James M. Savelle

Derivation and application of a meat utility index for Phocid Seals

Abstract Due to anatomical differences, economic utility indices for terrestrial mammals are not useful for study of frequencies of skeletal parts of seals and sea lions. A utility index based on the average weight of meat per skeletal portion from four phocid seals we butchered indicates the rib cage is of greatest food utility, the pelvis is second in value, vertebrae rank third, proximal limb elements rank fourth, and distal limb elements (flippers) rank lowest in food value. When applied to archaeological assemblages of seal bones from the Oregon Pacific coast and the eastern Canadian Arctic, the meat utility index serves as an economic frame of reference granting insights to the significance of varied frequencies of skeletal parts.

Natural variability of Arctic sea ice over the Holocene

The area and volume of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is decreasing, with some predicting ice-free summers by 2100 A.D. [Johannessen et al., 2004]. The implications of these trends for transportation and ecosystems are profound; for example, summer shipping through the Northwest Passage could be possible, while loss of sea ice could cause stress for polar bears. Moreover, global climate may be affected through albedo feedbacks and increased sea ice production and export. With more open water, more new sea ice forms in winter, which melts and/or gets exported out of the Arctic.

Bowhead whale bones and Thule Eskimo subsistence–settlement patterns in the central Canadian Arctic

Bowhead whale bones in prehistoric Thule Eskimo contexts have been examined since 1975 in the central Canadian Arctic. Approximately 10,500 bones, representing almost 1000 animals, have been counted on the shores of six adjacent islands. Comparisons of Thule-derived bowhead samples with live Beaufort Sea samples and Early Holocene samples indicate that Thule Eskimo hunters selected yearlings and two- to three-year-old subadults, to the almost complete exclusion of calves and adults. Almost all bowheads found at Thule sites measure 7–10 m in length, estimated by regression analyses based on Alaskan bowhead skeletons of known size. Archaeological bowhead bones represent several stages of past hunting and processing behavior, including selective hunting, beach flensing and meal/blubber caching, winter house construction, and bone re-use from house ruins. The availability and abundance of bowheads were primary determinants of Thule subsistence-settlement patterns in this region. Archaeological whale bones arc a nonrenewable cultural resource of the New World Arctic that deserve study and protection.

Variability in Palaeoeskimo occupation on south-western Victoria Island, Arctic Canada: Causes and consequences

Palaeoeskimo occupation history on western Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic is inferred on the basis of the abundance of dwelling features according to elevation above sea level. The correlation between elevation above sea level and dwelling age is corroborated with seventy radiocarbon dates. The results suggest that the first occupants arrived in the region approximately 4500 radiocarbon years BP and attained maximum population levels by 4000-3800 BP, which was followed by a sudden decline. Moderate population levels were maintained for the next 600 years, following which, at approximately 3200 BP, there was a further decline. While there were occasional minor population increases following this period, none attained anywhere near the early (4500-3800 BP) levels. While the early and rapid decline of human population from its rapidly established initial maximum level may be attributed to one or more causes, the available evidence suggests that the overhunting of a key resource, musk-ox, cannot be ruled out.

Thule Eskimo bowhead whale interception strategies

Abstract Mortality profiles of bowhead whales at prehistoric Thule Eskimo villages (c. 1000–400 BP) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are shown to closely track their presumed migration route. Specifically, yearling sizes at an individual site correspond very closely to that sites location on the annual bowhead migration route. Population size, whaling success, and bowhead size selection at individual villages or village clusters were all apparently dependent to a considerable extent on the position along the migration route, with ‘early’ intercept positions being the most advantageous.

Paleoeskimo Occupation History of Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada: Implications for the Core Area Model and Dorset Origins

Abstract This paper presents the first detailed record of Paleoeskimo occupation history of Foxe Basin, Nunavut, Arctic Canada, the traditional Paleoeskimo “core area.” Rather than continuous, stable occupations from approximately 4000–1000 B.P. traditionally assumed for the core area, the region has undergone a series of demographic oscillations, including several instances of abandonment of key areas, most notably Igloolik. The Foxe Basin demographic trends are reminiscent of Paleoeskimo “boom and bust” cycles recognized elsewhere, but show no consistent chronological pattern either within Foxe Basin or inter-regionally. Equally important, our results bear on the critical question of the Pre-Dorset to Dorset transition. Rather than having been a gradual in situ process centered within the core area, the demographic patterns, including the abrupt and widespread appearance of semi-subterranean dwellings during earliest Dorset, are consistent with newly arrived populations from outside of Foxe Basin. While there is no obvious “parent” culture to Dorset within the Eastern Arctic, it is suggested that a Western Arctic origin, specifically Norton Culture, invoking to some extent Jorgen Meldgaard’s “smell of the forest”, may have played a significant role.

A Processual Investigation of a Thule Whale Bone House, Somerset Island, Arctic Canada

In 1991, the authors excavated a Thule Inuit whale bone house at site PaJs-13 on southeast Somerset Island, Arctic Canada. Detailed analyses of house stratigraphy provide useful data for the study of the cultural and natural formation processes relating to the feature. Based on our analyses, and following McCartney (1979a), six stages are recognized: 1) raw material procurement, 2) house construction, 3) house use and maintenance, 4) house abandonment, 5) dismantling of superstructure, and 6) post-occupation. Several characteristics of the house structure and the associated artifact assemblage indicate that this house probably functioned, at least during the later period of occupation, as a karigi [plural kariyit], or ceremonial house.

Palaeoeskimo Demography on Western Boothia Peninsula, Arctic Canada

Abstract 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 basis 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 over exploitation 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.

Logistical Organization, Social Complexity, and the Collapse of Prehistoric Thule Whaling Societies in the Central Canadian Arctic Archipelago

The investigation of prehistoric Thule Inuit logistical and social organization in the Canadian Arctic is a relatively recent topic of interest in Canadian Arctic archaeology, and represents what McCartney (1980) has termed a “second phase” research objective in this region. This follows from and depends on the prior development of local and regional chronological frameworks. With few exceptions, earlier “first phase” interpretations of Thule social characteristics tended to be generic characterizations based very loosely on ethnographic analogy. In contrast, and as noted by Grier and Savelle (1994: 95-96), the “investigation of Thule social organization as a specific goal has been a relatively recent phenomenon, and as a consequence tends to be rather intuitive, and its attendant methodologies exploratory”. In this paper, Binford’s (1980) collector-forager model forms the basis for an essentially exploratory investigation into the social and logistical context within which Thule culture underwent extensive modification in some regions of the Canadian Arctic and disappeared completely in others. These events have been referred to as the “ Classic to Modified Thule transition” by McCartney (1977) and as the “Postclassic Modification” by Maxwell (1985)

Chemical Ultrastructure of Cementum Growth-Layers of Teeth of Black Bears

We used a scanning-electron microscope with an energy-dispersive spectrometer to determine if chemical composition differed between narrow, dark-stained layers and broad, light-stained layers in the cementum of premolar teeth of a black bear ( Ursus americanus ). The cementum consisted mostly of phosphorus and calcium (>95% absolute mass), and phosphorus:calcium ratios, which ranged between 0.68:1.0 and 0.73:1.0, did not differ between light and dark layers. Also, cementocyte lacunae were present in both layers, but few occurred in the narrow layers. Because mineral content remains constant across layers, we suggest that the optical differences between growth layers is most likely due to differences in structural properties of collagen.