Can lake sediments be used to trace the occupation of ancient Arctic peoples?
We are applying our lake sediment studies to find new ways to track human occupation in the Canadian Arctic.
The Thule were nomadic whalers who arrived in the Canadian Arctic about 800-1,000 years ago. Their legacy lives on in the form of their descendants, the Inuit, who have occupied these lands ever since. The Thule survived by hunting bowhead whales using technology they brought with them from what is now Siberia. With no trees to use for wood, they framed their houses with the bones of the whales they hunted, specifically the Bowhead whale. The architecture of the houses was symbolic and honoured the whales they hunted, with the entrance and corridor representative of the whale’s mouth and neck, the den made largely of the ribcage representative of the body, and an oil fire made from blubber symbolizing the beating heart. These houses and their impact on the environment are still visible today, leaving a lasting legacy of the people who once called the Arctic their home.
Our research into the Thule occupation of the Arctic consists of regular expeditions to the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP) base near Resolute Bay, and the surrounding region. Our objective is to collect sediment cores from ponds adjacent to Thule camps and villages in order to see if we can find traces of Thule occupation recorded in pond sediments. Recently we have been focusing on using our methods to identify new potential markers to reveal human occupation, including sterile collection and sectioning techniques inspired by methods used in forensic investigations to sample sediment cores for ancient sediment DNA, sedaDNA. We are also applying our newly developed methods in un-targeted ‘sedimentomics’ analysis of lake sediments to identify new potential markers of human occupation in these remote environments. The Arctic is an ideal environment to trace Thule occupation and look for new biomarkers because of sparse human habitation throughout its history, and a climate that favours organic preservation in sediments.
Lauren Gallant and David Eickmeyer retrieving a sediment core in “Saville Pond” at PaJs-13, a Thule site on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada in June 2017. Remnants of “whale bone houses” are visible in the background.
