The Lake Site (KkHh-2), Southampton Island, N.W.T. and its Position in Sadlermiut Prehistory

The Lake Site (KkHh-2), Southampton Island, N.W.T. and its Position in Sadlermiut PrehistoryAuthor(s): Brenda ClarkSource: Canadian Journal of Archaeology / Journal Canadien d’Archéologie, No. 4 (1980), pp.53-81Published by: Canadian Archaeological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41102220 .

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CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY No. 4, 1980 53

The Lake Site (KkHh-2), Southampton Island, N.W.T. and its Position in Sadlermiut Prehistory

Brenda Clark

Introduction

This report details the findings from the excavations of a Thule culture site on southern Southampton Island, N.W.T. (Figures 1 and 2). The problem that led to the initiation of the Southampton Island Archaeological Project was one of the investigation into the origin and development of the Sadlermiut culture.

In recent years, questions concerning the development of local variants of the Thule culture and the processes of cultural development among historic Inuit groups have been addressed. Investigators have proposed new models for the origins and development of particular Inuit groups in the Central and Eastern Arctic based on a Thule culture ancestry. Vanstone (1962), McGhee (1972), Schiedermann (1971) and Clark (1977), for example, have examined the Netsilik, Copper, Labrador and Caribou Inuit. In spite of these recent advances, many questions regarding Neo-Eskimo development remain unanswered. Among these is the question of the Sadlermiut and their apparently anomalous development within the Neo-Eskimo tradition.

The Sadlermiut, aboriginal inhabitants of Southampton Island until their biological and cultural extinction in the winter of 1902 - 03, were recognized as a very distinctive historic Inuit group. They were unique in terms of their dwellings, dress, personal appearance (hair and tattoo styles) and tools. Their behaviour towards other groups, Inuit and European, was reticent to say the least. They were even known as Tunnit by their mainland Inuit neighbours, a term generally reserved in Inuit legends for the earlier Dorset population. Good accounts of the Sadlermiut can be found in Mathiassen (1927), Collins (1956), Taylor (1959, 1960), Lyon (1825), Comer (1910) and Boas (1907). In view of the distinctiveness of the Sadlermiut against the relative homogeneity of other historic Central and Eastern Arctic Inuit groups, archaeologists have suggested that the processes of cultural development on Southampton Island over the past seven centuries may well have been different than those elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic. The possibility of the Sadlermiut being the descendants of the Dorset people or at least of the Dorset people having strongly influenced the ancestral population was offered as an alternative to Thule culture ancestry. Unfortunately, the sporadic archaeological work that has been undertaken in the Sadlermiut culture area of Southampton, Coats and Walrus Islands has left a shallow basis for the discussion of these hypotheses concerning Sadlermiut cultural origins and development. Mathiassen, in 1922, was the first archaeologist to investigate the prehistory of the



54 The Lake Site and Sadlermiut Prehistory

Figure 1 : Southampton Island and its location in Hudson Bay. The area encompassed by the square is shown with site locations in Figure 2.




Sadlermiut with his excavations at Kuk in Duke of York Bay (Mathiassen 1927). Thirty-two years later, in 1954, Henry Collins travelled to Southampton Island but concentrated primarily on Dorset culture sites at Native Point. He continued his work in 1955 and the following year one of his crew members, William Taylor, Jr., returned to the Tunermiut site at Native Point to study terminal Sadlermiut architecture (Collins 1956, 1957, Taylor 1960). Twenty-one years after Taylor's investigations, the author spent four weeks of the summer of 1977 on Southampton Island at the Lake Site, a Thule winter campsite a few miles north of Native Point. Since terminal Sadlermiut is well-defined on the basis of archaeological (Taylor 1960, Mathiassen 1927) and ethnological (Boas 1907, Comer 1910, Ferguson 1938, Lyon 1825) sources, and since early Thule is also fairly well-defined in the Central Arctic and on Southampton Island (Mathiassen 1927, McCartney 1977), the main objective of the 1977 Southampton Island Archaeological Project was to attempt to define a transitional phase of the Thule culture from excavations conducted at the Lake Site (KkHh-2).

The General Site Area

The Native Point area of Southampton Island is strikingly flat. Gray gravel beach ridges are the predominant features of the landscape and the most ancient of these are well-inland. They are separated by low-lying areas of swampy tundra and innumerable shallow lakes and ponds. There are no river systems in the area. The T-l plateau, situated about a mile inland from the Tunermiut site at an elevation of 22 m , seems to be the only substantial relief to the land.

Vegetation is sparse on the beach ridges. Purple saxifrage is the predominant flora growing in the soilless gravel and occurs sporadically in single clumps. Typical arctic flora grows in the low-lying areas and on any turfed areas.

Birds are extremely plentiful here. During my visit several species were observed including snow geese, snowy owl, swans, sandhill cranes, eider ducks, plovers, Sabine's gull, jaegers, lapland longspurs, and loons. Apparently all of these varieties nested in the area and undoubtedly several have been an important food resource.

Evidence of other important food animals was blatant as we hiked along the shore of Native Bay. Scattered everywhere along the sandy beaches were rotten carcasses or skeletons of walrus, bearded seal and other smaller seals. Bones of the polar bear also appeared along the beach strand and near the Tunermiut site.

Presumably, because of the lack of river systems and the shallowness of the lakes, fish were not an important resource in the Native Point area.

The Lake Site (KkHh-2)

The Lake Site, first located by Collins' expedition of 1955, is situated on a point of land approximately 4 km north of the Tunermiut site (Figure 2). The site lies on an old beach ridge between two lakes approximately 0.5 km from the shore of Native Bay.




Figure 2: Native Bay coast.

Structures

There are nine semi-subterranean Thule winter houses stretched along the beach ridge; four are in a distinctively lower line than the others and House 9 lies off at a distance (Figure 3 and 4). There are also associated surficial features - a stone cache beside House 8, two unidentified pit features (small circular pits lined with rocks) next to House 7 and House 5, and two small depressions, not large enough to have been dwellings, close to House 7 and House 2.




Figure 3: Sitemap.

In order to limit the length of this paper, detailed descriptions of the unexcavated structures will be omitted. They are available in my report to the National Museums of Canada (Clark 1978).

Excavations

Excavations were undertaken in two of the Lake Site houses, House 2 and House 5. The House 2 excavation included the entire house interior as well as an area outside of it adjacent to the entrance passage (Figures 5, 6 and 7). The floor of one room and the entrance passage of the bilobate House 5 was also excavated (Figures 8 and 9).

Two radiocarbon dates were achieved with samples of land mammal bone. The sample from the floor level of House 2 yielded a date of 625±60 radio-carbon years or A.D. 1325. The other sample is from fill on the sleeping platform of House 2 and yielded a date of 410±60 radio-carbon years or A.D. 1540. Although the provenience of the second sample makes it less directly associated with the occupation than the sample from the living floor, it may be estimated that House 2 at the Lake Site was occupied some time within the 14th to 16th centuries A.D.

The architectural features of Houses 2 and 5 have been detailed in another publication (Clark in press). The following is a summary of the Lake Site house characteristics.

Construction techniques used to build Houses 2 and 5 at the Lake Site do not diverge significantly from those used on other Hudson Bay Thule sites. McCartney has defined the characteristics that typify Thule house construction on the northwest coast of Hudson Bay




Figure 4: General view of the Lake Site looking in a northward direction. House 9 is in the centre foreground.

(McCartney 1977: 210-213). These characteristics are also applicable to the Rankin Inlet area (Linnamae and Clark 1976). With the exception of a side bench feature found in House 5, they fit the Southampton Island Thule structures as well. Taylor's (1960: 80-81) summary of the techniques used in house construction during the terminal Sadlermiut phase indicates major deviations from the architecture exhibited on the Lake Site, however. As Taylor stated, the oustanding difference is that the Sadlermiut houses are never semi-subterranean, but rather are built on ground level. Also Sadlermiut houses exhibit little use of coursed stonework whereas this technique is very common in Thule architecture. There are architectural similarities between Sadlermiut houses and the Lake Site houses in the use of flagged side benches, the use of vertical slabs in wall construction and the presence of a rear flagged sleeping platform. In general, however, the Lake Site houses show strong similarities to the architectural styles represented on other Hudson Bay Thule sites.

Artifacts

1. Descriptions

The artifacts are grouped into categories according to conventional usage.

I. Hunting Equipment

A. Harpoon heads




Figure 5 : PI an view oï House 2.

Figure 6: House 2 interior. The sleeping platform is in the foreground. The number on the mugboard refers to the numbering system used in the field.




Figure 7: House 2 exterior.

Figure (S: Planview of House 5 living area and entrance passage.




Figure 9: House 5 excavation. The large rock in the foreground marks the front edge of the sleeping platform. The number on the mugboard refers to the numbering system used in the field.

1 . Walrus hunting harpoon heads - 3 specimens (House 2).

According to Simon Kalogalik, an elderly hunter from Coral Harbour, these types of barbless harpoon heads would most commonly have been used for hunting walrus. Figure 10a is an ivory Thule type 4 harpoon head, having a closed socket and a bifurcated dorsal spur. The thin blade slot is parallel to the line hole. A rivet held the end blade in place. Figure 10b shows a Thule type 3 harpoon head made of antler. This specimen has an open socket and a blade slot parallel to the line hole. There was no rivet. This head has a right lateral spur but I can only assume that there is no left spur since the left aspect of the hafting element and the tip is missing due to breakage. There are two lashing holes on the right side. The harpoon head is decorated with the Thule Y-line motif. There are also carved lines running parallel to and alongside the lateral edges of the harpoon head. The last in this category is a flat, open-socketed variety of Thule harpoon head, made of ivory (Figure 10c). It has two V-shaped dorsal spurs, two pairs of lateral lashing holes and a transverse line hole. The plane of the end blade is parallel to the plane of the line hole and there is a single rivet hole.

2 . Seal hunting harpoon heads - 2 specimens .

Figure lOd (House 2) and e (House 5) are two flat-based harpoon heads with no sockets. The central line hole is situated immediately above the base in both cases. The specimen having bilateral barbs (Figure lOd) is made from antler. There is a bed for the end blade and a rivet hole. The lashing bed is carved so that it forms a knob-like distal end, a characteristic Sadlermiut feature.




Figure 10: Harpoon heads.

The bone harpoon head illustrated in Figure 10e is self-bladed and has two unilateral barbs. This type of harpoon head was probably used for hunting basking seals (Simon Kalogalik, personal communication).

3. Fragments of harpoon heads - 6 specimens.

The remaining specimens in this category represent broken fragments of harpoon heads. Figure lOf (House 5) is an interesting ivory specimen. The entire hafting element is missing but the remaining distal portion has a slot for an end blade and two bilateral side blade slots. At the base of this incomplete specimen is a series of diagonally drilled holes. The slots are all very thin and may have held metal blades. Figure 10h (House 5) is also made of ivory. There is an end blade slot which held a metal blade (rust stains are evident) and although the specimen is broken, one may notice the presence of bilateral side blade slots.

Two basal fragments, lOi (ivory) and lOj (antler), both from House 2, are possibly fragments of Thule type 3 harpoon heads but speculation rests on the hafting element only as the blade element is missing. Both specimens have open sockets and right lateral spurs.

Specimen 10g (House 2) is the blade element of an ivory, self-bladed harpoon head. There is a line hole asymmetrically situated between the medial ridge and the lateral edge. 10k (House 5) is a spur from an ivory harpoon head. Both of these fragments are from indeterminate types.




Figure lì: Hunting equipment.

B. Harpoon foreshafts - 1 specimen (Figure Ila, House 5).

The Lake Site specimen is made of antler and is roughly conical in shape. Although the proximal end is broken off, the remains of a laterally placed line hole may be discerned.

C. Harpoon finger rests - 1 specimen (Figure lie, House 2).

This single ivory specimen is roughly triangular in shape with a convex, saddle-shaped base. There is one lashing hole. On the dorsal surface is a carved cross, perhaps an owner's mark.

D. Lance heads - 2 specimens.

Figure 1 lb (House 5) is a moveable lance head, 15.3 cm long, made from bone or antler. At the distal end there is a bed for the end blade and a lashing bed. The hafting element is shouldered and wedge-shaped. There is a line hole near the end. The other lance head in the Lake Site collection is an ivory specimen (Figure 1 Id, House 2). This type of lance head,




Figure 12: Hunting and fishing equipment.

according to my informant, would have been used to kill a walrus once the animal had been harpooned. It is self-bladed and has no barbs. The basal element is broken, but it can be seen that the socket is open and the line hole transverse. The plane of the blade is the same as the plane of the line hole.

E. Fishing Equipment

The only piece of fishing apparatus recovered from the Lake Site was the centre prong of a fish spear (Figure 12e, House 2). It is made of antler, having a rather thick triangular blade with a drilled hole at one lateral edge. The hafting element is wedge-shaped and roughened for haf ting.

F. Bird dart side prong - 1 specimen.

The basal portion of an ivory bird dart side prong was found in House 5 (Figure 12b). Typically, this specimen has a wedge-shaped lateral extension for securing this component of the weapon.




Figure 13: End blades.

G. Bola balls - 1 specimen (Figure 12a, House 2).

Although this antler specimen is small, it morphologically resembles the bird-hunting device. It is roughly egg-shaped and has a line hole at the constricted end.

H. Gull hooks - 1 specimen (Figure 12c, House 2).

This bipointed ivory barb likely served as a hook, lashed to a piece of wood or bone, imbedded in blubber and tossed onto the water to entice and capture unwary gulls.

I. Bows - 2 specimens.

Two fragments, nocked at one end, were recovered and may be the end pieces of composite bows (Figure 12f, House 5 and g, House 2).

J. Arrowheads - 1 specimen (Figure 12d, House 2).

The single arrowhead from the Lake Site, is made of antler, and has a conical blade and an obliquely cut tang.

K. End blades - ^specimens.

1. Stemmed end blades.




Figure 14: Ovate bifaces.

There are three complete and one incomplete specimens in this category. Figure 13a (House 5) is roughly finished and is plano-convex in cross-section. The ventral surface has no retouch but the lateral edges, with the exception of the left edge of the stem, are retouched. The dorsal surface of the stem is not retouched and the blade only minimally so. This end blade has a length of 6.8 cm, a maximum width of 3.8 cm and a thickness of 0.9 cm. Figure 13b (House 2) has a triangular blade and an expanding stem with a straight base. It is plano-convex with bifacial retouch on the stem. The length is 3.9 cm and the width 2.4 cm.

Only one representative of the notable Sadlermiut "spade-shaped" end blade was recovered (Figure 13c, House 2). This specimen is 3.0 cm long, 2.2 cm wide and is plano-convex in cross-section. Retouch is unif acial.

Figure 13d (House 5) is the hafting element of a single-shouldered stemmed end blade. There is only a very slight indentation where the right shoulder would have been. The left notch is steeply retouched and the dorsal surface and edges are retouched. The ventral surface is not flaked at all with the exception of one large flake removed apparently to thin the base of the stem. It is plano-convex in cross-section.

2. Triangular end blades - 8 specimens (Figure 13e-j, House 2; Figure 13k, 1, House 5).

All of the triangular end blades are bifacially retouched. Of the complete specimens, four have concave bases, and one has a straight base. Their lengths range from 3.8 cm to 2.2 cm and their widths from 3.0 cm to 1.8 cm.

The end blades are all made from the locally available grey banded chert, with the exception of Figure 13g. This triangular end blade is made from a much finer grained chert and is more finely flaked. Morphologically it is somewhat different from the other end blades having one concave lateral edge as well as a concave base. The possibility that this artifact is not of Thule manufacture should be entertained.

Figure 13f may be broken. However, the middle section of the existing base is concave and has some bifacial retouch. One surface of the end blade is partly ground.

L. Ovate bifaces - 5 specimens (Figure 14, House 2).

The artifacts in this category may have functioned as knives or as side blades. Three specimens are made from grey banded chert (Figure 14a, b, c) and two are made from exotic




Figure 15: Paddle blade.

cherts, Figure 14e from a fine grained pink and white mottled chert and Figure 14d from the same blue-grey chert as the end blade mentioned above. Because of the different raw material and finer flaking technique (which may well be a result of the better quality of chert), one may suspect that these two bifaces may not belong to the Thule component. The lengths of the complete specimens range from 4.9 cm to 2.9 cm and the widths range from 2.2 to 1.4 cm.

II. Transportation Equipment

A. Trace buckle

A broken ivory trace buckle recovered from House 2 has an overall rectangular shape with two holes. The posterior hole is larger than the anterior one.

B. Sled shoe (House 5)

A broken piece of whale bone with remnants of three drilled holes may be a fragment of a sled shoe.

C. Paddle blade - 1 specimen (Figure 15, House 5).

This artifact is made from whale bone and is flat and roughly oval in shape. Located about a third of the way below the constricted end of the paddle there is a hole through which the




Figúrelo: Knife handles.

handle was fitted. Above this handle socket and to either side below it, are lashing holes for securing the handle. According to my informant, this type of paddle would have been used for propelling a piece of floating ice rather than a kayak.

III. Men's tools

A. Knife handles - 5 specimens.

Three long knife handles were recovered. Figure 16a (House 2) is made from antler and is curved along its length of 25.9 cm. It is possibly a snowknife handle. Figure 16b (House 5) is a rectangular antler handle 19.3 cm long. There is a shallow bed at the distal end where the cancellous bone is worn smoother, likely where the blade was hafted. There are two lashing holes at this end below the bed. Figure 16c (House 2) is a broken antler handle. The cancellous surface is worn very smooth and on both cortex and cancellous surfaces are many cut marks. There are four drilled holes along the length of the artifact.

There is one ivory composite knife handle in the Lake Site collection (Figure 16d, House 2), being 6.4 cm long. This component has a blade slot at the distal end and a flat bed, the length of one side, roughened for hafting, against which the other component would have




Figure 17: a. flint flaker, b. snow knife blade, c. sinew twister, d-f. drill bits.

fitted. At the midpoint there is a lashing hole and below this a notch carved into the edge opposite the hafting edge. The proximal end is wedge-shaped.

Finally, Figure 16e (House 2) shows a rectangular ivory handle 9.0 cm long. The knife accommodated a side blade but the slot is quite short (1.2 cm) and thin, probably having held a metal blade. There seem to be rust stains in the slot. The right lateral edge is flat and straight and along it there are five drilled holes. At the distal end there is another, larger, suspension hole.

B. Snow knife blade - 1 specimen (Figure 17b, House 2).

A single, broken ivory blade was recovered. There are three drilled holes for lashing to the handle.

C. Sinew twister - 1 specimen (Figure 17c, House 2).

This artifact is made from bone or antler, is rectangular and has a length of 9. 1 cm.




Figure 18: Miscellaneous lithics.

D. Flint flaker - 1 specimen (Figure 17a, House 2).

A segment of an antler, pointed at one end and blunt at the other, was possibly used in lithic tool manufacture.

E. Drill bits - 3 specimens (Figure 17d, House 2, e, f, House 5).

These are chipped stone unifaces, roughly rectangular and thick with steep lateral edge retouch. They are plano-convex in cross-section. Figure 17e is the only complete bit and has a thinned and diagonally cut distal end. Artifacts similar to these were previously found at the Lake Site and from the Tunermiut site.

F. Burin-like tools - 1 specimen (Figure 18g, House 5).

Two-thirds of the right lateral edge and the bottom third of the left lateral edge of this artifact are unifacially retouched. The right corner at the distal end is a sharp right angle formed by the removal of two spalls. The resulting corner is very sharp and could have been used for incising.




IV. Women's Tools

A. Needle - 1 specimen (House 2).

There is one complete ivory needle in the collection. It is 4.4 cm long with a tiny drilled hole at one end and pointed at the other.

B. Ulu blades - 2 specimens.

There were two chipped stone ulu blades recovered from House 5 at the Lake Site. These are similar to specimens found at Kuk by Mathiassen (1927, Plate 70: 2, 3). Both the Lake Site specimens are broken. For the more complete of the two, the striking platform area is present and is thick and battered. The opposite semi-circular edge is, however, nicely chipped to form a scraping/cutting edge. This blade may have been hand-held judging from the thick butt end. For the other, only a corner of the blade remains, including part of the working edge and the lateral edge.

V. Household Equipment

A. Vessel fragments - 1 specimen (House 2).

The artifact appears to be a rim fragment of a fairly large, heavy vessel. The raw material is a micaceous schist and does not have the soft qualities of soapstone. The fragment is 2.0 cm thick below the rim.

B. Lamp - 1 specimen.

One semi-lunate lamp was found situated on the floor in front of the House 2 entrance passage. The lamp is made from limestone and has neither a raised edge nor is it hollowed. It is encrusted with a flaky, black carbonized material on one surface. The length is 59.2 cm; the width is 29.9 cm; and the thickness is about 3. 1 cm.

VI. Ornaments

A. Pendants - 5 specimens.

In this category there are four tooth pendants including two polar bear teeth (Figure 19b, House 2 and c, House 5), a seal tooth (Figure 19e, House 5) and a fox tooth (Figure 19f, House 2). All have suspension holes in the root. Figure 19e also has a drilled hole near the crown. The fifth pendant is a carved ivory seal (Figure 19d, House 2) with a tiny drilled hole through the caudal flipper.

B. Comb - 1 specimen (Figure 19a, House 2).

There is one beautiful, nearly complete ivory comb in this collection. One of the teeth is missing and also a small section of the carved bow-like feature at the top of the comb.




Figure 19: Ornaments.

VII. Miscellaneous Bone/ Antler/Ivory

A . Socket pieces - 2 specimens .

There are two socket pieces whose specific functions are unknown. One is made from sea mammal bone. The hafting element is obliquely cut and has a drilled hole. There is a 0.9 cm lashing bed at the distal end and an open, square socket 1 .7 cm deep. The ivory socket piece is 4.2 cm long with a closed, roughly oval-shaped socket. The hafting element is conical and is roughened for lashing.

B . Hafting elements - 2 specimens .

There are two broken ivory artifacts which are the hafting elements from two unknown tool types. Both are obliquely cut and roughened for lashing.

C. Cut and worked bone/antler/ivory.

This category consists of fragments of raw material such as walrus tooth, pieces of ivory drilled through and broken for use in tool manufacture, and a section of antler, deeply




incised so it could be broken in longitudinal section. This material was found in both houses.

VII. Miscellaneous lithics

A. Black mica fragment (House 5).

One thin rectangular piece of black mica was recovered measuring 6.2 cm by 2.3 cm. Lyon reports that black mica was used as a mirror among the Sadlermiut (Lyon 1825: 38).

B. Copper fragment

One lump of copper was found on the sleeping platform of House 2. The specimen has become fragmented since its discovery but appeared to have been worked at one end.

C. Bifaces - 4 specimens.

Two complete leaf-shaped bifaces are shown in Figure 18a (House 2) and b (House 5). Functionally, they may be categorized as knives. Figure 18d (House 2) is a bifacially worked tang and Figure 18c (House 2) is a biface midsection.

D. End scrapers - 4 specimens (House 2).

Only one of the end scrapers is complete (Figure 18h). They are all made from the grey banded chert, are unif acial and appear to belong to the same morphological type, having an expanding stem and a semi-circular distal working edge. The type is similar to Sadlermiut end scrapers (Taylor 1960, Plate IX Q) but often the latter have a larger distal portion and a more circular working edge. The single complete specimen is 4.5 cm long and 3.4 cm wide, maximum width occurring at the corners of the distal working edge. The other specimens consist only of the tang element (Figure 18i, j) and in one case, only the base is present (Figure 18k). Three specimens have basal edge retouch.

E. Flake tools - 2 specimens.

Figure 18e (House 2) shows a tool made on a rather thick flake with unifacial retouch along areas on both lateral edges to form two concave working edges. The tool may have functioned as a shaft scraper. Figure 18f (House 5) is a stemmed flake tool. The stem is unifacially retouched on the opposite surfaces of each lateral edge and is thinned at the base. The distal portion is unretouched and it seems that the artifact may have functioned as a side scraper.

F. Blade-like flakes - 5 specimens.

Five small chert blade-like flakes were found, which may be microblades, although no cores were found.




G. Ground stone tools - 2 specimens.

These two pieces of ground stone probably functioned as whetstones. One is made from a black slate-like material and is ground on both surfaces. The other is ground only on one surface.

H. Rough stone tools - 2 specimens.

One of these is a rough, oval bifacial tool made of a dark, slate-like material. It may have been a hand-held cutting or scraping tool. One edge is backed by blunting while the opposite edge is bifacially retouched into a cutting or scraping edge. The other specimen is a flat stone roughly chipped along one edge.

I. Retouched flakes, cores and fragments.

Flakes and chipping detritus were recovered from both houses and associated test pits.

Table 1

Provenience Artifact category House 2 House 5 Total

harpoon heads 7 4 11 harpoon foreshafts 1 1 harpoon finger rests 1 1 lance heads 1 1 2 fish spear centre prong 1 1 bird dart side prong 1 1 bola ball 1 1

gull hook 1 1 end blades

stemmed 2 2 4

triangular 6 2 8 ovate bifaces 5 5 bows 1 12 arrowheads 1 1 trace buckle 1 1 sled shoe 1 1

paddle blade 1 1 knife handles 4 1 5 snow knife blade 1 1 sinew twister 1 1 flint flaker 1 1 drill bits 1 2 3 burin-like tool 1 1 needles 1 1




ulu blades 2 2 vessel fragments 1 1

lamps 1 1

pendants 3 2 5 combs 1 1 socket pieces 2 2

hafting elements 2 2 cut and worked bone/antler/ivory

ivory 10 3 13 antler 3 2 5 bone 1 1 2 sea mammal bone 3 3

black mica fragment 1 1

copper 1 1 bifaces 1 3 4 flake tools 1 1 2 blade-like flakes 5 5

ground stone tools 2 2

rough stone tools 2 2 retouched flakes, cores, fragments:

flakes 15 6 21 cores 14 4 20

fragments 4 4

2. Discussion

Given the small size of the Lake Site assemblage, the remarks that follow may be regarded as preliminary statements concerning a definition of a transitional Thule artifact complex on

Southampton Island and its relationship to other Arctic cultures, specifically Dorset, Thule and terminal Sadlermiut.

For the purposes of this discussion, the Lake Site assemblage may be separated into three components: 1) a bone/antler/ivory component; 2) a chipped stone component; and 3) a component best referred to as a "catch-all" for the artifacts that do not fit into the other two. The latter component does not form a significant part of the discussion.

The tool types in the bone/antler/ivory component have strong affiliations to the Thule culture; in fact, they would be lost in any Central or Eastern Arctic Thule assemblage. For example, the Thule type 2 harpoon head with or without the Y-line motif is common from Thule sites and is illustrated in Mathiassen (1927), Schiedermann (1976), McCartney (1977) and Linnamae and Clark (1976) to mention a few sources. The Thule type 4 harpoon head from the Lake Site is similar to a specimen in Schiedermann (1976) as is the flat, open socketed variety of Thule harpoon head. Other researchers have recognized a strong similarity between the latter harpoon head type and the Dorset type B-l(a), or flat, closed-socketed harpoon head with the blade socket at right angles to the line hole.

The comb from House 2 is very similar to a comb from a Thule culture site in Saglek Bay, Labrador (Schiedermann 1971). This comb has overall morphological similarities to one




found at Kuk by Mathiassen (1927 Plate 67: 5). At this stage, it may be suggested that with the possible exception of the antler flint flaker, the artifacts within the bone/antler/ivory component of the assemblage are all variants of Thule artifact types.

On the other hand, chipped stone tools are more characteristic of Palaeo-Eskimo (Independence, Pre-Dorset, Dorset) assemblages than of Neo-Eskimo (Thule, Inuit) assemblages. The suggestion has been that the Thule culture has no tradition of chipping stone. At the same time, one cannot disregard the large quantities of quartzite debris from western Hudson Bay Thule sites where it appears that people were chipping stone tools from readily available, although inferior, white quartzite resources. The number of tools in relation to the amounts of chipping debris are few, however, and the tools that were recovered are not particularly diagnostic (Linnamae and Clark 1976, McCartney 1977). The question that comes to mind is, from where did this tradition of chipped stone tools arise on Southampton Island? The question may be approached by looking at the artifact types and techniques of manufacture in relation to other Arctic cultures having chipped stone tools. Here, interest lies with Dorset and terminal Sadlermiut cultures.

Several of the categories of lithic artifacts from the Lake Site are significant categories within the Dorset cultural complex (Taylor 1968). These are: microblades (unfortunately, no cores were recovered from the Lake Site and to include the blade-like flakes from the site may be stretching the category); side blades (Figure 14); flake tools (Figure 18e, f); burin-like tools (Figure 18g); triangular chipped bifacial end blades with concave and straight bases (Figure 13e-i): and notched and stemmed end blades (Figure 13a-d). In addition to overlapping categories of tools between the Lake Site and Dorset lithic components, the techniques of manufacture exhibited for Southampton Island Thule chipped stone tools reflect Dorset manufacturing techniques in such characteristics as tendency toward plano-convex cross-sections for many tools and the common occurrence of unifacial retouch. The fine flaking common on Dorset culture artifacts is lacking, however. These few similarities between Dorset and Thule chipped stone tools cannot lead to any definitive statement on the interrelationship between these two cultures. The evidence may suggest, however, that there was Dorset influence on the material culture of the early Southampton Island Thule people.

The discussion would not be complete without examining the Lake Site assemblage in relation to the terminal Sadlermiut complex as defined from Tunermiut (Taylor 1960), Kuk (Mathiassen 1927) and from the ethnographic sources (Lyon 1825, Boas 1907, Comer 1910). Other than a statement that the seal hunting harpoon head in Figure lOd has the characteristic Sadlermiut ' "knob-like" distal end, that the flat open socket variety of Thule harpoon head (Figure 10c) was also found at Tunermiut and that the Lake Site comb is not a Sadlermiut type, one cannot make more specific comparisons between the Lake Site bone/antler/ivory component and counterparts within the Sadlermiut material culture complex. Inhibiting factors include the small size of the Lake Site collection and the small numbers of similar types and categories to compare. Better comparative results are possible through examining the chipped stone tools of both cultures.

Among the tool types available for comparison, four categories overlap between the Lake Site assemblage and the terminal Sadlermiut complex; 1) end scrapers (Figure 18h-k); 2) unifacial stemmed end blades (Figure 13a-d); 3) leaf-shaped bifaces (Figure 18a, b); and 4) drill bits (Figure 17d-f). The Lake Site end scrapers are very similar to the Sadlermiut type




being large, stemmed and having a large circular or semi-circular working edge. Some Sadlermiut specimens are larger and have a greater circularity to the working edge. Stemmed end blades from the Sadlermiut complex are smaller than those recovered from the Lake Site although, as in the case of the "spade-shaped" end blades, they are of similar

morphological types. A chert drill bit, identical to those from the Lake Site, was found at Tunermiut (NMC specimen KkHh- 1-202); also two leaf-shaped bifaces are comparable to

specimens from Tunermiut. From a subjective viewpoint, the chipped stone tools from the Lake Site assemblage and

those from the Sadlermiut complex exhibit virtually identical manufacturing techniques. The main characteristics are: plano-convex cross-sections; predominantly unifacial retouch; lack of complete surficial retouch on most artifacts; and lack of fine flaking techniques.

In totality, the Lake Site assemblage bears no relation to any artifact assemblage recovered in the Eastern or Central Canadian Arctic outside of Southampton Island.

Certainly, the bone/ antler/ivory component of the assemblage is closely related to other Thule assemblages. The chipped stone component, however, bears its closest affiliations to the Dorset and terminal Sadlermiut culture complexes and not to Thule.

Faunal remains

The faunal material recovered from the Lake Site excavations has not been analysed. The

following remarks are based on site notes and therefore only refer to species of animals

present and relative quantities of these species. The great majority of the bone refuse was found on the floors of the dwellings and in the

fill zone above the floors. The refuse was predominantly representative of sea mammal resources including, in order of importance, walrus, seal (at least two species) and whale (one vertebra). There was very little land mammal bone and only one species that would have been used extensively for food, that is, caribou. Some polar bear and fox bones and a

partial canid skeleton, presumed to be dog, were recovered. Undetermined species of avifauna were also represented. In addition, a number of fish vertebra were found on the House 2 sleeping platform along with some broken fragments of shell of an unknown

variety.

Summary

The Lake Site is a transitional Thule winter campsite where the predominant subsistence activity was the hunting of sea mammals, particularly walrus and seals. The site was likely abandoned in spring as there were no tent rings or qaqmat in the site area. The nature of the excavated dwellings indicates that these houses may not have seen a long occupation of several repeated habitations.

The Neo-Eskimo Period on Southampton Island

The following outline of the chronology of the Thule and Sadlermiut occupations of Southampton Island shows where the Lake Site fits within the Neo-Eskimo period in this area.




Only three sites representing the Neo-Eskimo period have been investigated to any extent. These are the Kuk sites (LjHp-2, 3, 4) in Duke of York Bay on the northern coast of Southampton Island, the Lake Site (KkHh-2) and the Tunermiut site (KkHh-1) both in Native Bay on the south coast of the island. These site areas represent a chronological range from "classic" Thule (A.D. 1200) through a transitional Thule phase to terminal Sadlermiut (A.D. 1902-03).

At Kuk, there are three main groupings of semi-subterranean houses, the Lower House Group, the Upper House Group and the Eastern House Group. Mathiassen's excavations included representative houses from each of these main groupings. Most of the structures in the Upper House Group are considered to be contemporary to the Naujan site at Repulse Bay, a classic Thule site thought to date to A.D. 1200. The material culture remains from two excavated houses in the Upper House Group are similar to the Naujan finds (see Mathiassen 1927 for a full discussion on Naujan and Kuk). The remainder of the house structures in the Upper House Group and the houses in the Lower House Group appear to be later than Naujan, showing affiliation to the classic Thule assemblage in several artifact types. There are, however, some elements of the assemblage which suggest a later, transitional Thule phase: flat harpoon heads; flint flakers; chipped stone end blades and cemented limestone cooking pots instead of soapstone pots. These artifacts are found in Sadlermiut assemblages. The two houses in the Eastern House Group seem to be the latest at Kuk and represent a "full-blown" Sadlermiut occupation.

Taylor completed a detailed study of 1 1 1 house ruins at Tunermiut assigning cultural affiliations to the ruins. Taylor's study showed there to be 10 Aivilik qaqmat, five (at least) Sadlermiut houses reused by Aivilik, one semi-subterranean Thule house ruin and 58 house ruins showing Sadlermiut architecture. The remainder of the houses were too o ver- grown for Taylor to make any statement on the cultural affiliations. The artifacts recovered from the excavations of four houses at Tunermiut are similar to artifacts described by Mathiassen (1927) and Boas (1907) from other Sadlermiut sites (Collins 1957, Taylor 1960).

Archaeological investigations at these site areas suggest that the Neo-Eskimo occupation of Southampton Island stretches back to classic Thule times with assemblages from the houses in the Upper House Group at Kuk and ends with the demise of the Sadlermiut people in 1902-03. Between these two dates there is a transitional phase of the Thule culture. The

only dates available for this phase come from the Lake Site which was occupied some time within the 14th to the 16th centuries A.D.

Conclusions

The information obtained from excavating two of the Lake Site dwelling structures and from the artifacts recovered from these excavations has added to the early work of Mathiassen at Thule sites in northern Southampton Island. From these two sources, a beginning has been made toward defining the early and transitional phases of the Southampton Island Thule culture and in looking at the origin of Sadlermiut culture.

Considering all lines of evidence available at the present, it appears likely that Sadlermiut culture developed in situ from a Thule culture ancestry not unlike that represented at the Lake Site. The Thule culture on Southampton Island rapidly took on a distinctive flavour,




however, and some positive affiliations with the Dorset culture cannot be ignored. Directly or indirectly the Dorset culture must have had some strong influences on local Thule development. The nature of this influence is not presently understood.

Although a beginning has been made, we are still far from offering a sound model of cultural change on Southampton Island over the past seven hundred years. Much more work needs to be done in the culture area of Southampton, Coats and Walrus Islands. Large-scale surveys are needed to determine whether there was a terminal Dorset population and to gather more chronological, ecological and demographic information from the Neo-Eskimo period in this area.

Mississauga, Ontario

Acknowledgments

Excavations at the Lake Site in 1977 were made possible through the financial assistance of the National Museums of Canada and the support of the Hamlet Council of Coral Harbour, N.W.T.

Thanks are due to: Marco Leyton and Pat Siurko for field assistance; William E. Taylor, Jr. for advice and the use of field notes; Alan Helmer, Paul Kraft and Johannasie Nakoolak for logistic support and friendship; and Simon Kalogalik for comments on the Lake Site artifacts.

Refences

Boas, Franz 1907. The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natur al History . 15, New York.

Clark, Brenda 1977. The Development of Caribou Eskimo Culture. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 59. Ottawa.

Clark, Brenda 1978. Southampton Island Archaeological Project: a report of the 1977 field season. Manuscript on file at the National Museum of Man, March 1978.

Clark, Brenda In press. Boulder Structures from the Neo-Eskimo Period on Southampton Island. In Megaliths to Medicine Wheels, edited by Michael Wilson and Kathie Road. Calgary.

Collins, Henry B. 1956. Vanished mystery men of Hudson Bay. National Geographic Society Magazine 1 10 (5) Nov. 1956. Washington.

Collins, Henry B. 1957. Archaeological investigations on Southampton and Walrus Islands, N.W.T. National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 147. Ottawa.

Comer, George 1910. A Geographical Description of Southampton Island and Notes upon the Eskimo. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 42: 84 - 90.

Ferguson, Robert 1938. Arctic Harpooner: a voyage on the schooner Abbie Bradford, 1878-79. Edited by Leslie Dalrymple Stair, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.




Linnamae, Urve and Brenda Clark 1976. Archaeology of Rankin Inlet, N.W.T. Musk-Ox 19:37-73. Saskatoon.

Lyon, George F. 1825. A brief narrative of an unsuccessful attempt to reach Repulse Bay . London.

Mathiassen, Therkel 1927. Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I, descriptive part. Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921-24, 4(1). Copenhagen.

McCartney Allen P. 1977. Thule Eskimo Prehistory Along Northwestern Hudson Bay. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 70. Ottawa.

McGhee, Robert. 1972. Copper Eskimo Prehistory. National Museums of Canada Publication in Archaeology No. 2. Ottawa.

Schiedermann, Peter 1971. The Thule Eskimo Tradition in Northern Labrador. Unpub- lished M.A. Thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's.

Schiedermann, Peter 1976. Thule Eskimo Prehistory of Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, Canada. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 38.

Taylor, William E. Jr. 1959. The Mysterious Sadlermiut. The Beaver, Outfit 290: 26-33.

Taylor, William E. Jr. 1960. A description of Sadlermiut houses excavated at Native Point, Southampton Island, N.W .T .National Museums of Canada Bulletin 162: 53-100. Ottawa.

Vanstone, J.W. 1962. An Archaeological Collection from Somerset Island and Boothia Peninsula, N.W.T. Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Division Occasional Paper 4.

Abstract

The Lake Site is a single component site on Southampton Island, N.W.T. occupied within the 14th to 16th centuries A.D. and representing a transitional phase of the Thule culture. Based on the evidence from this and other sites of the Neo-Eskimo period on Southampton Island, an hypothesis is offered to the effect that the material culture of the Thule population of Southampton Island was directly or indirectly influenced by the Dorset culture so that local Thule development rapidly took on a distinctive flavour. The Sadlermiut culture subsequently originated from a Thule population not unlike that represented at the Lake Site.

Résumé

Le site Lake, sur l'île Southampton, Territoires du Nord-Ouest, expose une seule occupation correspondant à une période de transition de la culture thuléenne entre le XlVe et le XVIe siècles de notre ère. L'étude de ce site et de divers autres sites de la période Neo-Eskimo sur l'île Southampton nous permet de poser l'hypothèse selon laquelle la




culture matérielle de la population thuléenne de cette île, aurait été directement ou indirectement influencée par la culture dorsétienne, ce qui rendrait compte du développe- ment rapide de l'originalité thuléenne locale. La culture des Sadlermiut, plus tardive, aurait son origine dans une population thuléenne qui serait semblable à celle qui a laissé les traces de son existence au site Lake.



Documents

The Lake Site (KkHh-2), Southampton Island, N.W.T. and its Position in Sadlermiut Prehistory