Paleoeskimo Demography on Western Victoria Island, Arctic Canada: Implications for Social Organization and Longhouse Development

Abstract

Paleoeskimo populations on western Victoria Island reached maximum levels in early Pre-Dorset time and declined abruptly shortly after 3800 14 C years BP. the largest subsequent recovery occurred during Dorset time, particularly during Late Dorset, about 1500 to 600 BP. early Pre-Dorset settlement patterns were similar to those documented for the same period and culture elsewhere in Arctic Canada, with dispersed nuclear families and small extended families occupying the region for most of the year, but with annual aggregations producing sites with 15 or more dwellings. After 3800 BP, large Pre-Dorset aggregation sites are absent. Dorset settlement patterns are dominated by multi-family longhouse-hearth row aggregation sites and by sites with two to four dwellings. Possibly the Dorset were living mainly in snow dwellings on the sea ice during cold seasons, with longhouses and hearth-row sets representing coming-ashore aggregations. Architectural aspects of longhouses and hearth rows indicate a common purpose behind their construction and use throughout the region and apparently throughout Arctic Canada, but their place and time of origin remain obscure. radiocarbon dates place most longhouses and hearth rows on western Victoria Island in Late Dorset time, as elsewhere, but some dates indicate that these structures were being used in the western Canadian Arctic by middle Dorset time. the latest Dorset radiocarbon dates from the region overlap with the earliest of the more reliable dates on thule houses.

Prehistoric Neoeskimo Komatiks, Victoria Island, Arctic Canada

“…And all samples returned dates that fit comfortably within the time range of either the Thule culture in the Canadian Arctic or the prehistoric Copper Inuit, ranging from 790 -300 BP (700 -377 calibrated years BP; Table 1). The komatik dates are also within the range of dates on caribou and muskox bones from Neoeskimo sites in the region (Le Mouël and Le Mouël, 2002;Savelle et al, 2012).…”

“…Therefore, the lack of Paleoeskimo (especially Late Paleoeskimo) sleds indicates either lack of use or lack of preservation. Given that Paleoeskimo lingered fairly late in this region (Savelle et al, 2012), lack of preservation is an unconvincing explanation. It is more probable the Paleoeskimos in this region relied little (or not at all) on sleds, even hand-drawn sleds.…”

“…In four summer field seasons (1998 -2001) totaling 11 weeks, we traversed raised beach terrains on southwestern and western parts of the island, intensively searching hundreds of square kilometres for driftwood (Dyke and Savelle, 2000), sea mammal remains (Dyke and Savelle, 2001), and archaeological features (Savelle and Dyke, 2002;Savelle et al, 2012).…”

Long‐term ecological changes in marine mammals driven by recent warming in northwestern Alaska

“…Unlike other proxy data, such as those derived from marine sediment cores, the distribution of archaeological materials is very uneven across time. Particular areas may have been more or less suitable for human occupation over the course of hundreds or thousands of years (for environmental or cultural reasons) and therefore relevant materials may be unavailable for analysis (Savelle & Dyke, , ; Savelle, Dyke, Whitridge, & Poupart, ). The dating of archaeological deposits is relatively imprecise and for Arctic sites with abundant marine mammals, such as those studied here, mostly relies on 14 C measurements of associated terrestrial materials; because of the uncertainty of the regional magnitude of the marine reservoir effect, marine mammals are generally not dated directly (Dumond & Griffin, ; McGhee & Tuck, ; Morrison, ).…”

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

“…Based on current data, the Late Dorset occupation of northwest Greenland almost certainly lasted until at least the end of the thirteenth century (Appelt and Gulløv 1999, 2009; Darwent and Foin 2010; Darwent et al 2007), potentially overlapping with the early Ruin Island phase of Thule occupations in that region (McCullough 1989). The central High Arctic (LeMoine et al 2003), Somerset Island (Damkjar 2000), western Victoria Island (Savelle et al 2012), Foxe Basin (Savelle and Dyke 2014), and northern Labrador (Desrosiers 2017; Renouf 2003) have also produced isolated dates that may point to Late Dorset populations persisting into the thirteenth century or later. The situation in Nunavik (northern Quebec) is currently unresolved, but it is also a good candidate for Late Dorset occupations with the potential for overlap with Thule (Labrèche 2015; Pinard and Gendron 2009; Plumet 1979, 1989), particularly given a new genetic analysis that may indicate some gene flow between Paleo-Inuit and Inuit in the region (Zhou et al 2019).…”