THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO — COLLINS 427 



with the medieval Norse settlements of Southwest Greenland. With 

 this initial date established for the Inugsuk stage Mathiassen esti- 

 mates that the Canadian Thule culture, which was ancestral to it, 

 existed in the Central regions around A. D. 1000. There are also 

 strong indications of a return movement of Thule culture to northern 

 Alaska within the past few centuries. 



Though it has played an important part in the formation of modern 

 Eskimo culture from Alaska to Greenland, the Thule tells us nothing 

 as to the origin of Eskimo culture. For this we must turn to the older 

 stages — the Cape Dorset culture of the Hudson Bay region, the pre- 

 historic AleutianTvodiak-Cook Inlet cultures of South Alaska, and 

 the Old Bering Sea and Ipiutak cultures around Bering Strait. 



Gape Dorset. — The Dorset culture was first described by Jenness 

 (1925) on the basis of material excavated by Eskimos at Cape Dorset 

 on the southwest coast of Baffin Island and on Coats Island in Hudson 

 Bay. Dorset sites have now been found widely distributed in the 

 eastern Arctic from Newfoundland north to Ellesmere Island and 

 northwest Greenland ( Jenness, 1933 ; Wintemberg, 1939 ; Rowley, 1940 ; 

 Leechman, 1943; Holtved, 1944; Collins, 1950). Though the Dorset 

 and Thule occupied the same general region, the two cultures 

 differed from each other in almost every respect. At the Dorset 

 sites there is no trace of such typical Eskimo elements as whale- 

 bone mattocks and sled shoes, harness toggles, bone arrowheads, the 

 throwing board, and harpoon sockets and finger rests. Completely 

 ignorant of the bow drill, the Dorset Eskimos cut or gouged out the 

 holes in their implements. Rubbed-slate artifacts, so common among 

 other Eskimos, were very scarce as compared with implements of 

 chipped stone. Distinctive types of harpoon heads, small ivory carv- 

 ings and a simple geometric art style (pi. 1, a-f ) are other features 

 that characterize the Dorset culture. The Dorset people hunted wal- 

 rus, seal, polar bar, caribou, hares, and foxes, but not the narwhal, 

 beluga, or right whale. They had no knowledge of dog traction, 

 though small hand sleds were used. As yet there is no definite in- 

 formation regarding their houses. 



We know that the Dorset is older than the Thule culture because 

 Thule implements are never found at pure Dorset sites, whereas 

 Dorset objects frequently turn up in Thule sites. Moreover, at Ingle- 

 field Land in northwest Greenland, and at Frobisher Bay on Bafl&n 

 Island, Dorset material has been found underlying Thule (Holtved, 

 1944; Collins, 1950). Inglefield Land is the only place in Greenland 

 where the Dorset has been recognized as a distinct culture stage. 

 There are indications, however, that the Dorset culture will prove 

 to have been more widely distributed in Greenland than has been 

 suspected. Solberg's "Stone Age" at Disko Bay (Solberg, 1907) 

 is composed in large part of typical Dorset-type stone implements, 



