In 1999, ten jasper fire starter fragments from excavations in the 1960s ... These were collected by Smith in Iceland and Newfoundland, with additional samples ...
In 1999, ten jasper fire starter fragments from excavations in the 1960s and 70s, within and adjacent to the Norse structures, were analyzed using low flux, non-destructive INAA. Trace element concentrations linked half to geological reference samples from western Iceland, four to western Greenland, and one to sources in Newfoundland quite distant from the site. In 2008, another red jasper object (4A301A2-1) was recovered during test excavations 10 meters northwest of Hall F, the largest of the Norse houses, and also adjacent to slightly earlier ancestral Beothuk features, raising questions of its origins and cultural affiliation.
4A301A2-1 L’Anse aux Meadows Québec
Newfoundland
PEI Nova Scotia
The Norse component at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, includes three large turf-walled halls (A, D, F), four small semi-subterranean turf-walled workshops (B, C, E, G) and a smelting shed (Furnace Hut 1), with associated artifact scatters around each. The 2008 fire-starter was recovered northwest of Hall F. Base map adapted from B. Wallace (2011, Figure 4)
Description of 4A301A2-1
Results
The new object is a 3 cm fragment of dark red, semi-translucent jasper. One face was formed by a high-energy lateral blow that separated this from a larger block of jasper. All other faces are covered by randomly directed flake scars, most terminating in hinge or step fractures. Low (5-10x) and medium (40-75x) magnification mapping, using a hand lens and a Dino-Lite™ digital microscope, documented 14 zones of crushing, micro-flaking, and rounding from repeated lateral blows directed across both oblique and acute flake scar ridges and edges. Its form and scarring match both archaeologically recovered and experimental jasper fire-starters, and are strikingly dissimilar to the late-stage bifacial reduction debitage and tools recovered from prehistoric components at the site. Jasper tools and debitage are also absent in the prehistoric components from the site, making it reasonable to conclude that this continuously rotated, nearly exhausted, jasper fire-starter relates to the Norse occupation.
Although the various jasper source samples exhibited many similarities, a subset of elements was useful in distinguishing the sources geographically. Shown here are simple bi-plots of four elements that were particularly useful for characterizing the object and source samples: V, Sc, Ni, and Cu. Data from the K α lines are shown, and data were selected for given elements with the most useful instrument configuration (i.e. filter, vacuum etc). The fire-starter clustered consistently with a small group of Newfoundlandic source samples (esp. NF04, NF06b, NF13.1, NF13.2, and NF14) and separated from all other Icelandic, Greenlandic, and Newfoundland samples. 14000
14000
NF 14
12000
Iceland Greenland
6000
Fire-starter Newfoundland
4000
2000
4000
6000
NF 06b Iceland Greenland
6000
Fire-starter Newfoundland
4000
2000
NF 04
NF 11 NF 06b
Iceland Greenland
1500
Fire-starter
Newfoundland
1000
NF 11
500 NF 02b
0
0
NF 14
8000
2000
NF 11
NF 13_1 NF 13_2
3000 2500
NF 06b
8000
2000
NF 14
NF 02b
10000
NF 02b
V (net area)
10000
3500 NF 13_1 NF 13_2 NF 04
Sc (net area)
NF 13_1 NF 13_2 NF 04
12000
V (net area)
L'Anse aux Meadows is the only documented Viking Age site in North America. Architecture, artifacts, evidence of iron smelting, and a suite of radiocarbon dates all suggest short-term Norse use of the site, ca. AD 1000-1050. Butternut (Juglans cinerea) seeds from deposits adjacent to the halls suggest southward exploration into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, yet the full extent of Norse exploration from this site remains unclear.
8000
10000
12000
14000
Cu (net area)
0
0 0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
0
500
Sc (net area)
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Ni (net area)
Discussion
Side 2 Dorsal view
Ventral surface
Side 3
Side 1 Side 4
Six views of fire-starter 4A301A2-1, mapping fourteen zones of crushing, rounding, and microflaking on top of existing flake scars and spall release edges. It is clear that the object was continually rotated in use, with edges periodically rejuvenated through accidental or intentional spalling and that its function was as a fire-starter rather than as a core for flake production.
XRF indicates that the new fire-starter is neither Icelandic nor Greenlandic jasper. Strong similarities exist between it and a small suite of jasper samples obtained from adjacent parts of a geographically and geologically tightly defined context the Roberts Arm/Fortune Harbour/Chanceport groups of the Notre Dame subzone in the Ordovician Dunnage Zone. These groups outcrop along a 70 kilometer stretch of coastal headlands and islands in north-central coastal Newfoundland's Notre Dame Bay. Within this suite, the closest geochemical similarities were with jasper samples from the Fortune Harbour peninsula.
The Roberts Arm-Fortune Harbour-Chanceport groups of the Dunnage Zone (between the red lines) outcrop on islands and headlands of Notre Dame Bay. The strongest and most consistent matches to fire-starter 4A301A2-1 are with samples NF04, NF14, NF13.1 and NF13.2 from these formations, with similarities but less consistent links to samples NF02b, NF06b, and NF11 on the margins of these formations. Red dots indicate the locations of known late prehistoric "Recent Indian" archaeological sites.
Notre Dame Bay
NF 02b NF 13.2 NF 14
NF 13.1
NF 04 NF 06b
4A301A2-1
Distribution of geochemically sourced jasper fire-starters and spalls at L'Anse aux Meadows. Each hall is characterized by jasper from a geochemically different group in Greenland or Iceland. The new fire-starter and a spall, both linked to Newfoundland's Notre Dame Bay region, are found outside Halls F and D, respectively.
Geochemical Characterization of Fire-Starter 4A301A2-1
Samples from this same location also provided the closest geochemical matches (through INAA) for another, smaller jasper fire-starter spall recovered during the Ingstads' excavations in the 1960s outside Hall F, approximately 75 meters southeast of the 2008 fire-starter's find-spot.
The size of the fire-starter and restrictions on destructive analysis precluded using low-flux INAA to analyze the object. With this limitation in mind, portable X-Ray Florescence (pXRF) was tested as a non-destructive alternative. The fire-starter was analyzed along with 73 geological source samples. These were collected by Smith in Iceland and Newfoundland, with additional samples graciously provided by colleagues at the Icelandic Natural History Institute (Nátturufræðistofnun Íslands), the National Museum of Greenland, and the Danish National Museum.
While the small size of the earlier piece made its identification as a fire-starter spall inconclusive, leaving open questions of its association with the Norse occupation, the new object recovered in 2008 is an unambiguous fire-starter recovered within 10 meters of a Norse hall. The absence of jasper on prehistoric components at the site (T. Kristensen, personal communication) supports associations for both with the Norse component. Together, the two Newfoundland jasper fire-starter fragments from the site suggest Norse familiarity, at least, with north-central Newfoundland's fjord-indented, forested coastline, located 230 kilometers due south of L'Anse aux Meadows (background image), and perhaps also with the ancestral-Beothuk people who lived there.
The instrument used for the study was a Bruker Tracer III. Timed assays of 120 seconds were undertaken 3 times for each sample with 3 different instrument configurations: no filter with vacuum pump; green filter with no vacuum; blue filter with vacuum. These settings were used to optimize the detection of particular element ranges. Spectral deconvolution and fitting was undertaken with the Bayes method, along with escape and background corrections, using Artax software. Due to the lack of good standards for the material in question, an empirical calibration was not undertaken to determine element concentrations. Other limitations/sources of uncertainty included heterogeneity of the material (particularly calcite inclusions) and uneven surfaces.
Conclusions and future directions
Group 1 (Greenland) Group 2 (Iceland) Group 3 (Iceland) Group 4 (Newfoundland)
Although reasonable calibration standards were not available to make determinations of element concentrations, these are currently being developed and will be available for future studies so that results may be reproduced by other researchers. We also recognize that given the nature of jasper formation and distribution within the study area, this line of research could benefit from a thorough and complementary petrographic study. We do, however, believe that the internally consistent preliminary study presented here demonstrates the capability of non-destructive XRF for distinguishing among some of the jasper sources in question and for making new inferences about the exploratory activities of the first European visitors to the New World and for suggesting new areas to search for evidence of first contact between the Norse and indigenous North America populations.
