Atlatls and Darts for Alaska and the Yukon

Chert and obisidian atlatl darts representing finds
form Ice Patches in the Yukon and Alaska's
Northern Archaic

Here's one last look at the Northern Archaic darts heading to Alaska and the Ice Patch dart that is on it's way to the Yukon.  This project began several months ago with a request from Jeffrey Rasic with the National Parks Service in Fairbanks, Alaska to make an atlatl and dart set based on artifacts from the area.  He sent me some Wiki Peak obsidian to make Northern Archaic (ca. 5000BP) dart points from and put me in touch with Greg Hare in the Yukon to help fill in the blanks with the organic part of the tools. 

 

A simple birch atlatl and the ice patch dart

The ice patch darts recovered by Hare and his colleagues over the past couple of decades served as the models for the dart shafts.  That led to adding a direct reproduction of an Ice Patch dart to the order for Hare.  Unfortunately, there haven't been any atlatls found in either area for the time periods in question, so we decided that a simple hooked stick would be the safest way to represent that part of the kit.  As the order evolved we added a lithic production sequence showing how a dart point would be made from a core of obsidian and a second Northern Archaic dart for one of Rasic's colleagues.    

This 4-stage production sequence runs from left to right, with an obsidian primary flake on the left side of the image, through to a bifacially worked blank, a finished projectile point, and the hafted point on the far right.  The small flakes between the flake, biface, and projectile point are about 1/10th of the total number of flakes removed to advance the piece to each stage.  Conifer pitch, red ochre, and sinew were used to haft the point.

The Northern Archaic darts are hafted with ptarmigan feathers.  Modified ptarmigan feathers have been found in ice patches, although it's not clear if they were used as fletching.  We decided to use ptarmigan feathers on the darts heading to Alaska because they are from non-migratory birds, which should not have any issues crossing international boundaries.

The Ice Patch dart head is hafted into it's 182 cm long birch shaft with red ochre and spruce gum.  The lashing is sinew and hide glue. 

The middle dart is the ice patch dart, fletched with duck feathers.  According to Hare, there are a couple of different fletching methods found on the ice patch darts.  Some use whole feathers with sinew passing through the rachis of the feathers.  The earlier darts use split feathers lashed in place with sinew.  I used the split feather method, but would love to try sewing the sinew through whole feathers some day.  My one regret is that the fletching is relatively short on these darts - around 15 cm long, while Greg Hare told me that at least one of the darts was found with feathers 30-35 cm long.  To find feathers that long you'd need to use birds of prey, migratory fowl, or non-local bird species, like turkeys.  These darts needed a compromise either in the species used or the size of the fletching and in this case I went with the size of the feather rather than substituting a foreign species.  But maybe turkey feathers would create a more accurate looking reproduction. Something to consider for next time.

The Northern Archaic darts were made with foreshafts with a conical insert that fits into a sinew reinforced socket on the main shaft.  The design of these forshafts is based on ice patch specimens.

All three darts have a dimple in the end to fit the pointed spur of the atlatl.

The birch atlatls are simple and nondescript. I used the length of my arm from the tip of my outstretched finger to my elbow as a guide for their lengt.

The Northern Archaic darts flank the ice patch dart in the middle.  It's hard to photograph these things because they are so long and skinny.  The ice patch dart is a one piece dart, without a foreshaft.  It's the longer of the three at a little over 185 cm long (6'1" or so).

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

All done but the drying

Sinew lashings on red ochre
and spruce gum adhesive

 The Northern Archaic and Ice Patch darts and atlatls are all done.  They just need to dry overnight and I can photograph them and then put them in the mail tomorrow morning.  I'll share those final images here on Friday.   Between the various stages of lashing and drying I managed to get a couple copper riveted ulus finished as well.  Its a load off.  With two days left before the weekend and then travel north on Monday I have one small jewellery order that I'd like to at least attempt before I close up the workshop for July.  Fortunately the size and make-up of that order is a little bit vague, so if I can get anything done it will be better than nothing.

The hafted ice patch dart reproduction (right) and reference dart points collected from the Yukon.  There's a pretty wide range of point styles represented.  I tried to match some of the lanceolate forms in the bottom row.  You can see the ghost outline of the red ochre and spruce gum adhesive on the base of the points in the lower right corner of the photo.  The original image can be found in this article: The Archaeology of Yukon Ice Patches: New Artifacts, Observations, and Insights 

 

Slate ulus with spruce handles.  The two laying down have copper rivets securing the blades in place and the one standing up is tied together with sealskin raw hide.

A profile view of the ulu blade.   As a general rule, ulus were sharpened unifacially so that they'd have both a sharp cutting edge and a steep scraping edge for hide working.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast   

Archaic Darts

The two obsidian points are hafted
in foreshafts and the chert point is
in one long 182 cm long dart.

Shaping, filing, sanding, and burnishing the dart shafts for the Northern Archaic and Ice Patch reproduction darts took several hours, but they are finally ready to begin assembling.  The birch staves are a little tougher to finish than the soft woods that I'm used to working, but I think that the end product is worth the effort.  The points and feathers will go on with the help of sinew, spruce gum, and red ochre.

May was archaeology Month in Alaska.  Jeff Rasic sent me this poster. (click to enlarge)

This drawing and the artifacts that it is based on were the references for the reproductions.

I needed to knap a new point for the ice patch dart that is heading to the Yukon.  Instead of obsidian, I used chert and the style is a small lanceolate dart point.  

The point will be secured with red ochre and spruce gum and tied down with sinew.

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast

On to the next thing...

Four of these slate ulu
reproductions are heading
to Port au Choix

I finally have the order for Port au Choix out the door and I can move on to the next project.  Before I leave for the field in two weeks, I need to wrap up two orders that I've already started and try to finish a third that I have yet to begin.  Here is one last look at some of the reproductions and original jewellery that will be available this summer at the Heritage Shop in Port au Choix.

The ground slate bayonet in the middle of the photo and three of the lances are also on their way to the Northern Peninsula.

Fibre Optic Cufflinks.  

These four obsidian flake necklaces are the most recent addition to the "Lost Stone Series".

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Northern Archaic Reproductions made from Alaskan Obsidian

Obsidian dart point and reference drawing

 I'm working on a series of knapped obsidian and chert dart points for archaeologists in Alaska and the Yukon.  The Alaskan set is made from obsidian from Wiki Peak, which has been a real pleasure to work.  The stone has nice grey and black flow banding, although the grey doesn't really show up in these photos.  Two of the finished projectile points will be hafted in split birch shafts based on ice patch darts from the Yukon.  The other three pieces show the progression of making a dart point from a hard hammered flake, through a soft hammered preform, and on to a pressure flaked complete point.  I wanted to save the corresponding flakes for each stage, which is why I needed to clean up the winter's mess and lay out a fresh tarp in the workshop.

A flintknapping reduction sequence from a hard hammer flake (left) to a soft hammered biface (middle) to a projectile point finished with pressure flaking.

In this photo, the knapped obsidian is resting on the reference photos and drawing used to model the points.  I primarily used the line drawing in the upper right hand corner to guide the size and stem style for the three completed dart points.  Looking at the photo here, I may trim the ears slightly on one or two of the points before I haft them.  There is a fine line between a wide side-notch and an expanding stem and I think my points might have more of a side-notched than stemmed feel to them at the moment.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Alaskan Obsidian

These two cores of black Alaskan obsidian were waiting at the post office for me when I got home from vacation.  The plan is to turn them into dart points and preforms for a dart and atlatl set.  I'll be using ice patch artifacts from the Western Arctic as the references to haft the points into functional darts.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Pendants in progress

I have a few pendants in progress in the workshop.  The wood shaft on the obsidian arrowhead will be trimmed down and drilled so that it can be strung on a leather cord.  The walrus ivory bear head above it is one of two that I'm working on at the moment.  The one shown here is inspired by Dorset Palaeoeskimo artifacts from the High Arctic.  Its coming along nicely, so far, although I want to leave the finishing for at least one more day.  I don't like carving too quickly.  I think slower carvings turn out better.  It takes time to plan each cut.

 Photo Credit: Tim Rast

MUNArch Percussion Workshop

We are at the halfway point in the MUNArch flintknapping wokrshops.  Three of the six evenings have gone ahead and its been going great so far.  Last week we made ground stone ulus and this week we are working on hard and soft hammer percussion.  I'm off to Alberta and Saskatchewan for more workshops next week, but we'll be back at it in St. John's on March 24th and 26th to finish up with an introduction to pressure flaking.

Some impressive bifaces came out of the first round of Percussion knapping.

A lot of focus.  The room can get pretty quiet at time, except for the sounds of rock breaking.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Hafted Obsidian Arrowhead Necklaces

Obsidian necklace

I'm continuing to work on flintknapped jewellery this week for wholesale orders.  Here are a couple photos of hafted arrowhead necklaces made from obsidian, hardwood, artificial sinew and epoxy.  I don't use artificial sinew and epoxy very often when I'm making reproductions, but it makes sense in this context because of how it will wear relative to real sinew and hide glue.  Sinew and hide glue creates a very tough bond, but its not water resistant.  The epoxy and artificial sinew are much more durable and these necklaces are designed to last a lifetime without the glue or binding breaking down or deteriorating.

A bit of iron in the lava flow creates a stone with swirling red flames.  These necklaces retail for $28.75 CDN.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

MUNArch Flintknapping Workshops 2013

Safety first.

MUNArch, Memorial University of Newfoundland's undergraduate archaeology society, is sponsoring a series of flintknapping workshops beginning at the end of March and running into the first week of April.  I'll be leading the sessions and we'll cover three different topics; Percussion Knapping, Pressure Flaking, and, for the first time ever in St.John's, Hafting.  Each session is limited to 15 people, but we are holding two of each to accommodate up to 30 people.  First priority goes to archaeology students for registration space, but there are usually a few extra spots available if you would like to contact MUNArch to be wait-listed: munarch@gmail.com

Percussion flaking - March 19th or 20th

Bandaids and leather are supplied, but
you should where shoes and pants
to protect your legs.

In this class, students will learn the basics of using hammerstones and antler billets to strike flakes from cores.   By the end of the evening, you will have produced your own hard hammer and soft hammer flakes, a uniface and a biface.  Here are some photos and stories from the MUNArch Percussion workshop in 2012:

MUNArch Percussion Flintknapping, Part 1

MUNArch Percussion Flintknapping, Part 2

Pressure flaking - March 26th or 27th

Some pretty pressure flaked points from te 2012 workshop

Pressure flaking was one of the big cultural revolutions of the Upper Palaeolithic.  If you want to knap an arrowhead, then you want to know how to use pressure to push flakes off of stone.  Most people leave this workshop with a pocket full of projectile points.  Check out this link to see the efforts of 2012 knappers:

MUNArch Pressure Flaking Wrap-up

Hafting - April 2nd or 3rd

Hafting makes the tool

A stone tool is rarely a completed tool until its hafted into a handle.  This is the first hafting workshop that I've ever offered in St. John's and this is where you really get to see how stone tools were made and used.  You'll work with stone, wood, sinew, and natural glues to haft one or more of the pieces that you produced in the Percussion and Pressure Flaking workshops.  Here is a link to a similar workshop that I led in Calgary:

Flintknapping Workshop in Calgary

If you are interested in participating in any of these flint knapping sessions, please contact MUNArch by email and let them know which workshops and which days you wish to attend. Each workshop is scheduled for 6:00 pm in QC 4028 in Queen's College on the MUN Campus (next to Bitters). The costs are:

$25 for 1

$40 for 2 

$50 for 3

Percussion knapped biface

Keep in mind, you must attend percussion and pressure flaking to complete hafting. Furthermore, space is limited to 15 people per session, so sign up is first come first serve!  Memorial University archaeology students have first priority in booking.

If you have any other questions, email munarch@gmail.com!

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Lost Stone Obsidian

I haven't been making a lot of jewelry lately, but I did do a quick repair on this necklace recently.  It is obsidian and was purchased from the Heritage Shop in Port au Choix.  I'm sending it back to its owner  in Ontario this evening.

Photo Credit: Tim Rast

Choris Reproductions

Obsidian Choris Points

Two by two, I'm working through the Cape Krusenstern order.  The most recent reproductions to go into the finished box are a pair of Choris points and Choris bifaces.  I'd mentioned the diagonal flaked Choris points before, but it turns out that the original artifact was made from obsidian.  Since it was the only obsidian artifact found at this particular site its material type was important enough to redo the point in the correct material.  Its not a bother - I get to keep those little flint Choris points that I made a few weeks ago.

The reddish mud coating the bi-pointed biface on the left helps match the original artifact.

A dozen or so pieces are finished, although I do keep going back and tweak the antiquing. The more layers of mud or staining that goes on a reproduction the more depth and age the piece takes on.

MUNArch Pressure Flaking Wrap-up

We held the last of the MUNArch Flintknapping workshops this past Tuesday and Thursday.  I had a great time meeting everyone and they all did an excellent job in both the percussion workshops in February and the pressure flaking workshops this week.  We had 12 participants on Tuesday and another six on Thursday.  The MUNArch executive did a fantastic job of putting these workshops together and I really appreciate all their effort.

Hopefully, the flintknapping workshop will become an annual event in the MUNArch calendar.  No matter what your focus in archaeology, I think understanding and being able to explain to people how stone tools were made is a valuable skill for archaeology students to pick up.

Here's a sample of some of the points produced in the pressure flaking workshops. Well done, everyone!

Photo Credits: Tim Rast