Artifacts are typically classified based on their age, function, and shape/style, and can be made from a wide range of materials. In Saskatchewan, many artifacts are stone tools also known as lithic artifacts. The methods used to create these tools have varied across time and regions. There are two main categories of stone tools:
Chipped Stone Tools
Chipped stone tools are made by removing flakes from a stone core to form a specific shape. This process is known as flintknapping, which involves carefully controlling how a stone breaks to create sharp edges or pointed tips.
Materials best suited for flintknapping include:
Chert
Obsidian
Quartzite
Flintknappers strike or press flakes from a core, and both the core and the flakes can be shaped into tools such as arrow points. Other examples of chipped stone tools include scrapers, bifaces, drills, awls, spear and atlatl points.
Groundstone Tools
Groundstone tools are made from coarse-grained rocks such as basalt, rhyolite, or granite. These tools are created by grinding, pecking, and polishing a stone against another surface to achieve the desired shape and smoothness.
Some groundstone tools also feature grooves to allow for hafting (attachment to a handle).
Common examples include:
Mauls
Axes
Hammers
*To learn more about stone tools, consult our book, Points of View!
Tools made from bone or antler are generally easy to distinguish from unmodified bone. They tend to be larger and smoother than chipped or ground stone tools, and antler tools often have a yellowish color.
Bone tools are versatile and can be shaped from various parts of an animal’s skeleton—most commonly bison on the Plains. Cut marks are a good indicator that a bone has been modified.
Examples include:
Choppers
Fleshers
Gorges
Handles or hafts for stone tools
Pottery in Saskatchewan dates back over 2,000 years and is found in many archaeological sites. Made from clay, pottery is fragile and usually discovered in fragments rather than whole vessels.
Typical decorative features include:
Punctures
Cord or fabric impressions
Indentations along rims or sides
Following colonization, new materials and manufactured goods were introduced to the region. These items are commonly found in Fur Trade era and more recent archaeological contexts.
Examples include:
Pipes
Metal points
Ceramics
Glass beads
Wooden artifacts
Note: Artifacts made from wood or other organic materials are rare unless preserved under special environmental conditions.
Determining whether an object is an artifact or a naturally occurring object can be challenging. The Saskatchewan Archaeological Society offers artifact identification services for a nominal fee:
| Number of Artifacts | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1–9 items | Free |
| 10+ items | $1/item |