DORSET CULTURE

prehistoric culture of Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat) and the Canadian eastern Arctic as far south as Newfoundland between approximately 800 BC and AD 1300. Its name comes from excavations made at Cape Dorset at Baffin Island. There are several theories about the origin of Dorset culture: that it originated in Alaska or another part of the western Arctic; that it derived from or was strongly influenced by certain archaic or woodland Indian cultures farther south; or that it was a basically Eskimo culture that developed in situ in the Canadian eastern Arctic from a culture called Pre-Dorset, with little Indian influence. Skeletal remains seem to be of the Eskimo type. The Dorset people depended primarily on such sea mammals as the seal and walrus but also fished and hunted land mammals and birds. Small hand sleds were used because dogs and dogsleds were unknown; the bow drill, a typical Eskimo implement, was also lacking. Settlements, located on coasts, generally consisted of semisubterranean houses and large meetinghouses. Skin-covered tents were probably used during the summer. Evidence suggests that the Dorset people were seasonal nomads who traveled in small groups. Dorset harpoon heads and foreshafts, knives, lamps, and chipped-stone implements were distinctive. Ornaments were made of bone, ivory, or wood, occasionally engraved. Small ivory or bone animal and human figures, which were sometimes naturalistic and sometimes stylized or grotesque, may have been used as amulets or as a form of hunting magic. It is not certain when Dorset culture disappeared, but it was after the arrival of Thule migrants (see Thule culture) from Alaska, for there are indications of contact between the two groups. Climatic changes may have contributed to the decline of Dorset culture. The extent to which the Dorset influenced historic Canadian and Greenland cultures is questionable; some later types of tools derived from this culture, and a group of Eskimos (who survived in this area until 1903) may have been descendants of the Dorset people.