More Than Axes to Grind: Ground Stone Tool Production and Use by the Maritime Archaic of Newfoundland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Toolstone and Mineral Geography Across Time and Space" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Maritime Archaic people of Newfoundland were a coastal culture whose primary economic activity was focused on sea mammals, fish, and seabirds in nearshore environments and offshore islands. It is assumed that they had seaworthy watercraft that allowed them to travel efficiently along the coast and to smaller islands in Newfoundland’s many fjords and bays off its rocky shores. This is based primarily from indirect evidence of settlement locations, scant faunal remains, and ground stone tools affiliated with woodworking, including the manufacture of dugout canoes. While many such tools have been recovered on the island, the majority have been from spot finds or mortuary contexts. However, recent research by the authors on Inspector Island, an island in a bay of Newfoundland’s north coast, reveals a rare domestic site that has significant evidence of a ground stone tool workshop that is likely associated with the production of watercraft. This paper will discuss evidence from all stages of ground stone tool production and compare it with the broader lithic assemblage recovered at the site. It will also examine the implications it has for mobility, human-environment interaction, and settlement by the Archaic in the eastern Canada.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Toolstone and Mineral Geography Across Time and Space   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52506