Post Category : Glossary
Maul
By Corey Cookson on May 17, 2017
This week we feature an artifact that was found on a farm near Canora, Saskatchewan. A friend of mine sent the pictures of artifact that her father’s uncle found in a field during the mid-20th century. The artifact is known as a maul which is a large stone with a groove that would be used to haft a handle onto the stone. There were two types of mauls: a heavier one with a short handle and a smaller one with a longer and more limber handle. The heavier one was used as by women for many purposes such as: driving in tent pins, killing disabled animals, breaking up bones for marrow, pounding chokecherries, and pounding dried meat to make pemmican. The smaller one would have been used as a war club by men.
This maul was found out of context but even when found in situ mauls are difficult to date. They were often re-used by people who found them at old campsites and could have be used over thousands of years. For information about recent residue analysis on mauls found throughout Alberta read “More than meat: Residue analysis results of mauls in Alberta” by Kristine Fedyniak and Karen L. Giering in the most recent Blue Book: Back on the Horse: Recent Developments in Archaeological and Palaeontological Research in Alberta, Occasional Paper No. 36 (2016).
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