L'Anse Amour Site

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A blackboard explains the importance of the National Historic Site in English and French

The L'Anse Amour Site (according to the Borden system (EiBf-4) ) is an archaeological site in southern Labrador in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador . Near the eponymous small settlement L'Anse Amour on the Strait of Belle Isle , the oldest 7500 year old grave in North America was excavated in 1974. It contained a 12 to 13 year old child who was obviously buried under elaborate ceremonies. In addition, the oldest harpoon in North America and the earliest evidence of whale hunting was found here.

excavation

In 1973, archaeologists James Tuck and Robert McGhee of Memorial University of Newfoundland discovered a cairn on a sandy beach. This was at the narrowest point of the Atlantic waterway that separated Labrador and Newfoundland, the Belle Isle Strait.

In the round burial mound ( mound ) made of earth, which was interspersed with about 300 stones, they found the body of a child, later dated to an age of 7500 years Before Present (~ 5550 BC). His age was estimated to be 12 to 13 years. The hill was 28 m above sea level and was more than 8 m in diameter and about one meter high. In the middle of the hill was a second layer of stones that was 4 meters in diameter.

The child was buried face down and facing west in a six-foot-deep pit under the hill. Of grave goods one were flute made of bird bones, a ram from the leg , which for crushing hematite had been used, the oldest known head of a harpoon of North America, also made of bone, and a projectile tip of chert found. The harpoon was of the so-called toggling harpoon type , in which the tip is not only held by a strap, but breaks off and remains in the animal's body, while the shaft can be recycled. The tip remains connected to either the shaft or the fisherman by the strap. If the pivot point is offset to the longitudinal axis of the weapon, then the point is positioned transversely as a result of the pull exerted by the strap and the point acts like an anchor.

The child's body had been sprinkled with red ocher made from pounded hematite and covered with a flat stone. As part of the burial and the construction of the hill, on which the group of hunters must have worked for about a week, food was prepared around the pit. Traces of the fireplace were found. Herringbones have been preserved and a walrus' tusk was also found. Eventually, an artifact was found called the banner stone .

classification

Grave and finds are assigned to the Maritime Archaic tradition from the Archaic period . The tomb of L'Anse Amour is the oldest find of the culture that had recently spread north along the coast and was founded around 4050 BC. Reached its greatest extent far beyond the tree line into the tundras . From 2050 BC They were displaced from the north by the southward advancing Palaeo-Eskimos who followed the Maritime Archaic tradition around 1250 BC. Completely replaced.

The harpoon find indicates that whale hunting dates back to this time. This makes the find, which could be dated to 7530 + - 140 BP, a little older than a similar find in Japan (Higashikushiro), which could be dated to about 7130 years BP. The hunting weapon there was very similar to that in Labrador, which in turn sparked discussions about possible relationships between the hunters on the western edge of the Pacific and those on the western edge of the Atlantic.

National Historic Site

The mound was reconstructed after the excavation and is designated a National Historic Site , the artifacts are on display at the Labrador Straits Museum in nearby L'Anse au Loup .

literature

  • Robert McGhee: The Burial at L'Anse-Amour , Ottawa 1976 and La sépulture de l'Anse-Amour , 1979.
  • James Tuck: Early Cultures on the Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador , in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288 (1977) 472-480.
  • James Tuck: Maritime Archaic Tradition . In: Guy Gibbon: Archeology of Prehistoric Native America , New York, Garland Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-8153-0725-X .
  • James A. Tuck, Robert Mcghee: Archaic Cultures in the Strait of Belle Isle Region, Labrador , in: Arctic Anthropology 12,2, Papers from a Symposium on Moorehead and Maritime Archaic Problems in Northeastern North America (1975), p. 76– 91.
  • Robert McGhee, James A. Tuck: An Archaic Sequence from the Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador , Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1975.

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Barbara Ann Kipfe: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archeology , New York 2000, p. 298.
  2. ^ Johan Jelsma: A Bed of Ocher. Mortuary Practices and Social Structure of a Maritime Archaic Indian Society at Port au Choix, Newfoundland , Groningen, 2000, p. 15.
  3. ^ L'Anse Amour Site ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  4. ↑ Labrador Straits Museum: L'anse Amour Burial Mound (accessed April 29, 2019)
  5. ↑ Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 64/65 (2003) p. 50.
  6. ↑ James A. Tuck: The Maritime Archaic Tradition , Museums Notes, Newfoundland and Labrador Museum The Rooms , 1991
  7. ↑ Serge Jaumain, Marc Maufort (ed.): The Guises of Canadian diversity. New European perspectives / Les masques de la diversité canadienne. Nouvelles perspectives européennes , Amsterdam, Atlanta 1995, p. 188.

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′  N , 56 ° 52 ′  W