a broad range of goals including clarification of the biological relationships of the Dorset population; the interpretation of succession and discontinuity in Palaeo-Eskimo occupations of various Arctic regions; the means of interpreting local chronological sequences on the basis of stylistic change; insights into specific aspects of Dorset technology in soapstone, metal, and skeletal materials; the documentation of rare petroglyph sites; and assessing the social correlates of the large stone "longhouse" structures associated with late Dorset occupations. An intro-ductory essay provides historical context for these recent contributions to the understanding of a pre-Inuit Arctic people and their distinctive way of life.

RESUME Cette compilation d'articles traite de sujets relies a l'occupation dorsetienne du Paleo-esquimau qui a eu lieu dans l'Arctique canadien, a Terre-Neuve et au Groenland. Tous ces articles tiennent compte des resultats de recherches recentes, visant un large eventail d'objectifs notamment la clarification des affinites biologiques susceptibles d'exister entre les populations dorsetiennes; l'interpretation de la succession et de la discontinuite des occupations paleo-esquimaudes dans les diverses regions de l'Arctique; les moyens d'expliquer les series chronologiques locales etablies sur la base des changements stylistiques; l'approfondissement de certains aspects specifiques a la technologie dorsetienne appliquee a la steatite, aux metal et aux restes squelettiques; la documentation des rares sites de petroglyphes; et a revaluation des correlations sociales découlant des grander structures de « maisons longues » associees aux occupations dorsetiennes recentes. Une introduction explicite le contexte historique dans lequel se situent ces recentes contributions visant la comprehension de l'existence d'une peuple pre-Inuit et de son mode de vie distinctif dans l'Arctique.

CONTENTS

Abstract

Resume

List of Figures viii

List of Tables

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction Patricia D. Sutherland 1

Chapter 1: Molecular Archaeology of the Dorset, Thule, and Sadlermiut: Ancestor-Descendant Relationships in Eastern North American Arctic

Prehistory M. Geoffrey Hayes, Joan Brenner Coltrain, and Dennis H. O'Rourke 11

Chapter 2: Ethnogenesis in the Central and Eastern Arctic: A Reconstruction Based on Cranial Nonmetric Traits

Nancy Suzanne Ossenberg 33

Chapter 3: Phillip's Garden West: A Newfoundland Groswater Variant

M.A.P. Renouf 57

Chapter 4: One of These Things is Not Like the Other: Typology, Chronology,

and the Concept of Middle Dorset

Daniel Odess 81

Chapter 5: Palaeo-Eskimo Continuity and Discontinuity

in West Greenland Jens Fog Jensen 93

Chapter 6: Kiinatuqarvik: A Multidisciplinary Archaeological Project on Dorset Petroglyphs and Human Occupation in the Kangirsujuaq Area

Daniel Arsenault, Louis Gagnon, Daniel Gendron, and Claude Pinard 105

Chapter 7: Revisiting the Dorset Soapstone Quarry in Fleur de Lys,

Newfoundland John C. Erwin 121

Chapter 8: Understanding Dorset from a Different Perspective:

Worked Antler, Bone, and Ivory Genevieve M. LeMoine 133

Chapter 9: Late Dorset Longhouses: A Look Inside

Eric Damkjar 147

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter 1

Figure 1 Locations of Eastern Canadian Arctic Dorset,Thule, and Sadlermiut archaeological sites analyzed 16

Figure 2 Comparative percent haplogroup frequency distribution of ancient and contemporary Eastern Arctic populations and their neighbors 25

Figure 3 Principal components analysis 26

Chapter 2

Figure 1 Geographic distribution of Eskimo and Amerindian populations sampled in this study 38

Figure 2 ALSCAL analysis of MMDs based on 26 nonmetric cranial traits 46 Figure 3 Cluster analysis of MMDs based on 26 nonmetric traits 48 Figure 4 Summary cluster analysis of 13-trait MMDs showing affinities

of Eskimo, Aleut and Na-Dene 50

Chapter 3

Figure 1 Map of Port au Choix area, showing location of sites mentioned in the text . .58 Figure 2 Locations of Groswater Palaeo-Eskimo sites mentioned in the text 58 Figure 3 Groswater Palaeo-Eskimo tool kit, from Phillip's Garden East 59 Figure 4 Uncalibrated radiocarbon dates from Phillip's Garden East and

Phillip's Garden West 61 Figure 5 Calibrated radiocarbon dates from Phillip's Garden East and

Phillip's Garden West 61 Figure 6 Phillip's Garden West terrace edge, looking east towards Phillip's Garden 63 Figure 7 Comparison of selected artefacts from Phillip's Garden East and

Phillip's Garden West 66 Figure 8 Metric attributes of endblades, bifaces and sideblades 67 Figure 9 Phillip's Garden West tool kit 68 Figure 10 Distribution of Phillip's Garden West-type material in Newfoundland 72 Figure 11 Philip's Garden West artefacts from other Port au Choix sites 73 Figure 12 Phillip's Garden West artefacts from sites in Newfoundland outside

Port au Choix 74 Figure 13 Phillip's Garden West endblades from hearth Features 11 and 7 at PGW2 75

Chapter 5

Figure 1 Saqqaq and Early Dorset dwelling types in Saqqaqleq and southern Disko Bugt 97

Figure 2 Saqqaq and Early Dorset artefact types and their approximate temporal occurrence 98

Figure 3 Suggested culture-history chart for West Greenland south of Melville Bay . . .101

viii

Chapter 6

Figure 1 Map of the Nunavik region 107 Figure 2 Map of the Qajartalik site 108 Figure 3 Qajartalik site location 109 Figure 4 Petroglyphs 110 Figure 5 Petroglyph styles 111 Figure 6 Extraction cavities 111 Figure 7 Petroglyph engraved in a previous extraction zone 112 Figure 8 Small protuberance left in the centre of an extraction cavity after the

removal of a preform 112 Figure 9 (a) Extraction zones uncovered during excavation on the top of Area A;

(b) macro-photograph of an extraction zone 113 Figure 10 The shallow furrow surrounding a preform 113 Figure 11 Abandoned fragment of a steatite container 114 Figure 12 Metabasalt chopper 115 Figure 13 Map of the research area, showing site locations 116

Chapter 7

Figure 1 Map showing locations of sites mentioned in the paper 122 Figure 2 Culturally diagnostic Dorset tools from the quarry excavation 123 Figure 3 Maritime Archaic soapstone plummet 123 Figure 4 Vessel preform removal scar 124 Figure 5 North wall profile, 1997/1998 excavations 124 Figure 6 Plan view of the Dorset platform 125 Figure 7 Dorset ladles recovered from waterlogged deposits at the quarry 126 Figure 8 Quarry tools 127 Figure 9 Finished vessel fragments 128

Chapter 8

Figure 1 Map of locations mentioned in the text 135 Figure 2 QjJx-1: Frequency of tool types by raw material 136 Figure 3 Frequency of worked materials by site 138 Figure 4 Frequency of shaping techniques by raw material 140

Chapter 9

Figure 1 Locations of Late Dorset longhouse sites 148 Figure 2 Locations of sites used in this study 152 Figure 3 Frequency of lithic and organic artifacts from longhouse (n=866)

and non-longhouse (n=1119) sites in this study 153 Figure 4 Bar graph illustrating relative frequencies of major lithic artifact classes 153 Figure 5 Late Dorset lithic artifacts 154 Figure 6 Bar graph illustrating relative frequencies of major bone/antler/

ivory artifact classes 156

ix

Figure 7 Bar graph illustrating relative frequencies of harpoon head types 156 Figure 8 Late Dorset bone, antler, and ivory artifacts 157 Figure 9 Bar graph illustrating relative frequencies of carvings 158 Figure 10 Pie charts illustrating faunal assemblage composition 159 Figure 11 Season of death readings for seal teeth from Creswell Bay Late Dorset sites . 160

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter 1

Table 1 Native American mtDNA restriction site and length polymorphism haplogroup definitions 15

Table 2 PCR primers 18

Table 3 Marker and haplogroup designations and ANIS dates of Dorset, Sadlermiut and Thule remains 22

Table 4 Percent marker and haplogroup frequencies 24

Chapter 2

Table 1 Trait frequencies in Inuit and other northern population samples 42 Table 2 Ranked mean measures of divergence for Birnirk, Thule and

Recent Inuit population samples 44

Chapter 3

Table 1 Uncalibrated radiocarbon dates from Phillip's Garden East and Phillip's Garden West 60

Table 2 Non-metric data on lithics from Phillip's Garden East and Phillip's Garden West 65

Table 3 Known Phillip's Garden West-type material from Newfoundland and Labrador 70

Chapter 5

Table 1 Sites with Saqqaq-Dorset stratigraphies in Disko Bay and Uummannaq Municipality 95

Chapter 9

Table 1 List of Dorset sites used in this study 151

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank all those who participated in the session, "The Dorset Culture, 75 Years After Jenness", which was held at the Canadian Archaeological Association meeting in 2000. The individuals who contributed papers to this volume are thanked for their efforts, as well as for their patience in awaiting its publication. James Tuck, David Morrison, and Robert McGhee read and commented on the papers. Technical editing was done by Jean-Luc Pion. Nancy Minogue and Deborah Brownrigg of the Publishing Unit supervised the production of the volume.

xi

7 REVISITING THE DORSET SOAPSTONE QUARRY IN FLEUR DE LYS, NEWFOUNDLAND

John C. Erwin Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary

Abstract

The prehistoric soapstone quarry at Fleur de Lys in northeastern Newfoundland has been the subject of archaeological interest for almost a century. Although many researchers have commented upon the significance of the quarry, until the 1980s little archaeological evidence had been cited to support claims concerning the nature, use and importance of this site. Despite the lack of major excavation, the quarry's significance went unquestioned throughout most of this time, due to the fact that it was the only known Dorset soapstone quarry of its kind. A full scale excavation in 1997/98 and ongoing analyses have shown that the extent and complexity of the quarry deposits exceed all previous descriptions, have defined the Dorset quarrying tool kit by way of a four stage reduction model, and have demonstrated that soapstone vessels were finished at the quarry site.This research also suggests that the quarry is of regional significance, and that it reflects the northeastern variant of Dorset culture on the Island of Newfoundland.

Résumé

La carriere prehistorique de steatite situee a Fleur de Lys dans le nord-est de Terre-Neuve a suscite l'interet archeologique depuis environ siecle. Meme si plusieurs chercheurs ont specule sur la signification de cette carriere, peu de donnees archeologiques ont ete enoncees avant les annees 1980 a l'appui de reclamations concernant la nature, l'usage et l'importance de ce site. En depit de l'absence de fouilles importantes, la signification de la carriere n'a pas ete mise en doute pendant tout ce temps, du au fait que c'etait l'unique carriere dorsetienne connue de ce genre. Des fouilles systematiques ont eu lieu en 1997/98 et les analyses en cours ont montre que l'etendue et la complexite des depots dans cette carriere depassent touter les descriptions anterieures, definissent l'outillage dorsetien d'extraction en faisant appel a un modele de faconnage en quatre stades, et ont demontre que les recipients en steatite etaient faconnes sur place. Cette recherche indique aussi que la carriere revet une signification regionale, et qu'elle reflete, sur l'ile de Terre-Neuve, la transformation du Dorsetien qui a eu lieu dans le nord-est.

121

Figure 1 Map showing locations of sites mentioned in the paper.

122 REVISITING THE DORSET SOAPSTONE QUARRY IN FLEUR DE LYS, NEWFOUNDLAND

This paper revisits the Dorset soapstone quarry in the town of Fleur de Lys on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland (Figure 1), where for almost a century researchers have commented upon the largest and most well-preserved Dorset soapstone quarry yet discovered. The present research commenced in 1997 with quarry excavations that were planned for a duration of only six weeks, since all previous testing indicated that the excavation would not be an extensive undertaking (Nagle 1997:2). This proved not to be the case, as the lowest levels of the excavation included a waterlogged anaerobic burial environment that provided excellent conditions for the preservation of the quarry face, as well as of organic artifacts. As a result of the unexpected complexity and richness of these deposits, an additional 17 weeks were required to complete the original work program of 36 contiguous square metres of excavation (see Erwin 1998, 1999a).

Despite the quarry being one of Newfoundland's earliest reported and most unique archaeological sites, it had not been the subject of a large-scale archaeological investigation until 1997. As a consequence, previous explanations of the quarry had largely been based

upon research that was preliminary and/or tangential in nature (e.g. Linnamae 1975; Nagle 1982, 1984; Thomson 1984, 1986, 1989). The lack of major excavation might be explained by the belief that the archaeological potential of the site was low, since all previous testing had yielded only soapstone rubble and culturally non-diagnostic quarry-ing tools. A high water table, which halted previous excavations at this location of the quarry to about a metre below surface, also posed a practical barrier to previous research.

History of Research

Ten years prior to the discovery of the Cape Dorset culture by Jenness, James Howley (1915) attributed the carvings at the Fleur de Lys soapstone quarry to the Beothuk peoples of Newfoundland.This was determined almost by default, since the Beothuk were the only known aboriginal group on the island with presumed antiquity. During the 1920s Jenness and Wintemberg undertook field surveys in Newfoundland and reported on the Fleur de Lys site. In The Indians of Canada Jenness (1932) suggested that the carvings on the Fleur de Lys soapstone outcrops may have belonged to his newly described Cape Dorset culture (Jenness 1925). Two decades later W.J. Wintemberg (1939, 1940) produced archaeological evidence based upon vessel morphology and the presence of soapstone pots on Dorset sites, that the Dorset were responsible for the carvings in Fleur de Lys.

Figure 2 Culturally diagnostic Dorset tools from the quarry

excavation.

0 1 2 3 4 5cm iimIlIF±111111111171111111111111

J.C. ERWIN 123

While a number of archaeologists conducted preliminary investigations at Fleur de Lys over the following four decades, little progress was made toward a basic understanding of the site, or of quarrying methods, tool technology and vessel manufacture. In fact, it was not until the early 1980s that the first systematic description of the quarry was even attempted (Nagle 1982). Quarry excavations and the discovery in 1984/85 by Callum Thomson of an adjacent multicom-ponent living site, resulted in the first radiocarbon results for the Dorset Palaeo-Eskimo soapstone industry at Fleur de Lys. Two results, 1220±110 BP (Beta-15675) and 1480±100 (Beta-15674) were derived from the

quarry, and one of 1270±90 (Beta-15676) from an associated Dorset encampment known as the Shelley Garden site (EaBa-10). Although Thomson (1986:200) considered these results to be unusually late, they were deemed acceptable since they straddled the single result of 1340±100 (GaK-1904) derived from the Pittman site at the bottom ofWhite Bay, which had previously been linked to Fleur de Lys by Linnamae (1975:204-208) on the basis of visual comparison of the soapstone from both sites.

Figure 3 Maritime Archaic soapstone plummet.

Culture History

Notwithstanding similarities in soapstone vessel morphology, no culturally diagnostic materials had previously been recovered from the quarry site that could be solely attributed to Dorset, or to any other prehistoric group. However during the 1997 field season a small collection of Dorset Palaeo-Eskimo artifacts were unearthed which included three piano-convex triangular end-blades, an endscraper, a biface and a quartz crystal microblade (Figure 2). Despite the small size of this assemblage, these artifacts were found in deposits that had continuously accumulated for at least four hundred years, and which now can be attributed solely to Dorset.

Figure 4 Vessel preform removal scar.

4

Unit 12 Unit 18 Unit 30 Unit 36

5.5 m 5

Unit 6

3 2

Unit 24

Key

1.Topsoil 2. Quarry Debris 3.0riginal Ground Surface 4. Subsoil 5.Aneorobic Clay Layer

Soapstone

de

pth

belo

w b

elo

w s

urfa

ce (m

)

Soapstone

Outcrop

124 REVISITING THE DORSET SOAPSTONE QUARRY IN FLEUR DE LYS, NEWFOUNDLAND

Based upon the discovery of a Maritime Archaic component at the nearby Shelley Garden site (EaBa-10), Thomson suggested that the Dorset were probably not the only group to have utilized Fleur de Lys soapstone. More specifically, he suggested that since Maritime Archaic peoples were known to have fashioned plummets or net sinkers of soapstone, that we very well might find such artifacts at Fleur de Lys (Thomson 1983:5). In 1998, we recovered a soapstone

plummet from the Shelley Garden site (Figure 3).Although a single artifact from a disturbed context, it does provide evidence that Fleur de Lys soapstone was utilized some 1500-2000 years prior to Dorset activity at the quarry (Erwin 1999b).

Quarry Description

The soapstone quarry in Fleur de Lys consists of six localities located throughout the town. The largest of these areas is known as Locality 1, and is represented by a discontinuous series of outcrops that originate north of the main road and continue in a north-easterly direction for approximately 300 metres. Within this locality, nine groups have been identified as

Figure 5 North wall profile, 1997/1998 excavations.

25 50cm Soapstone Quarry Face

Unit 5 Unit 6

L Rock

Unit 37

Unit 38

Unit 4

Unit 10 Unit 11 Unit 12

J C ERWIN 125

Figure 6 Plan view of the Dorset platform.

containing approximately 650 preform removal scars (Figure 4), representing 90% of the visible removal scars within all six localities. The 1997-98 excavations were undertaken adjacent to the most heavily worked group at this locality, containing 297 removal scars of which 51 are below the present day ground surface, and an additional 21 below the ground surface at the time of Dorset activity.

It was previously recognized that many of the preform removal scars lay beneath the present day ground surface, and that this could be explained as a result of the accumulation of quarrying debris. However, it was not previously recognized that the Dorset had excavated along the quarry face to access soapstone from below the original ground surface, as represented by layer 3 in Figure 5. This Dorset excavation is interpreted as a means to access more easily worked soapstone which did not have the thick, hard and brittle weathered patina which occurs on the exposed surfaces above ground level. Two new radiocarbon results of 1610±60 (Beta-116637) and 1520±50 (Beta-129941), from wood samples recovered from below the original ground surface, pre-date Thomson's latest dates by approximately 400 years, indicating that the quarry's use covers much more of the known temporal span of Newfoundland Dorset occupation than was previously thought.

The waterlogged anaerobic soil conditions at the lowest levels of the quarry face preserved over 195 spruce and birch timbers from which the earliest radiocarbon dates for the quarry are now derived. While a few timbers show limited signs of working, which might indicate some level of construction and possible use as a scaffolding or a retaining wall (Erwin 1999a), the vast majority of the wood appears to consist of unmodified tree branches and trunks (Figure 6).The deposition of these timbers adjacent to the quarry face

126 REVISITING THE DORSET SOAPSTONE QUARRY IN FLEUR DE LYS, NEWFOUNDLAND

served to fill in the worked-out bottom of the quarry which subsequently would have filled with mud and water. In this regard, it is suggested that the addition of the timbers provided a dry stable surface from which to access higher areas on the quarry face during later above-ground quarrying activities.

Previous Research on Dorset Quarrying Methods, Tool Technology and Vessel Manufacture

Previous attempts to explain Dorset quarrying technology at Fleur de Lys, were severely constrained by the limited nature of the excavations and the resulting incomplete sample of the Dorset quarrying toolkit. The quarry tools recovered were generally described as expedient. The dominant tool category comprised a variety of scraping tools, the second contained hammerstones, and the third consisted of chisels, picks and wedges. The scraping tools were described as being fashioned from thin tabular pieces of stone which possessed "a characteristically acute working edge," and which were used in a "circular drawing motion to remove material from around an intended preform" (Nagle 1982:114). It was suggested that the hammerstones were used as pecking tools to remove large masses of material, and that the chisels, picks and wedges had functions that seemed to overlap with the scraping tools. From this, Nagle (1982) suggested a three stage removal process in which a preform was first isolated on the quarry face; then the excavation around the block of stone was deepened; and finally, it was removed. However, due to a lack of supporting evidence, this model remained untested until the present research.

Based upon negative evidence, it was also thought that most preforms were probably traded away and finished elsewhere (Thomson 1983:7), since no finished pots had previously been found at the quarry. It was also speculated that since the preform blocks of soapstone

Figure 7 Dorset ladles recovered from waterlogged deposits at the quarry.

J.C. ERWIN 127

Figure 8 a: Stage 1 - Quarry preparation tools (left: maul, right: large pick)

b: Stage 2a - Primary preform isolation tools (triangular tabular picks)

c: Stage 2b - Secondary preform isolation tools (rectangular tabular picks)

d: Stage 3 - Preform extraction tools (bottom left: wedge, top right: hammerstone)

e: Stage 4 - Finishing tools (top row: utilized linear flakes, bottom: abrading tools).

were very heavy, they might have been transported by sled during the winter months. Notwithstanding this latter possibility, our investigations indicate a warm weather use of the quarry as indicated by: (1) Dorset excavations, including a drainage ditch that runs perpen-dicular to the quarry face (see Erwin 1999a); (2) the recovery of a drinking cup and a portion of another (Figure 7) from beneath the water table of the natural spring that flooded the lowest levels of the quarry bottom; and (3) the recovery and tentative identification of immature seal remains that are indicative of a warm weather use of the site (Patricia J. Wells, personal communication 2000).

Proposed Four Stage Vessel Manufacturing Process

Based upon the recovery of thousands of additional artifacts, and a glimpse at a portion of the unweathered quarry face, we are now in a better position to understand Dorset quarrying

128 REVISITING THE DORSET SOAPSTONE QUARRY IN FLEUR DE LYS, NEWFOUNDLAND

activities. More specifically, the recon-struction of the Dorset quarrying toolkit and the process of vessel manu-facture is now based upon four new avenues of evidence: (1) tool breakage and wear patterns; (2) tool marks on vessel fragments; (3) tool marks on the quarry face; and (4) the recognition of a finishing stage, as represented by finished vessel fragments. From these new lines of evidence, the following four stage vessel manufacture model is proposed:

Figure 9 Finished vessel fragments.

Stage 1, Quarry Preparation includes the use of very large tabular picks, bifaces, and water-worn kidney shaped mauls (Figure 8a).These tools were used to break into and remove the four to six centimetres of weathered patina that exists on the exposed quarry face. They were also used to batter, loosen and shape the scars of previously worked portions of the quarry to provide a clean working face for further preform production.

Stage 2a, Preform Isolation includes the use of triangular-shaped tabular picks with one or more acute angled working edges (Figure 8b). These tools were used to initially isolate an intended preform. The recovery of numerous broken and worn corner fragments indicates that these tools were used as picks rather than "tabular scrapers", as previously identified and described by Nagle (1982:114-115).

Stage 2b, Preform Isolation represents the latter stage of the isolation process, in which longer and narrower tools were required to access the excavation around a preform (Figure 8c). These tools often had "V"-shaped or conical working edges. Peck marks in the preserved face at the lowest levels of the quarry indicate that these tools were also used as picks rather than as scraping tools.

Stage 3, Preform Extraction utilized wedges and hammerstones as a means of removing vessel preforms from the quarry face (Figure 8d). Breakage on the proximal end of some wedges attests to their use in combination with hammerstones.This process may have been utilized to detach particularly "stubborn" preforms, including those from horizontal positions on the quarry face, where the mass of the preform would not have facilitated detachment from above. However, it is also noted that the majority of wedges show no evidence of proximal battering, which indicates that the removal process was often completed without the aid of the hammerstone/wedge combination. Since the amount of material that held a preform in place was continually being reduced by means of the inwardly angular direction of the pecking process, this area would have become increasingly weakened as its diameter was reduced. Considering the mass of the finished preform, in comparison with the small amount of stone which held it in place, a final downward blow from a hand-held pick along the top of a preform may have been all that was necessary to remove the block of stone from the quarry face.

J.C. ERWIN 129

Stage 4, Finishing was completed with a variety of smaller hand-held tools, including linear flakes that have use wear on their distal ends, as well as incising and abrading tools (Figure 8e). The presence of finished vessel fragments with parallel lines incised at the corners (Figure 9), along with these smaller tools, provides the first evidence that the quarry also served as a workshop, where vessels were finished.

Although Dorset quarrying tools are indeed expedient, and are comprised of forms that are not easily differentiated, I would suggest that they can be more easily classified functionally through analysis of use wear and breakage patterning rather than solely through their form. It is also likely that some of the previous difficulty in identifying and classifying quarrying tools was related to the fact that it was not previously recognized that the assemblage contained tools for a finishing stage.

Quarry Significance and Implications for Understanding Dorset Regional

Variation In view of the extensive nature of the Fleur de Lys quarry, and the fact that it is the only known prehistoric soapstone quarry on the Island of Newfoundland, it has been assumed that the site's significance to the Dorset culture was at least island-wide, and may have included Labrador (Nagle 1984). However in 1975 Linnamae cast some doubt as to the island-wide significance of the quarry, when she suggested that the soft, badly pitted soapstone from the Pittman Site in White Bay, which resembled the Fleur de Lys material, differed from the soapstone found at the Cape Ray Light site on the south-west coast.

In the 1980s, Nagle (1984) tested the Fleur de Lys soapstone using neutron activation analysis, and concluded that there was a great deal of variation in the geochemical signature, which did little to resolve the issue of where this material was being used. More recently, a study of soapstone provenience by O'Driscoll (1998), using X-ray diffraction, confirmed Linnamae's visual interpretation that differences between the soapstone from Cape Ray and Fleur de Lys were significant.

While ongoing geochemical studies by O'Driscoll (personal communication 2000) may yet prove successful in determining where Fleur de Lys soapstone was being used, part of this problem can be addressed by assessing the amount of regional variation found within the Dorset component of the adjacent Shelley Garden (EaBa-10) site. Robbins (1986) suggested three regional variants of Dorset culture on the island: (1) West Coast, (2) Northeast Coast, and (3) South Coast. He noted that endblades from the west coast are short, broad-based and of an "equilateral triangular form" with deeply concave bases, and are predominately fashioned from fine-grained cherts. Northeastern coast endblades are more elongate and less finely made, and are often fashioned from blue and grey rhyolites. Southern coast endblades are similar in form and quality to the northeastern coast, however between Cape Ray and Trinity Bay they are frequently ground and are often fashioned from a weathered white chert. Using Robbins' (1985, 1986) model of Dorset regional variation for the Island of Newfoundland, I propose that if the quarry was accessed by different Dorset groups, some archaeological evidence of this should be discernible. A further discussion on Newfoundland Dorset regional variability can be found in LeBlanc (2000).

130 REVISITING THE DORSET SOAPSTONE QUARRY IN FLEUR DE LYS, NEWFOUNDLAND

To this end, both quantitative and qualitative testing was conducted to compare the endblades (N=259) from seven Dorset Palaeo-Eskimo sites in the northeast, and the endblades (N=88) from Shelley Garden and the Fleur de Lys quarry This comparison included assessments of ratios of width to length and base height to length, endblade shape, flaking techniques, material type, and the quality of manufacture. On this basis, the Fleur de Lys assemblage shows only minor variation with regard to endblade morphology, but a relatively greater degree of diversity in raw material use than found at most Dorset sites in the northeastern portion of the island (Erwin 2001). From this I would suggest that the quarry was predominantly accessed by Dorset groups from within the northeast, and that if Dorset people from other regions utilized Fleur de Lys soapstone they acquired it by different means. Furthermore, I would suggest that the diversity of raw material use at the Shelley Garden site reflects the long term use of the quarry, and its use by many Dorset groups from within the northeastern region. In this regard, it would also seem likely that no specialist group or groups controlled access to the quarry deposits.

Although there is yet little evidence to suggest the use of Fleur de Lys soapstone in regions outside of northeastern Newfoundland, such use would have certainly required some form of trade. Alternatively, if Fleur de Lys soapstone was not being traded out of the area, the significance of the quarry becomes more regional than previously believed. In either scenario, the soapstone quarry in Fleur de Lys represents a cultural focal point for at least 400 years, which in part both defines and reflects the northeastern variant of the Dorset culture on the Island of Newfoundland.

Acknowledgements

Funding and support for this project was received from the Canada-Newfoundland Agreement on Economic Renewal; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Archaeology Office, the University of Calgary Office of Research; the University of Calgary Department of Archaeology, and the Archaeology Unit of Memorial University.

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