Metalheads about the Polar Sea: Metal-Use in the Eastern Arctic and Its Significance for Understanding Broader Interaction Dynamics

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The earliest metal use in the Eastern North American Arctic comes from the Pre-Dorset period (ca. 5000–2500 cal BP). However, evidence for the material being used regularly and outside its immediate source regions emerges millennia later in the Late Dorset period (ca. 1500–700 cal BP). While physical evidence of metal remains relatively rare at most Late Dorset period sites, proxy evidence for its use has demonstrated that the material was much more common than previously thought. Interestingly, metal did not “replace” lithic materials but rather operated in conjunction with them. While metal was seemingly used for a narrower set of activities than stone, it cannot be explained by physical material properties and availability alone. Furthermore, the geographically limited source regions for both copper and iron mean that metal is an excellent data source for understanding the extent and intensity of exchange networks during the Late Dorset period. This paper presents this new proxy evidence of metal-use and debates what this material meant to Arctic peoples and its role in connecting them across thousands of kilometers. Ultimately, metal-use is an important component for approaching broader interaction dynamics between different Arctic groups at this time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36740.0