Thule Inuit environmental impacts on Kangeq, southwest Greenland

Abstract

Palaeoecological investigations of a rapidly eroding coastal midden and an adjacent peat bog on the island of Kangeq in southwest Greenland have provided new information on environmental change and human impact associated with Thule Inuit occupation. Palynological and palaeoentomological datasets have been produced through the 14 th to the 17 th centuries AD. The pollen and sedimentary data provide evidence for peat formation, increased frequency of the northern annual herb Koenigia islandica (Iceland purslane) from the end of the 15 th century AD, and a decline in shrub pollen over the same period. These changes are interpreted as local responses to Little Ice Age cooling. No clear signal for human impact on the vegetation was revealed in the pollen record, and there was little macroscopic charcoal recovered from either of the sedimentary contexts that were examined; microscopic charcoal evident in the peat column is probably evidence for domestic fires. The insect remains suggest periodic patterns of disposal on the midden and provide information on natural environments in the vicinity. Fossil fly puparia (Diptera) are associated with decaying animal materials and perhaps indicate waste produced from the skinning of marine mammals and birds as opposed to butchering. The faunas contrast with results from the Saqqaq site of Qeqertasussuk and several Norse farms.

Long-term perspectives on circumpolar social-ecological systems

“…These groups also developed a new storage strategy, which leaves distinctive archaeological signatures, enabling them to achieve greater food security and the ability to "ride out" the worst effects of the climatic downturn. Panagiotakopulu et al (2020) also examine Thule Inuit strategies-this time, in Southwest Greenland-at a site-based scale in order to explore how these mobile hunters were impacting on the immediate environment (rather than the other way around). The authors present a detailed palaeoecological investigation of Kangeq, a rapidly-eroding coastal midden site surrounded by peat bogs.…”

Shallow depositional basins as potential archives of palaeoenvironmental changes in southwestern Greenland over the last 800 years

“…2019; Panagiotakopulu et al . 2020). This study will therefore contribute to our understanding of climatic evolution in the peri‐Atlantic Arctic as well as its effects on local aquatic ecosystems.…”

“…2019; Panagiotakopulu et al . 2020). On the other hand, meteorological measurements from Nuuk reach back to the 18th century at the most (Cappelen 2020), while dendrochronological reconstructions on Juniperus dwarf shrubs from Kobbefjord cover only approximately the last century (Buras et al .…”