“Nobody Knows the way of the Caribou”: Rangifer hunting at 45° North Latitude

A 9,000-year-old caribou hunting structure beneath Lake Huron

“…Given the orientation of Drop 45, it would only have been effective if the animals were moving in a northwesterly direction, i.e., during the spring migration from modern day Ontario. Although the majority of hunting structures on the AAR, as with virtually all ethnographic cases, suggest that autumn was the preferred season for hunting (20)(21)(22)(23), the spring orientation of Drop 45 coincides with the seasonal association of the one other complex hunting structure located to date, the Funnel Drive (14). It is noteworthy that the V-shaped hunting blinds that are located upslope from Drop 45 are oriented to intercept animals moving to the southeast in the autumn.…”

“…1B). This locality, comprising only 8 ha, has an unusually high density of confirmed hunting features, including at least four V-shaped hunting blinds (14) and a rectangular construction that, following ethnographic parallels, may represent a meat cache (13). Down slope, acoustic imagery suggests the presence of two long converging stone lines that narrow to a gap of approximately 400 m just below the location of the hunting blinds.…”

“…Although the computer simulation predicted seasonal patterns of movement, the physical placement and orientation of hunting structures provides an independent indicator for season of use (14). Given the orientation of Drop 45, it would only have been effective if the animals were moving in a northwesterly direction, i.e., during the spring migration from modern day Ontario.…”

“…Following these criteria, the identified cultural structures on the AAR range from simple, small V-shaped hunting blinds to more complex features with stone drive lanes, multiple hunting blinds, and associated structures (14,15). Although other prey species were certainly pursued by Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic foragers, caribou would have represented the main prey species given the environmental conditions on the AAR and were likely the target for the constructed stone features.…”

“…In more temperate regions of the globe, traces of such structures rarely survive intact (13). What is known of caribou hunting in the Great Lakes region is based on stone tool technology, archaeological site locations, and the very rare preservation of faunal materials (14). The submerged character of the AAR offers both the potential for preserving these structures that do not survive in the terrestrial archaeological record and for their discovery via acoustic survey techniques.…”