Period: Dorset culture (900 BC - 1400 AD)

Project title: Experimentel fremstilling af mikroflækker af bjergkrystal

Researcher: Jens Fog Jensen, København, Danmark

and Mikkel Sørensen, København, Danmark

E-mail: fogjens(at)hum.ku.dk or mikkel.soerensen(at)natmus.dk

Year: 2005

Abstract:

Quartz was used by the people of the Dorset culture to make their most important tools - such as knives and scrapers. During excavations of their abandoned houses it became apparent that manufacture of these tools took place inside the houses, close to the hearth. The aim of the experiment was to gain an insight into the production of tools of quartz and investigate the biproducts and compare them with original findings.

The experiment showed that the production of a microlith of quartz had to be carried out by resting a block of quartz in a resting construction placed on the ground. The flaking tool was shafted and had to have been made of softer organic material as for instance antler. This is because quartz is easily broken on contact with hard organic materials. The pressure was exerted from the stomach of the flintknapper. A microlith made of quartz is sharper than microliths made out of other types of Greenlandic rock, and thus they may have been put to a specific use in the Dorset culture.

It was also established that the production of microliths in Lejre showed the same pattern of waste as what is found in the excavations of Dorset settlements. Furthermore the biproducts had typical shapes and crystalfacets that should be recognizable in future studies of original findings.

Reference number: HAF 03/05