Paleocarpentry in the Eastern Arctic: an Inferential Exploration of Saqqaq Kayak Construction

• Main Author: Matthew Walls
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Dominguez; Greenland; Kayak; inuit; Saqqaq; Saqqaq culture
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.676.857; http://vav.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/vav/article/viewFile/12342/11070/

Because wooden artifacts are rarely preserved in ‘stone age ’ archaeological contexts, it is difficult to study the actual techniques through which lithic tools were used in a complementary fashion to manipulate the natural properties of wood. Saqqaq culture (~4400-3300 BP), from West Greenland, provides an example where complex skin-on-frame kayaks were built using stone tool kits. This article will inferentially explore Saqqaq paleocarpentry by outlining the skills that are requisite to building kayaks. Though Saqqaq tools are only discussed briefly, it can be inferred that many of them would have been used in suites to achieve specific carpentry goals. he use of stone tools for wood working can be traced back as far as the Earlier Stone Age (Dominguez-Rodrigo 2001). However, because wooden artifacts are themselves rarely preserved in most ‘stone age ’ archaeological contexts, it is difficult to study the actual techniques through which lithic tools were used in a complementary fashion to manipulate the natural properties of wood. Even so, it is useful to consider lithic tools from a perspective of carpentry, and the specific tasks that they must have been used for; this involves an understanding of the way that wood is composed as well as the types of carpentry techniques that would be required to build some of the technologies that must have been constructed by paleocarpenters. This article explores the rich ethno-historic documentation of traditional Inuit kayak construction, with the purpose of outlining the carpentry skills that are requisite to building functional skin-on-frame boats- one of the most elegant technologies known to have been built with stone tool kits. Although kayaks were built with the aid of metal implements throughout the historic period discussed, kayaks are part of a much older tradition and have been built by various Arctic cultures, in relatively similar ways, for at least 4400 years. In Greenland, specifically, Saqqaq culture (~4400 – 3300 BP) built kayaks in similar enough