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Artifacts - Tools

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Click an artifact's image or name to view it.

Basalt Hoe or Adze
circa 1000 BCE - 300 BCE
Native women used tools like these for breaking up the soil and hoeing between plants.
Bifacial blades
circa 6000 BCE - 3700 BCE
A bifacial blade was a stone tool used to process and skin animals after they had been killed.
Birchbark Canoe
modern reproduction
This reproduction birchbark canoe is based on a form used in the 1700s in the Connecticut River Valley and other parts of the Northeast where Wobanakiak were building canoes.
Corn Mortar
circa 1700 - 1800
Wooden mortar and pestles were used by Native Americans for grinding corn into meal and flour.
Fishing Spear
1800 - 1900
Leisters (three-pronged fishing spears) were useful for snaring salmon, sturgeon, and other species during their spawning runs.
Plummet
modern net
Plummets or weights were used to force a fishing net to sink in the water to catch fish.
Stone Axe
circa 5000 B.C.E
Stone axes were used for felling trees and for woodworking.
Stone gouge
modern haft
The size of this gouge indicates its use in large woodworking projects, such as creating dugout canoes.
Stone Perforators
circa 5000 B.C.E
These specialized tools were used by Native Americans to "perforate" or put holes in leather, bark and wood.
Trade Axe
circa 1600 - 1700
The shape of this trade axe and its asterisk marks are typical of French trade axes of the 17th century. A medium-sized axe of this type would have been practical for carrying as a tool or weapon during the 1704 raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts.

 

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