Nunavut Archaeology and Artifacts

66 Pages·2015·4.18 MB·English

A Guide to
Nunavut Archaeology
and Artifacts
for Northern Communities
Acknowledgments

Writing by: Brendan Griebel
Design by: Brendan Griebel
Project management by:
Torsten Diesel, Inuit Heritage Trust
The Inuit Heritage Trust would like
to extend its thanks to the following
individuals and organizations for
their contributions to the Nunavut
Archaeology and Artifacts booklet
series:
• Curriculum and School Services,
Nunavut Department of Education
• Government of Nunavut
Department of Culture and
Heritage
• Tourism and Cultural Industries,
Nunavut Department of Economic
Development and Transportation.
• Nunavut Tourism
• Parks Canada, Nunavut Field Unit
• Krista Zawadski
• Luke Suluk
• Kevin Kelly
• Nick Amautinuar
• Joanasie Qappiq
• David Aglukkaq
• William Beveridge
• Ralph Kownak
• Sharon Thomson
• Ken Beardsale
• Sue Ball
• Sylvie LeBlanc
• Max Friesen
© 2014 Inuit Heritage Trust
A Guide to
Nunavut Archaeology and Artifacts
for Northern Communities

Explaining this Guidebook 2-5
Nunavut: A Land of History and Ancestors 6-9
Archaeology: Uncovering the Past 10-13
A History of Archaeology in the Arctic 14-17
Archaeology in Nunavut Today 18-21
Archaeology and the Nunavut Permit Process 22-31
Archaeological Artifacts in Nunavut 32-37
Photographing Archaeological Artifacts and Sites 38-39
Archaeological Sites in Nunavut 40-43
Human Remains 44-47
Archaeology in Conservation Areas 48-53
Archaeology and Nunavut Communities 54-57
Who to Contact with Questions and Concerns 58-61
References and Resources 62-63
Explaining this Guidebook
Why was this booklet to communicate stories about
the lives of the people who
written?
once made and used them. As
tools previously used by Inuit
Nunavut is a territory deep with
ancestors, and tools used by
tradition and history. For the
modern populations to learn
last five thousand years, the
about these ancestors, artifacts
Canadian Arctic has been home
should be respected and
to different cultural groups
preserved.
who have not just survived
from the land, but developed
While most Nunavummiut
rich lifestyles to celebrate the
have come into contact with old
world through art, religion and
objects on the land or in their
storytelling. With the passing
communities, few people know
of time, many of these traditions
what to do with them when they
have changed or disappeared.
find them and may wonder:
Often they exist only as
memories and the stories passed
• Do old tools belong to
down through generations.
whoever finds them?
• Can old sites be reused or
Almost anyone who has walked
should they be avoided?
on the land in Nunavut has seen
• Should all old things be
traces of past life in the form of
donated to a museum?
old tools and sites. These same

objects, known as ‘artifacts,’ can
In Nunavut, guidelines and
also be found in homes and
regulations have been put in
museums where Nunavummiut
place to help keep artifacts
use them to remember and
safe and accessible to future
learn about the past. These
generations. Many of these
materials have a special ability
2
Explaining this Guidebook
regulations were created by Who is this booklet
Inuit during the process of
written for?
Nunavut’s land claim settlement
and its formation as a new
This booklet was written for
Canadian territory. They have
people who have questions
specifically been written for
about how Inuit, Nunavummiut,
Nunavummiut so that they can
archaeologists and developers
help preserve Nunavut’s history.
should interact with old artifacts
These guidelines also apply
and sites in Nunavut. Many
to archaeology, a profession
rules and guidelines have been
that studies artifacts to build
created by the Government of
knowledge about the past.
Nunavut for this purpose, but
these are often presented in
This booklet is designed
very complicated and technical
to help Nunavummiut and
language. This booklet will
archaeologists become aware
explain about archaeology and
of their responsibilities to
artifacts in more basic terms.
protect Nunavut’s artifacts
This booklet is directed towards
and history. The booklet
three main groups:
explains the best practices
that exist for interacting with
• Nunavummiut who are
old artifacts and sites, and for
curious about the rules that
how archaeology should take
have been set up to protect
place in the territory. These
history in their territory.
practices allow local people to
This might be people who
take a stronger role in managing
find artifacts on the land and
their own heritage and make
do not know what to do with
sure incoming researchers and
them, or people who want
developers treat the territory’s
to know what happens to the
history with a similar respect.
3
Explaining this Guidebook

artifacts that are removed 1. Archaeological sites and
during archaeological artifacts
excavations.
• What makes an object an
• Nunavut businesses and
‘artifact,’ and when does a
organizations who wish
place become a ‘site’?
to use this information
• What do artifacts tell us
to instruct clients and
about the past?
employees on best practices
• Who do artifacts and sites
concerning archaeological
belong to?
artifacts and sites.
• Where do artifacts go when
they are dug up during an
• Archaeologists and
archaeological excavation?
developers who wish to
• What to do when you find
interact with old artifacts
an artifact on the land?
and sites in Nunavut.
2. The profession of
What will this booklet archaeology
talk about?
• What is archaeology?
• How can archaeology help to
This booklet will discuss three
understand the Inuit past?
important areas related to
• When did archaeology begin
history in Nunavut. The booklet
in the Arctic and how has it
will answer some of the most
changed since then?
common questions that are
• Who is responsible for
asked by Nunavummiut about
managing archaeology in
each of these topics:
Nunavut?
4
Explaining this Guidebook
• What permits and rules do How can this booklet be
archaeologists have to fol-
used?
low?
• How can Inuit participate in
This booklet has collected
archaeology?
information from a combination
of policies, people and
3. Responsibilities to the past
regulations across Nunavut. It
concentrates on presenting this
• What responsibilities do
information in plain language.
Nunavummiut have towards
In doing so, many details have
historical objects?
been left out. The material in
• What should I do if I
this booklet is provided only
feel that someone else (a
as a broad overview of rules
company, researcher or
and regulations to help people
private person) might be
make best practice decisions
disturbing archaeological
about artifacts and heritage. It
sites?
is not intended to be read as a
• How can local people report
series of explicit rules. If people
sites and artifacts they have
want more exact information
found?
or the legal wording of certain
regulations, this booklet will tell
them who to contact or which
resources to look through for
more detailed information.
5
Nunavut: A Land of History and Ancestors

“In the very first times
Have Inuit always lived
there was no light on
in the Canadian Arctic?
earth. Everything was
in darkness, the lands
The origins of the Inuit people,
could not be seen, the
as told through their legends,
animals could not be
belong to a time long ago when
animals, people and the Arctic seen. And still, both
landscape were one. The first people and animals lived
material evidence for Inuit on earth, but there was
living in the Canadian Arctic no difference between
has been dated by archaeologists them...They may have
to around 1250 AD. These
had different habits,
early ancestors of the Inuit
but all spoke the same
are known as ‘Sivulliit,’ or ‘the
tongue, lived in the same
first ones.’ Archaeologists have
kind of house, and spoke
named this group the ‘Thule,’ or
and hunted in the same
‘Neo-Eskimo,’ people. Before
way. That is the way they
the arrival of the Thule, the
lived here on earth in
Canadian Arctic was inhabited
the very earliest times,
by various different cultural
groups who came and went times that no one can
from the region starting around understand now.”
3000 B.C. While archaeologists
call these early populations -From a story told to Knud
‘Paleo-Eskimo’ people, they Rasmussen in 1931 by
also name and group them Naalungiaq, a Netsilingmiut
man.
according to the different ways
in which they lived and the
types of tools that they used.
6
Nunavut: A Land of History and Ancestors
When Inuit entered the • The Thule were searching for
Canadian Arctic, they likely new sources of metal, which
overlapped with another was one of the most valuable
cultural group known to Inuit as resources at that time;
the ‘Tuniit’ and to archaeologists • The Thule were escaping
as the ‘Dorset’ people. Inuit from negative social
stories describe them as a race conditions in Alaska, which
of very strong, yet shy, people included overpopulation and
who hunted with massive warfare;
strength and simple tools, and • The Thule were following
made their buildings with large bowhead whale migrations
boulders. What happened to that moved increasingly
the Tuniit when the first Inuit eastward as the climate
arrived is still not fully known. became warmer.
Inuit have many stories about
how the two groups interacted, Regardless of their reasons for
but archaeologists have never moving, Thule people soon
found any material evidence found themselves in a land very
of the two groups meeting or different from the driftwood
living together. It is still not and whale-rich coasts of Alaska.
known why the Thule people
migrated into the Canadian
Arctic from their previous home
in northern Alaska. Various
theories have been suggested as
to why the Thule would leave
a familiar place for a new and
relatively unknown land. These
theories include:
7
Nunavut: A Land of History and Ancestors
How have Inuit adjusted their lifestyle. The High
Arctic was abandoned, with
to the Arctic
populations moving to less
environment?
ice-locked locations. During
winters, groups began to
When the first Thule pioneers
construct and live in snow
arrived in the Canadian Arctic,
houses on the sea ice, which
they tried living in a similar way
allowed them to focus their
to their Alaskan ancestors. They
diet around seal hunting. In
built large and elaborate winter
the summers, inland caribou
houses, the earliest of which had
hunting became more popular.
kitchens as separate rooms so
Settlement sizes became smaller
that food could be cooked over
and less permanent than before
an open fire. As in Alaska, their
so groups could re-locate
main food source continued
more often to harvest a wider
to be bowhead whales, which
variety of animals. Life began to
they hunted in teams from a
change even more dramatically
type of large boat known as
after 1500 A.D., and especially
the ‘umiak.’ The skill, danger
after 1800 A.D., when explorers
and large rewards in hunting
and whalers from Europe began
these animals gave them great
arriving in great numbers.
symbolism in Thule society and
rituals.
Why do regional
differences exist in Inuit
Around 1400 A.D., the climate
began to cool again and the sea culture?
ice increased, resulting in fewer
whales and more dangerous By the late 1600s, Inuit had
whale hunting conditions. The abandoned many of their early
Thule people began adjusting Thule ancestors’ ways of life.
8