Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Jan 24/00) - Douglas Stenton is leaving Inuit Heritage Trust to take a new position as chief archaeologist with the Government of Nunavut. Here he talks about his archaeological work in Nunavut.

NN: How long have you been doing archaeological work in the Arctic?

DS: For 20 years now, mainly in the south Baffin, but I've done some work in Rankin and the north Baffin.

NN: How does your work teach Nunavummiut about their heritage?

DS: At a basic level it teaches everybody about human history in Nunavut -- how long people have been here and what kinds of lifestyles they had.

The work also shows young Inuit and other people the accomplishments that were made in the past.

I hope it gives people a sense of pride in their own culture and heritage. These things have lasting values and meaning; it's very important to have a sense of where you came from.

NN: What can artifacts reveal about a people?

DS: Artifacts tell us about a peoples' technology for example, their tools and weapons -- things they used in their daily lives to subsist.

In some ways we can learn about ideology and what the people thought about the world around them by certain behaviours that we see.

NN: What would be an example of that?

DS: Basically, what I mean is we're finding, at some sites, evidence of ritual behaviour.

From speaking with elders, I've found that there are different kinds of sites that are given special importance -- offering sites with materials left from hunts.

We can also learn about relationships between people. What, if any, were the gender rules or rules of behaviour based on age and sex in the society?

NN: What would you find that would determine that?

DS: We may find that artifacts we associate with one age or gender are grouped together at a site.

We can also determine the animals they hunted by examining the bones. We can determine the age and sex of animals hunted and reconstruct specific hunting patterns.

Archaeologist Bob McGhee found that in some houses there is a high percentage of tools used by women found on one side of the house -- micro blades for cutting skins, needles. And on the other side of the house there was a high percentage of artifacts associated with men's activities -- tools for making harpoon heads, etc.

NN: Is that evident while at the site?

DS: No, it's when you go back to the lab and plot all the data and begin to see patterns -- from that you can infer relationships.

NN: What area is the archaeologically richest in Nunavut?

DS: That's a difficult question. There are roughly 6,000 documented sites in Nunavut.

But there could be 10 times that many sites that actually exist and haven't been formally recorded.

So, to say what area is the richest is very difficult. Vast areas of Nunavut have never been surveyed archaeologically.

NN: Is it possible that there were people living in all of the areas in Nunavut?

DS: Pretty much most areas have been occupied. It doesn't mean every square mile, but most coastal areas and where ever there was game there were people at some point.

NN: What leads you to sites?

DS: Sometimes people report sites that need to be looked at,

and an interest in an area takes you there.

When I was working on my doctorate for example, no other archaeologist had been to Nettilling Lake, yet in my readings as a student and speaking with elders, it was pretty obvious that people had used that area for quite awhile -- but there were really no archaeological sites recorded.

Most of the work in Nunavut was based on coastal sites at the time, nobody was going inland.

My hypothesis was that people also travelled inland. I found they walked in and spent the summers hunting caribou and geese. I found nearly 200 sites without even getting around the entire lake.

NN: Are untouched areas extra motivation for archaeologists to get to?

DS: Probably on some level, but it isn't a top priority.

NN: What are the initial steps in setting up a site you've just discovered?

DS: The basic thing you need to do is thoroughly record the site. It involves taking photographs, making a sketch map, taking inventory of the features and measurements of artifacts on the surface.

Looking around and noting any evidence of disturbance and recording it. Looking for surface artifacts, not to collect, but to determine how old the site is and what type of culture was there.

You might do some minor test excavations, just a small, shallow pit that you can dig to see the depth of the cultural deposits, but it's just testing.

NN: When you leave a site is it replaced to its natural state?

DS: We try to. Archaeologists take very specific steps when excavating to do this.

We'll pull the sod off first and turn it upside down, lay tarps around the area we're going to be excavating and put back the dirt, rocks and sod there while we're working.

When we're done, we put the dirt back, the rocks and pieces of bone that we aren't taking and re-lay the sod -- after a few years you can't tell we were there.

If you're ever at Qaummaarviit at Peale Point there are houses that you can't even tell have been excavated.

NN: How do you decide what artifacts and how many to take away from a site?

DS: When you start an excavation, you have obligations that you follow as a professional.

Last summer for example, I taught a course and we found roughly 5,000 stone tools and we took them all.

Artifacts that have been in the ground for a long time become stable with their environment and once we open up a site, we've taken them out of that environment and a lot of artifacts will crack and split. If you excavate it you have to take it with you -- it's part of the record.

You could dig a site and find 10,000 artifacts or you could find 10, but normally you take what you find.

NN: Is it possible to clean a site of all of the artifacts?

DS: I think it would be a rare circumstance when an archaeologist would knowingly remove all of the artifacts.

NN: How far back do artifacts that you've found date?

DS: In Nunavut, the oldest materials are about 4,200-years-old and that would be the Independent artifacts in the High Arctic.

NN: What areas did the different peoples inhabit?

DS: From the cultural groups that archaeologists have identified in Nunavut, the earliest were the Independence people and they seem to be limited to the High Arctic.

But Pre-Dorset, Dorset and Thule have been in most areas.

NN: Is there one group of people that appears to have been the most dominant?

DS: Based on archaeology we have two movements of people into Nunavut.

The first began with the Independence people and it seems to have been fairly short-lived.

And then the Dorset people emerged from the Pre-Dorset people.

The second movement was the ancestors of the Inuit, which are the Thule.

NN: Where did the Thule people migrate from?

DS: Alaska. And it seems that when the Thule arrived, archaeologically, the Dorset disappeared.

The Thule brought with them dog teams and kayaks -- they were very technology advanced -- they had bows and arrows and float technology.

NN: When did the Thule people disappear?

DS: Well, historians traditionally say with European contact -- traditional ways of life went through significant transformations when they came in contact with the Europeans.