i68 



POLAR PROBLEMS 



8 to 13 meters below its present level, while others, containing the 

 same culture slightly modified, were a little younger, belonging to 

 a period when the land was only 4 to 8 meters lower. It is certain 

 that the shores of Hudson Bay have risen 600 feet since the ice cap 

 disappeared from Canada. But 

 even though we may accept f 

 Mathiassen's conclusions, we 

 cannot translate his changes of 

 level into terms of years, be- 

 cause the uplift was probably 

 both uneven and frequently 

 interrupted. We can merely 

 guess, in the absence of more 

 accurate criteria for determin- 

 ing their age, that the oldest 

 ruins of the Thule culture in 

 Hudson Bay may date back 

 1000 or 1500 years, and the 

 youngest perhaps 500. After 

 that time, or it may be a little 

 earlier, it was superseded by a 

 simpler culture brought to the 

 coast by inland tribes, who 

 gradually spread over the whole 

 region from Coronation Gulf to 

 Baffin Island and even beyond. 

 The antiquity of the Thule 

 culture in northern Alaska can- 

 not be estimated by the same 

 method, for the coast line seems 

 to have changed but little since 

 the Glacial Period and no in- 

 vasion swamped the ancient 

 •inhabitants. Instead, their 

 culture slowly changed, passing 

 through stages that appear to 

 have followed each other in reg- 

 ular succession at every place 

 along the coast. The last stage, 

 the one that immediately pre- 

 ceded the European discovery 

 of Alaska, can be dated with 

 approximate accuracy from the 

 Russian penetration of north- 

 eastern Siberia; for the Rus- 



FiG. I — Objects representing three culture stages. 



Upper: Harpoon heads from Cape Dorset, of bone 

 and ivory; a, b, modern forms with closed sockets; c, d, 

 e, Thule forms with open sockets; f-k, new forms 

 with narrow, rectilinear sockets probably representing 

 the Cape Dorset culture (see also Fig. 2). 



Lower: Bone, ivory, and antler objects from Cape 

 Dorset, deeply patinated; a, k, I, uses unknown; b~j, 

 darts of various kinds (d, though deeply patinated, is 

 hardly weathered and has a more modern appearance 

 than the other darts: it may be an ancient implement 

 remodeled in more recent times) ; m, n, perhaps fore- 

 shafts of harpoons; o, p, perhaps butts of harpoons: 

 q, portion of snow knife. Three-eighths natural size. 



