VUURMAKERS UIT PALEO-ESKIMONEDERZETTINGEN IN WEST-GROENLAND

Samenvatting

From several Palaeo-Eskimo sites in western Greenland, implements with one or two rounded ends are known. These tools date from both the Saqqaq Culture (c. 2500-1000 BC) and the Dor­set Culture (c. 800 BC-1000 AD). Most of these tools are secondarily used 'burin-like tools' (polished), whose primary function is unknown. They are manufactured from silicified slate ('killiaq'). A number of such tools, from the Dorset site Ikkarlusuup Tima in the Disko Bay area, are illustrated in this article. The roun­ded ends show gloss and dense sets of subparal­lel scratches. The same combination of use-wear traces is found on experimental pieces of killiaq used in combination with pyrite to make fire. Though conservation is excellent at the West­Greenlandic sites, no wooden implements for making fire have been identified. Our hypothesis is that the rounded tools were fire-makers. Pieces of pyrite have been found both at Saqqaq and Dorset sites. The historically known Thule Eskimos in the same area generally employed the 'fire-drill' to produce fire (wood on wood).