Weathering the Storm: Analyzing Thule Trade Dynamics in Response to the Little Ice Age, 1200 to 1800 CE

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Interactions between individuals and material culture present an invaluable resource to understanding not only people’s daily lives, but also how they navigated periods of environmental instability. From approximately 1375 to 1800 CE, Thule communities in Inuit Nunangat (Arctic Canada) faced the decreasing temperatures and increased sea ice associated with the onset of the Little Ice Age. A potential strategy for coping with environmental and resource insecurity is increasing trade with extra-local communities to both obtain goods and strengthen social relationships and the intersection of trade goods and climate change has not previously been thoroughly explored in this region. To understand if, and how, the Little Ice Age prompted changes in ancestral Inuit exchange practices, artifact collections from 32 sites in Inuit Nunangat, spanning from 1200 to 1800 CE, were analyzed to answer the question: what did changes in exchange during the Little Ice Age period look like in terms of geographic extent, quantity, and functional categories of items? Developing a thorough understanding of interaction patterns through a proxy of durable trade goods will allow for new understandings of how Thule communities may have used trade as an adaptational strategy in a time of environmental hardship.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50458