Porden Point and Port Refuge: Thule Eskimo sites from the Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island,N.W.T.

Abstract

<p>An analysis is presented of collections deriving from four Thule Eskimo sites on the south coast of the Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island, N.W.T. Three of the sites are winter habi tations of three, fi ve, and nine rock, sod, and whalebone houses respectively, while the fourth is an isolated rock cache. The artifacts found at the sites are almost all typical Thule culture types, although one Dorset culture carving and two objects of probable Norse origin were also found. Of the total of five winter houses excavated, one had structural evidence of multiple occupations. Establishment of the chronological position of the sites proved difficult, due to the necessity of rejecting the only radiocarbon dates obtained from any of the sites, and the small number of reliable temporal indicators, particularly harpoon heads. However, the sites appear to span the period from soon after the initial Thule occupation of the Eastern Arctic to the early fifteenth century.</p>