Period: Thule culture (from c. AD 1200)
Project title: The steatite objects analysis project: Experiments in soapstone.
Researchers: Martin Appelt, The National Museum, Copenhagen
and Mikkel Sørensen, The National Museum, Copenhagen
E-mail: Martin.Appelt(at)natmus.dk or Mikkel.Soerensen(at)natmus.dk
Year: 2007
Abstract:
Lamps, pots and other vessels of soapstone were of great importance throughout pre-history and early history of Greenland. In a part of the world where access to wood and metal was limited, soapstone was often used as an alternative. However, few systematic studies have been carried out concerning the production of soapstone artefacts in the Arctic.
In an experiment, two types of soapstone objects - small lamps from Saqqaq-culture (c. 2500–700 BC) and so-called “wedge-like objects” from the Greenlandic Dorset-culture (c. 750 BC to 100 AD) - were reconstructed.
The rough shaping of both types of objects was made with a copy of an adze as known from Saqqaq.
The experiment showed that the roughing-out of the lamp could be done in an hour. The bowl was hollowed with the adze and further shaped with a flint scraper and a scraper of reindeer-antler. The edges of the lamp were formed with a hafted burin used in a scraping motion. The lamp was then ground with sandstone. Finally all surfaces were rubbed with sand and a piece of leather.
None of the archaeological finds have wear traces of the use of either the scrapers or the burin. The experiment showed that this may be due to the grinding of the lamp, which removed all traces of the previous work processes. Striations produced during the experiment were very similar to striations found on the original Saqqaq lamps.
In the production of the “wedge-like soapstone object”, the rough shape was produced with the adze. Afterwards the facets were scraped with a hafted burin-like tool. The striations produced by the burin-like tool on the experimental pieces were clearly similar to the striations on the original pieces from Greenlandic Dorset. Furthermore, the longitudinal scraping produced a wave-like surface that is also seen on museum pieces and can therefore be interpreted as evidence of use of adzes in the first production stage.
Reference number: HAF 20/07
