Evidence of Early Metalworking in Arctic Canada

• Published in: Geoarchaeology
• Main Authors: Sutherland, Patricia D., Thompson, Peter H., Hunt, Patricia A.
• Other Authors: The Government of Canada Program for International Polar Year, Canadian Museum of Civilization and Memorial University of Newfoundland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2014
• Subjects: Arctic; Baffin Island; Canada; Baffin; inuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gea.21497; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fgea.21497; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/gea.21497; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/gea.21497

This paper examines new evidence related to an early (pre‐Columbian) European presence in Arctic Canada. Artifacts from archaeological sites that had been assumed to relate to pre‐Inuit indigenous occupations of the region in the centuries around A.D. 1000 have recently been recognized as having been manufactured using European technologies. We report here on the SEM‐EDS analysis of a small stone vessel recovered from a site on Baffin Island. The interior of the vessel contains abundant traces of copper–tin alloy (bronze) as well as glass spherules similar to those associated with high‐temperature processes. These results indicate that it had been used as a crucible. This artifact may represent the earliest evidence of high‐temperature nonferrous metalworking in the New World north of Mesoamerica.