The Burins from Umingmak : how to use Thumbnail sized Tools

• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PERSEE 1987
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Flint; The Handle; Umingmak; arctic small tool tradition; Banks Island; Dorset culture; Pre-Dorset culture
• Online Access: http://www.persee.fr/doc/mom_0766-0510_1987_act_15_1_1700

«Umingmak» is situated in the central part of Banks Island (N.W.T., Canada). Mainly by evidence of its lithic inventar it is dated in a relatively advanced phase of the « Pre-Dorset-Culture », that means in C14 years around 3500 B. P. Because of the tininess of the stone tools the heading «Arctic Small Tool Tradition» was placed over assemblage like ours. Botanical and zoological analyses have yield the result, that Umingmak must have been a summer camp with repeated visits to carry out butchering and meat processing tasks. The size of the bifacially retouched burins ranges between 5 to 30 mm. This implies that an efficient employment of these tools is only possible with a hafting device. A combined microwear analysis showed that the tools were used for two tasks in differing importance: 1. transversal scraping and smoothing of hard materials, most likely fresh or soaked reindeer with the lateral burin edges; 2. grooving or engraving of another hard material, probably bone, with the tip of the tool. Refitted burin spalls are demonstrating that during utilization the burin facet was commonly resharpened several times. Basic requirement for such an intensive usage is an optimal fixed junction between stone inset and handle. Micropolish spots on ridges and elevations in the proximal or grip part of the burins are interpreted as the results of a leather or dry hide covering in connection with the hafting arrangement. Grinding as a cultural important and wide spread aspect in the «Artie Small Tool Tradition» may also be part of the hafting design. Complete finds of handles with stone insets from younger periods in that region can give us an impression how the implement could have looked like. Analogous to these examples and knowing that the leather spots are present on both sides it is supposed that a small patch of leather was squeezed between the wooden handle and the flint burin. Organic residues which were preserved on some tools, can be interpreted as an additional means to cement the inset with covering. This leather « pad » arrangement has several advantages: – enhancing the contact surface and thereby the adherence between stone inset and handle – protecting the handle against damage from the inset – quick interchangeability – saving time and energy, which would otherwise be necessary for the skillful adjustment of the handle by whittling.