Abstracts
Abstract
Four transitional period sites on Somerset Island compare closely with High Arctic sites attributed to Independence II. The four sites are situated at elevations between Pre-Dorset and Early Dorset occupations in the same area. The sites are described, with an emphasis on architectural characteristics. Vertical slab midpassage structures are present at all sites along with artifact assemblages containing shallowly side-notched bifaces, "cloven hoof" lance heads, a closed socket harpoon head, burin-like tools, narrow microblades, and needles with gouged eyes. Some sites also have exterior hearths and possible caches. Radiocarbon dates place the occupations within the transitional period (i.e. 800-500 B.C.). As during Independence II, the sites are of various size (three small ones and a large one), and are in association with polynyas.
Résumé
Quatre sites de la période transitionnelle sur l'île Somerset se comparent bien à des sites de l'Indépendancien II du Haut Arctique. Les quatre sites se situent dans la même région à des élévations entre des occupations du Prédorsétien et du Dorsétien ancien. Ces sites sont ici décrits en mettant l'accent sur leurs caractéristiques architecturales. Sur tous ces sites, on remarque des aménagements axiaux à dalles verticales ainsi que des assemblages contenant des bifaces à encoches latérales peu profondes, des pré-hampes de lances à “sabot fourchu”, des têtes de harpon à logette fermée, des simili-burins, des microlames très minces et des aiguilles à chas incisés. Certains de ces sites présentent aussi des foyers extérieurs et de possibles caches. Les datations au radiocarbone placent ces occupations dans la période de Transition (i.e. 800-500 av. J.-C.). Tout comme durant l'Indépendancien II, les sites sont de dimensions variées (trois petits et un grand) et associés à des polynies.
Appendices
References
- Alliston, W. George, M.S.W. Bradstreet, M.A. McLaren, R.A. Davis and W.J. Richardson, 1976 Numbers and Distribution of Birds in the Central District of Franklin, N.W.T. June-August, 1975, unpublished report prepared for Polar Gas Environmental Program, Toronto, LGL Environmental Research Associates.
- Andreasen, Claus, 1996 A Survey of Paleo-Eskimo Sites in Northern Eastgreenland, in Bjarne Grønnow and John Pind (eds), The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland. New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, Copenhagen, Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 1: 177-190.
- Andreasen, Claus, 1997 Independence II in North East Greenland: Some New Aspects, in R. Gilberg and H. C. Gulløv (eds), Fifty Years of Arctic Research: Anthropological Studies from Greenland to Siberia, Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark, Ethnolographical Series, 18: 23-32.
- Andreasen, Claus, 1998 Newland: Settlement Patterns, Social Organization and Economic Strategies at a High Arctic Polynya, in J. Arneborg and H. C. Gulløv (eds), Man, Culture and Environment in Ancient Greenland, Copenhagen, Danish National Museum and Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 4: 198-212.
- Andreasen, Claus, 2000 Palaeo-Eskimos in Northwest and Northeast Greenland, in M. Appelt, J. Berglund and H. C. Gulløv (eds), Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic, Copenhagen, Danish National Museum and Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 8: 82-92.
- Auger, Réginald, 1986 Factory Cove: An Early Palaeo-Eskimo Component from the West Coast of Newfoundland, in Palaeo-Eskimo Cultures in Newfoundland, Labrador and Ungava, St. John's, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Reports in Archaeology, 1: 111-118.
- Bielawski, Ellen, 1980 Space and Season: A Study of the Spatial Behavior of Prehistoric Arctic Hunters, Ph.D. dissertation, Calgary, University of Calgary, Department of Archaeology.
- Bielawski, Ellen, 1982 Spatial Behaviour of Prehistoric Arctic Hunters: Analysis of the Site Distribution on Aston Bay, Somerset Island, N.W.T., Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 6: 33-44.
- Clarke, Allen B., 1979 1975 Area I Survey: Boothia Peninsula, Somerset Island, and Pelly Bay, in A.P. McCartney (ed.), Archaeological Whale Bone: A Northern Resource, Fayetteville, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas Anthropological Papers, 1: 109-141.
- Collins, Henry B., 1940 Outline of Eskimo Prehistory, in Essays in Historical Anthropology of North America, Published in Honor of John R. Swanton in Celebration of his Fortieth Year with the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 100: 533-592.
- Collins, Henry B., 1950 Excavations at Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Annual Report of the National Museum of Canada for the Fiscal Year 1948-1949, Bulletin, 118: 18-43.
- Collins, Henry B., 1955 Excavations of Thule and Dorset Culture Sites at Resolute, Cornwallis Island, N.W.T., Annual Report of the National Museum of Canada for the Fiscal Year 1953-1954, Bulletin 136: 22-35.
- Cox, Steven L., 1978 Palaeo-Eskimo Occupations of the North Labrador Coast, Arctic Anthropology, 15(2): 96-118.
- Dyke, Arthur S., 1983 Quaternary Geology of Somerset Island, District of Franklin, Ottawa, Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 404.
- Fitzhugh, William W., 1972 Environmental Archaeology and Cultural Systems in Hamilton Inlet, Labrador: A Survey of the Central Labrador Coast from 3000 B.C. to the Present, Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, 16.
- Fitzhugh, William W., 1976 Environmental Factors in the Evolution of Dorset Culture: A Marginal Proposal for Hudson Bay, in Moreau S. Maxwell (ed.), Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Problems, Washington, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 31: 139-149.
- Fitzhugh, William W., 1980 A Review of Paleo-Eskimo Culture History in Southern Quebec-Labrador and Newfoundland, Études/Inuit/Studies, 4(1-2): 21-31.
- Harp, Elmer, 1997 Pioneer Settlements of the Belcher Islands, N.W.T., in R. Gilberg and H. C. Gulløv (eds), Fifty Years of Arctic Research: Anthropological Studies from Greenland to Siberia, Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark Ethnographical Series, 18: 157-168.
- Helmer, James W., 1980 Early Dorset in the High Arctic: A Report from Karluk Island, N.W.T., Arctic, 33(3): 427-442.
- Helmer, James W., 1991 The Palaeo-Eskimo Prehistory of the North Devon Lowlands, Arctic, 44(4): 301-317.
- Helmer, James W., 1994 Resurrecting the Spirit(s) of Taylor's "Carlsberg Culture": Cultural Traditions and Cultural Horizons in Eastern Arctic Prehistory, in David Morrison and Jean-Luc Pilon (eds), Threads of Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor, Jr., Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 149: 15-34.
- Jenness, Diamond, 1925 A New Eskimo Culture in Hudson Bay, The Geographical Review, 15: 428-437.
- Jensen, Jens Fog, 1996 Paleo-Eskimo Sites in Skjoldungen District, South East Greenland, in Bjarne Grønnow and John Pind (eds), The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland. New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, Copenhagen, Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 1: 143-159.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1952 An Outline of the Archaeology of Peary Land, Arctic, 5(1): 17-33.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1954 The Paleo-Eskimo Culture of Northeast Greenland Elucidated by Three New Sites, American Antiquity, 19(4): 367-381.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1958 Archaeology of the Farthest North, Proceedings: International Congress of Americanists, 32: 561-573.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1966/67 The Ruins of the Musk-Ox Way, Folk, 8-9: 191-219.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1967 Archaeology of the Musk-Ox Way. Paris, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Contributions du Centre d'études arctiques et finno-scandinaves, 5.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1968 The Independence II Bone Artifacts and the Dorset-Evidence in North Greenland, Folk, 10: 61-80.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1981 Greenland News from between 81° and 83° North, Folk, 23: 91-112.
- Knuth, Eigil, 1983 The Northernmost Ruins of the Globe, Folk, 25: 5-21.
- LINDSAY, D.G., 1977 Sea Ice Atlas of Arctic Canada 1969-1974, Ottawa, Department of Energy. Mines and Resources.
- MaRKHAM, W.E., 1981 Ice Atlas: Canadian Arctic Waterways, Ottawa, Environment Canada.
- Mathiassen, Therkel, 1927 Archaeology of the Central Eskimos II: The Thule Culture and its Position within the Eskimo Culture, Copenhagen, Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, 4(2).
- Mathiassen, Therkel, 1930 The Question of the Origin of Eskimo Culture, American Anthropologist, 32(40): 591-607.
- Maxwell, Moreau S., 1985 Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic, Orlando, Academic Press.
- McCartney, Allen P. (ed.), 1979 Archaeological Whale Bone: A Northern Resource, Fayetteville, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas Anthropological Papers, 1.
- McGhee, Robert, 1981 The Dorset Occupations in the Vicinity of Port Refuge, High Arctic Canada, Ottawa, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 105.
- McGhee, Robert, 1996 Ancient People of the Arctic, Vancouver, UBC Press.
- Meldgaard, Jørgen, 1955 Dorset Kulturen, Kuml (Journal of the Jutland Archaeological Society), 1955: 158-177.
- Meldgaard, Jørgen, 1960a Origin and Evolution of Eskimo Cultures in the Eastern Arctic, Canadian Geographical Journal, 60(2): 64-75.
- Meldgaard, Jørgen, 1960b Prehistoric Culture Sequences in the Eastern Arctic as Elucidated by Stratified Sites at Igloolik, in A.F.C. Wallace (ed.), Men and Cultures: Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, 1956, Philadelphia, University of Pensylvania Press: 588-595.
- Meldgaard, Jørgen, 1962 On the Formative Period of the Dorset Culture, in J.M. Campbell (ed.), Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate Zones of North America, Montreal, Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper, 11: 92-95.
- Møbjerg, Tinna, 1986 A Contribution to Paleoeskimo Archaeology in West Greenland, Arctic Anthropology, 23(1-2): 19-56.
- Nagy, Murielle, 1994 A Critical Review of the Pre-Dorset/Dorset Transition, in David Morrison and Jean-Luc Pilon (eds), Threads of Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor Jr., Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 149: 1-14.
- Nagy, Murielle, 2000 Palaeoeskimo Cultural Transition: A Case Study from Ivujivik, Eastern Arctic, Lachine (Québec), Avataq Cultural Institute, Nunavik Archaeology Monograph Series, 1.
- Odgaard, Ulla, 1998 The Arctic Midpassage and its Religious Aspects, in A.C. Anderson (ed.), Kaleidoscopic Past: Proceedings of the 5th Nordic Tag Conference, Göteborg, 2-5 April 1997, Gøteborg, Gotarc Serie C, 16: 462-468.
- Pintal, Jean-Yves, 1994 A Groswater Site at Blanc-Sablon, Quebec, in David Morrison and Jean-Luc Pilon (eds), Threads of Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor Jr., Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 149: 145-164.
- Plumet, Patrick, 1994 Le Paléoesquimau dans la baie du Diana (Arctique Québécois), in David Morrison and Jean-Luc Pilon (eds), Threads of Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor Jr., Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 149: 103-144.
- Renouf, M.A. Priscilla, 1993 Palaeoeskimo Seal Hunters at Port au Choix, Northwestern Newfoundland, Newfoundland Studies, 9(2): 185-212.
- Renouf, M.A. Priscilla, 1994 Two Transitional Sites at Port au Choix, Northwestern Newfoundland, in David Morrison and Jean-Luc Pilon (eds), Threads of Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of Wiliam E. Taylor Jr., Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 149: 165-196.
- Renouf, M.A. Priscilla, 1999 Ancient Cultures Bountiful Seas: The Story of Port au Choix, St. John's, Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Renouf, M.A. Priscilla, 2002 Archaeology at Port au Choix Northwestern Newfoundland 1990-1992, St. John's, Copetown Press, Occasional Papers in Northeastern Archaeology, 12.
- Schledermann, Peter, 1978 Distribution of Archaeological Sites in the Vicinity of the Proposed Polar Gas Pipeline and Staging Areas, N.W.T., unpublished report on file, Calgary, Arctic Institute of North America.
- Schledermann, Peter, 1990 Crossroads to Greenland: 3000 Years of Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic, Calgary, Arctic Institute of North America, Komatik Series, 2.
- Schledermann, Peter, 1996 Voices in Stone: A Personal Journey into the Arctic Past, Calgary, Arctic Institute of North America, Komatik Series, 5.
- Stuiver, Minze, P.J. Reimer, E. BARD, J.W. Beck, G.S. Burr, K.A. Hughen, B. Kromer, F.G. McCormac, J. v. d. Plicht and M. Spurk, 1998 INTCAL98 Radiocarbon age calibration 24,000-0 cal BP, Radiocarbon, 40: 1041-1083.
- Sutherland, Patricia D., 1996 Continuity and Change in the Paleo-Eskimo Prehistory of Northern Ellesmere Island, in Bjarne Grønnow and John Pind (eds), The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland. New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, Copenhagen, Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 1: 271-294.
- Taylor, William E., Jr., 1968 The Arnapik and Tyara Sites, Salt Lake City, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 22.
- Taylor, William E., Jr. and Robert McGhee, 1979 Archaeological Material from Creswell Bay, N.W.T., Canada, Ottawa, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 85.
- Tuck, James A., 1975 Prehistory of Saglek Bay, Labrador: Archaic and Palaeo-Eskimo Occupations, Ottawa, National Museum of Man, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 32.
- Tuck, James A., 1976 Paleoeskimo Cultures of Northern Labrador, in Moreau S. Maxwell (ed.), Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Problems, Washington, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 31: 89-102.
- Tuck, James A. and William W. Fitzhugh, 1986 Palaeo-Eskimo Traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador: A Re-Appraisal, in Palaeo-Eskimo Cultures in Newfoundland, Labrador and Ungava, St. John's, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Reports in Archaeology, 1: 161-167.
- VanStone, James W., 1962 An Archaeological Collection from Somerset Island and Boothia Peninsula, N.W.T., Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Division, Occasional Paper, 4.
- Yorga, Brian, 1979 Whale Bone Investigations on Somerset Island, in A.P. McCartney (ed.), Archaeological Whale Bone: A Northern Resource, Fayetteville, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas Anthropological Papers, 1: 93-97.