Defining a ‘reasonable geographic framework’: Path Distance as native copper provenance in the Arctic, Subarctic, and Northwest Coast

Detecting Early Widespread Metal Use in the Eastern North American Arctic around AD 500–1300

“…Significantly, by expanding the evidence of known metal use, it is possible to refine the ways groups interacted with each other. Taking a raw material–centric approach for understanding past interaction networks is common in other regions (Bassett et al 2019; Hill et al 2018; Loring 2002, 2017; Lothrop et al 2018; Lulewicz 2019; McCaffery 2011; Pike et al 2019; Walder 2019), but this study demonstrates that it is possible to ask similar questions even when the raw material in question cannot be physically analyzed. Moreover, this approach complements traditional provenance studies analyzing sourcing, exchange, and network analysis by adding a robust way of understanding the scale of past interaction networks in a quantitative way.…”

“…Most striking is that the few and geographically distant source regions of metal, its high frequency of use, and the lack of mobility technologies common in Inuit context—such as dog sleds (Ameen et al 2019; Morey and Aaris-Sørensen 2002) and large watercraft (Mary-Rousselière 1979)—do not seem to have limited the amount of inter-group interaction among the Late Dorset (Appelt et al 2016; Desrosiers 2017; Maxwell 1985; Odess 1998). Using a least-cost path analysis to estimate travel times between native copper sources and sites with existing copper objects, Pike and colleagues (2019) demonstrate that most sites are over 112 hours of travel (i.e., 14 eight-hour days) in the warmer months, with roughly 30% of sites requiring more than 200 hours of travel (i.e., 25 eight-hour days). Although their analysis includes both Dorset and Inuit sites, this is a rough estimate of the significant time investment associated with any given metal object.…”

“…In this regard, it is not surprising that the longhouse site of Brooman Point (QiLd-1) has a large amount of metal use evidence despite its distance from known metal sources. Although the frequency of longhouse site gatherings is unknown, annual or semiannual aggregations at these sites would easily support the multiday travel times between metal source and most sites in the Eastern Arctic (Pike et al 2019).…”

“…Assessing the extent and intensity of Dorset metal use has largely relied on surviving metal tools in museum collections (Cooper 2016;Farrell and Jordan 2016;Pike et al 2019). However, probably due to past excavation techniques, differential preservation, and object curation on the part of the Dorset, metal is underrepresented in existing collections (McCartney 1988).…”

Lead Isotope Analysis of Geological Native Copper: Implications for Archaeological Provenance Research in the North American Arctic and Subarctic

“…The use of native copper by Inuit and Dene people in these regions was noted by some of the earliest Europeans to visit these places, e.g., [1][2][3] and documented in some of the earliest archaeological research in the region, e.g., [4][5][6][7]. Native copper, i.e., naturally occurring pure copper [8,9] in these two regions was used primarily for tools such as awls, projectile points, fishhooks, and various types of knives [10][11][12][13]. Franklin et al's (1981) volume An Examination of Prehistoric Copper Technology and Copper Sources in Western Arctic and Subarctic North America provided the first inventory of both archaeological examples and sources of copper and other metals for this large region.…”