Recent Indian Artifacts from the Point Revenge Complex.
The twelve artifacts shown here are typical of the Point Revenge complex from central Labrador. The top row includes five projectile points or knives used for hunting and butchering; at the far right is a small scraper for cleaning skins and perhaps shaping wood or bone. The middle row contains three larger knives. On the bottom to the left and in the centre are two choppers or cleavers and at the right is a ground-stone axe or adze.
Although the use of these tools was confined to central and perhaps southern Labrador, the stone from which most are made is Ramah chert found only in northern Labrador. Whether the Point Revenge people obtained this in trade with Dorset Eskimos or made periodic trips to the quarries in the north is not known. Equally mysterious is the fate of the Point Revenge people. Even though they survived until the sixteenth century, no trace is found of them after that time. European explorers fishermen and whalers made no mention of a people who could be positively identified as the descendants of these Recent Indians who lived between 2,000 and 400 years ago.
Courtesy: William Fitzhugh, Smithsonian Institution
