Subject: baidarka Early Greenlandic Paddles
From: vdoucett@uism.bu.edu
Date: Tue Mar 28 2000 - 10:32:02 EST
What follows is the promised information on the archaeological evidence for
lanceolate shape kayak paddles in Greenland. This text and the accompanying
images have also been posted on Harvey Golden's web site. In this instance the
images are key. This material is presented in a mostly raw form though I have
inserted occasional comments for clarity. My remarks and additions have been
inserted within brackets [].
Many thanks to Harvey for his help and allowing this info onto his site.
From: Inugsuk, A Mediaeval Eskimo Settlement in Upernivik District, West
Greenland
Therkel Mathiassen
Meddelelser on Gronland
Vol. 77. No. 4
Copenhagen 1930
Of kayak paddles the collection has a broken end, about 25 X 8 cm; it narrows
gradually towards the rounded end, where there are two notches in the edge.
Another end, which has been cut off, 14.5 X 7.5 cm, tapers evenly to the end,
which is rather pointed; there is a hole here; the specimen is made of two
pieces, a wide one and a very narrow one.
We get a better idea of the shape, however, from some toy paddles. Pl.20, #8
[see attached] is a broken blade of one of these, of wood. Nine other paddle
blades have the same pointed, elegant shape, with lengths from 4 to 14 cm, all
of wood. A strip of baleen, 42 cm long, is only 9.8 cm wide at the middle, but
widens out towards the ends into blades, one of which is rhombic form, whereas
the other is unfinished.
Pl. 20, #14 [see attached] is a paddle mounting of whale bone, presumably for a
toy paddle; it has been fastened on with a rivet. Two others, smaller, of
antler, have the same pointed shape, whilst on a third the point is cut more
squarely. Pl.6. #10 is a flat, rather small cap of antler with a deep socket in
the straight edge; this may possibly be a paddle mounting too, although its
shape, with the greatest width at the middle, does not seem to make it very
suitable.
Thus the kayak paddles from Inugsuk seem to have had pointed blades; the only
mounting from Comer's Midden (Wissler 1918, fig. 21) [see attached] is of
similar shape. On the other hand the modern West Greenland paddle always has a
fairly narrow blade and is cut square at the point and fitted with end and side
mountings of bone (Birket-Smith 1924, fig. 190), and furthermore, paddles of
this sort have at any rate been in use as far back as the seventeenth century,
as two specimens in the [Danish] National Museum show (One figured Thompsen
1928, fig. 30a).
Regarding the paddles of the Thule Culture we do not know much; we have neither
paddles nor mountings for them, and only a toy paddle from Malerualik
(Mathiassen 1927 I, Pl. 83, #4) gives a little information; this one is so
roughly made, however, and its ends are so defective, that one cannot conclude
very much from it.
>From Point Barrow we have paddles with blades most resembling those from
Inugsuk; Murdoch (Murdoch 1892 Fig. 340-41 and p. 332) mentions the width and
pointedness of these paddles compared with the Greenland paddles and that, in
contrast to the latter, they have no bone edging: "The absence of this bone
edging on the paddles from Point Barrow perhaps indicates that they are meant
for summer use only and not for working among the ice".
The paddles from southern Alaska (Nelson 1899, fig. 71b), the Central Eskimos
(Boas 1901, p. 79, fig. 107; sometimes bone edging. Boas 1888, p. 489.
Mathiassen 1928, fig. 52), and North East Greenland (Koldewey, p. 603, fig. 12
and p. 622) have a similar pointed form, as also in earlier times at
Angmagssalik (Thalbitzer 1914, fig. 88 and 91), where the West Greenland type is
now used; the blade of most of these paddles is, however, narrower than those of
the Inugsuk find. Thus it is presumably the Thule Culture type of paddle that
the Inugsuk find shows us.
[Pages 207, 208]
[Thule peoples migrated into Greenland during the late eleventh and early
twelfth centuries. Small Thule and Inuksuk groups may have occasionally
traversed the forbidding stretches of Peary Land [northern most Greenland] both
on foot and by boat any time between the twelfth and fifteenth century. During
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries nearly the entire East Greenland coast
was populated by Inuksuk groups. (Richard H. Jordan, 1984).]
From: 'Ancient Eskimo Settlements in the Kangamiut Area'
Terkel Mathiassen
Meddelelser om Gronland
Vol. 91 No. 1
Copenhagen 1931
Pl. 2. #13 [see attached] is a kayak-paddle of wood, thin, pointed, terminating
at the upper end in a swallowtail scarf. It is the same pointed form that we
also find on the toy paddles of the old culture (Pl. 6. #20); these all have
rhombic or lanceolate blades. Pointed paddles were also characteristic of the
early deposits at Inugsuk, and their distribution was discussed when describing
them (Mathiassen, 1930, p. 207) [see above]; in the Kangamiut area they have
thus predominated too in earlier times. As an illustration of how recently such
pointed paddles were in use it may be mentioned that on Hall's map of Itivdleq
Fjord (Bobe, 1916, p. 199) (1612) is a kayak paddle, with fairly broad. Pointed
blades, whereas Cranz's picture (Cranz, 1770, Pl. VII, p. 199) (1770) shows the
later blades cut square at the end: the latter we also have in all the
eighteenth century finds from the Kangmiut area.
>From the early layers there is no bone mounting for paddles (Mathiassen, 1930,
Pl. 20. #14) [see attached], though one or two were found for toy paddles; of
these some are pointed, and others, which all date from the second culture
stage, are rounded. Apparently the paddles of the first stage have always been
pointed.
[Page 88]
From: 'A contribution to the Archaeology of North-East Greenland'
Soren Richter
Universitetet I Oslo. Ethografiske museum. Skrifter5, Hefte 3
Oslo 1934
One half of a paddle has also been retrieved, but it is very weather-worn and
decayed. The blade has been long and narrow. Fig. 78 reproduces a number of
paddles, Nos. 33042-33049-33047-33043-33048 [see attached], found at various
places in Eric Raudes Land. The one on the extreme right is the sole complete
specimen; it is cut in one piece from a plank still showing the trimming marks
made by a profile plane so, presumably, this object has been part of the
bulwarks of a wrecked ship; it exceeds 3.5 m in length and as it is heavy and
massive it would probably be correct to assume that it is in an unfinished
state. It was flung ashore at a spot on the outer coast of Gauss. The other
paddles have each consisted of two similar halves spliced together. The best
made specimen is the one in the center; its blade is long and narrow and its
extremity is what is left of a wooden fitting which undoubtedly served to
protect the tip; the length of the object is 1.65 m. This specimen was found
among the ruins of a house on the coast of Gauss.
No. 2 from the right exhibits one half of a paddle blade round the edge of which
mounting has been affixed. The two last mentioned objects have evidently seen
considerable service as the wear from handing is very great.
Common to all the kayak paddles is a collar [drip ring], or two straightcut
shoulders, delimiting the blades from the center section.
[Pages 142,143]
From: 'Eskimo Settlements in Kempe Fjord and King Oscar Fjord'
P. V. Glob
Meddelelser on Gronland
Vol. 102 No. 2
Copenhagen 1935
>From Cape Hedlund [Kempe Fjord 73N 26W] we have one half of a kayak paddle from
one of the houses, and three other halves from surface finds, one of them being
shown on fig. 32. [see attached]. They are all of the same type and cut
obliquely across at the handle end, where they have been jointed to another half
by means of tree-nails and lashing. The blades are up to 1.4 m long and 8 cm at
the widest part. At the top the blade narrows off and terminates in a shoulder.
It decreases in width towards the outer end, where a bone mounting has been
fastened by a small tenon. [this mounting is not obvious in the illustration]
This kayak-paddle mounting occurs in another find (Pl. 4. 40). It is of walrus
ivory, and for fastening purposes has a hole running through a groove, 1cm deep,
[and] 1.9 cm long and 0.4 wide. This type has previously been found, a somewhat
larger specimen, on Strindberg Peninsula (Richter, fig. 124. #3). Some of the
paddle blades have been split, but have been repaired by running lashings
through drilled holes. Earlier finds of kayak paddles from Northeast Greenland
are of the same type (Richter, pp. 78-79 and fig. 78). [see above]
[Pages 70-71]
[Mathiassen comments in the 'Inugsuk' volume on the similarity between the
paddles describe above and those used in other parts of the Arctic in historic
times. Double bladed lanceolate paddles are found in North Alaska, the Mackenzie
Delta and the East Canadian Arctic in Hudson Bay, Baffin and the Quebec/Labrador
region. He also remarks that by the eighteenth century this paddle form was
abandoned in Greenland, replaced by the paddle shape we also know today. Why the
Greenland Inuit should have chosen to make that change is a mystery. Though it
does seem to be coincident to the arrival of European whalers.]
Yours, Vernon Doucette
Cited sources:
Birket-Smith, Kaj: Ethnography of the Egedesminde District. MoG. 66. 1924
Boas, Franz: The Central Eskimo. 6th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
1888
Boas, Franz: The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay. Bulletin of the American
Museum of Natural History 15. I 1901 and II 1907
Bobe, Louis: Hollaenderne paa Gronland. Atlanten 1916
Cranz, David: The History of Greenland 1770
Jordan, Richard: 'Neo-Eskimo Prehistory of Greenland' in Handbook of North
American Indians. Arctic, vol. 5, David Damas editor. Smithsonian Institution
1984
Koldewey, Karl: Die zweite duetsche Nordpolarfahrt 1869-70. Leipzig 1873
Mathiassen, Therkel: Archaeology of the Central Eskimo I-II. Report of the Fifth
Thule Expedition IV. Copenhagen 1927
Murdoch, John: Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition. 9. Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington 1892
Nelson, E. W.: The Eskimo about the Bering Strait. 18. Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology. Washington 1899
Thalbitzer, W.: The Ammassalik Eskimo. MoG. 39. 1914
Thompsen, Thomas: Eskimo Archaeology. Greenland II. Copenhagen 1928
Wissler, Clark: Archaeology of the Polar Eskimo. Anthropological Papers of the
American Museum of Natural History. 22. 1918
-
Baidarka Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be
reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's permission
Submissions: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions: baidarka-request@lists.intelenet.net
Searchable archive: http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b27 : Sat Apr 01 2000 - 01:00:09 EST