In AD 998, the Viking Leif Ericson (or Leifr Eiríksson) established a post on what he called Vinland, what we call Labrador in eastern Canada. The archaeological site where he landed is called L'Anse aux Meadows today, but that attempt to colonize was a bitter failure. It failed in part because the Vikings couldn't or wouldn't adapt to the rigors of the worsening climate, but mostly because there were people already living there, called "Skraelings," who didn't take kindly to the newcomers. Skraelings have tentatively been identified as the Thule, ancestors to the Inuit who originated in the Bering Strait region and migrated through Canada, and from some archaeological sites such as Skraeling Island.
The Thule Migration
A new article in American Antiquity argues that the Thule migration---when the ancestors of the Inuit left the Bering Strait region and began their spread into the Canadian High Arctic---occurred about 1200 AD, two hundred years later than previously believed.
The research from T. Max Friesen and Charles Arnold reports new radiocarbon dates from two crucial sites on the Thule spread: Nelson River and the Washout site. Both of those sites are located on the Amundsen Gulf of the Beaufort Sea, just east of Alaska and hence the 'jumping off point' for the migration. The new dates were warranted, say Friesen and Arnold, because many recently excavated Thule sites (including Co-op, Tiktalik, Pearce Point, Cache Point) had returned radiocarbon dates later than the original dates of Nelson River and Washout. Each of these sites contained harpoon heads of the same styles seen at Nelson River and Washout. Finally, the dates falling within 2 sigmas at Nelson River and Washout covered a fairly broad range of time, Nelson River between AD 720 and 1270; and Washout between AD 350 and 1260.
The new dates, taken on terrestrial bone or sedge matting from each of the sites are AD 1030-1300 for Nelson River, and AD 1300-1430 for Washout. These dates align with those from Pearce Point and Co-op and Tiktalik and Cache Point, making the researchers believe that the Thule migration did take place later, and more rapidly, than previously believed.
So Who Were the Skraelings?
If the dates prove correct, the redating of the Thule emigration into eastern Canada is 200 years and more too late for this society to represent Leif Ericson's Skraelings, who must have been Dorset culture folks, who lived in the Canadian eastern Arctic and Greenland between 800 BC and AD 1300.
Sources
- See the article on Thule Tradition for further information about the Thule and their migration from the Bering Strait.
- The University of Waterloo has a substantial library of information about the prehistoric peoples of Canada, including interesting papers on Dorset Culture and Thule Tradition.
- Nelson River, includes further information on this important site
- L'Anse aux Meadows, where Leif Ericssen met Skraelings in what is now Labrador.
- Friesen, T. Max and Charles D. Arnold 2008 The Timing of the Thule Migration: New Dates from the Western Canadian Arctic. American Antiquity 73 (3):527-538.
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