Arctic Archaeology (Other Keyword)
1-6 (6 Records)
Beach ridge archaeology developed as a relative-age archaeological survey method in the late 1950s within Kotzebue Sound. Giddings’ breakthrough collaboration with geologists David Hopkins and George Moore focused on Cape Krusenstern, defining 5,000 years of prehistory from the Denbigh complex to Thule tradition, dated mostly by reference to the type site at Onion Portage and 14C ages mostly on Old Whaling and Ipiutak and Thule occupations, but none on Norton or Denbigh. The onset of beach ridge...
Jade polishing techniques in NW Alaska, from the end of the 1st millennium AD to the 18th century. (2015)
The study applies a qualitative and quantitative characterization of polished jade tools from Cape Espenberg in Northwestern Alaska, dated from the Thule period. An experimental study of polishing techniques on jade was carried out in order to reproduce diagnostic use-wear traces associated with different polishing techniques, processing, and craft activities. The study was carried out at the Laboratory of Tribology and Systems Dynamics - Ecole Centrale Lyon 2 and was based on different scales...
Late Dorset and Thule Inuit Hunting Technologies and Archaeofaunas: Implications for Societal Differences (2017)
This paper investigates human and animal interaction in two very different hunter-gatherer societies, Late Dorset and Thule Inuit, who once occupied the eastern Arctic. To access cultural differences I focus on how disparate hunting technologies impacted each society's archaeofaunas, and describe what appear to be culturally distinct trends in the faunal remains. In light of these findings, differences between Late Dorset and Thule Inuit hunting strategies, and other societal aspects including...
Nunalleq past and present – discovering a Yup’ik archaeological heritage (2015)
The Yup’ik, the Indigenous people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, have since the 19th century been in the centre of ethnographic research in the Arctic. Yup’ik customs and material culture have been collected and investigated with the pretext of preserving a ‘vanishing’ traditional lifeway. Today Yup’ik culture is vibrant with a strong connection to traditional subsistence strategies and ways of life. However, Yup’ik history is very much the history of the ‘Other’, retold and written from a...
Preliminary results of new excavations on Jens Munk Island, Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada (2017)
Paleo-Inuit groups settled and inhabited the Canadian Arctic from 2800 B.C. until the arrival of Thule Inuit groups approximately 1200 A.D. Previous archaeological research indicated that Paleo-Inuit populations were particularly large and stable in a "core area" comprising Foxe Basin, Nunavut, and adjacent regions. The diverse and supposedly stable resources of this area allowed people to continuously inhabit the region for almost 3000 years, including a supposedly smooth transition from the...
Revisiting the Morris Bay Kayak: Analysis and Implications for Inughuit Hunting Practices before the 19th Century (2017)
The Morris Bay Kayak is a unique assemblage that consists of kayak fragments and associated hunting equipment that was discovered in 1921 by chance in Washington Land, NW Greenland. This paper documents results from a collaborative project with the Greenland National Museum to re-analyze and date the Morris Bay Kayak, and to consider how it fits in the current perspectives on Inughuit archaeology. Working with the traditional kayaking community in Greenland, the project reconstructed the kayak’s...