Ancient's Art and Craft

The people at Lake Agassiz when that lake dominated a great deal of Minnesota, North Dakota, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan may well have been just about like us, minus the modern cultural and technical features, things like cell phones or automobiles, of course.  Actually, some of us are probably more different than others of us than we, as a class, are different from the people that fished and hunted the shores of Lake Agassiz.  Personally, I believe this to be true because when I find myself digging around for artifacts or rocks in a gravel pit I wonder how or why other people can be content living in an apartment building with few if any of my exposures to the natural world.  Conversely, don't you suppose that those same apartment dwellers are truly perplexed that any sane human being could find fun and contentment digging in a gravel pit?  

Ancient people hunted and gathered in the vicinity of Lake Agassiz and, of course, some of the things they found they ate or brought back to their families to eat.  Some other things that they found they used for some other practical purpose, such as use as a tool, container, garment, etc.  Other things that they happened upon were neither eaten nor used as a tool or implement but simply kept for their own personal reasons.  Perhaps a twisted piece of wood looked like an animal, so they kept it.  A rock might have a pattern that resembled a person or a bird so that was set aside as an item of interest, a piece of art.  Of course, we do the same thing in our contemporary world, don't we?  Craft, that is to say, items that are used or worked into something that could be used for something, and art, something that would be appreciated for its own qualities or could be worked into something that had such admirable qualities, were likely as much a part of these people's lives as they are in our own. 

The items that you will see on the following pages are some examples of art and craft of Lake Agassiz.  The items were assembled and made by modern people but our fascination and the ways we deal with them are probably not much different than would have been the case if it were assembled or made by an ancient person many, many years ago.

May we show you an example of ancient art?

This is a piece of driftwood picked up in Thompsonite Bay on Lake Superior.  It had the appearance of something that was somehow worth picking up, perhaps keeping.  Once back at the workshop a cross section was cut to reveal the piece shown to the left.  It was sanded and then finished and polished to bring out the textures and grains an hopefully to reveal some hidden treasure.  We were not disappointed.

   Do you see in this piece of art the same thing that we do?  Click to reveal the hidden treasure.