Ballast: Creating Cultural Connections Across Time and Space

object matters ^ | probably March 2018 | Mats Burström

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Along the shores in Newfoundland there is an abundance of flint to be found although this material does not occur naturally in the area. The reason for the presence of flint is that it was used as ballast by sailing vessels in the transatlantic migratory fishery that started in the beginning of the sixteenth century and lasted for about four centuries. During this period several millions of tons of material were relocated as ballast from the coasts of England and France to Newfoundland.

Among this huge amount of relocated material there are some supposedly Palaeolithic artefacts that have been brought over from Europe. It is, however, not always easy to determine whether a specific piece is a prehistoric artefact of European origin or if it is a Native (Beothuk) tool made from European ballast. This is, for example, the case with a bifacially worked side scraper from a shore site at Grandois on the Northern Peninsula. It has been interpreted as a Beothuk tool worked in European ballast flint, sometime between 1500 when Europeans turn up in Newfoundland and about 1600, when Native people replaces lithics with reworked European iron. An alternate explanation, suggested by Peter E. Pope, the archaeologist who found the artefact, is that it may be a Palaeolithic tool of European origin...

The ballast traffic left other lasting marks. According to the Swedish entomologist Carl Lindroth, 'It can be stated, without any exaggeration, that Newfoundland more than any other part of Nort America has received an introduced element of animals and plants from Europe' (1957, p. 147, italics in original)...

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Ballast flint at Hant's Harbour. Photo: Mats Burström.

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How Bomb Debris from Bristol, England, Made a Road in NYC
Solid ship ballast from the age of sail tells surprising stories about history.
Authored by by Mats Burström
March 13th, 2018
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/how-bomb-debris-from-bristol-england-made-a-road-in-nyc/

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How did it get from England to Southern Ontario
05-20-2014, 11:56 PM
https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/international-non-north-american-artifacts-gc32/123189-how-did-it-get-from-england-to-southern-ontario

Here is a mystery. I found this hand axe in the early sixties in a field that was very much barren of artifacts as I walked it often on the way to a good site. The lithics are very nice but unusual. I had a [lot] of people in the know look at it including a knapper friend who knows his lithics quite well. I was volunteer at the Canadian Archaeology Association annual convention this past week with over 300 archaeologists from all over Canada...had a blast sitting in on tons of lectures. I had the hand axe with me and had a chance to show it to Dr William Fox who is Canada’s foremost authority on lithics. I was hoping for him to say it was Paleo and he called it paleolithic flint.. it is paleolithic flint from England!! It is very old most likely Paleo but English found on a tobacco farm in Southern Ontario. There is no flint in Canada as far as I know...lot of chert but no flint. The British used to put flint in the ships for ballast coming from the UK to the USA and Canada..load up with fish furs and tobacco and dump the flint in the bay or on shore in. I did some research a while back and there are houses in the Carolina’s made from British flint. I am however 24 hrs drive from the ocean and two hrs from lake Ontario. How did this paleo hand axe find its way to a Southern Ontario tobacco farm!? I checked on line and you can buy Paleo axes on Ebay and the lithic is right on. Wow what is mystery

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