Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-vt8vv Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-08-15T11:33:03.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Evidence for Fourteenth-Century Dorset Occupation in the Eastern North American Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2019

T. Max Friesen Open the ORCID record for T. Max Friesen [Opens in a new window]
T. Max Friesen*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell St., Toronto, ONM5S 2S2, Canada
*
(max.friesen@utoronto.ca, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One of the most persistent debates in the archaeology of the North American Arctic relates to thirteenth-century AD population distributions and movements. Around this time, the final culture of the long-lived Paleo-Inuit tradition, known as Late Dorset, was replaced by Thule Inuit, who migrated from Alaska to the Eastern Arctic. Due to the almost complete lack of evidence for direct interaction between Dorset and Thule, there are currently two contrasting models for this transitional period. The first proposes a temporal hiatus between Late Dorset and Thule during which the Eastern Arctic was unoccupied. The second proposes that Late Dorset persisted to at least the late thirteenth century and still occupied some regions of the Eastern Arctic when Thule arrived. Resolution of this question depends largely on radiocarbon dates, particularly for the poorly understood Late Dorset period. This article presents 56 new AMS radiocarbon dates from three Late Dorset sites in the Iqaluktuuq region of southeastern Victoria Island in the Central Arctic. They resolve a significant part of the debate by confirming that Dorset settlement continued in this region later than AD 1300, thus overlapping with Thule settlement in adjacent regions for decades, and perhaps as much as a century.

Un des débats les plus persistants dans l'archéologie de l'Arctique nord-américain concerne les distributions et mouvements de population au 13e siècle. À peu près à ce moment, la culture finale d'une longue tradition paléo-inuite, connue sous le nom de Dorsétien récent, fut remplacée par les Inuit Thuléens, lesquels ont migré en Arctique de l'Est depuis l'Alaska. En raison d'un manque presque complet de preuves pour une interaction directe entre les Dorsétiens et les Thuléens, il y a présentement deux modèles opposés pour cette période transitionnelle. Le premier propose un hiatus temporel entre le Dorsétien récent et le Thuléen durant lequel l'Arctique de l'Est aurait été inoccupé. Le second propose que les Dorsétiens auraient persisté jusqu'au moins la fin du 13e siècle et auraient occupé certaines régions de l'Arctique de l'Est à l'arrivée des Thuléens. La réponse à cette question dépend largement des dates radiocarbones, particulièrement pour la période peu connue du Dorsétien récent. Cet article présente 56 nouvelles dates radiocarbones AMS provenant de trois sites Dorsétiens récents de la région d'Iqaluktuuq dans le Sud-Est de l’île Victoria en Arctique central. Elles résolvent une part significative du débat en confirmant que les établissements dorsétiens se sont poursuivis dans cette région après 1300 après J.-C. et sont conséquemment contemporains aux établissements thuléens dans les régions adjacentes pendant des décennies, voire près d'un siècle.

Keywords

ArcticarchaeologyNunavutDorsetPaleo-InuitThuleInuitThule migrationinteractionArctiquearchéologieNunavutDorsétienPaléo-InuitThuléenInuitmigration thuléenneinteraction
Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 222 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Appelt, Martin, and Gulløv, Hans Christian 1999 Late Dorset in High Arctic Greenland: Final Report of the Gateway to Greenland Project. Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Appelt, Martin, and Gulløv, Hans Christian 2009 Tunit, Norsemen, and Inuit in Thirteenth-Century Northwest Greenland—Dorset between the Devil and the Deep Sea. In The Northern World AD 900–1400, edited by Maschner, Herbert, Mason, Owen, and McGhee, Robert, pp. 300–320. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Appelt, Martin, Damkjar, Eric, and Friesen, T. Max 2016 Late Dorset. In The Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic, edited by Max Friesen, T. and Mason, Owen K., pp. 783–806. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Arundale, Wendy H. 1981 Radiocarbon Dating in Eastern Arctic Archaeology: A Flexible Approach. American Antiquity 46:244–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayliss, Alex 2009 Rolling Out Revolution: Using Radiocarbon Dating in Archaeology. Radiocarbon 51:123–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayliss, Alex 2015 Quality in Bayesian Chronological Models in Archaeology. World Archaeology 47:677–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, John, and Rowley, Susan 2004 Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2009 Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates. Radiocarbon 51:337–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2017 Methods for Summarizing Radiocarbon Datasets. Radiocarbon 59:1809–1833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, Caitlin E., and Meson, Bo 2015 On Being a Good Bayesian. World Archaeology 47:567–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulthard, Roy D., Furze, Mark F. A., Pienkowski, Anna J., Nixon, F. Chantel, and England, John H. 2010 New Marine Delta R Values for Arctic Canada. Quaternary Geochronology 5:419–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damkjar, Eric 2000 A Survey of Late Dorset Longhouses. In Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic, edited by Appelt, Martin, Berglund, Joel, and Gulløv, Hans Christian, pp. 170–180. National Museum of Denmark; Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Darwent, Christyann M., and Foin, Jeremy C. 2010 Zooarchaeological Analysis of Late Dorset and an Early Thule Dwelling at Cape Grinnell, Northwest Greenland. Geografisk Tidsskrift – Danish Journal of Geography 110:315–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwent, John, Darwent, Christyann M., LeMoine, Genevieve M., and Lange, Hans 2007 Archaeological Survey of Eastern Inglefield Land, Northwestern Greenland. Arctic Anthropology 44(2):51–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desrosiers, Pierre M. 2017 The Dispersal of Ramah Chert by Palaeoeskimo People. In Ramah Chert: A Lithic Odyssey, edited by Curtis, Jenneth E. and Desrosiers, Pierre M., pp. 85–116. Avataq Cultural Institute, Inukjuak, Quebec, Canada.Google Scholar
dos Santos, Guaciara M., and KCCAMS Prep-Laboratory Personnel 2011 UCI AMS Facility Chemical Pretreatment for Bone: Ultrafiltration Method. Electronic document, https://sites.uci.edu/keckams/files/2016/12/bone_protocol.pdf, accessed October 25, 2019.Google Scholar
Echo-Hawk, Roger C. 2000 Ancient History in the New World: Integrating Oral Traditions and the Archaeological Record in Deep Time. American Antiquity 65:267–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friesen, T. Max 2000 The Role of Social Factors in Dorset-Thule Interaction. In Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic, edited by Appelt, Martin, Berglund, Joel, and Gulløv, Hans Christian, pp. 206–220. National Museum of Denmark; Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Friesen, T. Max 2004 Contemporaneity of Dorset and Thule Cultures in the North American Arctic: New Radiocarbon Dates from Victoria Island, Nunavut. Current Anthropology 45:685–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friesen, T. Max 2009 The Last Supper: Late Dorset Economic Change at Iqaluktuuq, Victoria Island. In The Northern World AD 900–1400, edited by Maschner, Herbert, Mason, Owen, and McGhee, Robert, pp. 235–248. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Friesen, T. Max 2013 The Impact of Weapon Technology on Caribou Drive System Variability in the Prehistoric Canadian Arctic. Quaternary International 297:13–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friesen, T. Max 2016 Pan-Arctic Population Movements: The Early Paleo-Inuit and Thule Inuit Migrations. In The Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic, edited by Friesen, T. Max and Mason, Owen K., pp. 673–692. Oxford University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friesen, T. Max 2017 Archaeology of the Eastern Arctic. In Out of the Cold: Archaeology on the Arctic Rim of North America, by Mason, Owen K. and Max Friesen, T., pp. 133–206. Society for American Archaeology Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Friesen, T. Max, and Arnold, Charles D. 2008 The Timing of the Thule Migration: New Dates from the Western Canadian Arctic. American Antiquity 73:527–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friesen, T. Max, and Norman, Lauren E. Y. 2016 The Pembroke Site: Thule Inuit Migrants on Southern Victoria Island. Arctic 69:1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friesen, T. Max, and Mason, Owen K. 2016 Archaeology of the North American Arctic: Introduction. In The Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic, edited by Max Friesen, T. and Mason, Owen K., pp. 1–24. Oxford University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, W. Derek, and Krus, Anthony M. 2018 The Myths and Realities of Bayesian Chronological Modeling Revealed. American Antiquity 83:187–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howse, Lesley, and Max Friesen, T. 2016 Technology, Taphonomy, and Seasonality: Understanding Differences between Dorset and Thule Subsistence Strategies at Iqaluktuuq, Victoria Island. Arctic 69 S1:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleivan, Inge 1996 Inuit Oral Traditions about Tunit in Greenland. In The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland, edited by Grønnow, Bjarne, pp. 215–236. Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Labrèche, Yves 2015 Relecture critique des interprétations relatives aux interactions entre Thuléens et Dorsétiens au Nunavik et au Nunatsiavut. Études/Inuit/Studies 39:205–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ledger, Paul M., Forbes, Véronique, Masson-Maclean, Edouard, Hillerdal, Charlotta, Derek Hamilton, W., McManus-Fry, Ellen, Jorge, Ana, Britton, Kate, and Knecht, Richard A. 2018 Three Generations under One Roof? Bayesian Modeling of Radiocarbon Data from Nunalleq, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. American Antiquity 83:505–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeMoine, Genevieve, Helmer, James, and Grønnow, Bjarne 2003 Late Dorset Architecture on Little Cornwallis Island, Nunavut. Études/Inuit/Studies 27:255–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCullough, Karen M. 1989 The Ruin Islanders: Early Thule Culture Pioneers in the Eastern High Arctic. Archaeological Survey of Canada Mercury Series 141. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGhee, Robert 1996 Ancient People of the Arctic. UBC Press, Vancouver.Google Scholar
McGhee, Robert 1997 Meetings between Dorset Culture Palaeo-Eskimos and Thule Culture Inuit: Evidence from Brooman Point. In Fifty Years of Arctic Research: Anthropological Studies from Greenland to Siberia, edited by Gilberg, Rolf and Gulløv, Hans Christian, pp. 209–213. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
McGhee, Robert 2000 Radiocarbon Dating and the Timing of the Thule Migration. In Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic: Proceedings from a Conference at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, November 30 to December 2, 1999, edited by Appelt, Martin, Berglund, Joel, and Gulløv, Hans Christian, pp. 181–191. National Museum of Denmark; Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Martindale, Andrew 2006 Methodological Issues in the Use of Tsimshian Oral Traditions (Adawx) in Archaeology. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 30:158–192.Google Scholar
Mathiassen, Therkel 1927 Archeology of the Central Eskimos: Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924, Vol. 4. Gyldendal, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Maxwell, Moreau S. 1985 Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Park, Robert W. 1993 The Dorset-Thule Succession in Arctic North America: Assessing Claims for Culture Contact. American Antiquity 58:203–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Robert W. 2000 The Dorset-Thule Succession Revisited. In Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic: Proceedings from a Conference at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, November 30 to December 2, 1999, edited by Appelt, Martin, Berglund, Joel, and Gulløv, Hans Christian, pp. 192–205. National Museum of Denmark; Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Park, Robert W. 2016 The Dorset-Thule Transition. In The Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic, edited by Max Friesen, T. and Mason, Owen K., pp. 807–826. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Pinard, Claude, and Gendron, Daniel 2009 The Dorset Occupation on the South Shore of the Hudson Strait: How Late? In The Northern World AD 900–1400, edited by Maschner, Herbert, Mason, Owen, and McGhee, Robert, pp. 249–259. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Plumet, Patrick 1979 Thuléens et Dorsétiens dans l'Ungava (Nouveau-Québec). In Thule Eskimo Culture: An Anthropological Retrospective, edited by McCartney, Allen P., pp. 110–121. Archaeological Survey of Canada Mercury Series 88. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plumet, Patrick 1989 Thuléens et Dorsétiens à l’île d'Amittualujjuaq, baie du Diana, Arctique québécois. Géographie physique et quaternaire 43:207–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raghavan, Maanasa, DeGiorgio, Michael, Albrechtsen, Anders, Moltke, Ida, Skoglund, Pontus, Korneliussen, Thorfinn S., Grønnow, Bjarne, Appelt, Martin, Gulløv, Hans Christian, Max Friesen, T., Fitzhugh, William, Malmström, Helena, Rasmussen, Simon, Olsen, Jesper, Melchior, Linea, Fuller, Benjamin T., Fahrni, Simon M., Stafford, Thomas, Grimes, Vaughan, Priscilla Renouf, M. A., Cybulski, Jerome, Lynnerup, Niels, Lahr, Marta Mirazon, Britton, Kate, Knecht, Rick, Arneborg, Jette, Metspalu, Mait, Cornejo, Omar E., Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo, Wang, Yong, Rasmussen, Morten, Raghavan, Vibha, Hansen, Thomas V. O., Khusnutdinova, Elza, Pierre, Tracey, Dneprovsky, Kirill, Andreasen, Claus, Lange, Hans, Geoffrey Hayes, M., Coltrain, Joan, Spitsyn, Victor A., Götherström, Anders, Orlando, Ludovic, Kivisild, Toomas, Villems, Richard, Crawford, Michael H., Nielsen, Finn C., Dissing, Jørgen, Heinemeier, Jan, Meldgaard, Morten, Bustamante, Carlos, O'Rourke, Dennis H., Jakobsson, Mattias, Thomas P, M.. Gilbert, Rasmus Nielsen, and Willerslev, Eske 2014 The Genetic Prehistory of the New World Arctic. Science 345(6200):1255832. DOI:10.1126/science.1255832.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Warren Beck, J, Blackwell, Paul G, Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Buck, Caitlin E, Cheng, Hai, Lawrence Edwards, R, Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M, Guilderson, Thomas P, Haflidason, Haflidi, Hajdas, Irka, Hatté, Christine, Heaton, Timothy J, Hoffmann, Dirk L, Hogg, Alan G, Hughen, Konrad A, Felix Kaiser, K, Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W, Niu, Mu, Reimer, Ron W, Richards, David A, Marian Scott, E, Southon, John R, Staff, Richard A, Turney, Christian S M, van der Plicht, Johannes 2013 IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renouf, M. A. P. 2003 A Review of Palaeoeskimo Dwelling Structures in Newfoundland and Labrador. Études/Inuit/Studies 27:375–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, Karen 2012 The Significance of Choice in Late Dorset: The Technology of Domestic Architecture in the Eastern North American Arctic c. 1500 B.P.–500 B.P. BAR International Series 2444. Archaeopress, Oxford.Google Scholar
Savelle, James M., and Dyke, Arthur S. 2014 Paleoeskimo Occupation History of Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada: Implications for the Core Area Model and Dorset Origins. American Antiquity 79:249–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savelle, James M., Dyke, Arthur S., and Poupart, Melanie 2009 Paleo-Eskimo Occupation History of Foxe Basin, Nunavut: Implications for the “Core Area.” In The Northern World AD 900–1400, edited by Maschner, Herbert, Mason, Owen, and McGhee, Robert, pp. 209–234. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Savelle, James M., Dyke, Arthur S., Whitridge, Peter J., and Poupart, Melanie 2012 Paleoeskimo Demography on Western Victoria Island, Arctic Canada: Implications for Social Organization and Longhouse Development. Arctic 65(2):167–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, R. W. 2018 CALIB 7.1. Electronic document, http://calib.org, accessed May 16, 2018.Google Scholar
Taylor, William E. 1967 Summary of Archaeological Field Work on Banks and Victoria Islands, Arctic Canada, 1965. Arctic Anthropology 4(1):221–243.Google Scholar
Taylor, William E. 1972 An Archaeological Survey between Cape Parry and Cambridge Bay, N.W.T., Canada in 1963. Archaeological Survey of Canada Mercury Series 1. University of Ottawa Press, Canada.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Sirui, Xie, Pingxing, Quoibion, Amélie, Ambalavanan, Amirthagowri, Dionne-Laporte, Alexandre, Spiegelman, Dan, Bourassa, Cynthia V., Xiong, Lan, Dion, Patrick A., and Rouleau, Guy A. 2019 Genetic Architecture and Adaptations of Nunavik Inuit. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(32):16012–16017.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed