Once Upon a Time in the Arctic...
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-05-16

Full Title: Once Upon a Time in the Arctic: Object Itineraries and Social Relations as seen through Palaeo-Inuit Metal Use (AD 500–1300)

One  of  the  first  groups  in  the  Eastern  North  American  Arctic  to  widely  use  and  exchange  metal  are known  to  archaeologists  as  Late  Dorset  (AD  500–1300).  Paradoxically,  metal  remains  rare  in  LateDorset  archaeological  collections.  By  examining  the  organic  objects  that  may  have  supported  metal blades,  this  paper  will  present  proxy  data  for  metal  use  from  Late  Dorset  sites  across  the  Arctic. Moreover,  this  paper  will  use  these  data  to  explore  the  ways  archaeologically  immaterial  metal  was mobilised  to  enchain  social  relations  of  the  Late  Dorset  through  space  and,  importantly,  time.  The constrained source regions for Arctic metal (northern Greenland and the Central Arctic) make it an ideal candidate for disentangling Arctic Human-Thing relations and the evolving itinerary of individual metal objects as they travel between regions, generations, and peoples. Ultimately, metal exchange may have been a means for the Late Dorset to create and maintain socio-cultural relations in a vast and sometimes isolating landscape such as the Arctic.
Patrick C. Jolicoeur (University of Glasgow)

TAG Deva 2018
Session: Relational Approaches to Past Hunter-Gatherer Worlds