The Oldest Surviving Evidence of Friction Fire?

 Oh this is good... I think this may be the oldest surviving evidence of friction fire. Apparently a 6000 year old wooden Fire Drill was discovered in Canada (Triquet Island , BC) in 2016. Click here for an article in The Vancouver Sun which is showing a photograph of the ancient spindle, but it is lacking information which is surprising as this is quite a find! For me , this is fascinating - the oldest fire drills I am aware of are from China (approx 2500 yo) and Egypt (approx 4000 yo).

There is this paper I have found by Alisha Gauvreau and Dr Duncan McLaren from the Anthropology Department, University of Victoria (B.C) working on the Hakai Ancient Landscapes Archaeology Project  - which states that the "Fire Drill" was found in the peat layer which is between 6,726 and 6,674 years old but that's it! I'm surprised there isn't more information on it as it is an amazing find!

 I'm trying to find archaeological reports for the Triquet Fire Drill but I've not found any yet .... but I'm enquiring with the Hakai Institute - watch this space!

It also raises more questions, such as:

• Has there been carbon dating on the fire drill?
• What species of wood is the drill?
• Is their evidence that it is a fire drill e.g. charring at the end ?
• They refer to the artifact as a hand drill - what is the evidence that it is a hand drill rather than another type of friction method e.g. bow drill spindle. Typically the Bow Drill was more prevalent in the North of the American Continent rather than the Hand Drill 
• From the photograph it looks like it is approx 10inches in length, and it is tapered which seems quite odd for a Hand Drill -  it is 6000 years old so it could just be a fragment of a larger piece and some rotting may have taken place. To me, it does look like it could be a bow drill spindle (but that's just me guessing!) - knowing the species of wood would help.

The Ancient Triquet Village is one of the oldest settlements discovered in North America (approx 14000 years old) and I found this statement fascinating “It appears we had people sitting in one area making stone tools beside evidence of a fire pit, what we are calling a bean-shaped hearth” (Alisha Gauvreau) .. re-affirming the fire being central to human activity.

The other amazing thing about this is that the team based their search on oral stories passed down through generations that this Island had been populated during the Ice Age which alot of people discounted. 
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Link to the article:
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/heiltsuk-first-nation-village-among-oldest-in-north-america-archeologists