An Archaeological Survey in the Strait of Belle Isle Area

This paper is a preliminary descriptive report of an archaeological reconnaissance undertaken during the summer of 1949 in southern Labrador and northern Newfoundland. The project will be continued in the summer of 1950, but since the prehistory of the area is both interesting and relatively unknown...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American Antiquity
Main Author: Harp, Elmer
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1951
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/276781
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600008131
Description
Summary:This paper is a preliminary descriptive report of an archaeological reconnaissance undertaken during the summer of 1949 in southern Labrador and northern Newfoundland. The project will be continued in the summer of 1950, but since the prehistory of the area is both interesting and relatively unknown, I have thought it worth-while to write a brief account of the work as far as it has progressed. The general purposes of the investigation are to delineate the culture of the Beothuck, or Red Indians, who once inhabited Newfoundland, and to trace their derivation; to clarify the manifestations of Cape Dorset Eskimo culture first noted in Newfoundland by Jenness (1929) and Wintemberg (1939, 1940); and to check on the possibilities of contact between the Beothuck and Dorset Eskimo with a view to tracking the diffusion of certain traits which, it is believed, occurred during the Archaic period.