44 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



The main Dorset site at which excavations were made lies a mile to 

 the east of the Sadlermiut site. It is situated on the gently sloping 

 surface of a 70-foot high headland which had once fronted the sea 

 but which now lies half a mile back from the present beach. The site 

 consists of shallow midden deposits, covered by a low, sparse growth 

 of vegetation, extending for an area of well over 20 acres, one of the 

 largest Dorset sites known. The site was designated T 1, from 

 Tunermiut, the Eskimo name for Native Point. A second, later 

 Dorset site was found near the Sadlermiut site and called T 2. A 

 third Dorset site, T 3, slightly later than T 1, was found on the old 

 beach line immediately below it, at an elevation of 40 feet above sea 

 level. Samples of charred bone excavated at the T 1 site in 1954 were 

 submitted to the University of Pennsylvania Carbon-14 Laboratory 

 and found to be 2060 ±230 years old. The thousands of stone, ivory, 

 and bone artifacts found at T 1 and T 3, though conforming in general 

 to the basic Dorset culture pattern, were in many respects specifically 

 different from those found at other Dorset sites in Canada and Green- 

 land. Flint implements, which were far more abundant than any 

 other artifacts, were small and delicately chipped, like Dorset im- 

 plements generally, but most of them differed in form from previously 

 known Dorset types, and some of them were unlike anything known 

 from America. The majority of the blades would be described as 

 microlithic, and some of them in shape and technique were similar to 

 microlithic types from pre-Eskimo sites in Alaska and Mesolithic 

 sites in the Old World. The cultural material from T 1 and T 3 seems 

 to represent an older, simpler stage leading up to the classic Dorset 

 culture; it should probably be referred to as formative or proto- 

 Dorset. All f aunal remains from the excavations were preserved. The 

 thousands of bird bones and occasional fish bones and mollusks were 

 brought back to the Smithsonian for identification. The mammal 

 bones were counted and as many as possible identified in the field. 

 As a result of the bone count some striking differences were observed 

 in the food economy of the Sadlermiut and Dorset Eskimos. 



Five days in July were devoted to excavations at an abandoned 

 village site on Walrus Island. The houses, which had been made of 

 massive blocks of granite, proved to be Dorset rather than Sadlermiut 

 as expected, and provided the first adequate information on the house 

 types of the Dorset Eskimos. The artifacts from the houses were 

 typical or classic Dorset, different from and later than those from the 

 proto-Dorset site T 1 at Native Point. Plants, fossils, and insects, 

 including ectoparasites on birds and lemmings, were also collected 

 during the summer. 



Two preliminary reports on the Southampton and Walrus Island 

 work were prepared by Dr. Collins, one for the Annual Report of the 



