New study shows ancient High Arctic people were skilled sailors

Archaeologists have found the remains of an ancient camp on a remote high Arctic island that is more than 4,000 years old.

They provide surprising new insights into the first people who lived near what is now the Canada-Greenland border and traveled to take advantage of a thriving new ecosystem that formed at that time.

The Paleo-Inuit archaeological site was found at Kittisuit, a rocky group of rocky-sided islands between Greenland and Ellesmere Island.

As it was thousands of years ago, today getting there by boat is a journey of one At least 53 kilometers from the nearest coast in harsh, high Arctic sea conditions.

“It must have been quite an extraordinary journey for them to reach this location by ship,” Matthew Walls, lead author of the new study, said in describing the findings. Published on Monday in the journal Antiquity.

Walls estimates that by canoe or kayak, it would have taken 12 to 15 hours of hard paddling to reach Kittisut – so long that the weather could easily go from calm to stormy along the way.

The archaeological site contains evidence that many people visited and stayed there repeatedly.

“This is clearly a place people are returning to in the long term,” Walls said..

Max Friesen, an Arctic archaeologist at the University of Toronto who collaborated with other authors of the paper but was not involved in the research, said the findings show that Paleo-Inuit people had far more sophisticated seafaring technology than previously thought.

He said that small fragments of their boats had been found, which suggested that they were canoes or kayak-like vessels made of animal skin, pulled over a bone or wooden frame. But nothing more could be known.

Friesen, Who was Walls’ PhD supervisor? Said Paleo-Inuit were found across the high Arctic. If they had the skill and technology to repeatedly travel to Kitsisuit, they could potentially do things like hunt seals or even whales in the ocean.

This means that thousands of years ago they would have had wider choices about what resources they could use and how they could affect the ecosystem.

“It has a huge impact on the rest of the Arctic, right?” Friesen said. “So this is really exciting, really connecting to what we know about transportation technology.”

what does an ancient camp look like

Walls worked with University of Greenland researchers Marie Kleist and Pauline Knudsen and a team of local Inuit to map the archaeological site and exposed artifacts between 2017 and 2019.

Over time a group of ranges have been emerging from the sea, now held back by the weight of melted glaciers. On the oldest, highest peaks, furthest inland from the modern coastline, there are at least 18 tent rings – circular areas cleared of rock, with a ring of stones around them.

Those stones may have pressed down the sides of the tent, possibly seal skins stretched over a driftwood frame.

There was usually a central hearth with the remains of burnt wood in the center, and a row of stones dividing the tent into two “rooms” that could be used for various activities, such as working with animal hides or making stone tools.

A seabird bone found inside one of the tent rings was sent for radiocarbon dating. From that analysis, researchers estimated the age of the site to be between 4,000 and 4,400 years old, the period when the first archaeological evidence of people, known as Paleo-Inuit, is found in the high Arctic.

Polynyas are precursors to many species

This was around the same time that a rich ecosystem was developing in Kitsisut due to the formation of a rare channel of open water in the sea ice, called Piikialosorsuaq or North Water Polynya. Walls said this is due to the region’s unique wind, current and geographical conditions.

“This is a really important ecological hotspot,” Walls said. Open water allows for phytoplankton blooms that support the entire food chain.

The cliffs of Kittisut are home to nesting colonies of sea birds and marine mammals such as seals that hunt in the surrounding waters, many of which may have migrated there for the first time when the polynya opened.

Walls said it’s important to change how people think about these Arctic ecosystems and their conservation.

He supports the argument for indigenous management today, saying, “Indigenous communities are part of their development in the long term, right from their early formation.”

Leslie Howse is the Director of Archeology at the Inuit Heritage Trust, the Inuit organization that co-governs cultural heritage with the Government of Nunavut, including archaeological collection and education, permitting for archaeological projects, and requesting work with Inuit goods.

Howse, who has previously worked with Walls, Kleist and Knudsen but was not involved in the study, said archaeologists believed the Paleo-Inuit were heavily dependent on hunting animals on the ground.

Given the need to use all available resources to survive in such a harsh environment, he is not surprised by the evidence that he had such a high level of skill at sea.

“Water is essential to survival in the North,” he said. “You have to rely on all the animals that are there and adapt with the technologies that you have. I think this (research) brings it to light.”