Saqqaq Palaeo-Eskimo flaked stone scrapers and knives, hafted with the aid of baleen. Source: Elfshot.
Elfshot is a cool blog chronicling archaeologist Tim Rast’s replicative and experimental work. Interestingly to us out here on the NW Coast, a lot of what he studies and replicates is from the comparable areas of the NE Coast, Newfoundland and the eastern Arctic. That means he is using some marine sources such as baleen as well as materials such as moose sinew. There is a lot to read at his blog, which is very well illustrated with photographs, videos, and scans from manuscripts. If you find yourself in his neighbourhood, you can take courses and workshops on ancient technology from him, and I note that some of his beautiful replications are for sale.
Experimental archaeology is a really valuable approach in archaeology. It helps the archaeologist, who more often than not isn’t part of a traditional materials tool-use culture, understand the constraints of certain materials and likely technological sequences that would have been followed to make and use things. While perhaps no substitute for observation and interviews, the fact is that by the time ethnographers got to most places in the world many traditional technologies had fallen by the wayside, and so there are very few descriptions of such basic technological domains as flaked stone tools. Much of what we know about these tools and technologies comes from the work of replicators and experimentalists who set the facts of life out to help analyse the material which comes from the ground in archaeological digs.
Anyway, I strongly recommend Elfshot as a knowledgeable blog offering a lot of archaeological insight, especially for coastal contexts.
Use of the "mystery tool type" - piece esquillee - as a wood-splitting wedge. Source: Elfshot.
Northwest Coast Archaeology 