Pre-Dorset

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The Pre-Dorset is a loosely defined term for a Paleo-Eskimo culture or group of cultures that existed in the Eastern Canadian Arctic from c. 3200 to 850 cal BC,[1] and preceded the Dorset culture.[2]

Due to its vast geographical expanse and to history of research, the Pre-Dorset is difficult to define. The term was coined by Collins (1956, 1957) who recognised that there seemed to be people that lived in the Eastern Canadian Arctic prior to the Dorset, but for whose culture it was difficult to give the defining characteristics.[3] Hence, for Collins and others afterward, the term is a catch-all phrase for all occupations of the Eastern Canadian Arctic that predated the Dorset. To Taylor (1968) and Maxwell (1973), however, the Pre-Dorset were a distinct cultural entity, ancestral to the Dorset, and that lived in the Low Arctic of Canada with a number of incursions into High Arctic.[1][4]

At the site of Port Refuge on the Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island, McGhee distinguished two sets of occupations, one that he ascribed to the Independence I culture,[5] the other to Pre-Dorset.[6] Due to the often poor preservation of organic material and the fact that bones from marine mammals can appear older with radiocarbon dating than their actual age (the marine reservoir effect), it is typically difficult to date Arctic sites. But the Independence I settlement is several metres higher above sea level, and McGhee took this to mean that the Independence I settlement was roughly 300 years older than the Pre-Dorset one at Port Refuge. Indeed, assuming that settlers are always close to the water, because sea levels fell over the centuries, older sites are expected to lie higher above the sea. Most features that McGhee believed different between the Pre-Dorset and Independence I settlements of Port Refuge are problematic and cannot systematically be used to distinguish their cultural affiliation.[1] It has been suggested that Pre-Dorset and Independence I are parts of the same culture.[7]

Chronology

Maxwell divided the Pre-Dorset in four phases, a scheme refined by Murray:[1][8][9]

  • Early Pre-Dorset 4450 to 3650 14C BP (c. 3350-2950 to 2200-1900 cal BC)
  • Middle Pre-Dorset 3650 to 3250 14C BP (c. 2200-1900 to 1650-1450 cal BC)
  • Late Pre-Dorset 3250 to 2750 14C BP (c. 1600-1450 to 900-850 cal BC)
  • Terminal or Dorset Transitional Pre-Dorset 2750 to 2450 14C BP (c. 1000-850 to 750-400 cal BC)

It is typically difficult to ascribe a Pre-Dorset site to one of these four phases without relying on radiocarbon dates.[1]: 695 

Regional variants

Canadian Central Low Arctic

The Low Eastern Arctic, namely Arctic regions on Baffin Island or to the south, are usually considered the core area of the Pre-Dorset.

Canadian High Arctic

Most Pre-Dorset occupations are known from the Low Arctic. But the complex is known from a number of occupations in the High Arctic as well, namely to the north of Baffin Island, on the islands of Devon and Ellesmere. One important site, the

Port Refuge National Historic Site of Canada, on Devon Island, hosts occupations ascribed to the Pre-Dorset and others ascribed to Independence I. At this site, Pre-Dorset dwellings are clustered and show no mid-passage feature, whereas the Independence I dwellings are arranged linearly with mid-passage features.[10][11]

Greenland

The Pre-Dorset is generally restricted to the Low Arctic, and given that incursions to the High Arctic are rare, incursions into Greenland from the High Arctic are even rarer.

Independence I occupation at the same site that the authors believe more ancient than the Pre-Dorset on grounds of altitude (21 vs. 19 m).[12] It appears probable that surveys or re-analysis of excavated material will reveal more Greenlandic Pre-Dorset occupations.[12]

Genetics

See also: Paleo-Eskimo § Genetics, Saqqaq culture § Genetics, Dorset culture § Genetics, Birnirk culture § Genetics, Thule people § Genetics, and Inuit § Genetics

A genetic study published in

mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup D4e.[13] The examined individual was found to be closely related to peoples of the Saqqaq culture and Dorset culture.[14] The ancestors of the Saqqaq, Pre-Dorset and Dorset probably migrated from Siberia to North America in a single migration around 4000 BC.[15]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-1997-6695-6
    .
  2. ^ Robert McGhee (15 December 2013). "Pre-Dorset Culture". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada.
  3. ^ Henry B. Collins (May 1956). "The T1 Site at Native Point, Southampton Island, NWT" (PDF). Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska. Original Series. 4 (2).
  4. JSTOR 25146698
    .
  5. ^ McGhee (1979), pp. 8–86, Chapter: Independence I Occupations at Port Refuge.
  6. ^ McGhee (1979), pp. 87–106, Chapter: The Pre-Dorset Occupation of Port Refuge.
  7. ISBN 978-0-12-813532-7
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-12-481270-3
    .
  9. JSTOR 124964
    .
  10. ^ "Port Refuge National Historic Site of Canada". Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. Parks Canada. 19 June 1978.
  11. ^ Port Refuge National Historic Site of Canada. Canadian Register of Historic Places.
  12. ^ a b c d B. Grønnow; M. Sørensen. "Palao-Eskimo migrations into Greenland: The Canadian Connection". [Unknown journal or book]. 10. Nationalmuseet: 59–74.
  13. ^ Raghavan, DeGiorgio & Albrechtsen (2014), Supplementary Materials, p. 109, Table S1.
  14. ^ Raghavan, DeGiorgio & Albrechtsen (2014), p. 4.
  15. ^ Raghavan, DeGiorgio & Albrechtsen (2014), p. 1.

Sources

Further reading
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