Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:12:50.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inughuit Open Water Hunting Before the Nineteenth Century: New Dates and Questions from Washington Land, Northwest Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matthew Walls ,
Pauline Knudsen  and
Frederik Larsen
Matthew Walls
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 2PG (matthew.walls@arch.ox.ac.uk)
Pauline Knudsen
Affiliation:
Nunatta Katersugaasivia/Greenland National Museum, Nuuk
Frederik Larsen
Affiliation:
Ilisimatusarfik /University of Greenland, Nuuk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This report re-examines the Morris Bay Kayak, which was discovered in Washington Land, Northwest Greenland in 1921. Kayaks rarely preserve archaeologically, and the find is especially significant because the closest Inuit group, the Inughuit, were thought to have lost the technology sometime before the nineteenth century. In this context, radiocarbon dating of caribou antler pieces from the kayak places the date of the assemblage as surprisingly recent. Through comparison with regional assemblages, we argue that the Morris Bay Kayak is representative of a locally developed tradition of kayaking that was practiced until shortly before the colonial period and that this has important implications for understanding the deeper history of Inughuit open-water hunting.

Résumé

Résumé

Este informe examina nuevamente el Kayak de Bahia Morris, quefue descubierto en tierra de Washington, al noroeste de Groenlandia en 1921. Los kayaks raramente se conservan arqueológicamente, y el hallazgo es especialmente significativo porque el grupo Inuit más cercano, los Inughuit, se pensaba que habían perdido esta tecnología en algún momento antes del siglo XIX. En este contexto, la datación por radiocarbono de piezas de asta de caribú del kayak asocian estos restos a una fecha sorprendentemente reciente. Mediante la comparación con conjuntos regionales, argumentamos que el Kayak de Bahía Morris representa una traditión desarrollada localmente del uso de kayaks que se practicaba hasta poco antes de la época colonial, y discutimos las implicaciones que esto tiene para la comprensión de la historia más profunda de la caza en aguas abiertas de los Inughuit.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 602 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Appelt, Martin, Gulløv, Hans Christian, and Kapel, Hans 1998 The Gateway to Greenland. Report on the Field Season 1996. In Man, Culture and Environment in Ancient Greenland, edited by Jette Arneborg and Hans Christain Gulløv, pp. 136–196. Danish National Museum/Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Birket-Smith, Kaj 1924 Ethnography of the Egedesminde District. Meddelelser om Grønland 66.Google Scholar
Boyd, Robert, Richerson, Peter J., and Henrich, Joseph 2011 The Cultural Niche: Why Social Learning is Essential for Human Adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108:10918–10925. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Darwent, John, Darwent, Christyann, LeMoine, Genevieve, and Lange, Hans 2007 Archaeological Survey of Eastern Inglefield Land, Northwest Greenland. Arctic Anthropology 44(2):51–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Jared M. 1997 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Norton, New York.Google Scholar
Dumont, Dany, Gratton, Yves, and Arbetter, Todd 2009 Modeling the Dynamics of the North Water Polynya Ice Bridge. Journal of Physical Oceanography 39:1448.Google Scholar
Friesen, T. Max, and Arnold, Charles D. 2008 The Timing of the Thule Migration: New Dates from the Western Canadian Arctic. American Antiquity 73:527–538.Google Scholar
Gad, Finn 1973 A History of Greenland 2. McGill Queens University Press, Montreal, Quebec.Google Scholar
Golden, Harvey 2006 Kayaks of Greenland: The History and Development of the Greenlandic Hunting Kayak, 1600–2000. White House Grocery Press, Portland.Google Scholar
Holtved, Erik 1944 Archaeological Investigations in the Thule District. Meddelelser om Gr0nland 141(1,2).Google Scholar
Holtved, Erik 1967 Contributions to Polar Eskimo Ethnography. Meddelelser om Gr0nland 182(2).Google Scholar
Howse, Lesley 2013 Revisiting an Early Thule Inuit Occupation of Skraeling Island, Canadian High Arctic. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 37(1):103–125.Google Scholar
Johansen, Trine B. 2012 A Zooarchaeological and Ethnographic Investigation of Subsistence Change through Time at Iita, Northwest Greenland. PhD. dissertation., Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Koch, Lauge 1922 Ethnographical Observations from the Southern Coast of Washington Land. American Anthropologist 24:484–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeMoine, Genevieve M., and Darwent, Christyann M. 2010 The Inglefield Land Archaeology Project: Introduction and Overview. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 110:279–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lethbridge, Thomas C. 1939 Archaeological Data from the Canadian Arctic. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 69:187–233.Google Scholar
McCullough, Karen M. 1989 The Ruin Islanders: Thule Culture Pioneers in the Eastern High Arctic. Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series, No. 31. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, Ontario.Google Scholar
McGhee, Robert 1994 Disease and the Development of Inuit Culture. Current Anthropology 35:565–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mary-Rousseliere, Guy 1991 Qitdlarssuaq: The Story of a Polar Migration. Translated by A. Cooke. Wuerz, Winnipeg, Manitoba.Google Scholar
Mason, Owen K. 2010 Beach Ridge Geomorphology at Cape Grinnell, Northern Greenland: A Less Icy Arctic in the Mid-Holocene. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 110:337–355.Google Scholar
Mathiassen, Therkel 1928 Eskimo Relics from Washington Land and Hall Land. Meddelelser om Gr0nland 71(3).Google Scholar
Nansen, Fritjof 1893 Eskimo Life. Longmans, London.Google Scholar
Petersen, Hans Christian 1987 Den Store Kajakbog. Attuakkiorfik, Nuuk.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Knud 1908 The People of the Polar North: A Record. Paul, Trench, and Triibner, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Ross, John 1819 A Voyage of Discovery, Made Under the Order of the Admiralty, in his Majesty’s Ships Isabella and Alexander, for the Purpose of Exploring Baffin’s Bay, and Inquiring into the Probability of a Northwest Passage. J. Murray, London.Google Scholar
Rowley, Susan 1994 Reply to Robert McGhee: Disease and the Development of Inuit Culture. Current Anthropology 35:565–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schledermann, Peter 1980 Polynyas and Prehistoric Settlement Patterns. Arctic 33:292–302.Google Scholar
Schledermann, Peter, and McCullough, Karen 1980 Western Elements in the Early Thule Culture of the Eastern High Arctic. Arctic 33:833–841.Google Scholar
Schledermann, Peter, and McCullough, Karen 2003 Late Thule Culture Developments on the Central East Coast of Ellesmere Island. Danish National Museum/Danish Polar Center, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Sørensen, Mikkel, and Gulløv, Hans Christian 2012 The Prehistory of Inuit in Northeast Greenland. Arctic Anthropology 49(1):88–104.Google Scholar
Steensby, Hans P. 1910 Contributions to the Ethnology and Anthropogeography of the Polar Eskimos. Meddelelser om Grønland 34(7).Google Scholar
Van Stone, James W. 1972 New Evidence Concerning Polar Eskimo Isolation. American Anthropologist 74:1062–1065.Google Scholar
Vibe, Christian 1950 The Marine Mammals and the Marine Fauna in the Thule District (Northwest Greenland) with Observations on Ice Conditions in 1939–41: Den Danske Thule og Ellesmere Land Ekspedition 1939–41. Meddelelser om Grønland 150(6).Google Scholar
Walls, Matthew 2012a Wood Use and Kayak Construction: Material Selection from the Perspective of Carpentry. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 36(1):49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walls, Matthew 2012b Kayak Games and Hunting Enskilment: An Archaeological Consideration Of Sports and the Situated Learning of Technical Skills. World Archaeology 44(2):175–188.Google Scholar
Walls, Matthew 2014 Report on the Analysis and Reconstruction of the Morris Bay Assemblage from Washington Land, Northwest Greenland. Nunatta Katersugaasivia (the Greenland National Museum), Nuuk.Google Scholar
Wissler, Clark 1918 Archaeology of the Polar Eskimo. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History Vol. 22, Part3. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar