Quarry’-soapstone artifacts

Figure 8, Resource procurement and the utilization of soapstone in the eastern U,S, Sources of soapstone are identified by a letter in a square (0) soapstone artifacts which have REE patterns matching a particular quarry are identified by the letter assigned to the quarry placed on the map at the habitation site (8)...

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 3, Chondrite-normalized rare earth element patterns of soapstone samples from quarries in the Mbe-marle-Nelson County regions of Virginia and in Crete. For the Albemarh-Nelson quarries f — the two lines give the range of 12 samples analyzed, and for the Crete samples (O — O) the two lines define the range of 19 samples. Two artifacts made of soapstone from the Albemarle-Nelson quarries are shown. One — M) is a pot from a habitation site in Cherokee County, NC and the other (A-- A) a pot from a habitation site near the quarry in Buckingham County, VA.

While it is possible to draw some conclusions with regard to the utilization of soapstone from the four quarries sampled, less than half of the artifacts analyzed originated from these four sources. The similarities... 

The types of variation in REE concentrations expected from a single geological source were studied at the Fleur de Lys quarry in Newfoundland. Although the absolute concentrations varied, the chondrite-normalized distribution patterns remained parallel. Analysis of debitage indicates that most materials worked were from nearby outcrops, but there was some working of soapstone from more distant quarries. Artifacts representing various Eskimo and Indian cultures over the past 4000 years have been analyzed and many have been matched to geological outcrops on the basis of their REE patterns. 

Evidence of plummet manufacture was not observed from survey and test excavations at the quarry (3). There is no evidence for soapstone utilization by other Indian cultures in the area. Although no lithic tools, which are diagnostic of the Dorset culture, were found at Fleur de Lys, the preform morphology observed in the quarry corresponds to finished Dorset vessels in size and shape. Thus the consistent and uniform technology of soapstone extraction observed at Fleur de Lys is assumed to be only that of the Dorset people. Association of artifacts from dated archaeological sites may provide some indication of the length of time that the quarry was in use. 

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