The Inglefield Land Archaeology Project: Introduction and Overview |
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| Authors: | Genevieve M LeMoine Christyann M Darwent |
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| Institution: | 1. Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center , Bowdoin College , Brunswick , Maine , USA E-mail: glemoine@bowdoin.edu;2. Department of Anthropology , University of California , Davis , USA |
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| Abstract: | Geografisk Tidsskrift—Danish Journal of Geography 110(2):279–296, 2010 Archaeological field research was undertaken in northwestern Greenland between 2004 and 2009 by the Inglefield Land Archaeology Project (ILAP). Over 2400 cultural features were recorded during foot survey, with additional sites located during helicopter reconnaissance. Focusing on the late prehistoric to historic transition, excavation of two Thule-Inughuit winter houses and adjacent middens was carried out at Iita, Foulke Fjord, western Inglefield Land, in 2006. Although constructed during the mid-1800s to early 1900s, the structures were dug into early through late Thule and Paleoeskimo deposits. At Cape Grinnell, in central Inglefield Land, three Thule sod-block houses, a Thule fall-winter qarmat, a Thule cache, a Late Dorset axial-feature, and an early Paleoeskimo axial-feature were excavated. Radiocarbon analysis revealed a tight cluster of dates, ca. AD 1200–1420, from the Late Dorset and Thule features. Preliminary analysis suggests near continual occupation of Iita for at least 1000 years. Cape Grinnell appears to have been inhabited, at least periodically since initial migration of Paleoeskimo into the region ca. 4000 years ago, with intensified Late Dorset-early Thule occupation followed by apparent abandonment coincident with the onset of climatic cooling. |
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| Keywords: | Greenland Thule Dorset Paleoeskimo historic archaeology |
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