Dorset culture

The Dorset culture (also called the Dorset Tradition) were a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. Inuit legends mention the Tuniit (singular Tuniq) or Sivullirmiut ("First Inhabitants"), who were driven away by the Inuit. According to legend, they were "giants", people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit, but who were easily scared off and retreated from the advancing Inuit. It is thought that the Dorset, and maybe the later Thule people, were called Skræling by the Norse who visited the area.

They were credited with a faultless understanding of their local environment (which they may have shared with the newly-arrived Inuit) but their adaptation was different from that of the whaling-based Thule Inuit. The Dorset also lacked bow and arrow technology. The Dorset may have developed from the previous cultures of Pre-Dorset, Saqqaq or (less likely) Independence I. These earlier cultures had bow and arrow technology, but possibly due to a shift from terrestrial to aquatic hunting, the bow and arrow became lost to the Dorset. A final piece of technology that is missing from the Dorset are drills. Very oddly, there are no drill holes in Dorset artifacts. Instead, the Dorset gouged lenticular holes. For example, bone needles are common in Dorset sites but they have long and narrow holes that have been painstakingly carved or gouged. Both the Pre-Dorset and Thule (Inuit) had drills. Technological diagnostics of the Dorset culture include small and triangular end-blades, which were hafted onto harpoon heads. These harpoons were used to hunt primarily seal, but there was some extent of larger sea mammal exploitation. Soapstone was utilized in the construction of lamps, which would heat the Dorset dwelling during the cold and dark months. The fuel for these fires was the fat from seals. A third hallmark were distinctive burins. Burins are worked pieces of stone often used for carving. Burins were used by Pre-Dorset groups, and these had a distinctive 'mitten' shape. The Dorset was remarkably homogeneous across the Canadian Arctic, but there were some important variations that have been noted in both Greenland and Newfoundland/Labrador regions.

The Dorset culture is broken up into four periods, the Early, Middle, Late, and Terminal phases. The Terminal phase may have occurred as the Thule were entering the Canadian Arctic as they migrated east from Alaska. This final phase also occurred as the climate was becoming increasingly warmer. With the warmer climates, the sea ice became less predictable and was isolated to the High Arctic. The Dorset would follow the ice and concentrated their settlements in the High Arctic during the Late and Terminal periods.

There appears to have been no genetic connection between the Dorset and the Thule. There is however archaeological evidence to support Thule-Dorset interaction. For instance the Thule engaged in seal hole hunting, which is not known of from Alaska. Only the Dorset performed this hunting technique and it is likely a form of technology that needs to be taught. Further, the speed and direction of the Thule migration may imply Dorset-Thule connections. The Thule made an almost direct migration through foreign lands, all the way to Greenland in the span of a few centuries. For the Thule to have accomplished this task, it is highly likely they would have required directions and assistance, which the Dorset may have provided. One of the greatest questions however, is if the Thule and Dorset did interact, how did this transpire? Did the Thule bring disease with them, did they argue and fight, did they inter-marry and socialize, or were their meetings contrite and limited? Nonetheless, it appears archaeologically that the Dorset were in a massive decline when the Thule arrived, and about to disappear from their frosted homes.

Anthropologist Diamond Jenness in 1925 received some odd artifacts from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, which seemed to derive from an ancient lifestyle unlike that of the Inuit. Jenness named the culture after the location of the find. His finds showed a consistent and distinct cultural pattern that included sophisticated and un-Inuit art that depicted, for example, uniquely large hairstyles for women and hoodless parkas with giant, tall collars on both sexes. A leading modern figure in the field of Tuniit/Dorset studies is Robert McGhee, who has written numerous books on this culture and the transition to the Thule (Inuit) tradition.

Canadian poet Al Purdy wrote a poem entitled "Lament for the Dorsets" which starts "Animal bones and some mossy tent rings... all that remains of Dorset giants, who drove the Vikings back to their longships..." This poem laments the loss of their culture and describes them and their end.

The Sadlermiut

The Sadlermiut were an Eskimo peoples living in near isolation mainly on and around Coats Island, Walrus Island, and Southampton Island in Hudson Bay up until 1902-03. They are often thought to have been the last remnants of the Dorset culture as they had preserved a distinct culture and dialect from the mainland Inuit.

External links

• In the bones of the world at the Nuntsiaq News website.
• Article on the Sadlermiut from the Canadian encyclopedia
• Dorset Paleoeskimo Culture at Canada.ca.

Bibliography

• Michael Fortescue, Steven Jacobson & Lawrence Kaplan 1994: Comparative Eskimo Dictionary; with Aleut Cognates (Alaska Native Language Center Research Paper 9); ISBN 1-55500-051-7
• Robert McGhee 2005: The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World; ISBN 0-19-518368-1
• Robert McGhee 2001: Ancient People of the Arctic
• Plumet, Patrick and Serge Lebel 1997 Dorset Tip Fluting: A Second 'American' Invention. Arctic Anthropology 34(2):132-162
• Renouf, M.A.P. 1999 Prehistory of Newfoundland Hunter-Gatherers: Extinctions or Adaptations? World Archaeology 30(3):403-420