Page 129 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

118 History and Science of Knots

The majority were minuscule objects, which had once been tied in whale
baleen and thong, while some scraps of clothing had remnants of sinew thread
knots. All samples had been preserved in the permafrost for about 4500
years. The whale baleen had hardened so much that the knots it held had
become rigid. Hence with reasonable certainty we can say that the knots were
Clove Hitch, Lark's Head, Reef and Granny Knot, Overhand Knot, Half Hitch,
Becket Bend and a Noose based on a parallel centrally pierced Overhand Knot
(see Fig. 2).
In a strip of sea mammal hide a very recognizable Sheet Bend structure
was found [35] (see Fig. 3). Its function could not be determined unambigu-
ously. Hence it may have been a bend, part of a loop knot, or something
else.

Fig. 3. A Sheet Bend structure excavated at Qeqertasussuk: courtesy B. Gronnow
The knots in the thread of the excavated clothing samples were very hard
to identify. The clearest were Overhand knots, which had functioned as stopper
knots. There was also a structure which obviously had functioned as a bend,
but had become so congealed that it was only possible to see that it consisted
of two interlocking Overhand Knots. It presumably was a Fisherman's Bend
[1, #1414].
It is truly remarkable to note that the knots found at Qeqertasussuk were
in fact so diverse and real knots, i.e. not merely some haphazard conglomer-
ations of Half Hitches and Overhand Knots. This indicates that the Saqqaq
people possessed an impressive knot repertoire and knew how to use it.

The Later Periods

It is not until Viking settlers began to colonize Greenland that we could rea-
sonably have expected influences from the east. In contrast with the period
from which the Qeqertasussuk Knots stem, we now have come to times of
which we know with certainty that cultural interaction on several fronts be-
tween the Inuit and Europeans had already taken place. In the next section
we shall be concerned with the question about the extent of a possible mutual
influence in knots and knotting techniques.