Lisa Hodgetts

Feast or Famine? Seventeenth-Century English Colonial Diet at Ferryland, Newfoundland

Documentary and faunal evidence from the 17th-century English colony at Ferryland, Newfoundland, illustrates how the settlers adapted traditional English dietary practices to suit their new situation. The role of both domestic and wild mammals in the diet changed little over the course of the century. Pigs were consistently the most important mammal, supplemented by cattle, sheep/goat, caribou, and seal. The continuity of dietary patterns at the site indicates that the colonists very quickly developed a subsistence regime to maximize fresh meat consumption, given the scheduling demands of the cod fishery and the limitations and potential of the Newfoundland environment.

Land and sea : use of terrestrial mammal bones in coastal hunter-gatherer communities

Terrestrial mammals are frequently undervalued in interpretations of prehistoric coastal economies where middens are used to examine seasonality and diet. Using case-studies from the Northwest Coast of North America, and from Arctic Norway, a more integrated approach to subsistence and technology is proposed

The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic

HMS Investigator, the British Navy vessel that discovered the North-West Passage in 1850, helped to stake Britain’s claim to Arctic territory. Her crew’s colonial attitudes towards the Indigenous Inuit inhabitants of the region have been perpetuated in archaeological interpretations of the ship’s impact on local Inuit communities and in media coverage of the rediscovery of the ship by archaeologists in 2010, which framed the ship as a symbol of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. As climate change continues to fuel international debates about the control of Arctic resources and to negatively impact the Arctic archaeological record, Arctic archaeology promises to become increasingly political. In the Canadian Arctic, a range of collaborative projects that bring together archaeologists and Inuit community groups to better understand the human history of the north have made important steps towards decolonizing our discipline and could ripple outwards to support Inuit demands for a voice in international debates about Arctic sovereignty. Should we choose, these projects could also work to change the way the past is mobilized and presented beyond archaeological circles, contributing more directly to social justice on a broader scale.

Subsistence diversity in the Younger Stone Age landscape of Varangerfjord, northern Norway

Explorations of Stone Age diversity take another step forward with this study of a group of neighbouring sites in Arctic Norway. While all are situated around a fjord, and only a few kilometres apart, the faunal assemblage shows that some are seal specialists, while others hunt reindeer and others again ambush dolphins. Each was creating its own local environment, hunting territory and landscape, not defended but respected, with intimate connections between people and places.

The Untapped Potential of Low-Cost Photogrammetry in Community-Based Archaeology: A Case Study From Banks Island, Arctic Canada

In the last 10 years digital three-dimensional (3D) modelling programs have become inexpensive and user-friendly, affording more opportunities for archaeological research and dissemination. New low-cost programs and web-services utilizing photogrammetry are increasingly being used in archaeological projects, but their potential benefits and challenges have not been fully explored. As a part of our research with the Ikaahuk Archaeology Project we used two inexpensive photogrammetry programs (Agisoft Photoscan and Autodesk 123D Catch) as a means to document in situ archaeological features and artefacts from Arctic hunter–gatherer sites and to share research in the form of digital 3D models using online social media. We argue that photogrammetry and 3D modelling can help facilitate engagement and collaboration with interested communities or public groups. However, the ethical implications of digitally replicating and publishing archaeological objects online must be carefully considered.

Gendered Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) landscapes of Banks Island's northern interior, Arctic Canada, 17th-20th centuries A.D.

Abstract Archaeological survey data from the northern interior of Banks Island in Canada’s western Arctic builds upon traditional interpretations of past land use to explore the ways in which this landscape was perceived by different groups. The data confirm earlier archaeological, ethnographic, and oral history work which suggest that the area was occupied primarily in the summer months at two separate times in the past: the Palaeoeskimo period and the Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) period. The earlier occupation was less intensive than the latter and both were focused on muskox hunting. Drawing on ethnographic studies of the Inuit in both the early and late 20th centuries, and on the distribution of archaeological camp sites versus hunting sites, a reconstruction is made of the different ways in which men and women experienced and understood the survey area during Inuinnait times. It suggests that the main drainages formed important travel routes, and that while women’s knowledge of the region was concentrated along these corridors and in favorite camping places, men’s knowledge extended into hunting areas beyond their peripheries.

Subsistence Practices of Pioneering Thule–Inuit: A Faunal Analysis of Tiktalik

This paper examines faunal material from Tiktalik (NkRi-3), an early Thule–Inuit site on the southern coast of Amundsen Gulf, Northwest Territories. This region was the gateway through which Thule–Inuit pioneers entered the Canadian Arctic from Alaska and therefore has the potential to help us understand how they adapted to the challenges of moving into an unknown landscape. Despite recent research, many gaps in our knowledge of the Thule–Inuit occupation of Amundsen Gulf remain, including detailed studies of subsistence practices. Tiktalik’s faunal material reveals that its occupants relied almost exclusively on ringed seals. Bone modification, ringed seal skeletal-element representation, and the age distribution of hunted ringed seals are also explored. The Tiktalik data provide a baseline for comparison with later sites on Amundsen Gulf and other early Thule–Inuit sites across the North American Arctic.

The Untapped Potential of Magnetic Survey in the Identification of Precontact Archaeological Sites in Wooded Areas

Abstract Evaluating the archaeological potential of wooded areas is often difficult because many of the techniques archaeologists commonly use to locate and map archaeological sites elsewhere are less effective in the trees. Ground cover hinders the visual identification of surface artifacts during pedestrian survey, and the tree canopy impedes many of the techniques used to map areas of interest, such as optical theodolites and DGPS. Shovel test pitting, which disturbs the integrity of sites and provides limited contextual information, is the most common method used to evaluate woodlots today. In light of increasing interest from Indigenous peoples in limiting the impact of archaeological work on their cultural heritage, we are testing less invasive methods to locate and map archaeological sites within wooded areas. Here, we present the results of a magnetic susceptibility survey on a wooded precontact site in southern Quebec, where the technique rapidly determined site limits and pinpointed the location of several longhouses and other features. Where geological conditions are suitable, this method could considerably reduce the cost and impact of archaeological assessment and investigation of wooded sites by both cultural resource management (CRM) and academic archaeologists.

The Changing Pre-Dorset Landscape of SW Hudson Bay, Canada

Abstract The Pre-Dorset peoples were mobile hunter-gatherers who rapidly colonized the eastern Canadian Subarctic around 4000 B.P. (uncalibrated radiocarbon years) and continued to occupy the region until about 2700 B.P. In 2005, the Churchill Archaeological Project undertook excavations at two Pre-Dorset sites in sw Hudson Bay (northern Manitoba, Canada) near the southernmost extent of the Pre-Dorset range. The goal of the fieldwork was to examine the relationship between changes in the physical landscape and the social landscape of the region over the course of the Pre-Dorset period. It demonstrated that Pre- Dorset groups entered the area at least 700 radiocarbon years earlier than previously documented and illustrated marked differences in lithic technology between the early and late Pre-Dorset occupations. While the results suggest that the area may have been abandoned during the middle part of the Pre-Dorset period, further work is required in order to determine whether the region is a typical “peripheral” area as outlined in the “core area” hypothesis.