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Ramah Chert (Northern Labrador)
Ramah Chert, quartzite.
Found only in far northern Labrador. It was a favorite tool stone of the Maritime Archaic tradition, present in maritime Canada and the northern coast of Maine:
Ramah chert has been found as far south as Maine (Fitzhugh, 1972), a distance of 1500 km from its source in the Torngat Mountains, and some specimens are reported from New York, Delaware and even Florida.
The Ramah and Mugford groups actually have three other lithics with potentially strong visual resemblance to Ramah Chert, which may require detailed petrological examination to distinguish between them. The other similar materials are known as Cod Island Chert, Ryan’s Quartz and Saglek Quartzite. There’s some great information in this paper:
Darker variety:
photos courtesy of will dawes
translucent variety:
photo courtesy CMD
Found only in far northern Labrador. It was a favorite tool stone of the Maritime Archaic tradition, present in maritime Canada and the northern coast of Maine:
Ramah chert has been found as far south as Maine (Fitzhugh, 1972), a distance of 1500 km from its source in the Torngat Mountains, and some specimens are reported from New York, Delaware and even Florida.
The Ramah and Mugford groups actually have three other lithics with potentially strong visual resemblance to Ramah Chert, which may require detailed petrological examination to distinguish between them. The other similar materials are known as Cod Island Chert, Ryan’s Quartz and Saglek Quartzite. There’s some great information in this paper:
Darker variety:
photos courtesy of will dawes
translucent variety:
photo courtesy CMD