Pre-Dorset Culture

Pre-Dorset culture, 2000-500 BC, represents the first occupation of arctic North America by Palaeoeskimos. These people, probably related biologically and culturally to the INUIT, may have crossed Bering Strait from Siberia shortly before 2000 BC and then spread rapidly across arctic Canada and Greenland. Lacking much of the technology that allowed the more recent Inuit to adapt to arctic conditions, they nevertheless developed a successful way of life based on the hunting of seals and other small sea mammals, caribou, muskoxen and small game. They lived in temporary settlements of tents and perhaps snowhouses. Their tools and weapons had remarkably small cutting edges chipped from stone, which has led archaeologists to refer to Pre-Dorset culture and the related Denbigh Flint Complex in Alaska as the "Arctic Small Tool tradition." Pre-Dorset developed into DORSET CULTURE c 500 BC.

See also PREHISTORY.

Author ROBERT MCGHEE

Links to Other Sites
Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge
The website for the Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge, which features Canada's largest essay writing competition for Aboriginal youth (ages 14-29) and a companion program for those who prefer to work through painting, drawing and photography. See their guidelines, teacher resources, profiles of winners, and more. From the Historica-Dominion Institute.

Arctic Archaeology
An illustrated website about archaeological research and prehistoric culture in the Canadian Arctic. From the University of Waterloo.