Aspects of Thule Culture Adaptations in Southern Baffin

• Main Authors: George Sabo Iii, John D. Jacobs
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Lake Harbour; Arctic; Baffin; eskimo*; esquimaux; inuit; ringed seal; Thule culture
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.605.239; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic33-3-487.pdf

ABSTRACT. An archaeological sequence of Neo-Eskimo occupations, based upon ex-cavations of eight Thule winter houses near Lake Harbour, Baffin Island, is outlined, beginning around A.D. 1100 and extending into the present century. Relationships be-tween past climatic events, local environmental characteristics, and the organization of Neo-Eskimo subsistence-settlement systems are traced throughout this period of time, based on analysis of artifactual, faunal, and midden deposit data. A rescheduling of procurement systems, coupled with a shift in the emphasis of falVwinter settlement options, is seen in response.to climatic/ecological changes, commencing after A.D. 1250, which affected the accessibility of bowhead whales, ringed seal, and caribou. It is sug-gested that flexibility in the organization of domestic units and demographic arrangements was an important cultural mechanism permitting Thule and recent Inuit populations to respond effectively to changes in their biophysical environments. RÉSUMÉ. Les auteurs schematisent une sequence archeologique des occupations des Esquimaux “Contemporains”, basCe sur la mise àjour de 8 maisons d’hiver de I’tpoque de Thult, pres de “Lake Harbour”, sur I’ile de Baffin. Cette sequence s’ttage de 1100 ans