Résumés
Abstract
Over forty years ago, William Irving proposed the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) to indicate taxonomic unity and historical relatedness among several recently identified mid-Holocene cultures in Alaska (Denbigh Flint complex), Canada (Pre-Dorset), and Greenland (Independence I and Saqqaq). Since then, research in Canada and Greenland has helped refine our understanding of cultural relationships between the eastern members of this tradition, their economies, technologies, and demographic histories. By comparison, research on the Denbigh Flint complex, the Alaskan member of the tradition, has lagged behind. Little fieldwork has been conducted since the mid-1970s, and little attention paid to Denbigh subsistence and settlement systems or to the historical relationship between Denbigh and its neighbors to the east. This paper reports on an Early ASTt site in the western Brooks Range, northwestern Alaska, and discusses its significance within the context of the Early ASTt across the North American Arctic. The structure from the site bears strong similarities to Pre-Dorset, Independence I, and Saqqaq houses from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, and adds an additional dimension to our understanding of the relationships between the various techno-complexes that compose the Early Arctic Small Tool tradition.
Résumé
Il y a plus de quarante ans, William Irving proposa l'expression “Tradition microlithique de l'Arctique”, pour désigner l'unité taxonomique et les liens historiques partagés par plusieurs cultures du milieu de l'Holocène récemment identifiées en Alaska (complexe Denbigh), au Canada (Prédorsetien), et au Groenland (Indépendancien I et Saqqaquien). Depuis, les recherches menées au Canada et au Groenland ont affiné notre compréhension des relations culturelles entretenues par les membres orientaux de cette tradition, de leur économie, de leurs techniques et de leurs histoires démographiques. Par comparaison, la recherche sur le complexe Denbigh, membre alaskien de la tradition, est restée à la traîne. Peu de travaux de terrain ont été menés depuis le milieu des années 1970 et peu d'attention a été portée aux questions évoquées ci-dessus ou aux relations historiques existant entre les Denbighiens et leurs voisins orientaux. Cet article présente un site de la Tradition microlithique de l'Arctique ancienne localisé dans la chaîne des Brooks occidentale et discute de son importance dans le cadre du contexte de cette tradition à travers l'Arctique nord-américain. La structure mise au jour sur le site présente de grandes similitudes avec les habitations du Prédorsétien, de l'Indépendancien I et du Saqqaquien trouvées dans l'Arctique canadien et au Groenland. Elle apporte une nouvelle dimension à notre compréhension des relations entre les divers complexes techniques qui composent la Tradition microlithique de l'Arctique ancienne.
Parties annexes
References
- ANDERSON, Douglas D., 1980 Continuity and Change in the Prehistoric Record from North Alaska, in Y. Kotani and W. Workman (eds), Alaska Native Culture and History, Osaka, National Museum of Ethnology, Senri Ethnological Studies, 4.
- ANDERSON, Douglas D., 1988 Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a Stratified Site from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska, Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 22(1-2): 1-191.
- APPELT, Martin, Joel BERGLUND and Hans-Christian GULLØV (eds), 2000 Identities and cultural contacts in the Arctic, Copenhagen, Danish National Museum and Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 8.
- ARNOLD, Charles D., 1980 A Paleoeskimo Occupation on Southern Banks Island, N.W.T., Arctic, 33(3): 400-426.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1980 Traditional Eskimo Societies in Northwest Alaska, in Y. Kotani and W. Workman (eds), Alaska Native Culture and History, Osaka, National Museum of Ethnology, Senri Ethnological Studies, 4: 253-304.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1998 The Inupiaq Eskimo Nations of Northwest Alaska, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press.
- COOK, John P. (ed.), 1977 Pipeline Archaeology: Archaeological Investigations along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Fairbanks, University of Alaska, Institute of Arctic Biology.
- COX, Steven L., 1978 Palaeo-Eskimo Occupations of the North Labrador Coast, Arctic Anthropology, 15(2): 96-118.
- COX, Steven L., 1988 Pre-Dorset Occupations of Okak Bay, Labrador, The Northern Raven, 7(3): 4.
- DUMOND, Don, 1981 The Archaeology of the Alaska Peninsula: The Naknek Region, 1960-1975, Eugene, University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, 21.
- DUMOND, Don, 2000 A Southern Origin for Norton Culture? Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 25(1): 87-102.
- ELLING, Henrick, 1996 The Independence I and Old Nuulliit Cultures in Relation to the Saqqaq Culture, in B. 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: 191-198.
- GENDRON, Daniel and Claude PINARD, 2000 Early Palaeo-Eskimo occupations in Nunavik: A re-appraisal, in M. Appelt, J. Berglund and H. C. Gulløv (eds), Identities and cultural contacts in the Arctic, Copenhagen, The Danish National Museum and Danish Polar Center: 129-142.
- GIDDINGS, J. Louis, 1951 The Denbigh Flint Complex, American Antiquity, 16(3): 193-202.
- GIDDINGS, J. Louis, 1956 A Flint Site in Northernmost Manitoba, American Antiquity, 11(3): 255-268.
- GIDDINGS, J. Louis, 1964 The Archaeology of Cape Denbigh, Providence, Brown University Press.
- GIDDINGS, J. Louis and Douglas D. ANDERSON, 1986 Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern, Washington, National Park Service.
- GRØNNOW, Bjarne and John PIND (eds), 1996 The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland. New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, Copenhagen, Danish Polar Center, Danish Polar Center Publication, 1.
- Hall, E. S., Jr., 1971 Kangiguksuk: A Cultural Reconstruction of a Sixteenth Century Eskimo Site in Northern Alaska, Arctic Anthropology, 4(1): 1-101.
- HARP, Elmer, Jr., 1958 Prehistory in the Dismal Lake area, N.W.T., Canada, Arctic, 11(4): 219-249.
- HARRITT, Roger, 1994 Eskimo Prehistory on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, Anchorage, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
- HELMER, James W., 1994 Resurrecting the Spirit(s) of Taylor's "Carlsberg Culture": Cultural Traditions and Cultural Horizons in Eastern Arctic Prehistory, in D. Morrison and J.-L. 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.
- IRVING, William N., 1957 An Archaeological Survey of the Susitna Valley, Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 6(1): 37-52.
- IRVING, William N., 1962 A Provisional Comparison of Some Alaskan and Asian Stone Industries, in J. M. Campbell (ed.), Prehistoric Cultural Relations Between the Arctic And Temperate Zones of North America, Montréal, Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper, 11: 55-68.
- IRVING, William N., 1964 Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool Tradition, Ph.D. dissertation, Madison, University of Wisconsin.
- KNUTH, Eigil, 1954 The Paleo-Eskimo Culture of Northeast Greenland Elucidated by Three New Sites, American Antiquity, 19(4): 367-381.
- 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: 1-70.
- KRUPNIK, Igor and Dyanna JOLLY (eds), 2002 The Earth Is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change, Fairbanks, Arctic Research Consortium of the United States.
- LARSEN, Helge and Jørgen MELDGAARD, 1958 Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Disko Bugt, West Greenland, Copenhagen, Meddelelser om Grønland, 161(2).
- LE BLANC, Raymond J., 1994 The Crane Site and the Palaeoeskimo Period in the Western Canadian Arctic, Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, 148.
- MELDGAARD, Jørgen, 1952 A Paleo-Eskimo Culture in West Greenland, American Antiquity, 17(3): 222-230.
- NAGY, Murielle I., 2000 Palaeoeskimo Cultural Transition: A Case Study from Ivujivik, Eastern Arctic, Québec, Lachine, Avataq Cultural Institute, Nunavik Archaeology Monograph Series, 1.
- ODESS, Daniel P., 1998 The Archaeology of Interaction: Views from Artifact Style and Material Exchange in Dorset Society, American Antiquity, 63(3): 417-435.
- ODESS, Daniel P., 2002 Demography and Interaction: An Appraisal of the Core Area Concept in Paleoeskimo Studies, in William W. Fitzhugh, Stephen Loring, and Daniel Odess (eds), Honoring Our Elders: A History of Eastern Arctic Archaeology, Washington, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology, 2: 113-119.
- PILON, Jean-Luc, 1994 The Inuvik Phase of the Arctic Small Tool Tradition, in D. Morrison and J.-L. 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: 57-86.
- POWERS, William R. and Richard H. JORDAN, 1990 Human Biogeography and Climate Change in Siberia and Arctic North America in the Fourth and Fifth Millennia B.P., London, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series A(330): 665-670.
- RAMSDEN, Peter and James A. TUCK, 2001 A Comment on the Pre-Dorset/Dorset Transition in the Eastern Arctic, Anthopological Papers of the University of Alaska, NS, 1(1): 7-12.
- SCHLEDERMANN, Peter, 1990 Crossroads to Greenland, Calgary, Arctic Institute of North America, Komatik Series, 2.
- SCHLEDERMANN, Peter, 1996 Voices in Stone, Calgary, Arctic Institute of North America, Komatik Series, 5.
- TAYLOR, William E., Jr., 1962 Pre-Dorset Occupations at Ivugivik in Northwestern Ungava, in J.M. Campbell (ed.), Prehistoric relations between the Arctic and temperate zones of North America, Montréal, Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper, 11: 80-91.
- TAYLOR, William E., Jr., 1968 The Arnapik and Tyara Sites: An Archaeological Study of Dorset Culture Origins, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 22.