Introduction
Ancient Peoples of the Arctic, written byRobert McGhee (2001), a curator of archaeology for the Canadian Museum of Civilization, traces the hypothetical life of the Paleo-Eskimo, the first explorer of the Arctic region. McGhee conducted and synthesized fifty years of research by other collaborators on the ancient history of Arctic peoples for the content of this book. The Paleo-Eskimo people entered the far northern extremes of the North American continent probably from Siberia via the polar ice sheets over 4,000 years ago. Archaeological sites have yielded a broad assortment of beautifully crafted tools and art objects preserved by the intense cold. The Paleo-Eskimo was able to adapt to the unforgiving environment and make a living from their new homeland. The clues the Paleo-Eskimo left behind are accessible only through the fragmented archaeological record. Despite the incentives that the early Paleo-Eskimo saw in living in the Arctic region, such as an abundant supply of game, there were many dangers living in this region.
Mask
Dorset Culture
about 1700 B.C.
Devon Island, Nunavut
Ivory
Canadian Museum of Civilization, QkHn-13:489, CD95-279-089
This small, ivory Paleo-Eskimo mask speaks to the ancient presence of First Peoples in northern North America. One of the oldest surviving representations of the human face found in Canada, it is about 3,500 years old.
The Ancient Peoples
The first chapter referred to the Paleo Eskimo as a “singular” entity among human cultures because there is no affiliate modern-day Inuit model that is comparable to the Paleo – Eskimo, where there is no clear descendant in the present day Canadian Arctic. The justification in applying the imagination to the interpretation of scientific data is that the claim is only valid if the “picture” matches what is known about the archaeological remains (2001:3-7.) We also cross reference what we know about the general nature of hunting groups and their culture to gain a perspective into their imagination.
One of the conundrums of Arctic life, which fascinated the first Europeans was the Paleo-Eskimo’s ability to survive comfortably in a land that was considered physically uninhabitable and depressing. The failed theories that had been provided to explain the origins of Arctic people include: The New World Tartars, Ice-age Europeans, or Inland Migration. Either way, the European settlers viewed the origins of the Arctic people as recent arrivals in the arctic, having been forced into the harsh environment from a civilization in the Old World. Luckily, this misconception was cleared up by the discoveries of leading archaeologists Knud Rasmussen and Therkel Mathiassen of the Fifth Thule Expedition. This expedition helped to define the Thule culture as a sophisticated one. They were efficient hunters of sea mammals, economically richer than the Paleo-Eskimo, and believed to have been the ancestors of modern day Canadian and Greenland Inuit.
Three years later, the findings of Diamond Jenness uncovered another important historical period called the Dorset culture. The progression of archaeology increased rapidly after each of the World Wars. In 1948, Louis Giddings discovered a block of soil at Cape Denbigh to be evidence of the soil sample that marked the original surface on which ancestral Eskimos lived. This discovery provided what may be a possible link to the origins of American Eskimos to Asia. It is more highly probable that at least the Eskimo culture (and maybe even the Native Americans of the northern forest) derived from Asiatic culture through land bridges or sheet ice between the Bering Strait. This decision could simply have been seen as an opportunity to consume a new resource of ample game in the Arctic.
The geo-physical conditions of the High Arctic would present many challenging tasks that Europeans probably would not be able to adapt to. As long as there was vegetation in the High Arctic, the better chance the Paleo-Eskimo would be able to live because game animals will follow a route that has vegetation. Chapter four brings focus to the findings made in the northern High Arctic islands and Independence Fiord. McGhee seems to think that the Independence way of life to be precarious because of the constant risk of danger or vulnerability to disaster. The conditions of the Arctic could cause shortage in food, resources, and communal retreats.
Eastward Expansion
In chapter five, McGhee lays out the opportunities and challenges the Paleo-Eskimo would have faced in each region of the Arctic. This eastward expansion would have started from Alaska taking generations to spread the Paleo-Eskimo and their successor, the Inuit. The opportunity in McKenzie Delta, for example, would have provided hunters an easy way to catch game caribou due to the high density of herds and the narrowness of the land form.
Climate Change
Our understanding of climate change shapes our view of the ecological world and how our actions consequently manipulate the warming and cooling of the Earth. This would have presented great difficulties to the Paleo-Eskimo and may place them clear into extinction. Massive changes with terra forming effects can turn wetlands into desert or affect the sea water level. Such climate patterns would also affect animal behavior causing game caribou to be less predictable, which for a High Arctic Eskimo means life or death.