Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island
This thesis investigates two aspects of Palaeo-Inuit lithic quarry use in the eastern Arctic. The first is the place of the LbDt-1 quarry in the established lithic reduction continuum on southern Baffin Island and to investigate how Palaeo-Inuit peoples structured their use of this site. The second...
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ftunivmanitoba:oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/36403 2023-06-18T03:39:44+02:00 Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island Hood, Elenore Grace Milne, S. Brooke Oakes, Jill (Environment and Geography) Park, Robert (Anthropology) 2022-03-31T22:17:08Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36403 eng eng http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36403 open access Baffin Island lithic quarry chert novice flintknapping field processing model Palaeo-Inuit Pre-Dorset Dorset lithic quarry apprenticeship master thesis 2022 ftunivmanitoba 2023-06-04T17:40:26Z This thesis investigates two aspects of Palaeo-Inuit lithic quarry use in the eastern Arctic. The first is the place of the LbDt-1 quarry in the established lithic reduction continuum on southern Baffin Island and to investigate how Palaeo-Inuit peoples structured their use of this site. The second is the social role of LbDt-1 as a place where novice flintknappers had their first opportunity to gain practical experience breaking rocks. A multi-method approach that combines individual attribute and aggregate analyses is applied to the lithic debitage from LbDt-1. The results indicate that lithic activities at LbDt-1 were limited to the earliest stages of the lithic reduction and a high frequency of novice mistakes point to use of the site by inexperienced flintknappers. Comparison of the LbDt-1 debitage assemblage to extant data from four Pre-Dorset habitation sites located in the interior and on the coast (Milne 2003) indicates a higher frequency of novice errors at the quarry and the two interior sites compared to the coastal sites. This suggests that the LbDt-1 quarry, and the interior region more generally, was the preferred location for novices to gain experience in flintknapping. Further, the debitage patterns identified at LbDt-1 represent only the earliest stages of lithic reduction and lack evidence of tool production. In this way, the LbDt-1 assemblage does not resemble a typical quarry, and contradicts the expectation of the field processing model that a quarry located at a significant distance from habitation sites would have debitage from the full reduction sequence (see Beck et al. 2002). Lithic activities at LbDt-1 did not emphasize efficient chert extraction, but rather the social decisions made by Palaeo-Inuit people, who had determined that the interior was the appropriate place for teaching novices to flintknap (Milne 2014:110). The abundance of chert available in the interior compared to on the coast was no doubt a significant determinant in the association of the interior region with chert ... Master Thesis Arctic Baffin Island Baffin inuit MSpace at the University of Manitoba Arctic Baffin Island Beck ENVELOPE(67.017,67.017,-71.033,-71.033) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MSpace at the University of Manitoba |
op_collection_id |
ftunivmanitoba |
language |
English |
topic |
Baffin Island lithic quarry chert novice flintknapping field processing model Palaeo-Inuit Pre-Dorset Dorset lithic quarry apprenticeship |
spellingShingle |
Baffin Island lithic quarry chert novice flintknapping field processing model Palaeo-Inuit Pre-Dorset Dorset lithic quarry apprenticeship Hood, Elenore Grace Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island |
topic_facet |
Baffin Island lithic quarry chert novice flintknapping field processing model Palaeo-Inuit Pre-Dorset Dorset lithic quarry apprenticeship |
description |
This thesis investigates two aspects of Palaeo-Inuit lithic quarry use in the eastern Arctic. The first is the place of the LbDt-1 quarry in the established lithic reduction continuum on southern Baffin Island and to investigate how Palaeo-Inuit peoples structured their use of this site. The second is the social role of LbDt-1 as a place where novice flintknappers had their first opportunity to gain practical experience breaking rocks. A multi-method approach that combines individual attribute and aggregate analyses is applied to the lithic debitage from LbDt-1. The results indicate that lithic activities at LbDt-1 were limited to the earliest stages of the lithic reduction and a high frequency of novice mistakes point to use of the site by inexperienced flintknappers. Comparison of the LbDt-1 debitage assemblage to extant data from four Pre-Dorset habitation sites located in the interior and on the coast (Milne 2003) indicates a higher frequency of novice errors at the quarry and the two interior sites compared to the coastal sites. This suggests that the LbDt-1 quarry, and the interior region more generally, was the preferred location for novices to gain experience in flintknapping. Further, the debitage patterns identified at LbDt-1 represent only the earliest stages of lithic reduction and lack evidence of tool production. In this way, the LbDt-1 assemblage does not resemble a typical quarry, and contradicts the expectation of the field processing model that a quarry located at a significant distance from habitation sites would have debitage from the full reduction sequence (see Beck et al. 2002). Lithic activities at LbDt-1 did not emphasize efficient chert extraction, but rather the social decisions made by Palaeo-Inuit people, who had determined that the interior was the appropriate place for teaching novices to flintknap (Milne 2014:110). The abundance of chert available in the interior compared to on the coast was no doubt a significant determinant in the association of the interior region with chert ... |
author2 |
Milne, S. Brooke Oakes, Jill (Environment and Geography) Park, Robert (Anthropology) |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Hood, Elenore Grace |
author_facet |
Hood, Elenore Grace |
author_sort |
Hood, Elenore Grace |
title |
Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island |
title_short |
Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island |
title_full |
Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island |
title_fullStr |
Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island |
title_full_unstemmed |
Learning from the best: palaeo-Inuit novice flintknapping on southern Baffin Island |
title_sort |
learning from the best: palaeo-inuit novice flintknapping on southern baffin island |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36403 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(67.017,67.017,-71.033,-71.033) |
geographic |
Arctic Baffin Island Beck |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Baffin Island Beck |
genre |
Arctic Baffin Island Baffin inuit |
genre_facet |
Arctic Baffin Island Baffin inuit |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36403 |
op_rights |
open access |
_version_ |
1769004444104523776 |