The Intra and Inter-Household Organization of Dorset Period Butchery and Disposal of Harp Seal at Phillip’s Garden (EeBi-1): An examination of two midden assemblages from House 10.

• Main Author: Baxter, Kaylee
• Other Authors: Dr. Patricia Wells, Dr. Matthew Walls, Dr. Gerald Oetelaar, Dr. Naotaka Hayashi
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2023
• Subjects: Phillip's Garden; Harp seal; Middens; Newfoundland; Cutmarks; Middle Dorset; Paleo-Inuit; Butchery; Zooarchaeology; Disposal; houses; Social organization; Archaeology; Canada; Port au Choix; Harp Seal; inuit
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1880/116626; https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/41469

Phillip’s Garden is a large Middle Dorset period seal hunting site in the Port au Choix area of northwestern Newfoundland, Canada. Harp seal dominates all Phillip’s Garden middens in quantities of up to 99% in faunal assemblages. This thesis investigates two midden assemblages from House 10, a large single house at this multi-household aggregation site, to determine the household organization of harp seal processing, consumption, and disposal activities during the height of site occupation. The contents of two middens located at the front and rear of House 10 are analyzed for seal body part representation, cutmarks, and associated tools and artifacts. Results of these analyses demonstrate that each midden has similar body part representation, though interesting contrasts are observed and investigated. Differences in the associated tool and artifact types and counts for each midden are also noted. Midden analysis results are used to isolate and interpret the types of activities that would have contributed to the differential distribution of seal body parts, tools, and artifacts between the front and rear middens of House 10. Evidence of an intra-household organization of harp seal processing and disposal activities has interesting implications in the interpretation of an inter-household communal organization of harp seal resource management at Phillip’s Garden. The results of these analyses suggest that a framework of social organization was involved in the process of butchering, processing, consuming, and disposing of harp seals within and between households at Phillip’s Garden.