Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 3

The Armstrong Mound on Rainy River, Ontario

by Walter A. Kenyon

Artifact Analysis

The specimens discussed below were found randomly scattered throughout the mound fill; that is, their inclusion in the mound was accidental. They represent the refuse that is usually found on an Indian village site, and they occurred in the mound only because the mound builders gathered up the earth from a contemporary, or earlier, village. I emphasize this point because the artifacts found in the mound do not necessarily tell us anything about the mound-builders themselves. Theoretically, the artifacts could have been made and used by the mound-builders; but they could, with equal validity, have been made by a different people, and at a much earlier date. The artifacts, as such, can be attributed to the Laurel culture. It is my opinion that the burials, too, were Laurel. In the absence of grave furniture, however, this cannot be demonstrated.

Projectile Points

The nine projectile points from the site (Fig. 6) are representative of a wide variety of forms and materials.² Chalcedony, quartzite, slate, basalt and flint are all present, and it would appear from an examination of the chips from the site that chalcedony, flint and taconite were favourite materials. The chalcedony is almost certainly derived from the Dakotas, while the remaining material is of local origin.

Table 1: Projectile Points

6 Projectile points.

With the exception of No. 5, the point forms appear to be consistent with the typology established by MacNeish (1958: 95-6). Point No. 5, however, is a different matter. It is totally inconsistent with the collections I have seen on Rainy River, as well as the published material from adjacent areas. Almost certainly it is related to the Illinois Hopewell culture, and specifically to Type 3b in Maxwell's (1951) typology.

Scrapers

Of the 26 scrapers (Fig. 7) from the site, 13 can be identified as end scrapers, 9 as side scrapers, and four indeterminate. The end scrapers all have a steeply sloped cutting end on the flakes from which they are formed. The side scrapers tend to be fashioned from thinner flakes than the end scrapers, and invariably have a less steep cutting edge.

7 Scrapers.

Materials present in the sample of scrapers are: flint, 13; chalcedony, 6; taconite, 3; quartzite, 3, and jasper, 1. No association was noted between either form of scraper and variety of material from which they were made.

Pigments

Sixteen lumps of hematite, goethite, limonite and yellow ochre were found in the mound till. Several of these lumps had one or more ground facets where pigment had been removed. The lumps ranged in size from 5 mm. to 11 cm. Smaller fragments were noted but not collected.

Copper Artifacts

The only bead found was formed by rolling up a thin strip of native copper. The bead is 9 mm. long and 5 mm. in diameter.

A single triangular point of native copper was found. It is rectangular in cross section and is 3 cm. long, 6 mm. thick and 14 mm. broad at the base.

Charmstones

Two walnut-sized stones, natural formations which closely resemble a turtle and the head of an animal, were found in the mound fill. While these are not artifacts in the sense that they were modified by man, they were out of geological context, and had almost certainly been collected as charms or ornaments by the Indians.

Sucking Tube

Although this object might be a tubular stone pipe, it shows no trace of burning, nor has the tubular tobacco pipe ever been reported on Rainy River or adjacent areas. It is more probable, therefore, that this is a sucking tube used by a medicine man to draw out a spirit or object which was causing an ailment.

This specimen (Fig. 8, a, b) carved from a soft, pink stone, has an over-all length of 9.7 cm. Its major diameter, apart from the pair of frogs which are carved in low relief on opposite sides of the tube, is 5.6 cm. The hole through the object has a diameter of 1.2 cm. at the small end which expands irregularly to a diameter of 2.2 cm.

8 Sucking tube (?).

In color and texture, the specimen is identical with museum artifacts and blocks of quarried material which are labelled as "Minnesota catlinite." Under microscopic examination, also, the physical characteristics are similar. When subjected to X-ray diffraction analysis, however, we find that the sucking tube is composed of orthoclase plus quartzite, while the catlinite is composed of illite. This does not necessarily prove that the material is not catlinite, however, because of the following observations which are quoted from Mr. R. M. Organ's examination report:

In view of the fact that sedimentary rocks can contain a mixture of minerals these results should be taken to indicate only the mineral that predominates in each sample.

Although at first sight the . . . samples appear to differ considerably it would be necessary to investigate thoroughly the normal variation in composition of the rock catlinite before asserting that the sucking tube was not made from it or that the material of the tube originated at some geographical area other than the Minnesota deposits.

Although we cannot be certain at this stage of our investigations, the data at hand suggested that the specimen is not fashioned from Minnesota catlinite. Nor are we successful in attempting to identify the specimen through an analysis of its form. The only specimen which can be considered at all comparable is described (Gillihan and Beeson 1960: 50-1) as an atlatl weight of red Ohio pipestone with a double serpent design carved in low relief. This specimen is from the Gamble Site, near Laurenceville, Illinois, which was occupied primarily through late Hopewellian times, or from A.D. 300 to sometime after A.D. 600.

Pipe

A single monitor pipe (Fig. 9) was unearthed during the excavations. It is 11.4 cm. long with an oval base 3.4 cm. wide. Total height is 4.5 cm. The highly polished, cream-coloured surface appears to be glazed, but physical and chemical analysis reveals that this is a natural, weathered surface. The underlying, unweathered material is grey. In appearance, it is indistinguishable from that of blocked-end tubes in the Royal Ontario Museum collections which are labelled as being fashioned from Ohio pipestone. X-ray diffraction analysis of the blocked-end tubes produces the powder pattern of kaolinite. Similar analysis of the monitor pipe material shows that it was carved from a soft, grey, iron-containing kaolin. Therefore the monitor pipe and the blocked-end tubes are made of different but related materials.

9 Monitor pipe.

Until a long and complicated series of tests are run on the Ohio quarries (and those of Minnesota as well) we cannot be certain, but at present, all available data point to Hopewellian influence on Rainy River in late Hopewell times.

Hammerstone

A single hammerstone was located, a large syenite cobble, roughly wedge-shaped, with a length of 10.5 cm., a width of 9.4 cm., and a thickness of 6.9 cm. The thin edge of the wedge is blunted throughout its entire length from extensive use.

Miscellaneous Stone Objects

Apart from one specimen, these seven artifacts are possibly all abraders. The anomalous slate specimen (Fig. 10, 1) appears to be the base of some larger broken object. It has small corner notches, and both edges between the notches and the break are lightly polished, probably through use. The specimen has two broad, shallow grooves on its upper surface, with a number of short faint scratches in each groove.

10 Miscellaneous stone tools.

Two thin, rectangular pieces of slate (Fig. 10, 4) each have a highly polished side which has been used as an abrader. Another abrader is a roughly rectangular block of fine-grained, red sandstone, 6.8 cm. long, 3.8 cm. wide and 1.9 cm. thick. The thin schist object (Fig. 10, 5) may have been an abrader, as it has one highly polished spot on its reverse side. It is more probable, however, that it is part of an unfinished object which fractured in process of manufacture.

The final object in this group (Fig. 10, 3) is fashioned from a fine-grained metamorphic material. This may be a scraper, as is suggested by the steeply chipped, curved cutting edge. More probably, however, this too is part of some larger object.