Starting
around 500 BC and lasting 1500 to 2000 years, the Arctic area of North America
was inhabited by the Dorset, a Paleo-Eskimo culture. It is named after Cape
Dorset in Nunavut in Canada, where the first evidence of it was found. It is
said to have 4 phases due to differences in the technology related to hunting
and tool making. Dorset artifacts include triangular end-blades, soapstone
lamps, and burins, a specific type of stone tool.
The
Dorset were first identified as a separate culture in 1925. They appear to have
been extinct by 1500 AD at the latest, and possibly as early as 1000 AD. At
some time during the 1000s, the Thule people (a pre-Innuit group) began
migrating east from Alaska, and eventually spread through all the land
previously inhabited by the Dorset. There is no evidence that the Inuit and the
Dorset ever met. In fact, genetic studies show that the Dorset were distinct
from later groups and that there is virtually no evidence of genetic or
cultural interaction between the Dorset and Thule peoples.
Inuit
legends say that they did encounter people they called ‘First Inhabitants’.
According to these stories, the first inhabitants were taller and stronger than
the Inuit, but they were afraid to interact and were easily frightened off.
There is also a controversial theory of contact and trade between the Dorset
and the Norse.
Some
of the artifacts that indicated a culture different from the Inuit included
sophisticated pieces of art. Carvings featured uniquely large hairstyles for
women, and both sexes are depicted wearing hoodless parkas with large, tall
collars.
Not
only do scientists not know for certain what happened to the Dorset people,
they aren’t sure where they came from, either. Some have suggested that they may
have developed from a previous culture, perhaps the Pre-Dorset, the Saqqaq or -
even less likely - from the Independence I. However, these earlier cultures all
had bow and arrow technology, while the Dorsets did not. Possibly they set
aside the bow and arrow as they switched from land to aquatic hunting.
Another
piece of technology that the Dorset lacked was drills. There are no drill holes
in Dorset artifacts. Whatever holes they created, they painstakingly carved or
gouged into the artifact where it was needed. This was even true of the bone
needles that are so common in Dorset sites. It is confusing, since the
Pre-Dorset and the Thule had and used drills to great effect.
However
little has been discovered about the Dorset people, their history is divided
into 4 periods: The Early (500-1 BC), Middle (1-500 AD), and Late phases
(500-1000 AD), as well as the Terminal phase from 1000 AD onward. The Terminal
phase would have been closely related to the Medieval Warm Period, which began
to warm the Arctic around 950 AD. Under those conditions, the sea ice became
far less predictable.
The
Dorset were adapted to a very cold climate, and it is thought that much of
their food consisted of sea mammals that breathe through holes in the ice. A
massive decline in sea ice would have forced the Dorset further north. Most
agree they disappeared at some point between 1000 and 1500 AD, possibly because
they could not adapt to the climate change or perhaps because they were
introduced to diseases they had not known before.
I
wish the article had included some type of rendition of the triangular
end-blades. I have a series of stories in the works about a culture that is
based on the number 3, and I keep imagining them developing 3-sided blades of
all sizes, even arrow-heads. But I don’t know enough about bladed weapons to
know if such a shape would be feasible. Anybody have any ideas about that?
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