Palaeoeskimo Demography on Western Boothia Peninsula, Arctic Canada

1

Palaeoeskimo Demography on Western Boothia Peninsula, Arctic Canada James M. Savelle McGill University Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Arthur S. Dyke Geological Survey of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Surveys on western Boothia Peninsula in 2004 documented 483 Palaeoeskimo dwellings spanning approximately 3300 years (4500–1200 B.P. in uncalibrated radiocarbon years), about the total time range for Palaeoeskimo groups in the central Canadian Arctic. On the bases of dwelling elevations above sea level and a series of radiocarbon dates, Palaeoeskimo occupation appears to have passed through multiple boom-and-bust cycles. Following the first peopling of the region about 4500 B.P., populations rose to a maximum between about 4200 and 3600 B.P., followed by a crash. A recovery between 3200 and 2500 B.P. led to a second decline, and a final, partial recovery between 1600 and 1200 B.P. was followed by the disappearance of Palaeoeskimo groups. Although climate change cannot be ruled out as a causal factor for these cycles, there is no compelling evidence for such a scenario. Resource overexploitation is equally plausible, although we do not necessarily favor one cause over the other. We interpret the intrasite patterns to indicate that Palaeoeskimo settlements were comprised of dispersed nuclear families or small extended families for most of the year, but annual aggregations involved 100 individuals or more. Minimal social units do not appear to have changed during seasonal aggregations in Pre-Dorset times (4500–2500 B.P.). By Dorset times (2500–700 B.P.), however, minimal social units sometimes melded together to form one or a few larger units living in one or a few large dwellings. The latter may represent the social precursor of later Dorset longhouse aggregations..

Introduction Here, we present the results of the first systematic survey of Palaeoeskimo sites on Boothia Peninsula in the central Canadian Arctic (fig. 1). Our foci include the changing abundance of dwellings by elevation on raised beach sequences—a proxy for age—individual dwelling sizes, and overall site sizes and characteristics. In addition, we provide the first radiocarbon age determinations from sites in this region. We summarize primary field and radiocarbon data, comment on changing levels of human occupation and social organization, and discuss what might have caused fluctuations in population. Palaeoeskimos were the first people to occupy the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, parts of the Canadian Arctic Mainland, and Greenland (e.g., Wright 2004). They are known by various cultural names, but in the central Canadian Arctic, the early Palaeoeskimo groups are generally referred to as the Pre-Dorset culture (approximately

4500–2500 b.p.) and the late Palaeoeskimo groups as the Dorset culture. The latter is thought to be descended from the former in the Canadian Arctic about 2500 b.p. and to have been replaced by immigrant Neoeskimos from the Bering Strait region about 1000–700 b.p. Neoeskimo sites have been recorded on Boothia Peninsula (Savelle 1987) and the historical occupation of the region has been thoroughly documented by Rasmussen (1931) and Balikci (1984), among others. The Palaeoeskimo expansion from the Bering Strait region across the Canadian Arctic and into Greenland beginning 4500 years ago is one of the last major episodes of hunter-gatherer movement into a previously unoccupied region. Western Boothia Peninsula is situated in the center of the Palaeoeskimo expansion corridor, but until our study, had not been the subject of any systematic archaeological surveys and no sites were previously reported from this region. Our study, therefore, is of interest not only

2 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

Somerset Island

a ln anhne ChC tocckk ’Ci linnt M Cl

M'

Weld Harbour Cape Alexander

ne

Boothia Peninsula

l

Victoria Island

Baffin Island

King William Island

N

Nunavut 0

100 Km

oughly inspected. We recorded the elevations above sea level from the high tide line (masl) of all archaeological sites using a surveying altimeter. Altimeter readings were corrected for changes in atmospheric pressure and are probably accurate within ± 0.5 m. All dwelling locations were recorded with a hand-held GPS. Dwellings were measured with a steel tape and were classified according to familiar Palaeoeskimo architectural types (Ryan 2003; Sutherland 2003). Small samples of hearth charcoal, burnt moss, and wood and bone debitage on or near the surface were collected for radiocarbon dating; otherwise nothing was excavated. Although additional materials such as artifacts, debitage, and other faunal remains were recorded when present, they were not collected. Charcoal and wood samples were identified anatomically as either local willow (Salix sp.) or as far-traveled driftwood (spruce [Picea spp.] or larch [Larix spp.]) after leaching in multiple baths of HCl to remove secondary carbonate, which typically coated and infused them. Willow charcoal was chosen for dating where present; otherwise driftwood charcoal was used. The burnt moss samples were identified as Polytrichium sp., a terrestrial (as opposed to aquatic) genus. Radiocarbon dates were calibrated (rounded to decade) by the online version of CALIB 5.0.2, accessed on 29 January 2008 using the ± 2 sigma range with the largest area under the probability curve (Stuiver et al. 1998).

Environment Figure 1. Location of Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander survey regions in the Canadian Arctic. Map by Melanie Poupart.

from the standpoint of the initial migration and subsequent development of Palaeoeskimo society in the Canadian Arctic, but also for what it reveals about hunter-gatherer colonizing behavior.

Methods From two aircraft-deployed field camps in Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander, located 100 km apart (fig. 1), we surveyed glacioisostatically raised beach sequences (fig. 2) by all-terrain vehicles in 2004. We inspected beaches between modern sea level and the limit of postglacial marine submergence (marine limit) at about 120 m in elevation, concentrating our search in the lower 30 m where archaeological sites proved to be abundant. During six days at each camp, we searched coastal segments about 15 km in each direction from Weld Harbour and about 10 km in each direction from Cape Alexander. Two observers traversed parallel lines obliquely upslope and down, both away from and towards camp each day, so that most of the terrain within the search area was uniformly and thor-

Boothia Peninsula lies within the Mid-Arctic vegetation belt as defined by Edlund (1986). Climate data from the nearest community a short distance to the south indicate a mean annual temperature and precipitation of -15.4°C and 153.4 mm, respectively; mean January and July temperatures are -34.4° and 7.1°C, respectively (Dyke 1984). The Mid-Arctic typically has a vegetation cover of 30–50%. Willow is the only large shrub and common plants include sedges, grasses, forbs, and ericaceous shrubs. The Mid-Arctic lies between the High Arctic (polar desert), where the vegetation cover is typically 1–5%, and the Low Arctic, where vegetation cover commonly attains 50–100% and where dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa, B. nana) and alder (Alnus spp.) may be present as additional large shrubs. In both the Mid- and High Arctic, vegetation cover is strongly suppressed on highly alkaline substrates and is enhanced on the nutrient-rich acidic substrates. On both substrates, plant cover responds markedly to soil drainage conditions. Our survey areas were dominated by rather uniform flights of raised beaches (fig. 2) composed mainly of gravel with carbonate (dolomitic) clasts predominating. Due to limited nutrient availability from dolomite and the excessively well-drained conditions, and despite a general Mid-

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 3

Figure 2. Typical sequence of raised beaches on Boothia Peninsula with progressively older, higher beaches inland from the modern beach. View to the east. Photograph by James M. Savelle.

Arctic location, vegetation cover on the raised beaches is typically only 1–5%. Vegetation cover on the beaches, however, is enhanced at sites of former human occupation because of nutrients added from food and other organic refuse, which makes these dwellings conspicuous. Vegetation cover is also enhanced in swales and small wetlands between raised beaches and on glacial till, particularly above marine limit but also in patches down to the modern shoreline, presumably because of its moisture-holding capacity. Furthermore, areas of finer-grained, raised marine sediment and alluvium support greater vegetation covers, which are sufficient to support small year-round caribou and muskoxen herds. The Quaternary geology and general environmental conditions are described by Dyke (1984). It is important to mention here that postglacial uplift rates increase southward along the west coast of Boothia Peninsula, and thus a relict beach of a given age is uplifted more at Cape Alexan-

der than it is at Weld Harbour. For the 5000-year-old beach, the difference is only a few meters, and the difference decreases through time thereafter. Western Boothia Peninsula lies adjacent the east side of M’Clintock Channel, a segment of the central part of the Northwest Passage that has a near-perennial sea-ice cover. Summer sea-ice cover here is more persistent than in areas both to the east and west, and the chilling effect of onshore winds renders the M’Clintock Channel region the most severe summertime environment along the w–e path of the Palaeoeskimo across the North American Arctic. The seaice is a mix of first-year (75%) and multi-year ice. In many summers, the channel opens partly, mainly thru in situ ablation and preferential northward recession of the floe edge along the Boothia Peninsula coast (Barber and Iacozza 2004). The average opening along this coast in a.d. 1980–2000 was in late August and the average freeze-up was in late September. The open water period lasts long

4 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

enough and the beach-forming processes are sufficiently active that the modern beach along most of the west coast of Boothia Peninsula is a bulky ridge of well-sorted coarse gravel. The raised beaches, particularly in the lower 50 m or so, are equally well formed, and are almost exclusively the sites of Palaeoeskimo dwellings.

Significant Faunal Resources The two most important mammalian species to Inuit living in the area—the Netsilik—are ringed seals (Phoca hispida) and caribou (Rangifer tarandus). Ringed seals, which rely on landfast sea-ice through which they maintain multiple breathing holes and upon which their snow-cover breeding dens are located, occupy the region yearround. Sealing was traditionally the primary winter and spring subsistence activity, with seals abundant along both the west and east coasts of Boothia Peninsula and in adjacent areas to the north and south (e.g., Ross 1835; M’Clintock 1859; Brice-Bennett 1976). Both Peary caribou (R.t. ssp. pearyi) and barren ground caribou (R.t. ssp. tarandus) are present on Boothia Peninsula, the former a year-round resident, the latter a summer migrant from the Low Arctic. Although there are no early historical population estimates for these caribou, their numbers are believed to have drastically declined in the 1930s and 1940s to the point that the northward migration of barren ground caribou stopped entirely. Peary caribou tend to reside year-round on western Boothia Peninsula, occurring in small groups of 30 or less. Miller and colleagues (Miller, Barry, and Calvert 2007) suggest that Boothia Peninsula serves as a winter and spring locale for annually migrating Peary caribou from Somerset and Prince of Wales islands to the north. At the same time, some of the “resident” Boothia Peninsula Peary caribou apparently migrate south in the fall and winter. Barren ground caribou are found mainly on the east side of the peninsula (Miller, Barry, and Calvert 2007); presumably their migrations resumed sometime after the 1940s. Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) is an important anadromous fish species, harvested primarily during the summer and fall. Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), arctic cod (Boreogadus sada), and whitefish (Coregonus clupaeformis) are also important food stocks. Fish appear to have constituted a significant part of the Netsilik diet in the study region (Rasmussen 1931; Balikci 1984; Stewart 2005), and they probably also constituted a significant part of the Palaeoeskimo diet, although detailed excavations would be required to demonstrate this. Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) were traditionally hunted south of the study region and occasionally on Boothia Peninsula (e.g., Ross 1835: 349–353); however, none

were reported on Boothia Peninsula for a number of years in the 1950s (Barr 1991: 52–53), presumably because of over-hunting following the introduction of the rifle. Whether they were ever an important resource for Palaeoeskimos is unknown at this point. Other resources historically hunted in the area include beluga (Delphinapterus leucas), narwhal (Monodon monoceros; northern part of the west coast only), foxes, and various migratory and resident birds (Brice-Bennett 1976). The whales were probably not hunted by Palaeoeskimos, though perhaps they were occasionally scavenged (Savelle 1994).

Research Results and Discussion

General Site Distribution Palaeoeskimo dwellings are distributed throughout the coastal length of the areas surveyed such that a small-scale map of sites virtually outlines the coastline (fig. 3). This could be a result of the rather monotonous coastline and the fact that both terrestrial and marine resources are moreor-less evenly distributed and mobile. Although wetlands, seepage slopes, and moisture-retaining substrates such as till were conspicuously avoided and account for the larger site gaps in Figure 3, site locations within the extensive raised beach terrains are randomly distributed alongshore and show no particular affinity for streams or ponds. We define a site as an individual dwelling isolated from, and generally not within sight of, any others, or as an obvious grouping of two or more dwellings at the same elevation, or at similar elevations on adjacent beach ridges where the dwellings are spaced a few meters apart.

Dwelling Frequencies and Ages We recorded 240 Palaeoeskimo dwellings at 92 sites in the Weld Harbour area and 243 dwellings at 69 sites in the Cape Alexander area. Dwelling architecture at sites such as these located on barren beach gravel is quite obvious, requiring no excavation. The distribution of dwellings by elevation is remarkably similar in both areas (fig. 4). We found no Palaeoeskimo sites at elevations higher than those shown in Figure 4. The histograms in Figure 4 show a prominent mode for both areas above 20 masl, a secondary mode close to 15 masl, and a weak third mode close to 5 masl elevation. The first mode at Cape Alexander is 2 m higher than the first at Weld Harbour, which is the difference that might be expected from glacioisostatic tilting if the two are of the same age. It is difficult to explain the tight clustering of sites by elevation, especially when they are so similar in both areas, as anything other than a strong tendency by Palaeoeskimo people to camp very close to the

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 5

17 22C

22G 25

16

18

28

29

30 31 32

Cape Alexander

Weld Harbour 5 6

7 163 9 1 10

12 144

140 163 138 171 135 148 150 121 178 169 175 125 126 128 127A

51 53 52 40

Number of dwellings in site 1–7

39

54

57

55 58 61 59 42 62 43B 64 44 67 69 46 70 47 72 81 74 99 75 80B 105 102

8–17 18–30

77

134 130 152 153 133

131

79 154

78

78B 106 108 107

155 156

109

157B 157D 157E

110

157A

111

158

84

86 88 89

85 90 91

92

0

10 km

Figure 3. Location of sites and number of dwellings at individual sites in the Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander survey regions. Map by Melanie Poupart.

163 164

6 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

70

Weld Harbour 60

Number of dwellings

50 40 30 20 10 0 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

25

30

35

Elevation (masl) 70

Cape Alexander 60

Number of dwellings

50 40 30 20 10 0 0

5

10

15 20 Elevation (masl)

Figure 4. Frequency of Palaeoeskimo dwellings by elevation at Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander. Figure by Melanie Poupart.

shoreline. Otherwise the sites should be uniformly or randomly distributed and should not be limited to the middle and late Holocene raised beaches. If these dwellings were occupied when the shoreline was only a few meters below the campsites, as the distributions suggest, the relative sealevel history (Dyke, Morris, and Green 1991) would indicate that the three modes date from early Pre-Dorset, late Pre-Dorset/early Dorset, and Late Dorset times. The high correlation between elevation and Palaeoeskimo site ages in strongly uplifted regions of Arctic Canada has been not-

ed since the earliest studies (e.g., Meldgaard 1960), and has been confirmed in subsequent studies (Savelle and Dyke 2002; Dyke and Savelle in press; Savelle, Dyke, and Poupart in press). In some studies, elevation serves as the primary dating tool (Schledermann 1978; Murray 1996: 32–34). Radiocarbon dates are consistent with the occupation ages inferred from the relative sea-level history. We obtained 25 radiocarbon dates on as many dwellings (table 1). Although one result (AA-61956) violates the assump-

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 7

Table 1. Radiocarbon dates (years b.p.) from Palaeoeskimo dwellings, western Boothia Peninsula. The last column, “Area,” is the area under the probability distribution for the calibration. The stated range is that with the largest area. Laboratory and borden codes

Weld Harbour AA-62371 OfLb-6-F1 AA-62370 OfLb-5-F1 AA-62372 OfLb-9-F1 AA-62369 OgLb-8-F2 AA-61461 OgLb-9-F7 AA-62368 OgLb-7-F1 AA-63086 OgLb-2-F2 AA-62460 OfLb-2-F1 AA-61956 OfLb-3 AA-61957 OfLb-4-F2 AA-63087 OfLb-7 AA-62367 OgLb-3 GSC-6838 OfLb-1-F1 Cape Alexander AA-62374 OcLb-8-F11 AA-61958 OcLb-6-F6 AA-62366 OcLb-1-F1 AA-62373 OcLb-3-F1 AA-62462 OcLb-13-F2 AA-62459 OcLb-2-F6 AA-62463 OcLb-18 AA-62375 OfLb-23-F2 AA-63089 OcLb-12-F3 AA-61959 OcLb-7-F5 AA-63088 OcLb-10-F1 GSC-6859 OcLb-7

Material

masl

14C

Picea charcoal

22.5

Picea charcoal

age (13C)

2-sigma range B.P.

Area

5746 ± 47 (-25.35)

6440–6660

1.000

22.5

4416 ± 44 (-26.27)

4860–5070

0.773

Picea charcoal

23

4162 ± 42 (-26.20)

4570–4830

1.000

Picea charcoal

23

3916 ± 43 (-24.83)

4230–4440

0.953

Picea charcoal

22

3893 ± 64 (-25.88)

4150–4450

0.949

Salix charcoal

22

3615 ± 43 (-26.20)

3840–4010

0.897

Burnt moss Polytrichium sp.

13

2972 ± 41 (-24.76)

3000–3270

0.973

Picea charcoal

12.5

2886 ± 63 (-24.98)

2830–3220

1.000

Caribou/muskox bone

29

2250 ± 50 (-23.74)

2150–2350

1.000

Caribou/muskox bone

12.5

1878 ± 52 (-20.66)

1700–1930

0.999

Salix charcoal

4

1404 ± 39 (-25.24)

1280–1380

1.000

Salix charcoal

5

1297 ± 38 (-23.57)

1170–1300

0.986

Picea wood

12.5

520 ± 60 (-25.61)

480–650

1.000

Picea charcoal

24.5

4580 ± 44 (-25.16)

5210–5330

0.402

Caribou/muskox bone

28

4486 ± 62 (-16.32)

4960–5310

0.970

Caribou bone

20.5

4164 ± 58 (-15.62)

4570–4840

0.955

Picea charcoal

23.5

4059 ± 43 (-24.49)

4420–4650

0.856

Picea charcoal

16.5

3149 ±70 (-25.65)

3210–3510

0.968

Picea charcoal

15

2966 ± 43 (-26.09)

3000–3270

0.975

Picea charcoal

15.5

2751 ± 62 (-25.75)

2750–2990

1.000

Salix charcoal

14

2445 ± 40 (-26.03)

2360–2550

0.619

Salix charcoal

14

1878 ± 41 (-24.49)

1710–1900

0.997

Caribou/muskox bone

6

1623 ± 50 (-15.17)

1400–1620

0.978

Burnt moss Polytricium sp.

4

1193 ± 38 (-24.10)

1050–1190

0.842

Larix charcoal

6

990 ± 70 (-25.16)

740–1010

0.957

tion that the dwelling was occupied when relative sea level was just below the site, noise of this sort is expected because people did not necessarily camp close to sea level during every camping episode. Nevertheless, the upper group of dwellings near both Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander

clearly date to about 4500–3600 b.p. (5050/5250–3890 cal. b.p.) (Stuiver et al. 1998), even if one considers only food bone and willow charcoal dates. Driftwood charcoal dates are generally less reliable because of possible inherited age effects, and this is borne out by our oldest sample

8 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

Table 2. Common types of Palaeoeskimo dwellings. Elevations are in meters above high tide. Cultural period range is based on elevation and radiocarbon dates. Dwelling type

N

masl

Cultural period range

Tent ring Tent ring with hearth Tent ring with midpassage Midpassage without tent ring Paved area Sod patch Isolated hearth

117 (24%) 48 (10%) 99 (20%) 90 (19%) 67 (14%) 41 (8%) 21 (4%)

6.5–29 10–29.5 4.5–31 4–28.5 5–29.5 12–33.5 11–32.5

Early Pre-Dorset–Late Dorset Early Pre-Dorset–Early Dorset Early Pre-Dorset–Late Dorset Early Pre-Dorset–Late Dorset Early Pre-Dorset–Late Dorset Pre-Dorset–Early Dorset Pre-Dorset–Early Dorset

common dwelling types

Table 3. Range of dwelling types according to numbers of dwellings per site. Dwellings per site

1 type

2 types

3 types

4 types

5 types

6 types

Total sites

2 3 4 5 6

24 7 2 3 3

21 13 2 2 –

– 2 4 1 2

– – 1 1 1

– – – – 1

– – – – –

45 22 9 7 7

7 9 10 11 12

– – – – –

– – – – –

1 1 – – –

– – – 1 –

1 1 1 – 1

– – – 1 –

2 2 1 2 1

13 15 25 27

– – – –

– – – –

1 – 1 1

– – – –

– – – –

– 1 – –

1 1 1 1

(AA-62371), which probably resulted from the burning of ancient driftwood. Otherwise, our driftwood charcoal dates correspond to the same age range as the others and are not problematic. They fall comfortably into the early Pre-Dorset period in Arctic Canada (Wright 2004) and several are among the earliest available from the Canadian Arctic. Sites close to 15 masl yielded radiocarbon dates mainly between 3200–2500 b.p. (3400/3425–2525/2710 cal. b.p.), suggesting a late Pre-Dorset occupation. The sites near 5 masl yielded dates mainly between 1600–1200 b.p. (1525–1080/1175 cal. b.p.), suggesting late Dorset occupations. Surface artifacts, mainly microblades and rare endblades (blades for various projectiles including harpoon heads) of chert, are too rare to confirm or deny these cultural assignments. Clearly, however, the strong clustering of sites by elevation and the similarity between the two survey areas in that respect is suggestive of discrete occupation intervals and perhaps intervals of abandonment. Currently, we lack evidence of occupation between 3600–3200 b.p. and between 2200–1900 b.p. (table 1). Samples GSC6838 and GSC-6859 are on pieces of driftwood from the surface of the floor areas of Palaeoeskimo dwellings. The samples possibly postdate occupation, although GSC6859 is not unreasonably young for terminal Dorset.

We recognized seven common types of Palaeoeskimo dwelling architecture in the two areas surveyed (table 2). The most abundant of these are simple tent rings, tent rings with midpassages (fig. 5), and midpassages lacking tent rings (fig. 6). Midpassages are axial structural features of tent dwellings typically containing one or more hearths and adjacent areas for food preparation and storage. Tent rings are typically rectangular or oval, but some are circular. All three of these dwelling types occur across the elevation span of occupied sites and lack temporal significance within the Palaeoeskimo sequence. Generally, the greater the number of dwellings at a site, the more types of dwellings present; no site with more than six dwellings contains only one dwelling type (table 3). Among the 39 sites with only one dwelling type, 32% consist of tent rings with midpassages, 24% are tent rings without midpassages, and 24% are midpassages without tent rings. In some cases, the orientation as well as the dwelling type was the same. Although most midpassages are oriented across the beach ridge, at one site they are all oriented oblique to the ridge, as though to accommodate a strong wind during the raising of the dwellings. As noted above, architectural types at sites on barren beach gravel are visible even without excavation. In sod patches, the sod overgrowth is only about a centimeter thick and is confined mainly to the central part of a former dwelling. Thus, the sod probably does not hide important structural stones. Paved areas are, as the name implies, simply pavements of flagstones and lack other structural rocks, and, as with sod patches, probably delimit only the central part of a former dwelling. uncommon dwelling types In the North American Arctic, the most striking Palaeoeskimo dwelling is the Dorset longhouse, which can be over 40 m in length (Damkjar 2000). We found no large longhouses on Boothia Peninsula; however, two dwellings located in the Weld Harbour area might be considered longhouses at the shorter end of the known length distrib-

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 9

Figure 5. Palaeoeskimo tent ring (6.8 × 5.35 m) with midpassage (6.8 × 1.5 m), site 29 (OgLb-28), Weld Harbour. View west. Photograph by Arthur S. Dyke.

Figure 6. Late Dorset midpassage (2.8 × 1.1 m) with lamp stand (right of notebook), site 87 (OfLb-7), Weld Harbour. View north. Photograph by Arthur S. Dyke.

10 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

Figure 7. Longhouse-like dwelling with four hearth areas forming a midpassage, site 77 (OfLb-4), Weld Harbour. View south. Photograph by Arthur S. Dyke.

ution, which is 8 m according to Damkjar (2000). At site 28 (OgLb-27), an isolated, roughly rectangular dwelling measuring 11.6 × 4.1 m was recorded at 11.5 masl. This dwelling consists of flagstone sides but has no distinct walls or hearth row sets, which are normally associated with Dorset longhouses. A second dwelling at site 77 (OfLb-4F1) (fig. 7) is rectangular and measures 7.8 × 4.9 m with a light flagstone perimeter. It has two hearths at each end within a 1.4 m-wide midpassage running the length of the dwelling. It is situated at 12.5 masl and is associated with a square tent ring (F2; measuring 5 × 4 m) with a midpassage 0.9 m wide. A caribou or muskox long bone fragment collected from this dwelling yielded a radiocarbon date of 1878 ± 52 b.p. While these are not longhouses in the “classic” Late Dorset sense, because they lack associated hearth rows, the two dwellings are within the earliest period of longhouse development noted by Damkjar (2000) and may represent early expressions of what later became the classic Late Dorset longhouse. The Late Dorset midpassages on western Boothia Peninsula stand out as architecturally distinct from older midpassages. Although we have included them in the statistical summary of common dwelling types above, they warrant a brief additional description. They are found on-

ly in the narrow, lower range of Palaeoeskimo dwellings at around 4–7 m elevation and are very well preserved (e.g., fig. 6). All observed dwellings of this type occur without associated tent rings and have one end much narrower than the other so as to resemble an arrowhead. Most have stillerect lamp stands. They are otherwise unremarkable in size. Radiocarbon dates AA-61959, AA-62367, AA-63087, and AA-63088 (table 1) correspond to these dwellings. We do not have sufficient data to identify the season of occupation of the dwellings recorded. Except in the case of shallow, semisubterranean dwellings (typically interpreted as winter occupations), we are unaware of any study in the central Canadian Arctic that has definitely established a consistent association between dwelling type and seasonality. Seasonality assessments tend to be based on dwelling architecture only, assuming that dwellings lacking peripheral hold-down rocks are winter occupations employing snow walls and roofs, and those with substantial peripheral stone rings are warm season occupations (Maxwell 1985: 96–98; Ramsden and Murray 1995). Rarely are there independent data to support these conjectures. We also did not record any shallow, semisubterranean, “winter” dwellings commonly associated with Dorset occupations elsewhere in the Arctic, a situation similar to that

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 11

60

Number of Sites

50 40 30 20 10 0 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Number of Dwellings

Figure 8. Palaeoeskimo site size based on number of dwellings, Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander combined. Figure by Melanie Poupart.

observed on Victoria Island (Savelle and Dyke 2002), and more recently by us on Kent Peninsula and King William Island, which lie west of Boothia Peninsula.

Social Dynamics

Number of Dwellings Per Site We use historical Arctic hunter-gatherers as analogs of Palaeoeskimos. In this framework, we infer Palaeoeskimo settlement patterns and how these changed through time based on site size, which is defined by the number of dwellings at the site. Of the 161 sites recorded at Weld Harbour and Cape Alexander, 58 (36%) have a single dwelling, 45 (28%) have two dwellings, 22 (14%) have three dwellings, nine (7%) have four dwellings, seven (4%) have five dwellings, and seven (4%) have six dwellings (fig. 8; table 3). The remaining 13 (7%) range in size from nine to 27 dwellings. We suggest, as others have (Maxwell 1985: 98; McGhee 1996: 123–124), that for most of the year, single families, or groups of two or three families lived and hunted together, moving frequently as dictated by resource availability. The larger sites, on the other hand, and those with exceptionally large individual dwellings (see below), are likely to be the result of seasonal band aggregations (see Binford 1980, 1982 and Kelly 1995 for general discussions of hunter-gatherer mobility). This is evident in the 20–25 masl range, which, as noted above, contains the greatest number of dwellings. The question of contemporaneity is important, especially at these large sites, but it is impossible to prove by direct dating. Given that all hunter-gather groups exhibit sea-

sonal fission-fusion behavior (Kelly 1995), the only available evidence of band aggregations will be sites with large numbers of dwellings. Accordingly, our site size distribution is consistent with fission-fusion behavior among mobile hunter-gatherers. Note that we are not assuming simultaneous occupation for all dwellings at each site, but are suggesting that larger populations represented by larger sites would be consistent with hunter-gather behavior. We suggest that many dwellings at larger sites were probably occupied at the same time. Additionally, we observed no evidence of scavenging of structural stones or overlap of dwellings that might indicate reoccupation of sites. Although a variety of dwelling types at larger sites may indicate multiple occupations or occupations during different seasons, there are historical accounts of simultaneous occupation of different types of dwellings at one location (Lyon 1824, discussed in Park 1988). Obviously, this is an aspect of Palaeoeskimo paleodemography that should be addressed through further studies, but is beyond the scope of the present regional survey. From the perspective of numbers of dwellings, therefore, the largest band recorded in our survey would have consisted of up to 27 families or extended families, but aggregations of 7–15 families were probably more typical. Although these family aggregation numbers may seem large, they are consistent with historical Inuit groups in similar environments. For example, maximal band aggregation size (that is, the maximum band size during the fusion stage of an annual fission-fusion cycle) among the Netsilik Inuit of southern Boothia Peninsula averaged 100 individuals (Damas 1969; Balikci 1984). Among the Copper Inuit of Victoria Island and the adjacent mainland west of the study area, maximal aggregations also averaged about 100 individuals, with the largest recorded being 150–166 (Damas 1984). Although the number of occupants of each dwelling structure would have varied—among the historic Caribou Inuit family size varied from between two and nine (Birket-Smith 1929: 67–68)—if average nuclear family size was similar to historical mobile Central Arctic Inuit groups—e.g., 4.3 for the Caribou Inuit (Birket-Smith 1929: 67–68) and 4.5 for the Netsilik Inuit (Rasmussen 1931: 84–90)—the presumed seasonal aggregations represented by the largest Palaeoeskimo sites are well within the size of historical Inuit aggregations. The above suggestion is based on numbers of dwellings per site only, and does not take into account individual dwelling area, to which we now turn.

Dwelling Areas Due to similar levels of exposure and preservation, dwelling dimensions can be measured accurately, and then

12 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

Table 4. Dimensions (meters) of Palaeoeskimo tent rings and midpassages without tent rings, western Boothia Peninsula. TRW = tent ring width, MPL = midpassage length. Parameter

Mean

St error

Median

Mode

St deviation

Tent ring length Tent ring width Tent ring area Midpassage length Midpassage width Midpassage area Midpassage dwelling area Ratio TRW/MPL

2.85 2.77 8.56 3.02 0.88 2.78 10.61

0.07 0.06 0.37 0.07 0.02 0.12 0.49

2.70 2.65 6.84 2.90 0.80 2.40 8.77

2.30 2.30 5.06 3.60 0.80 1.26 7.56

1.08 0.94 6.05 1.01 0.31 1.70 6.68

1.12

0.03

1.10

1.00

0.32

dwelling areas can be calculated and compared. Dwelling area was presumably tailored to the number of occupants in order to conserve heat and maximize fuel efficiency and the ease of transporting building materials. In Table 4, the statistics for tent rings include those with midpassages, most of which run the entire tent ring length. In tent rings with midpassages, the average ratio of tent-ring width to midpassage length (MPL) is 1.12. For midpassages lacking tent rings, although the dwelling length is known, the exact width is unknown. Therefore, in Table 4 we estimate the area of a midpassage dwelling lacking a tent ring to be MPL multiplied by 1.12. Figure 9 illustrates the range of floor areas for tent rings with and without midpassages and midpassages without tent rings (area estimated as discussed above). The largest tent ring dwelling encountered was 47.6 sq m and the largest midpassage dwelling was 48.7 sq m, however, dwellings larger than 20 sq m are rare. Dwellings in the 6–8 sq m range are the most common, and probably represent family units of 4–5 people, typical for ethnographically-documented Neoeskimo societies. Slightly larger dwellings presumably represent slightly larger family sizes, while those approaching 20 sq m or more probably represent extended families or other kin groups several times the typical family size. The other types of Palaeoeskimo dwellings, paved areas, and sod patches tend to be smaller in area than the tent ring and midpassage dwellings, with peaks at 4–6 sq m (means are 4.42 sq m and 3.73 sq m, respectively), and all except one (at 13.65 sq m) are between 1 and 10 sq m (fig. 10). As discussed above, these probably represent only partial floor areas, and we interpret the 4 to 6 sq m peaks as representing dwellings occupied by family units of 4–5 individuals.

The Relationship Between Dwelling Area, Site Size, and Elevation When dwelling areas are considered in the context of

numbers of dwellings per site and elevation, an interesting pattern emerges. Specifically, there is a disproportionate number of larger dwellings on 10–15 masl terraces in both regions. Two of these dwellings were mentioned above. The five largest dwellings recorded occur within this elevation range. Two of these dwellings (at 11 and 11.5 masl) are isolated, one (at 12.5 masl) is associated with one other dwelling, and the other two (both at 13.5 masl) are associated with two other dwellings. We interpret these very large dwellings at small sites (three dwellings or less) in the same way as the large groupings of small dwellings at higher elevations; viz., as band aggregations. The occupations at the 10–15 masl elevation range are attributed to late PreDorset/early Dorset occupations, with those lower in this elevation range as primarily early Dorset (table 1). From a social perspective, we suggest that whereas Pre-Dorset maximum band aggregations consisted of groups of nuclear and small extended families occupying individual dwellings, beginning during early Dorset times these same band aggregations began to make use of communal dwellings. The latter may represent the precursor of Dorset longhouses, as discussed above. These changes in social arrangements correlate with differences in other cultural aspects (material, ideology, subsistence) between PreDorset and Dorset cultures recorded elsewhere (summaries in Maxwell 1985; McGhee 1996). In our study regions, while social and ideological changes during the transition may have followed those occurring elsewhere, alternative subsistence resources, such as walrus and harp or other migratory seals, would not have been available. The implications of this are discussed below.

Palaeoeskimo Boom-and-Bust Even taking into account the large early Dorset dwelling sizes discussed above, this region saw its largest Palaeoeskimo population early within the Pre-Dorset period, specifically 4500–3600 b.p. About 75% of all documented dwellings were occupied in early Pre-Dorset times, after which there was a sharp decline. Subsequent population recoveries during late Pre-Dorset and Late Dorset times were very weak in comparison to the early Pre-Dorset population. A decline of the Pre-Dorset population at about 3600 b.p. in Arctic Canada in general has been discussed for some time (McGhee 1972), but there are few measurements of the size or abruptness of the decline. We documented a dramatic crash at a similar time on southwestern Victoria Island, about 800 km west of Boothia Peninsula, using a paleodemographic approach similar to that outlined above (Savelle and Dyke 2002). Schledermann (1978) may have documented a similar decline in the Cornwallis-Bathurst Island region, about 500 km north of

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 13

100 90 80

Number of Dwellings

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0

10

20

30

Area (sq m)

40

50

Figure 9. Floor areas of Palaeoeskimo tent rings, tent rings with hearths, tent rings with midpassages, and midpassages without tent rings (inferred). Figure by Melanie Poupart.

Boothia Peninsula. He plotted the frequency of dwellings by elevation but he did not separate Neoeskimo from Palaeoeskimo dwellings or provide radiocarbon dates on these dwellings. Finally, we recorded Neoeskimo sites in our Weld Harbour survey, and it appears from that information that Neoeskimo populations were small in comparison to those of the early Palaeoeskimo.

Possible Causes of the Early Palaeoeskimo Population Crash Various suggestions have been advanced to explain reductions in Palaeoeskimo populations. These include the inevitability of die-offs of hunter-gather bands in peripheral environments (McGhee 1976) and overexploitation of critical food resources (Darwent 2004). Climatic change has been seen by most others (Fitzhugh 1976; Dumond 1987; Dekin 1972; Schledermann 1978, 1990; Maxwell 1985; McGhee 1996), to be the trigger of large fluctuations of Palaeoeskimo populations. The central argument relating population change to climate change is that during cooling intervals populations in peripheral regions (i.e., those outside the core areas) are reduced in size or become extinct; remnant populations remain in so-called core areas. According to this argument, the cooling trends resulted in population reductions and/or range changes in key food species of mammals. Only one terrestrial paleoclimate record is available for Boothia Peninsula (Zabenskie and Gajewski 2007). The reconstruction of July air temperatures based on modern

analogs of the fossil pollen spectra shows temperatures 0.5–1.5°C warmer than modern temperatures throughout the last 6000 calendar years with maximum temperatures about 4000 ya. One of the more pronounced recorded coolings, a drop of about 1°C, started about 3900 cal. b.p. (3600 b.p.). Temperatures rebounded to previous levels starting about 3400 cal. b.p. Furthermore, our own unpublished data indicate that bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were able to penetrate the central Northwest Passage during summers in the interval 4500–3500 b.p. with some frequency. That region is beyond the current range of the bowhead and other whales because of normally persistent summer sea ice. Thus, both terrestrial and marine conditions may have taken a significant downturn in this region at the time of the early Palaeoeskimo crash. Subsequent Palaeoeskimo populations on Boothia Peninsula, however, failed to recover to earlier levels despite the full thermal recovery suggested in the pollen record. If the cause of the initial decline was climatically induced, human populations should have recovered to the approximate levels of the initial colonizers if the prey resources returned to their original levels and geographic ranges. Until more high-resolution Holocene paleoclimate records are available from both marine and terrestrial environments in the region, we cannot confidently ascribe the early Palaeoeskimo population crash to climate forcing. Further cause for caution comes from a recent terrestrial paleoclimate reconstruction from western Victoria Island (Peros and Gajewski 2008), adjacent to the region where

14 Palaeoeskimo Demography, Western Boothia Peninsula, Canada/Savelle and Dyke

40 35

Paved areas

Number of Dwellings

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0

2

4

6 8 Area (sq m)

10

12

14

4

6 8 Area (sq m)

10

12

14

40 35

Sod patches

Number of Dwellings

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

0

2

Figure 10. Areas of Palaeoeskimo paved areas and sod patches. Figure by Melanie Poupart.

we previously documented an early Palaeoeskimo population crash at 3600 b.p. (Savelle and Dyke 2002). That record, using the same modern pollen analog approach, shows maximum temperatures ranging 1–1.5°C above modern temperatures in the early Holocene, and a gradual decline, with little short-term variability, over the succeeding 9000 years. Climate forcing of human population change here is anything but evident, yet the population crash was as severe as it was on Boothia Peninsula. In the eastern Canadian Arctic, population reductions in early Pre-Dorset times have been discussed in general terms, as mentioned above. The lack of systematic regional surveys precludes estimating the extent and exact timing of these events. Nevertheless, these reductions occurred under climatic conditions that were warmer than present conditions, according to the oxygen isotope records of the Agassiz and Devon ice caps (Fisher, Koerner, and Reeh 1995; Koerner 1989), which are the best available data

from the region. Given the uncertainty about the climateforcing hypothesis, we consider an alternative explanation, that of overexploitation of key resources. The initial rapid increase in human population on Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island is consistent with the behavior of most species moving into previously unoccupied environments. The rate of increase is determined by the difference between birth rate and death rate. Stable populations have a rate of increase of zero, expanding populations greater than zero, and declining populations less than zero. Accordingly, for any population to expand, by definition the rate of increase will be exponential, other factors being equal (Hastings 1997: 10–16; MacArthur and Wilson 2001: 83–88). Exponential growth in most cases is checked by density-dependent factors, often resulting in relatively stable populations or cyclic population fluctuations as carrying capacity is reached (Hastings 1997: 81–90); however, if the number of principal prey species for a newly introduced predator species is low, populations can quickly exceed carrying capacity. The rate of increase in the predator species then falls below zero, resulting in a population reduction, and in extreme cases, a population crash. Kirch (1984) referred to this scenario as the “crash” model and suggested it as one of several possible outcomes of humans migrating into previously uninhabited island areas. It is evident from our data that the Palaeoeskimo population on western Boothia Peninsula rose and fell several times and that the first decline was severe. It is further evident that other potential responses, such as predator-prey oscillation cycles or long-term predator-prey stability, did not occur; otherwise we would not expect modes of decreasing size. In the case of Boothia Peninsula, the key food species that may have been overexploited were the ring seal, the caribou, and the muskox, although not necessarily all of them.

Conclusions Western Boothia Peninsula and the M’Clintock Channel region occupy the harshest environmental zone in the w–e path of Palaeoeskimo colonization of the North American Arctic. Nevertheless, early Palaeoeskimo dwellings are abundant there. Palaeoeskimo occupation on western Boothia Peninsula went through a series of boom-and-bust cycles. These began with large and rapidly expanding populations between 4500 and 3600 b.p. during the initial occupation, followed by a sudden crash. A slight recovery around 3200–2500 b.p. was followed by a decline, and a final, even slighter recovery 1600–1200 b.p., was followed by the complete disappearance of Palaeoeskimo groups. Given the available paleoclimatic data, there is no regionally consistent pattern relating climate changes and these

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 34, 2009 15

boom-and-bust cycles. Thus, these cycles may instead indicate repeated episodes of overharvesting of local resources. Using historical hunter-gathers in the Arctic as analogs, Palaeoeskimo seasonal patterns appear to be ones in which nuclear or small extended families were dispersed for much of the year, aggregating annually in groups of 100 or more individuals. Minimal social units do not appear to have changed during seasonal aggregations in Pre-Dorset times. By Dorset times, however, minimal social units occasionally melded together to form one or a few larger social units living in one or a few large dwellings. The latter may represent the social precursor of later Dorset longhouse aggregations.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant and by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) Climate Change Program. Arctic logistics were provided by Polar Continental Shelf Project of Natural Resources Canada. We are grateful to Melanie Poupart for GIS and graphics support, to Roger McNeely (GSC) and Timothy Jull (University of Arizona) for radiocarbon dating, to Bob Mott (GSC) for wood and charcoal identifications, and to Linda Ley (Canadian Museum of Nature) for moss identifications. Internal reviews at GSC by Douglas Hodgson and Celina Campbell, and reviews by Genevieve LeMoine and two anonymous scholars helped to improve the manuscript.

James M. Savelle (Ph.D. 1986, University of Alberta) is Associate Professor at McGill University. His research interests include zooarchaeology and Arctic cultures, both Neoeskimo and Palaeoeskimo. He has made extensive studies of Thule whaling societies and their settlement patterns and of Palaeoeskimo demography and settlement patterns across the Canadian Arctic. Mailing address: Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 2T3. E-mail: [email protected] Arthur S. Dyke (Ph.D. 1977, University of Colorado) is a Research Scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada. He is a Quaternary geologist who has worked mainly in Arctic Canada. He has worked jointly with Savelle exploring the interaction between paleodemography of Arctic peoples and environmental changes, primarily sea-ice history and sea-level history since 1999. Mailing address: Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0E8. E-mail: [email protected]

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