Pan-Arctic Population Movements

Abstract

This chapter provides description and interpretation of the two major, well-documented episodes of Arctic-wide migrations. The Paleo-Inuit (also called Paleoeskimo or Arctic Small Tool tradition) migration began around 3,200 B.C., with penetration of the central Arctic by highly mobile, small-scale hunter-gatherer groups. By around 2,500 B.C., the entire eastern Arctic had been peopled by cultures known as Pre-Dorset, Saqqaq, and Independence I. The Thule Inuit migration began around A.D. 1200, when complex maritime-oriented groups from the western Arctic initiated an extremely rapid population movement, spanning the North American Arctic within a generation. The chapter considers the timing and nature of each migration episode, as well as the motivating factors which have been proposed for them, including climate change, social or economic hardship, and acquisition of specific resources such as bowhead whales or metal.

Archaeological evidence of resource utilisation of the great whales over the past two millennia: A systematic review protocol

“…The primary objective of this systematic review is to identify zooarchaeological evidence of the great whales between 1 CE and 1900 CE (the start of the 20th century whaling period) and use this information to identify spatiotemporal variation in the occurrence and acceleration of the resource use of whale products worldwide. The time periods between 1 CE and the present day were characterised by large-scale environmental, demographic and societal change, including (but not exclusive to), the rise and expansion of Eurasian empires [132], expansion of Arctic indigenous communities [43,46,75,133], societal shifts in economic practices and resource procurement worldwide (e.g., [134][135][136][137]), environmental fluctuations including, the Roman Warm Period, the late Antique Little Ice Age, the Medieval Climate Anomaly, the Little Ice Age, and the start of the industrial revolution [138][139][140][141][142][143][144]. Although whales were also an important global commodity from 1900 CE, whaling and whale resource use has been welldocumented during this time [59][60][61]91,92,97,145] and therefore, we will not re-document this evidence.…”

“…For example, there is evidence of pre-Inuit groups in North America likely utilising bowhead whales for millennia (e.g., [42]). Inuit expansion across the Arctic around approximately 1200 CE was concurrent with the expansion of specialist bowhead whale hunting [43][44][45][46]. This resulted in a sustainable whale fishery that continues in parts of the Arctic to the present day [47,48].…”

Archaeological evidence of resource utilisation of walrus, Odobenus rosmarus, over the past two millennia: A systematic review protocol

“…Using a systematic review protocol, we will summarise the archaeological evidence of human utilisation of walruses between 1 CE and 2000 CE across the Northern Hemisphere. The time periods between 1 CE and the present day were characterised by large-scale environmental, demographic and societal change (e.g., 21 , 82 – 95 ) and during this time, significant expansion occurred within Arctic and subarctic Indigenous communities 90 , 96 – 98 . In addition, there were increased interactions with European migrants and seafarers benefitting from ocean resources, including walrus, via expanding trade networks 99 – 104 .…”

Climate change and pulse migration: intermittent Chugach Inuit occupation of glacial fiords on the Kenai Coast, Alaska

“…Thule Inuit migrated from Alaska across Canada to Greenland ca. 1250 CE during the early Little Ice Age when sea ice was increasing but bowhead whales-a mainstay of the Thule economy-were abundant in the Eastern Arctic (Mathiassen, 1927;Friesen and Arnold, 2008;Friesen, 2016;Mason, 2020). As temperatures further declined and sea ice blocked whaling, Thule groups turned to caribou, muskoxen, char, and ringed seals taken at their breathing holes or settled around open-water polynyas where walrus were available (Maxwell, 1985;Desjardins, 2020).…”