The Northwest Hudson Bay Thule Project (IV) : a coastal site survey

Abstract

The fourth phase of the Northwest Hudson Bay Thule Project was designed to complement the research begun in this area by Drs. Charles Merbs and Allen McCartney in the first three phases of the project (1967-1969). The foci of the 1970 fieldwork were: 1) to locate and map Thule Culture sites in the Winchester Inlet-Chesterfield Inlet area; 2) to obtain settlement data on Thule Culture peoples in the survey area and adjacent inland areas; 3) to survey this area for evidence of Pre-Thule occupation; and 4) to obtain data on Eskimo-white whaler contacts in northwest Hudson Bay. Twenty-four sites were tested, spanning from Dorset Period to the Late Historic. These finds allowed the expansion of the archeological sequence in the area back to the Dorset Period; provided data on Thule settlement patterns in northwest Hudson Bay; and illuminated possible effects of white contact on the aboriginal population, with reference to settlement pattern and economy, in this area.