Knives and Adzes

A man's knife handle in hut 3 floor 3 (Fig.1, centre) has a row of nubbins on each of its four edges and three engraved parallel lines on its intervening sides. Its round butt has a drilled line-suspension hole; its opposite end, a deep rectangular socket for inserting a metal blade, and a tiny side hole for attaching a separate sharpener. Except for fine decoration it closely resembles those used by historic Copper Inuit.

Figure 1 Knives found at Nadlok
Click here for a possible reconstruction of the blade for the man's knife,
or here for a QuickTime VR object movie of the knife handle.

Another man's knife is represented by a handle fragment in hut 3 floor 2 (Fig.2). An undepicted whittling knife with socketed antler handle and semi-lunar copper blade in hut 2 floor 3 is the earliest knife at Nadlok (Fig.1, bottom).

A nephrite adze blade represented by a floor 1 spall was likely detached through use.

Figure 2 Man's knife handle fragment.

Previous Page: Projectile Points

|

Table of Contents

|

Artifacts Index

|

Glossary Index

|

Next Page: Fishing Tools