Labrador coast, central

For one group of artifacts from Labrador the temporal relationships between samples are known. These samples are particularly intriguing because they come from the juncture of the arctic and subarctic zones. The cultural boundaries along the central Labrador coast have shifted through time (e.g., 13). Indians have been present in the southern and... 

Figure 11, Utilization of soapstone by Eskimos on the central Labrador coast during the Middle Dorset period (200-600AD), The letters in circles (O) are the four quarries from which samples have been analyzed. The letters refer to the letters used in Figure 12 where the characteristic REE patterns are shown. The quarries near O k and Davis Inlet were utilized locally and in the Nain region. In addition material from northern Newfoundland (L) is found in this region as well as many samples for which the quarries have not been identified,...

Figure 12. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns from quarries and artifacts in Labrador and Newfoundland. Sample N is from the Fleur-de-Lys quarry on the east coast of Newfoundland L from an outcrop near the Viking habitation site at Vanse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland F from soapstone outcrops in the Freestone Harbor region and M from outcrops of Moore s and Okak Islands on the central Labrador coast. Both E and A are artifacts which represent a group of artifacts having similar REE patterns but for which no quarry of origin has been found.

Figure 13. Chondtite-normalized REE patterns for soapstone from the central Labrador coast. Dashed curves (%--%) outline the range of three samples from the Moore s Island, Okak outcrops (M) and two artifacts made of this soavstone. The Eskimo Island (O) artifact is from a Labrador Eskimo site (historic period) in Hamilton Inlet and the Koliktakik (A) artifact is from a soapstone pot from a late Dorset Eskimo site in the Nain region. A sample of the soapstone outcrop near Vanse aux Meadows (L) is shown (0) along with the Viking spindle whorl (A) made from this material.

Artifacts along the Central Labrador Coast during Cultural Tradition ... 

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