Neo-Inuit strategies for ensuring food security during the Little Ice Age climate change episode, Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada

Abstract

This paper examines Neo-Inuit (ca. AD 1250 to present) responses to the decreased temperatures of the Little Ice Age (LIA) climate change episode (ca. AD 1300e1900) in the Foxe Basin region of central Nunavut, Arctic Canada. Cooler temperatures (and increased sea ice) would be expected to have reduced both bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) and Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) habitats, forcing Neo-Inuit to refocus their hunting activities on landfast-ice-dwelling small seals (e.g., Pusa hispida) during winter months. However, an analysis of faunal remains from Foxe Basin's largest-known Neo-Inuit (Thule, historic and modern Inuit) archaeological site, Pingiqqalik (NgHd-1), reveals a longterm subsistence economy based largely on multi-seasonal walrus hunting. Two interrelated factors may explain these results: (1) a system of recurring polynyas provided a degree of ecological stability for local walrus populations, and (2) the development of a distinctive walrus caching regimeda form of which continues among the region's contemporary Inuitdallowed residents to adeptly exploit an ecological niche, thereby ensuring food security. Together, these factors likely insulated northern Foxe Basin Neo-Inuit from the worst effects of the LIA.

Subsistence walrus hunting in Inuit Nunangat (Arctic Canada) and Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) from the 13th century CE to present

“…Archaeological evidence of such warm-weather hunting in Inuit Nunangat comes partly in the form of shallow pit features (each around 2 m in diameter) likely representing emptied caches. Several hundred such features have been documented on the raised gravel beach ridges of northern Foxe Basin (see Desjardins, 2018). Caching locales were likely chosen according to the presence of suitable beach gravel, and not necessarily according to proximity to residential sites, making it very difficult to explicitly link particular activities at one site (kill/butchery) with another (residential).…”

“…Evidence for the lasting nature of these hunting methods comes partly from zooarchaeological data. Desjardins (2018) has compiled previously-recorded faunal data from 32 Thule-to-historic Inuit sites and site-complexes across Inuit Nunangat. Desjardins, 2018's results show that while 19 locales (59%) had walrus remains (see Fig.…”

“…The largest and most stable walrus herds favour relatively shallow waters that support their benthic prey, as well as recurring polynyas, which offer both open water for diving and solid ice for hauling out. Important examples of such walrus 'hotspots' that have been heavily exploited by Inuit in the past include (1) northern Foxe Basin, Nunavut (Desjardins, 2013(Desjardins, , 2018, (2) the North Water of northern Davis Strait (Gotfredsen et al, 2018) and (3) the Sirius Water near Clavering Island, North-East Greenland (see Gotfredsen, 2010;Grønnow et al, 2011). To more fully explore regional diversity of walrus-hunting practice, we focus our attention on the most prolific hunting traditions that rely upon such environments: those of Amitturmiut (Inuit of northern Foxe Basin, Inuit Nunangat) and communities in Avanersuaq, North-West Greenland.…”

New Insights from the Dorset Type Site at Alarniq, Northern Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada: Beach Level Chronology and Site Use

“…It was mapped and excavated by Jorgen Meldgaard in 1954, served as the type site for Dorset culture history (Meldgaard 1960, 1962), and was instrumental in the development of Maxwell's (1976, 1985) Core Area model (see Savelle and Dyke [2014] for a history of research in Foxe Basin to 2013). Since Meldgaard's work, archaeological investigations in Foxe Basin have been sporadic (e.g., Desjardins 2013, 2018; Rowley 2002; Rowley and Rowley 1997; Savelle et al 2009), however the pre-Inuit occupations in the area are receiving renewed attention with the Foxe Basin Archaeology Project that has resulted in two seasons of excavations at Alarniq and Kapuivik (Jens Munk Island).…”

“…Paleo-Inuit or Paleo-Eskimo) activities and cultural development and is also known as the Core Area (e.g., Fitzhugh 1976, 1997; McGhee 1972, 1976; Maxwell 1976; Ramsden and Tuck 2001). The Core Area model maintains that as a result of the region's rich and diverse wildlife, including a large year-round population of walruses, it sustained human populations from the time of Pre-Dorset (an early pre-Inuit group) to contemporary Inuit—that is, for more than 4,000 years (Figure 1; Desjardins 2013, 2018; Maxwell 1976, 1985). The substantial, stable pre-Inuit populations of Foxe Basin contrast with more peripheral Arctic locales that were periodically abandoned by pre-Inuit peoples (McGhee 1972; Maxwell 1976, 1985).…”