Pre-Columbian Archaeology
of North America
Weeks 6:
Regional Chronologies –
The Arctic and Sub-arctic
Regional Divisions
► In
the study of aboriginal peoples in North
America, both ethnographic and
archaeological, the continent is generally
divided into a number of regions
► These will for the basis for our discussions
of regional chronologies
► The focus will here will be on the Holocene
Regional Characteristics (1)
►
Arctic
 Stretching from western Alaska across the entire continent to
Greenland
 Area north of the tree line
 Classic tundra conditions during the Holocene.
► Cold, desert-like conditions.
► Growing season ranges from 50 to 60 days.
► Average winter temperature is -34° C
► Average summer temperature is 3-12° C
► Yearly precipitation, including melting snow, is 1525 cm
 Flora
shrubs, sedges (Cyperaceae), reindeer moss (Cladonia rangifera),
liverworts (Hepaticae), and grasses
► 400 varieties of flowers
► crustose and foliose lichen
► Low
Vegetational Zones of North America
Tundra (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge)
Coastal tundra
Arctic Fauna: Terrestrial Mammals
► Terrestrial




herbivores:
Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) [sob]
Musk oxen (Ovibus moschatus) [pižmoň]
Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus) [zajíc polární]
Lemming (Synaptomys spp.) [lumík]
► Terrestrial
carnivores
 Wolf (Canis lupus)
 Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) [liška polární]
Arctic Fauna: Marine Mammals (1)
►
Seals (true/eared)
 Harp seal (Phoca groenlandicus) tuleň gronský
► Adult
males grow to about 1.7 m and 130 kg; females are smaller
 Ringed seal (Phoca hispida) tuleň kroužkovaný
► Adult
ringed seals are 99-157 cm in length and weigh 45-107 kg
 Ribbon seal (Phoca fasciata) tuleň pruhovaný
► Adult
ribbon seals average 155-165 cm in length and 70-80 kg in
weight
 Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) tuleň vousatý
► Adult
seals are 2.1-2.5 m in length, and weigh about 200-360 kg
 Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) mrož
► Atlantic
walrus males average 3.0 m in length and weigh approximately
800-900 kg. Pacific walrus males are somewhat larger, averaging 3.2
m and approximately 1200 kg. Females are generally smaller
 Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) lachtan medvědí
► Adult
male 2 m, 135-270 kg. Average adult female 1.3 m, 30-45 kg
Arctic Fauna: Marine Mammals (2)
►
Whales (toothed/baleen – ozubení/kosticovici)
 Beluga (Didelphinapterus leucas) běluha
► Adults
measure 3-4.6 m and weigh 1350-1500 kg
 Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) narval
► Adults:
4-4.9 m, 900-1600 kg, tooth: 2-3 m in length
 Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) plejtvákovec šedý
► Adults
are 13.8-15 m long and weigh about 33,000 kg
► Adults
are 15-15.2 m long and weigh about 54,000 kg
► Adults
are 15-18.5 m long and weigh 72-91,000 kg
 Northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) velryba biskajská
 Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) velryba gronská
►
Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) medvěd lední
 Male polar bears grow two to three times the size of female polar
bears
 Males weigh about 350 to more than 650 kg and are about 2.5-3
m long
 Females about 150 to 250 kg and are about 2 to 2.5 m
Physical Anthropology
►
Group
Type O
Type A
Type B
Type AB
Eskimo
(Alaska)
38
44
13
15
Indians
(USA)
79
16
4
1
Navajo
73
27
0
0
Blackfoot
17
82
0
1
Czech
30
44
18
9
►
Modern groups in the Arctic
form a group distinct from the
rest of the Americas’
aboriginal inhabitants
This can be seen in a number
of physiological and linguistic
areas
 Eskimo-Aleut languages are
related to languages spoken
in eastern Siberia and not to
other languages of North
America
 Blood type distribution (see
table)
 Y-chromosome and mtDNA
differences
►
►
32 Y-chromosome
haplotypes
Appears to indicate
relationship (Haplotype 31)
with groups in central Siberia
Genetic distance between human populations based on research by
Cavalii-Sforza
Figure 4. Distribution of haplogroup
frequencies (pie charts) among
Amerindian populations does not
correspond in any simple way to
language-group affiliations, suggesting
that a tripartite model of migration to
the New World (based on three
hypothesized language groups) may be
too simple. However, virtually all of the
northern Na-Dene mtDNAs belong to
haplogroup A, whereas those of the
southern Na-Dene also include some
from haplogroups B, C and D, indicating
that the southern populations have
mixed with the neighboring Amerindian
populations since their arrival in the
American Southwest some 500-to-1, 000
years ago. Certain other trends are also
evident: Haplogroup A declines in
frequency from north to south, whereas
haplogroups C and D increase in
frequency. By contrast, there is no
obvious clinal distribution for haplogroup
B (aside from its absence in northern
North America). Whether these
distributions reflect the original pattern
of settlement in the Americas or
subsequent genetic differentiation is not
entirely clear.
From “Mitochondrial DNA and the
Peopling of the New World” by Theodore
G. Schurr. In American Scientist,
2000:8(3)
Arctic (1)
►
Arctic Small Tool tradition
 4200 – 2800 BP
 First identified in 1964 at Cape Denbigh, Seward Peninsula (Alaska)
 Spread from eastern Siberia where microblade technology has a
long tradition.
 Considered to be ancestral to modern Inuit/Eskimo peoples
 First occupation of northernmost regions, including Greenland
 Finely made microblades, spalled burins, small side and end
scrapers, and side and end blades
► Projectile
 Structures
points are triangular or pointed at both ends.
► West:
small camps and larger base camps with semi-subterranean,
sod roofed houses
► East: Oval and circular dwellings are indicated by rings of boulders
probably were used to hold down the edges of a tent. Charcoal and
burnt bone found in the interior of the tent ring indicates that the
shelter was heated with a central fire. As well circular soapstone dishes
may have been used as lamps or heating vessels.
 Diverse economic activities including hunting (caribou (R. tarandus)
and sea mammals), fishing
Arctic (2)
► Coastal
regions of southeastern Alaska were
distinct in having strongly maritime traditions
 Importance of slate tools, evidence of greater cultural
complexity (mortuary rituals)
 On the Aleutian Islands, there is the Aleutian Tradition
which continues up to the modern era (c. 1800 AD)
►A
core and flake tradition, with bifacial projectile points and
knives, adzes and ulu blades, chisels, and awls (etc.), that
remained fairly stable throughout the life of the tradition. There
are also elaborate bone harpoon heads, and bone and ivory
ornaments, whose shifting styles help date sites.
Knives
► Left:
Ulu (woman’s knife) made of ground slate in
a bone handle
► Right: Man’s knife made from ivory
Arctic (3)
►
Norton Tradition




Evolved out of Arctic Small Tool tradition
3000 – 1200 BP
Restricted to the western Arctic (Alaska)
Stone tool assemblage similar to ASTt
► An
Arctic Small Tool tradition tool base except microblades and the
burin technology is gone; first pottery vessels (fiber-tempered,
stamped pottery from Asia) and stone lamps for burning oil; toggling
harpoons and polished slate implements.
 Structures/Residence Pattern
► First
definitive shift toward establishing permanent settlements on the
seacoast; substantial year-round semi-subterranean houses; dense
long-term occupation (hundreds of houses occur at some sites)
 Elaborate ivory carvings
► Perhaps
related to Siberian styles
 Major changes in subsistence strategies
►A
more maritime focus, year round sea mammal hunting both in open
water and through winter ice, intensive fishing; caribou and small
mammal hunting remain important in early part of this period.
Arctic (4)
►
Dorset Tradition




Found in eastern Arctic
1800 – 900 BP
Also develops out of ASTt
Different subsistence strategy
►
The winter/spring season focused on sea mammal hunting (whales, seals,
walrus); in the summer and fall, caribou were hunted with spears and fish
(salmon, char) captured with fish harpoons and compound leisters in rivers.
 Rectangular, semi-subterranean winter houses, winter snow houses
(igloos), and round summer tends were built.
 Tools include snow knives, blubber lamps, a ground slate industry,
distinctive harpoon head forms, sealing projectile points.
 Elaborate and highly evolved artistic tradition that includes carved wood,
bone, and ivory depictions of humans, spirit monsters, and animals;
objects are of a magico-religious nature; supernatural universe.
 Lacks many elements found in the Norton and later traditions, including
harpoon floats, the maupok method of hunting seals at breathing holes,
dog sleds, cold-trap entrances for houses, bow and arrows, throwing
boards (they used simple lances and harpoons).
 Disappears
Arctic (5)
►
Thule Tradition
 Begins c. 1200 BP in the Bering Straights region
 Expands eastward, replacing the Dorset Tradition by c. 900 BP in all
areas (including Greenland)
 This is the modern Inuit/Eskimo culture
 By c. AD 1000, all the major items of historic Eskimo culture
existed throughout the Alaskan coast, including fully equipped
kayaks, umiaks, dog sleds, harpoon line floats, sunken houses with
deep entrances, heavy use of polished slate tools, pottery (thick
and gravel tempered), and a wide variety of specialized tools and
weapons (e.g., components for specialized arrows, darts, and
spears for fish, birds, and different size sea mammals; toggling and
non-toggling harpoons; dart heads for land mammals; snow
goggles). An extensive organic inventory survives in the
archaeological record. These items revolutionized coastal life
throughout the Arctic. Some appear in the archaeological for the
first time (kayaks, umiaks, dog sleds, efficient toggling harpoons,
harpoon line floats, harpoon mounted ice picks). Objects of iron
(demonstrating contact with Siberian peoples.
Arctic (6)
►
►
►
►
►
►
Thule was a highly specialized culture that emphasized whale hunting where
possible and winter ice hunting. Large villages at favorable whaling locations
organized economically and ceremonially into whaling crews and whaleboat
owning entrepreneurs as in the historic period.
Their art is a high point of all Eskimo art traditions. Elaborate carved ivory
objects. Changes through time in this tradition seen mainly in differences in
harpoon styles and art motifs.
Thule Expansion Eastward. After c. AD 900, Thule traits and people move
southward to the Pacific coast, into the Alaskan interior (e.g., Arctic Woodland
culture), and across northern Canada to Greenland. Probably related to a
warm weather cycle (Medieval Warm Period) that shifted pack ice northward
and changed path of sea-mammal migrations. Retreated after AD 1300 in cold
period.
In eastern regions pottery replaced by soapstone vessels
Hunters of seals, walrus, and large whales. Used seal-skin covered kayak and
more substantial umiak for hunting and rapid transportation in summer; dog
sleds in winter. Used bow and arrow for caribou and musk ox. Harpoons often
propelled by throwing board.
Three house types.
 Snow house, tent (animal skin), sod house (wood/bone and stone frame covered in
earth)
Arctic Small Tool Tradition Illustrations
A: Map
B: A complete flaked stone end-blade from the Arctic Small Tool tradition
C: A fragment of a flaked stone end-blade (i.e, the sharp blade that would be mounted at the tip of
a bone, antler or ivory harpoon or spear)
D: This Arctic Small Tool tradition tent ring is referred to as a "mid-passage" house. The outer ring
of rocks would have weighed down the edges of a tent. The "mid-passage" is formed by the
parallel lines of rocks dividing the interior of the house; at the center of the mid-passage there is a
small hearth or fireplace in which willow twigs or driftwood would have been burned.
Norton Tradition Illustrations
A: Ivory figurine, c. 1900 BP. Markings on the smaller face demonstrate tattooing
B: Difference between a non-toggling and toggling harpoon, which toggles
beneath the skin and blubber where it cannot be broken off by ice and holds
heavier prey like whales and walrus.
C: Stone lamps
Dorset Tradition Illustrations
A: Map
B: Top left to right: flaked stone end-blade to fit in the tip of a harpoon head; 3 harpoon
heads; a so-called "spatula" carving; bottom: a harpoon foreshaft and harpoon head.
C: Ivory doll, 7 cm tall
Umiak
Inuit kayak (max. length 5 m)
Kayak loaded with sealskin float,
weapons, etc.
Sled (toy)
House Types
Subterranean Thule House
Devon Island, Canadian Arctic
Sub-arctic
► Sub-arctic
 Runs across the whole of the continent, from interior
Alaska to Labrador peninsula and Newfoundland
 Taiga (continuous coniferous forest)
► The
taiga is a moist sub-arctic forest that begins where the
tundra ends.
► Winters are long, dark and cold with lots of snow (min. - 60°C)
► Summers are warm and short when the daylight can be up to
20 hours long (max. 40°C).
► Annual precipitation between 300-1000 mm
► Major type of vegetation is coniferous evergreens.
 Fir (Abiesi), spruce (Picea), birch (Betula), juniper (Juniperus),
tamarack (Larix)
► Non-coniferous
trees and plants
 Alder (Alnus), aspen (Populus), willow
 Lichens, mosses, sedges, grasses, bushes, berries
Sub-arctic Fauna (1)
► Herbivores







Caribou
Moose (Alces alces) los
Snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) zajíc měnivý
Beaver (Castor canidensis) bobr kanadský
Lemming
Vole (Microtus spp.) hraboš
American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) čikarí
červený (syn. veveřice červená)
Sub-arctic Fauna (2)
► Carnivores
 Bears
bear (Ursus arctos horribilis)
► American black bear (Ursus americanus) baribal
► Grizzly
 Canines
► Wolf
► Coyote
► Red
(Canis latrans)
fox (Vulpes vulpes)
 Felines
► Lynx
(Lynx canadensis)
 Mustelids
(Gulo gulo) rosomák
► Otter, marten, mink, weasle
► Wolverine
Sub-Arctic
►
Northern Archaic
 6500 – 2500 BP
 Research inhibited by a general lack of well-stratified sites, impact of
climate, size of region
►
Particularly in western half of region
 Northern variant of generalized Archaic found throughout North America
 Technologically related to ASTt
►
Microblades, burins
 Depended on caribou and fishing in rivers and streams for their livelihood,
staying inland and near the trees most of the time.
 Most probably represents ancestral Indian populations as opposed to
paleo-Eskimo.
►
Throughout this region Arctic and Sub-Arctic traditions expanded and
retracted depending on variations in the climate
 Archaic hunters of ultimate eastern North American origin, possessing
notched projectile points, spread northward from the Plains with the
expanding boreal forest to displace indigenous populations whose tool kits
were characterized by microblades (ASTt)
►
Known as Shield Cultures in east.
Shield Cultures (1)
Both Late Eastern Shield and Late Western Shield cultures
developed out of the Middle Shield culture (6,000 to 2,500
BP)
► 2500 BP to European contact (17th to 19th centuries)
► The basis for distinguishing between these two closely
related cultures is largely technological as their settlement
patterns and subsistence practices were very similar, if not
identical, in most instances.
►
 Late Eastern Shield culture retained the older stone working
traditions of their predecessors whereas Late Western Shield
culture continued a late Middle Shield culture development in the
west that involved abandoning the use of massive siliceous
deposits, such as quartzite and rhyolite, with their resulting large
bifacial and unifacial tools, in favour of Hudson Bay Lowlands
nodular cherts with their comparatively diminutive tool products.
 While both cultures made extensive use of local veins of quartz as
expedient cutting and scraping chunks and flakes, the practice
appears to have been far more common in the east. Late Eastern
Shield culture also rejected pottery vessels as an important item in
their tool kit unlike their western kinsmen.
Shield Cultures (2)
In fact, the limited pottery from Late Eastern Shield sites may simply represent
the products of Late Western Shield culture and Late Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
culture women moving from their homelands in the west and south to join the
bands of their husbands to the north and east. Occurrences of pottery
becomes progressively sparse as one advances eastward and northward and
thus further away from the homelands of the hypothesized cultures within
which it represented a significant element of technology.
► This progressively fading pattern of pottery vessel distribution to the east
maintains itself into Period V (A.D. 500 to European contact) where the East
Cree, Montagnais (Naskapi), and Attikamek of Late Eastern Shield culture
territory basically rejected pottery manufacturing unlike their western and
southern kinsmen the West Main Cree, Algonquin, Southern and Northern
Ojibwa, Western Woods Cree, and the Late Winnipeg Saulteaux. What pottery
does occur is clearly related to western styles and was likely a product of
women from western bands joining their husbands in the eastern bands.
► Subsistence and settlement patterns remain unchanged from the preceding
period and, for that matter, were to remain unchanged up to the time of
European contact.
►
 Sites such as the Chicoutimi site at the juncture of the Saugenay and Chicoutimi
rivers contained occupational debris spanning more than 3,000 years and terminated
with a historical documented Montagnais occupation. Unfortunately the cultural
deposits at this site were hopelessly intermixed. Like other large sites, the
Chicoutimi site was a favourable location where a band or, more likely, a number of
bands gathered on a seasonal basis.
Western/Northwestern Sub-Arctic
►
►
2500 BP to European Contact (nineteenth century)
Interior culture must be viewed in relationship to its
geographical setting. The region is physiographically
dominated by the northwest trending Cordillera consisting
of coastal and interior mountain ranges with intervening
smaller mountain ranges and plateaus.
 Major drainages are the Yukon and the Mackenzie, two of the
largest river systems in the world.
►
►
Within this complex mosaic of landforms, small hunting
bands relied upon fish and caribou as well as regionally
and seasonally available small game, waterfowl, moose,
and berries.
To survive in a region with widely dispersed food resources
and peak periods of abundance and scarcity has always
demanded a broadly based and flexible foraging pattern.
Distribution of Sub-Arctic Cultures:
Map III - Cultural Distributions, 4,000 to 1,000 B.C.
A Middle Maritime | B Middle Great Lakes-St. Lawrence | C Middle Shield |
D Middle Plains | E Middle Plateau | F Early West Coast | G Middle
Northwest Interior | H Early Palaeo-Eskimo
Interior projectile points (Yukon): wide range of sizes, shapes, styles