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Artifacts from Ancient Workshop Sites near Tadoussac, Saguenay County, Quebec*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

W. J. Wintemberg
W. J. Wintemberg*
Affiliation:
National Museum of Canada Ottawa, Canada
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Extract

In 1915, while making ethnological investigation? among survivors of the Tadoussac band of the Montagnais Indians at Tadoussac, Quebec, Dr. Frank G. Speck, of the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, learned from the Indians that stone implements had been found on a sandy hill north of the village. From the surface of the site he collected about three hundred chips and stone artifacts which are now in the National Museum of Canada. Another lot of about two hundred and fifty specimens collected by him are in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. In 1927, this and other sites were investigated by the author, who made a careful search of the exposed surface of the area between Tadoussac and Moulin Baude River, about three miles to the east and gathered about one thousand instructive specimens besides several hundred chippings.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , April 1943 , pp. 313 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1943

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Footnotes

*

Editor's note: This paper, the appearance of which has been long awaited by those interested in the archaeology of northeastern North America, was found in Mr. Wintemberg's files after his death. It was forwarded to the Editor by Dr. Jenness in June, 1941.

References

1 See Speck, 1916. Bibliography see pp. 361–362 following.

2 See Wintemberg, 1929.

3 Several additional specimens were collected in 1939.

4 The author's grateful acknowledgments are here extended to Dr. Eugene Poitevin for identifying the rocks and minerals, to Mr. Aimé Lapointe for permission to excavate on his property, and to Dr. N. C. Nelson, Curator, Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History for information and drawings of gouges in the Speck collection in that museum.

5 Speck, 1916, p. 429.

6 Several shore lines were seen at Tadoussac. The highest, which is a very good one, being 405 feet above mean tide. Another lies below it at 180 feet. To the east of the village, the higher one extends along the St. Lawrence for three miles or more, and is one or two miles wide.

7 In most cases, the pecked surfaces of the unfinished adzes seem to have offered less resistance to the wearing action of the sand than the polished surfaces of artifacts of the same class; the exposed surfaces of only a few polished stone adzes show extensive erosion, the sides not exposed to the drifting sand retaining their smooth polish. Pieces of broken glass found on the surface of the sites are sand-eroded, the glossy surfaces being dulled and the broken edges rounded. The naturally shiny surfaces of the quartz crystals were similarly dulled by sand erosion.

8 Eleven pottery fragments, now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, were found by Speck in a refuse deposit near a camp about 300 yards from the mouth of the Moulin Baude on the St. Lawrence. Six of the pieces show a surface finish like that on Iroquoian pottery; the rest bear cord-impressed decoration like that on Woodland pottery. A bone awl or arrow point was found in the same deposit.

9 The writer has found chippings and artifacts of this material along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the northwest coast of Newfoundland, so it must occur in situ somewhere in the Labrador peninsula. None has been found in the form of pebbles or boulders.

10 Speck, 1916, p. 431.

11 There is a blade of the same shape and of similar material as that in Pl. XXV, A, 3, from Lake Assinitchibastat, Chibougamou River, Abitibi District, Quebec, in the National Museum of Canada (Cat. No. VIII-E-1).

12 See Wintemberg, 1931, Pl. IV, Fig. 14, showing one like that in Pl. XXV, A, 5.

13 Four of these blades are like that in Pl. XXV, A, 2; one is like that in Pl. XXV, A, 5; one, but smaller, is like that in Pl. XXV, B, 10; three are like the one in Pl. XXV, B, 11a; nd another is like that in Pl. XXV, B, 12. None is chipped from quartz: the materials are chert, of two different kinds, and red jasper.

14 Boas (1907, Fig. 84, a-e, h) illustrates similar points from Eskimo.

15 Wilson, 1899, p. 915.

16 Skinner, 1920, p. 166.

17 There are twelve specimens in the New Brunswick Museum, St. John, two of which are illustrated by Mcintosh (1913, Pl. I, Figs. 4 and 5).

18 Smith, 1929, Pl. IV, Fig. 7, shows a specimen from Merigomish, Pictou County

19 Wilson, 1899, Pl. 33, Fig. 13, shows a point from Queens County, and Skinner, 1920, Pl. IX, shows several from Manhattan Island.

20 Wilson, 1899, Fig. 140.

21 Ibid., Pl. 33, Fig. 8.

22 Ibid., Pl. 33, Fig. 9.

23 A specimen, 2 , pointed at both ends and with one edge slightly, and the other extremely, curved, curiously enough, was found in what was probably an early Huron site on lot 13, con. III. Vaughan Township, York County, Ontario (Cat. No. VIII-F-22870, Nat. Mus. Can.).

24 Mathiassen, 1927, Pl. 70, Fig. 2.

26 Most of the chipped stone points from Red Paint graves are also too large for the purpose (Moorehead, 1922, p . 111).

26 Speck, 1916, p. 431.

27 1916, p. 432.

28 Winchell, 1911, Pl. III, Fig. 4.

29 See de Laguna, 1934, Pl. 20, Figs. 7 and 8.

30 Speck, 1916, p. 431.

31 Cat. Nos. XII-B-182 and XII-B-183, National Museum of Canada.

32 de Laguna, 1934, Pl. 36, Figs. 12–14 and 16, 17.

33 Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 46.

34 Resembling these objects, except that they are perforated, are a cylindrical, spindle-shaped slate specimen from Fort Hill, Veazie, near Oldtown, Maine, and casts of two similar specimens from unknown localities, in the Museum of the Department of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, of which Mr. Frederick Johnson kindly furnished a photograph. One is illustrated by Willoughby (1935, Fig. 45d). It is possible that our specimens are unfinished and were also intended to be perforated.

36 Moore, 1900, found on the west coast of Florida a strikingly similar, cylindrical clay stone object 13.12 inches long, but with a narrow wedge-shaped base (Fig. 19). A small specimen of the same shape, but only about 4½ inches long, and ⅜ inch thick, was also found (Fig. 26). [Specimens strikingly similar have recently been discovered in a “Red Paint” grave in Brewer, Maine, by Mr. Hadlock. Ed.]

36 Letter of October 26, 1932.

37 Howley, 1915, Pl. XIX, Figs. 6 and 8.

38 Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 57, top row, and point at left in lower row.

39 Howley, 1915, Pl. XIX, Figs. 1–5 and 24.

40 It is from Wenham, Massachusetts, and is illustrated by Abbott (1881, Fig. 32).

41 One from Coahoma County, Mississippi, is illustrated by Peabody (1904, Pl. XVII, Fig. 4).

42 Compare with similarly knobbed stone adzes and gouges from Nova Scotia (Piers, 1896, Pl. I, Fig. 22, and Pl. II, Figs. 47 and 63, the latter a gouge) and Maine (Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 50, at left, and Fig. 51, at top).

43 Piers, 1896, Pl. I, Figs. 31, 32 and 34–36, and Pl. II, Figs. 38–42 and 46.

44 With one exception all the stone adzes from shell heaps near Merigomish, Pictou County, and Mahone Bay, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, are short and broad with oblong cross-section. The only narrow adz from a shell heap that the writer has seen comes from Olding Island, Merigomish (Cat. No. VIII-B-562, Nat. Mus. Can.) It is only inches long, much broader in proportion to its length than any of the Tadoussac specimens, not so gracefully proportioned, but is half-round in cross-section.

45 Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 42, third and fourth specimens from left. An adz from Surry, Maine, shown third from right in his Fig. 19, but which he does not consider a Red Paint type, also closely resembles Tadoussac forms.

46 Letter of October 17, 1932.

47 Letter of October 26, 1932.

48 There are four adzes of the same type from Middlesex County (Cat. Nos. 2200, 2216, 41890, and 41892) in the Provincial Museum Collection, Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology. No. 2200 is broader at the middle than most of those from Tadoussac, is half round in cross-section with flat back, and is 9ʺ long, 2ʺ wide, and 1⅜ʺ thick. No. 2216 is convex from end to end, has a flat back, a half round cross-section, a roughly pointed poll, and is 8” long, 1⅜ʺ, and 1½ʺ thick. Nos. 41890 and 41892, which are from lot 30, con. IV, London Township, are half round in cross-section with a flat back. A third one is from lot 19, con. XII, Blenheim Township, Oxford County (in Prov. Mus. coll., Royal Ont. Mus. Arch., Toronto, Cat. No. 24366); it is 8⅞ʺ long, wide, and thick, with the back slightly hollowed. One of the same type, but only 5¾ʺ long, comes from Brant County (Cat. No. 1436, in Prov. Mus. coll., Royal Ont. Mus. of Archaeology).

A long slender specimen from Point Edward, Lambton County (Cat. No. 3784, Prov. Mus. coll.), seems to be of the same type as some of the more slender adzes of which fragments were found here. It is 8⅝ʺ long, 1⅜ʺ wide near the middle, and ⅞ʺ thick. The cutting end, thinned but not ground to an edge, is 1ʺ wide. The sides taper from the middle to the poll, which is rounded and about ⅜ʺ in diameter. Both front and back are flattened, but the front less than the back. Another specimen, with the poll end missing, is half round in cross-section but has the cutting edge wider than the middle, although it is not flaring; it is from Yarmouth Township, Elgin County (Cat. No. VIII-F-5635, Nat. Mus. Can).

49 Letter of Jan. 22, 1930. See also Crosby (1903, frontispiece, Fig. 1) which is very much like the one in our Pl. XXVI, D, 2.

50 An adz of nearly the same type was found in Arkansas (Moore, 1910, Pl. XXVIII).

51 See Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 19, second from left.

52 See Wintemburg, 1931, Pl. VI, Fig. 2, showing one of this type from Tuckersmith Township, Huron County.

53 From Houghton Township, Norfolk County, Ontario (Cat. No. VIII-F-4283, Nat. Mus. Can.).

54 The rest, collected by Speck north of Tadoussac, are in the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

55 The outline of the side is seen in Fig. 30, 6.

56 Speck, 1916, p. 431. It was hardly necessary to go to the trouble of laboriously breaking out such forms when waterworn stones of suitable size and shape were available.

57 Willoughby, 1935, Fig. 22e.

58 One, collected by Speck, is in the American Museum of Natural History, and another collected by him is Cat. No. VIII-E-140e, in the National Museum. The third specimen was found by the writer on the surface of the site on the fourth terrace, Marquis farm (Cat. No. VIII-E-759a).

59 Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 61, specimens at left and right. There is also a specimen of this type from New Brunswick in the New Brunswick Museum, St. John (Cat. No. 6216).

60 Moorehead, 1922, Fig. 54, lower right.

61 Speck, 1916, p. 431.