Ship to Shore: Inuit, Early Europeans, and Maritime Landscapes in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence

Recent research at Hare Harbor on the Quebec Lower North Shore in the northeastern Gulf of St. Lawrence reveals great potential for archaeological and historical research on Basque and other early European activities in the northwestern North Atlantic. Although considerable data have been retrieved from Red Bay, Labrador, and a few other sixteenth-century sites in the Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence, archaeological knowledge of the early European phase of North American history in this region is limited, and information about post-sixteenth-century Basque occupations is nearly nonexistent. This chapter reports on a multicomponent site with late sixteenth-century Basque and late seventeenth/ early eighteenth–century European (possibly Basque) and Inuit occupations at Hare Harbor, Petit Mécatina Island, 200 km west of the Strait of Belle Isle. The later historic occupation includes hearths, middens, and ballast piles from adjacent land and underwater sites. In addition to domestic cooking hearths and ballast piles associated with the sixteenth-century Basque occupation, the site’s later component contains two structures with paved stone floors, one interpreted as a cookhouse and the other as a blacksmith shop. The ethnic/national origin of these structures, which in earlier reports was designated as Basque on the basis of coarse earthenwares and large amounts of roof tiles, is now equivocal. Excavations in 2009 revealed a sixteenth-century Basque component adjacent to and deeper than the cookhouse (Structure 1) paved floor, raising the possibility that the cookhouse and blacksmith deposits may have a north Biscayan or Channel origin. Excavation also revealed a Labrador Inuit settlement that may be contemporary with the later European occupation. Information recovered from the European and Inuit contexts documents changing economic, social, and political conditions, including the appearance of Inuit in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and their participation in a European cod fishery at Hare Harbor. Given the breadth of activity, changes in technology and economy, and complex international and ethnic relations, a maritime landscape approach that links shore deposits with those from the underwater site over a period of more than 100 years provides a useful framework for interpreting the many strands of evidence from this small but fascinating site situated at the interface of European and Native nations, cultures, and traditions. Utilization of the landscape concept for interpreting maritime anthropology and archaeological sites is relatively novel. Landscape archaeology has traditionally been applied at terrestrial sites to link archaeological components with their broader ecological and social settings, including subsistence resource zones, site hierarchies, settlement patterns, and regional economic networks. Recently, this concept has been extended to maritime anthropological studies in circumpolar and subantarctic settings, but it has rarely been a component of underwater archaeological inquiry. The fortuitous adjacency of both land and marine components at a Basque/European/Inuit site makes Hare Harbor an ideal case study for exploring the utility of the landscape approach in a maritime archaeology context

Radiocarbon dating and cultural dynamics across Mongolia’s early pastoral transition

All necessary permits were obtained for the described study, which complied with all relevant regulations. Collaboration contract between the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HIstory and the National University of Mongolia began on the 10th November, 2016. Export number 10/413 (7b/52) was received on the 2nd Feb, 2017 (#A0109258, MN DE 7 643). This research was supported by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Special thanks to Dr. Katerina Douka and the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Laboratory for conducting 14C analysis, and to all of the original excavators and authors who published the radiocarbon dates cited in this study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Les projets archéologiques Tuvaaluk et Torngat: description et bilan

À la fin des années 1970, deux grands programmes multidisciplinaires devant durer plusieurs années ont été lancés le long des côtes du nord du Labrador et de l’Ungava au nord du Québec. Tous deux envisageaient un nouveau modèle d’archéologie arctique alliant l’archéologie, l’ethnographie, les études environnementales, les sciences de la Terre et l’informatique. Le programme de recherche Tuvaaluk était dirigé par Patrick Plumet de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, et le projet archéologique Torngat, par William Fitzhugh de la Smithsonian Institution et Richard Jordan du Bryn Mawr College. Ces projets ont duré approximativement cinq ans et ont rassemblé des chercheurs et des étudiants de plusieurs institutions. Le projet Tuvaaluk se concentrait sur les cultures thuléennes et paléoesquimaudes, tandis que le projet archéologique Torngat incluait des recherches sur les cultures amérindiennes de l’Archaïque maritime et celles qui ont suivi, en plus des cultures paléoesquimaudes et inuit. Cet article passe en revue les projets Tuvaaluk et Torngat, et compare leurs objectifs, leurs méthodes, leurs résultats, les leçons qui en ont été tirées et l’influence qu’ils ont eue.In the late 1970s, two large, multi-disciplinary, multi-year archaeological programs were initiated along the coasts of northern Labrador and Ungava in northern Quebec. Both envisioned a new model for Arctic archaeology that integrated archaeology, ethnography, environmental studies, earth sciences, and informatics. The Tuvaaluk research program was directed by Patrick Plumet at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and the Torngat Archaeological Project (TAP) by William Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian Institution and Richard Jordan at Bryn Mawr College. Project periods lasted roughly five years and included researchers and students from several institutions. The Tuvaaluk project concentrated on Paleoeskimo and Thule cultures, while TAP included research on Maritime Archaic and later Indian cultures as well as Paleoeskimo and Inuit cultures. This paper reviews and compares Tuvaaluk and TAP goals, methods, results, lessons learned, and legacies

Les projets archéologiques Tuvaaluk et Torngat: description et bilan

À la fin des années 1970, deux grands programmes multidisciplinaires devant durer plusieurs années ont été lancés le long des côtes du nord du Labrador et de l’Ungava au nord du Québec. Tous deux envisageaient un nouveau modèle d’archéologie arctique alliant l’archéologie, l’ethnographie, les études environnementales, les sciences de la Terre et l’informatique. Le programme de recherche Tuvaaluk était dirigé par Patrick Plumet de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, et le projet archéologique Torngat, par William Fitzhugh de la Smithsonian Institution et Richard Jordan du Bryn Mawr College. Ces projets ont duré approximativement cinq ans et ont rassemblé des chercheurs et des étudiants de plusieurs institutions. Le projet Tuvaaluk se concentrait sur les cultures thuléennes et paléoesquimaudes, tandis que le projet archéologique Torngat incluait des recherches sur les cultures amérindiennes de l’Archaïque maritime et celles qui ont suivi, en plus des cultures paléoesquimaudes et inuit. Cet article passe en revue les projets Tuvaaluk et Torngat, et compare leurs objectifs, leurs méthodes, leurs résultats, les leçons qui en ont été tirées et l’influence qu’ils ont eue.In the late 1970s, two large, multi-disciplinary, multi-year archaeological programs were initiated along the coasts of northern Labrador and Ungava in northern Quebec. Both envisioned a new model for Arctic archaeology that integrated archaeology, ethnography, environmental studies, earth sciences, and informatics. The Tuvaaluk research program was directed by Patrick Plumet at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and the Torngat Archaeological Project (TAP) by William Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian Institution and Richard Jordan at Bryn Mawr College. Project periods lasted roughly five years and included researchers and students from several institutions. The Tuvaaluk project concentrated on Paleoeskimo and Thule cultures, while TAP included research on Maritime Archaic and later Indian cultures as well as Paleoeskimo and Inuit cultures. This paper reviews and compares Tuvaaluk and TAP goals, methods, results, lessons learned, and legacies

The Inuit archaeology of the Quebec Lower North Shore

Cet article récapitule une décennie de recherches archéologiques qui démontrent l’occupation permanente de la Basse-Côte-Nord du Québec par les Inuit à la fin du XVIIe et au début du XVIIIe siècles. Les résultats des fouilles de plusieurs villages occupés l’hiver ont démontré des modes d’établissement dans des maisons de tourbe similaires à ceux du centre du Labrador, incluant une continuation du mode de subsistance et de l’économie domestique inuit traditionnels incorporant des matériaux et artéfacts européens. À l’île du Petit Mécatina, le site de Hare Harbour suggère une collaboration inuit avec une station européenne (probablement basque) de chasse à la baleine et de pêche. Le site de Hare Harbour constitue un exemple unique d’une des premières entreprises socioéconomiques inuit-européennes. Au début des années 1700, l’occupation inuit de la Basse-Côte-Nord s’arrêta brusquement à la suite d’une concurrence économique et d’hostilités avec des Européens et des groupes amérindiens. Les Inuit furent alors contraints d’abandonner la côte et de se retrancher vers le nord, leur territoire d’origine sur la côte centrale du Labrador.This paper summarizes a decade of archaeological research demonstrating evidence for periods of year-round Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Excavations at several winter villages replicate settlement patterns at sod house sites in central Labrador, including continuation of a traditional Inuit subsistence and domestic economy while incorporating European materials and artifacts. Finds at the Hare Harbour site on Petit Mécatina Island suggest active Inuit collaboration with a European (probably Basque) whaling and fishing station. The Hare Harbour site is a unique early instance of Inuit-European economic and social enterprise. In the early 1700s the Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore came to an abrupt end due to economic competition and hostilities with European and Indian groups that forced Inuit to abandon the coast and retreat north to the core area of Inuit settlement on the central Labrador coast

The Tuvaaluk and Torngat archaeological projects: Review and assessment

In the late 1970s, two large, multi-disciplinary, multi-year archaeological programs were initiated along the coasts of northern Labrador and Ungava in northern Quebec. Both envisioned a new model for Arctic archaeology that integrated archaeology, ethnography, environmental studies, earth sciences, and informatics. The Tuvaaluk research program was directed by Patrick Plumet at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and the Torngat Archaeological Project (TAP) by William Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian Institution and Richard Jordan at Bryn Mawr College. Project periods lasted roughly five years and included researchers and students from several institutions. The Tuvaaluk project concentrated on Paleoeskimo and Thule cultures, while TAP included research on Maritime Archaic and later Indian cultures as well as Paleoeskimo and Inuit cultures. This paper reviews and compares Tuvaaluk and TAP goals, methods, results, lessons learned, and legacies.À la fin des années 1970, deux grands programmes multidisciplinaires devant durer plusieurs années ont été lancés le long des côtes du nord du Labrador et de l’Ungava au nord du Québec. Tous deux envisageaient un nouveau modèle d’archéologie arctique alliant l’archéologie, l’ethnographie, les études environnementales, les sciences de la Terre et l’informatique. Le programme de recherche Tuvaaluk était dirigé par Patrick Plumet de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, et le projet archéologique Torngat, par William Fitzhugh de la Smithsonian Institution et Richard Jordan du Bryn Mawr College. Ces projets ont duré approximativement cinq ans et ont rassemblé des chercheurs et des étudiants de plusieurs institutions. Le projet Tuvaaluk se concentrait sur les cultures thuléennes et paléoesquimaudes, tandis que le projet archéologique Torngat incluait des recherches sur les cultures amérindiennes de l’Archaïque maritime et celles qui ont suivi, en plus des cultures paléoesquimaudes et inuit. Cet article passe en revue les projets Tuvaaluk et Torngat, et compare leurs objectifs, leurs méthodes, leurs résultats, les leçons qui en ont été tirées et l’influence qu’ils ont eue