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The Manitunik Eskimo Culture of East Hudson's Bay1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

George I. Quimby Jr.
George I. Quimby Jr.*
Affiliation:
Louisiana State Archaeological Survey University, Louisiana
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Extract

Archaeologically, the east coast of Hudson's Bay is an unexplored area. There never has been scientific excavation undertaken in this region, although the Eskimo inhabitants have been plundering the “Tunit” graves and old tent sites for many years. However, some archaeological information based upon collections from the Belcher Islands and Port Harrison, is available. In 1921-24 Dr. Knud Rasmussen and Dr. Therkel Mathiassen obtained, collections from the Belcher Islands and Port Harrison for the Fifth Thule Expedition. Mr. J. Kenneth Doutt of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, secured additional artifacts from the Belcher Islands in 1938, which have been described and analyzed by Dr. Diamond Jenness. In the summer of 1939, the writer secured archaeological materials from Eskimos on Tukarak and Inetelling Islands in the Belcher Group.

Although all of the artifacts from the east Hudson's Bay region have been excavated by Eskimos, the reasonably specific provenience, and lack of other data lend some scientific value to these collections.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1940 , pp. 148 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1940

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Footnotes

1

The writer is indebted to the Administration of the Northwest Territories of Canada for permission to undertake archaeological and ethnological investigations in the Keewatin District. Thanks are due to Dr. Frederica de Laguna, Mr. Henry B. Collins, and particularly Dr. Diamond Jenness for advice, information, and assistance. The entire study has been guided by Dr. Jenness. The writer also wishes to express his gratitude to Dr. George M. Stanley, glacial geologist, and senior member of the expedition.

References

2 Mathiassen, T., Archaeology of the Central Eskimos, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–24, Vol. IV, Parts I and II, Copenhagen, 1927. See Plate 77 and Fig. 98 as well as text.

3 Jenness, D., “An Archaeological Collection from the Belcher Islands, Hudson's Bay,” in manuscript, to be published by the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh.

4 The writer, as assistant to glacial geologist, Dr. George M. Stanley, on a University of Michigan expedition to the east coast of Hudson's Bay, was commissioned by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, to make a preliminary archaeological survey, incidental to the primary geological aims of the expedition. The archaeological collection was obtained by the writer and Dr. Stanley. Considerable assistance in obtaining the specimens was rendered by the University of Minnesota botanical expedition, consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Ernst Abbe and Mr. John Marr.

5 Mathiassen, op. cit., and Jenness, op. cit.

6 Mathiassen's typology and symbols are used for the description of the harpoon head types.

7 Collins, Henry B., Jr., Archaeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 96, No. 1, 1937, p. 223, and Plate 74, Figs. 19 and 20.

7a Hawkes, E. W. The Labrador Eskimo, Memoir 91, Geological Survey; No. 14 Anthropological Series, Canada Department of Mines. Ottawa 1916. Page 78, figure 20.

8 Jenness, Diamond, letter of Nov. 8, 1939, based on information from Mr. Graham W. Rowley who excavated a pure Dorset site in Foxe Basin.

9 Turner, Lucien M., Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory, 11th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1894, Figs. 72 and 73, p. 254.

10 Collins, op. cit., Plate 47, Figs. 3 and 4.

11 Cf. Wintemberg, W. J., “Eskimo Sites of the Dorset Culture in Newfoundland, Part II.” American Antiquity, Vol. V, p. 316.

12 Mathiassen, op. cit., Plate 77.

13 Jenness, op. cit.

14 Mathiassen, op. cit.

15 Mathiassen, op. cit., Fig. 81.

16 Mathiassen, op. cit.

17 Howley, J. P., The Beotuks or Red Indians; The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland, Cambridge, 1915.

18 Jenness, Diamond, letter of December 18, 1939.

19 de Laguna, Frederica, letter of December 2, 1939.

20 Howley, op. cit., Jenness, op. cit. Mathiassen, op. cit.

21 de Laguna, op. cit.

22 Jenness, Diamond, letter of December 18, 1939.

23 Jenness, Diamond, op. cit.

24 Jenness, Diamond, letter of January 13, 1940. “On fragmentary snow goggles brought from Foxe Basin sites by Mr. Graham Rowley.“

25 Jenness, Diamond, “An Archaeological Collection from the Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay.” In Ms. To be published by the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh.