Eskimo Sites of the Dorset Culture in Newfoundland

Abstract

The artifacts of rough stone consist of a crude lamp and some stone hammers, the latter unmodified by chipping or any other process.Stone lamp. A. S. Darby found at Old Port au Choix a fragment of a lamp roughly made by hollowing out an ovoid or oblong boulder of sandstone (Plate XV, Figure 2, Number 1). The cavity is about 1¼ inches deep and is rounded from end to end and side to side. There is no wick ledge. The thickest part of the base is 1⅛ inches, but the walls decrease in thickness toward the rounded edges at the top. The hollow is slightly discolored by the blubber and there is an incrustation of burnt blubber on both sides of the intact wall. There is a large natural hollow in the base.Another crude stone lamp was found by Israel Hutchings at the Cow Head site; it consisted of a hollow stone, judging from his description.