Once upon a time in the Arctic: an analysis of Late Dorset metal exchange and interaction in the Eastern Arctic (AD 500-1300)

• Main Author: Jolicoeur, Patrick Charles
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: CC Archaeology; GN Anthropology; Arctic; Greenland; greenlandic; inuit
• Online Access: http://theses.gla.ac.uk/41207/; https://theses.gla.ac.uk/41207/1/2019jolicoeurphd.pdf; https://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b3346188

Around AD 500 Palaeo-Inuit groups, known archaeologically as the Late Dorset, resettled parts of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland their ancestors had left uninhabited for nearly five hundred years. At this time, they started to use and exchange metal that derived from two native sources on opposite ends of the Eastern Arctic and potentially through exchange with the Greenlandic Norse. Despite metal being found in generally low quantities, the presence of it alone in many Late Dorset sites across the Arctic, some nearly one thousand kilometres away from potential sources, has led some researchers to suggest it is under-represented in current collections. This drastically hinders any attempt at understanding how much metal was being used, where it was being used, and why it was being used. Moreover, given its known wide distribution and constrained source regions, metal is a potentially important, measurable, and, arguably, unique indicator of the maximum extent of Late Dorset interaction networks. Fortunately, most Arctic sites have good organic preservation leaving the Late Dorset archaeological record rich in ivory, bone, and wood objects, such as harpoon heads and knife handles, that may have held metal blades. This thesis quantitatively and qualitatively assesses two key potential proxy indicators of metal use that has in the past been used successfully in Inuit contexts in order to better understand the extent, intensity, and nature of Late Dorset metal use and exchange. First, the analysis demonstrates that the thickness of blade slots of harpoon heads, side-, and end-hafted handles can be a reliable indicator for the raw material of the blade it once held. Once compared with lithic and metal blades to provide a baseline, the data show that blade slot sizes, particularly in the case of harpoon heads, become thinner during the Late Dorset period. In the case of one Late Dorset harpoon head type, metal was used more frequently than stone. Second, deposits left behind on those organic objects through contact ...