Anth 3511 Professor Gibbon
Early Arctic (and Sub-Arctic) Cultures
Map
of Early Indian Tribes of Alaska
Approximate Starting Dates |
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Aleutians (Alaska) |
Kodiak Area (Alaska) |
Bering Strait Area (Alaska) |
The Eastern Arctic |
The Sub-Arctic |
Today |
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1000 AD |
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Thule Tradition |
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1 AD |
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Thule Tradition |
Dorset Tradition |
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1000 BC |
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Norton Tradition |
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2000 BC |
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Aleutian Tradition |
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Arctic Small Tool Tradition |
Independence I & Pre-Dorset |
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3000 BC |
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4000 BC |
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Pacific Coastal Traditions: @ Ocean Bay, Kodiak, Koniag |
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Northern Archaic (Athabascan Indians) |
5000 BC |
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Shield Archaic (Algonquian Indians) |
c.5-8000 BC |
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Paleo-Arctic Tradition |
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Maritime Archaic (The Red Paint People) |
Introduction.
A. In general, Aleuts and Eskimos exploited
aquatic resources in the Arctic and along the Alaskan coast, while Indians
(Algonquian- and Athabaskan speakers)
fished and hunted caribou, elk, moose, and other land animals inland in
the Sub-Arctic and along the Sub-Arctic Atlantic Coast.
B. There were two basic kinds of people in the Arctic, Aleuts
and Eskimos, the most Asian of all native peoples of the Americas.
1) Aleut was spoken in the Aleutian
Islands onto the Alaska Peninsula, and Eskimo hem about Kodiak Island around the coast all the way
to Greenland.
2) Despite the stereotype for the Arctic of the fur-clad, happy Eskimos
hunting seals in a flat, ice-covered landscape (Nanook of the North), there
was a diverse mosaic of landscapes and societies throughout the Arctic.
C. Alaska and the Yukon are rugged areas crossed by mountain
ranges enclosing rough, swampy lowlands.
1) Useful terms include: Arctic Slope; the
Brooks, Alaska, and Aleutian ranges; Alaska Peninsula; Aleutian Island
chain; the Yukon and Kuskokwin rivers; Bering Sea; Norton Sound; Kodiak
Island. (See the Map above).
D. A great central lowland stretches eastward from the Yukon,
with a large basin around Hudson Bay. Much of this area, such as the Canadian
Shield, is rocky and devoid of much vegetation.
E. To the north of the mainland is the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
in the Arctic Ocean, which is largely covered with permanent ice or is
barren.
F. The Arctic roughly coincides with the treeless tundra
and ice zone in the north and the Sub-Arctic with the boreal
forests to the south. Winters in both areas are very cold, with
a somewhat longer summer in the Sub-Arctic.
G. Caribou, musk-ox, hares, lemmings, arctic fox, wolves, bears, lots
of nesting birds, and abundant aquatic resources (fish, seals, whales,
walrus) occur to the north, while moose, woodland caribou and buffalo,
migrating birds, and many smaller animals occur to the south.
2. The Paleo-Arctic Tradition (c.8000-5000 BC).
A. A hodge-podge of hunter-gatherer cultures in Early
Holocene far northwestern North America during a period of increasing
environmental diversity and change.
B. Since coastal sea mammal hunting base camps were buried by rising
sea levels, the tradition is known mostly from small, inland hunting sites
(at least this is an hypothesis). However, specialized sea mammal-hunting
artifacts are not present.
C. Typical stone artifacts include microblades,
wedge-shaped microcores, leafshaped
bifaces, scrapers, and gravers.
Organic material (bone) has not survived.
D. Well-known site is Anangula on the Aleutian Chain.
3. Coastal Adaptations on the Pacific Coast (c.4000 BC - AD 1000)
A. Once sea levels stabilized c. 4000 BC, sea coastal adaptations (ocean
fish and marine mammals like sea otters, hair and fur seals, and whales).
Area of greatest concentration is in the area of Kodiak and Unimak
islands.
B. Both Aleuts and Pacific Eskimos involved. Although
there are differences between them, they shared two-person skin kayaks
for open water hunting, and multi-barbed harpoons for taking large sea
mammals.
C. Three archaeological traditions have been identified:
1) Ocean Bay tradition (4000 BC - AD 1000). Marine mammal hunters
in the Kodiak Island area.
2) Kodiak tradition (4000 BC - AD 1000). A more southern derivative
of Ocean Bay composed of sea mammal hunting, salmon fishing, and caribou
hunting Eskimos. Known for its slate tools, such as the ulu. In its latest
stage (Kachemak, c. 500 BC - AD 1000), there is a greater variety of bone
and slate artifacts (e.g., net weights, stone lamps), greater site densities
and midden accumulation (i.e., more people), and more elaborate mortuary
rituals (i.e., greater social complexity).
3) Koniag culture (AD 1000-historic), which becomes the historic
Eskimo along the Pacific Coast.
4. Aleutian Tradition (c.2500 BC - AD 1800).
A. The main archaeological tradition on the Aleutian islands.
This were sea mammal hunting and fishing Aleuts.
B. 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.
A well-known site is Chaluka on Umnak island.
5. Arctic Small Tool Tradition in the West (c.2000-800 BC)
A. Most likely an intrusive ancestral Eskimo sea mammal and caribou
hunting, and salmon fishing, culture from Siberia that spread along
the Alaskan coast from the Alaska Peninsula in the south to the Brooks
Range in the north, as seen at the Onion Portage (upper Naknek
Drainage) and Iyatayet (Cape Denbigh) sites
B. A new toolkit of microblades
(for multi-component tools); also scrapers, gravers,
adze blades, etc.). Organics are poorly known. These people introduced
the bow and arrow into the Americas.
C. Sites include small camps and larger base camps with
semi-subterranean, sod roofed houses.
D. The Arctic Small Tool tradition people mingled with other people
along the coast and probably eventually pushed them back into the inland
forests.
6. Settlement of the Eastern Arctic (c. 2000 BC)
A. Arctic Small Tool tradition folks were also the first people to push
eastward across the Arctic to the coast of Greenland. They have been separated
into two phases whose interrelationship remains unclear.
B.Independence I (2000-1700 BC).
Very mobile hunters in the High Arctic who subsisted mainly
on musk ox, but also on birds, fish, seals (etc.). They probably consisted
of tiny hunting bands of 4-6 people who lived in musk-ox
hide covered tents, for stone rings are found at some sites.
1) A large summer surplus of food was probably stored for
the long winter.
2) Besides typical Arctic Small Tool tradition stone artifacts, they
also had bone needles, arrowheads, and non-toggling harpoons.
C. Pre-Dorset (1700-900/600 BC).
Arctic Small Tool tradition people who moved eastward south of Independence
I people. They were concentrated in the Hudson Strait and Fore Basin region.
1) west of Hudson Bay, they were mainly inland land hunters and
fisher folk, who only occasionally hunted on the coast. In the
Hudson Bay region and to the east, they were sea mammal hunters and
ocean fishers who also hunted musk ox, caribou, polar bear, and smaller
mammals.
7. Archaic Hunter-Gatherers in the Sub-Arctic (c. 5000 BC-historic)
A. As glacial ice retreated northward, plants, animals, and people spread
northward. At least three major groups were involved.
B. Northern Archaic 9c.4000 BC-historic).
Athabascans who were adapting to the changing Holocene environment
in inland areas for the most part in far northwestern North America (e.g.,
Alaska, Yukon). They hunted caribou and waterfowl with side-notched projectile
points.
C. Shield Archaic (c.5000 BC-historic).
A basic northern Algonquian-speaking forest culture centered
on the Canadian Shield that fished and hunted caribou in the north and
elk, moose, and deer in the south. Some lived along the tree line to take
advantage of both environments. They had lanceolate projectile points,
bifacial knives, scrapers, adzes, etc.
D. Maritime Archaic (c.7000 BC-historic).
More socially complex Algonquian speaking hunter-gatherer-fishers
who lived along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Labrador. They had a seasonal
subsistence cycle that exploited sea mammals along the coast in the summer
and inland land resources (elk, moose, caribou, etc.) in the winter.
1) Their higher degree of social complexity is apparent
in numerous rich graves covered with red ocher (thus the
Red Paint people). Included as grave offerings were elaborate
bone points, foreshafts, and socketed toggling harpoons, shell bead ornaments,
and antler, bone, and ivory daggers. Some people were buried in earthen
mounds that date to c.6000 BC.
2) Longhouses were built at some sites late in the tradition.
Port aux Choir
in Newfoundland is a famous sea mammal hunting base camp. 3)
These people were probably pushed southward after c. 1000
BC by PreDorset and Dorset Eskimos who were moving southward from the Arctic.