Technology, Taphonomy, and Seasonality: Understanding Differences between Dorset and Thule Subsistence Strategies at Iqaluktuuq, Victoria Island

This paper examines differences between Late Dorset and Thule Inuit subsistence economies at the Bell site on Victoria Island, Nunavut. This location is relatively unusual in the eastern Arctic region because local subsistence was based largely on caribou and fish, rather than the sea mammals that dominate in most other regions. For both periods, animal bone samples are quantified in terms of taxonomic frequencies, element (body part) distributions, seasonality, prey demography, and bone modifications such as cutting, burning, and gnawing. A comparison between the periods indicates many broad similarities in subsistence, but some subtle differences suggest that the Thule had a more focal and specialized economy, with a slightly different seasonal profile.Le présent article porte sur les différences entre l’économie de subsistance du Dorsétien récent et l’économie de subsistance des Inuits thuléens au site Bell de l’île Victoria, au Nunavut. Cet emplacement de la région est de l’Arctique est assez inhabituel en ce sens que la subsistance de la région reposait grandement sur le caribou et le poisson, et non pas sur les mammifères marins qui dominent la plupart des autres régions. Pour ces deux périodes, les échantillons d’ossements d’animaux sont quantifiés en fonction des fréquences taxonomiques, de la répartition des éléments (restes), de leur saisonnalité, de la démographie des proies et des altérations subies par les os, comme les marques de coupure, de brûlure et de rongement. La comparaison des périodes permet de remarquer de nombreuses similitudes générales sur le plan de la subsistance, mais certaines différences subtiles suggèrent que les Thuléens avaient une économie plus concentrée et spécialisée de même qu’un profil saisonnier légèrement différent

Zooarchaeology of a Focal Resource : Dietary Importance of Beluga Whales to the Precontact Mackenzie Inuit

Ethnohistoric records indicate that the economy of early historic Mackenzie Inuit was centred on the summer hunt for beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). However, no systematic attempt has been made to quantify the dietary importance of beluga whales to earlier, precontact-period Mackenzie Inuit societies. This issue is addressed herein through analysis of over 2000 beluga bones recovered from a semisubterranean house at Gupuk, a Mackenzie Inuit archaeological site on the East Channel of the Mackenzie River. The amount of meat and fat available from beluga whales is compared to that from all other prey species at the site to assess the relative dietary contribution of each taxon. The results indicate that beluga whales were a truly focal resource in the local economy, probably providing over half of the food available to residents of Gupuk and other communities in the Mackenzie Delta for at least half of each year.Key words: beluga whale, white whale, Delphinapterus leucas, Gupuk, Kittigazuit, Mackenzie Inuit, Inuvialuit, Mackenzie Delta, zooarchaeology, archaeologyLes relevés ethnohistoriques indiquent que l'économie des Inuit du Mackenzie du début de l'époque historique était centrée sur la chasse estivale au bélouga (Delphinapterus leucas). Aucun essai systématique n'a cependant été réalisé dans le but de quantifier l'importance alimentaire du bélouga pour les anciennes sociétés inuits du Mackenzie d'avant le contact avec les Européens. Grâce à l'analyse de plus de 2000 os de bélougas récupérés dans une habitation semi-souterraine de Gupuk, site archéologique inuit du Mackenzie sur le chenal est de la rivière Mackenzie, on a pu comparer la quantité de viande et de gras venant du bélouga à celle de toutes les autres espèces de proies sur le site afin d'évaluer la contribution alimentaire relative de chaque taxon. Les résultats indiquent que le bélouga était véritablement une ressource primordiale dans l'économie locale, fournissant probablement plus de la moitié de la nourriture disponible aux résidents de Gupuk et des autres communautés du delta du Mackenzie pendant au moins six mois de l'année.Mots clés: bélouga, baleine blanche, Delphinapterus leucas, Gupuk, Kittigazuit, Inuit du Mackenzie, Inuvialuit, delta du Mackenzie, zoo-archéologie, archéologi

Archaeology and Oral History of Inuit Land Use on the Kazan River, Nunavut: A Feature-based Approach

Archaeology and oral history are used to interpret recent Inuit land use along the lower Kazan River. A record of caribou crossings, camps, and other places of cultural significance generated by Inuit elders from Baker Lake is combined with the results of an archaeological survey to identify important spring and fall sites. The survey, which employed differential Geographic Positioning System (GPS) technology to record individual archaeological features (e.g., tent rings, caches), has resulted in a Geographic Information System (GIS) database for the Fall Caribou Crossing National Historic Site. Individual 'sites' are distinguished, within a more general 'non-site' distribution of features in the study region, on the basis of two criteria: clustering of features and the known history of use of these places by elders and previous generations of Harvaqtuurmiut Inuit. Analysis of the different kinds of features indicates considerable site variation, but also some seasonal patterning: fall has a more distinctive signature than spring. In this study, individual features are used to address questions of regional land use, site definition, and season of site occupation. This emphasis on the feature reflects the special circumstances of this project, which include the need to record archaeological materials occurring on the ground surface and spread over a large area and the availability of elders to interpret those materials.On a fait appel à l'archéologie et à l'histoire orale pour interpréter l'utilisation récente du territoire par les Inuit le long du cours inférieur de la rivière Kazan. Un relevé des traverses de caribou, des campements et d'autres lieux d'importance culturelle produit par les anciens inuit du lac Baker est combiné aux résultats d'un levé archéologique visant à identifier les grands sites printaniers et automnaux. Le levé, pour lequel on a utilisé la technologie du système de positionnement global (GPS) différentiel afin d'enregistrer les caractéristiques archéologiques individuelles (p. ex., les cercles de tente, les caches) a abouti à une banque de données de système d'information géographique (SIG) pour le Lieu historique national Fall Caribou Crossing. On distingue des «sites» individuels, parmi une répartition de caractéristiques plus générales appartenant à des «non-sites» distribués dans la région de l'étude, et ce, en se basant sur deux critères: la concentration des caractéristiques et l'histoire connue de l'utilisation de ces emplacements par les anciens et les générations antérieures des Inuit de Harvaqtuurmiut. Une analyse des divers types de caractéristiques révèle une variation considérable parmi les sites, mais aussi certains schémas saisonniers: l'automne est marquée de façon plus nette que le printemps. Dans cette étude, les caractéristiques individuelles sont utilisées pour aborder les questions d'utilisation régionale du territoire, de définition du site et de saison d'occupation. Cet accent mis sur la caractéristique reflète les conditions particulières du projet, parmi lesquelles on compte la nécessité de relever les matériaux archéologiques dispersés à la surface et sur une grande superficie ainsi que la disponibilité des anciens pour interpréter ces matériaux

Looking back while moving forward:How past responses to climate change can inform future adaptation and mitigation strategies in the Arctic

Modern Arctic Indigenous peoples face many interconnected pressures, not the least of which is anthropogenic climate change, which is emerging as one of the most dramatic drivers of social and economic change in recent memory. In this paper, we investigate whether or not insights into premodern strategies for coping with climate change—and especially the “deeper histories” of traditional ways-of-knowing—can play a useful role in future planning, management and mitigation efforts. We do this in two ways. First, we assess this special issue's 17 archaeological case studies, in order to determine whether they are conducted within a framework that is consistent with approaches to resilience in studies of modern Arctic communities. Second, we focus on three climate-driven challenges faced by Canadian Arctic Inuit: safe travel, food security and food safety. For each, we identify specific ways in which studies of past social-ecological systems intersect with modern climate adaptation. We conclude that since archaeological insights highlight the operation of decision-making processes within long-term culture-adaptive trajectories, they can offer unique insights into the much shorter-term processes currently underway. While we highlight many potential directions for productive collaboration, much more work is required in local and regional settings to demonstrate the full potential of archaeology for future-oriented planning and mitigation efforts

Editorial: Long-Term Perspectives on Circumpolar Social-Ecological Systems

Modern climate change is having profound environmental impacts at the world's higher latitudes, leading to the disappearance of sea ice, the melting of permafrost and the northward shift of major biogeographic zones. These changing conditions have consequences for contemporary Arctic Indigenous peoples and their traditional lifeways. As planning and mitigation efforts intensify, there is renewed interest in looking back through time to understand how past Arctic societies were able to maintain a long-term—and often highly-resilient —presence in these ever-changing ecosystems. Of particular interest is how past groups coped with earlier changes in climate, both shorter-term “shocks” as well as longer-term up- and downturns in temperatures. A number of recent publications have highlighted the abundance of high-resolution and human-scale data that archaeology is uniquely positioned to contribute to this discussion (Riede, 2014; Jackson et al., 2018; Fitzhugh et al., 2018). So far, however, the practical integration of such long-term “paleo-” perspectives on specific future-orientated planning and management efforts has been limited. For example, the Arctic Council's Arctic Resilience Report (2016)—an in-depth comparative analysis of fragility and resilience in numerous local circumpolar social-ecological systems—acknowledges the importance of “deep history”, and the role of flexibility and traditional knowledge, while the chronological coverage of all 25 local case-studies remains firmly rooted in the present and very recent historical past. The overarching aim of this Special Issue is to explore the gap in knowledge between archaeological understandings of long-term Arctic adaptations and the practical application of these insights to the future-oriented challenges of sustainability and cultural survival. The first objective is to illustrate the wealth and diversity of archaeological research that is currently taking place in both the northern and southern polar regions. The issue showcases a selection of case-studies focusing on long-term human-environment interactions, integrating archaeological, climatic and paleoecological datasets. A wide range of insights emerge in terms of cultural responses to specific climatic fluctuations, but also in terms of longer-term cultural trajectories, including major shifts in settlement, subsistence, demography and interaction networks, all of which can be understood in terms of fragility and resilience in particular social-ecological systems. Another objective of the volume is to stimulate reflection and debate about what these archaeological datasets—and the long-term insights that emerge—can contribute to future planning and mitigation efforts. Seventeen papers in this issue “look back”, examining human-environment interactions in three regions: Arctic Eurasia; Arctic North America and Greenland; and Sub-Antarctic South America. Conversely, three papers “look ahead”, exploring emerging challenges and future implications. We conclude this editorial with a series of recommendations – or “action points” – that are addressed to the wider interdisciplinary research community

A TALEN Genome-Editing System for Generating Human Stem Cell-Based Disease Models

SummaryTranscription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are a new class of engineered nucleases that are easier to design to cleave at desired sites in a genome than previous types of nucleases. We report here the use of TALENs to rapidly and efficiently generate mutant alleles of 15 genes in cultured somatic cells or human pluripotent stem cells, the latter for which we differentiated both the targeted lines and isogenic control lines into various metabolic cell types. We demonstrate cell-autonomous phenotypes directly linked to disease—dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, lipodystrophy, motor-neuron death, and hepatitis C infection. We found little evidence of TALEN off-target effects, but each clonal line nevertheless harbors a significant number of unique mutations. Given the speed and ease with which we were able to derive and characterize these cell lines, we anticipate TALEN-mediated genome editing of human cells becoming a mainstay for the investigation of human biology and disease

A TALEN Genome-Editing System for Generating Human Stem Cell-Based Disease Models

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are a new class of engineered nucleases that are easier to design to cleave at desired sites in a genome than previous types of nucleases. We report here the use of TALENs to rapidly and efficiently generate mutant alleles of 15 genes in cultured somatic cells or human pluripotent stem cells, the latter for which we differentiated both the targeted lines and isogenic control lines into various metabolic cell types. We demonstrate cell-autonomous phenotypes directly linked to disease—dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, lipodystrophy, motor-neuron death, and hepatitis C infection. We found little evidence of TALEN off-target effects, but each clonal line nevertheless harbors a significant number of unique mutations. Given the speed and ease with which we were able to derive and characterize these cell lines, we anticipate TALEN-mediated genome editing of human cells becoming a mainstay for the investigation of human biology and disease.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

Middle Dorset Communal Structures on Victoria Island

This paper describes a cluster of large communal structures in the Oxford Bay region of southeastern Victoria Island in Nunavut, Arctic Canada. The structures consist of linear stone outlines of up to 24 meters in length, and resemble the relatively well-documented Late Dorset longhouses which have been found across much of the Eastern Arctic. However, radiocarbon dates indicate that the Oxford Bay structures were built and used from roughly 200 to 600-700 cal AD, placing them in the Middle Dorset period. Elsewhere, Middle Dorset communal structures are rare, making the Oxford Bay phenomenon unique. The sites are interpreted as resulting from population aggregations associated with the fall caribou hunt, and may represent direct predecessors of the more widespread Late Dorset longhouses