CARD

Lab number: Beta-64368
Material dated: caribou bone collagen; collagène osseux de caribou
Taxa dated: Rangifer tarandus antler

Locality: 0 m asl, Pauline Cove, Herschel Island, Yukon Territory
Map sheet: 117 D/11

Submitter: T.M. Friesen
Date submitted: April 28, 0097

Normalized Age: 330 ± 70

Significance: Neoeskimo, Mackenzie Inuit; Néoesquimau, Inuit
Stratigraphic component: House 3
Context: House 3
Associated taxa: Mammalia: Spermophilus parryii, Lemmus sibiricus, Balaena mysticetus, Canis familiaris, Alopex lagopus, Vulpes vulpes, Ursus maritimus, Gulo gulo, Erignathus barbatus, Phoca hispida, Phoca vitulina, Rangifer tarandus, Ovis dalli; Aves, Gavia arctica, Gavia immer or Gavia adamsii, Melanitta fusca, Somateria or Melanitta fusca, cf. Clangula hyemalis, Stercorarius or Larus sp, Sterna paradisaea; Pisces

Comments: NjVi-2, Washout: Yorga (1980) assigns an age between 700 and 1000 BP on the basis of typological comparisons with other Thule sites. S-1532 and S-1534 are considered to be too early, possibly because of a marine reservoir effect. S-1533 falls within the expected time range. All three dates were obtained from House 1. Yorga also reports on House 2, which lacks a radiocarbon date but is assigned to between 800 and 600 BP on the basis of harpoon typology. Yorga notes a shift in subsistence practices from seal hunting in House 1 to fishing in House 2, but he does not report a vertebrate list for House 2. Friesen and Hunston (1994) returned to the Washout site for a salvage excavation of Houses 3 and 4. They note that Washout and the neighbouring site of Pauline Cove were inhabited more or less continuously from the early Thule period (House 1) to the 20th century. House 2 can be considered significantly later than House 1 on the basis of its artifact sample which contains five closed-socket harpoon heads and only one open-socket Thule 2 specimen. By the time of the House 3 occupation (Beta-64368) open-socket harpoon heads had disappeared. House 4 is poorly understood, lacking both radiocarbon dating and chronologically diagnostic artifacts, but a late prehistoric date is likely. The absence of sea hunting equipment and the low frequency of seal bones in House 4 suggests that it may represent a warm-season occupation during which fishing was a major activity. In contrast, seal hunting was the primary subsistence pursuit during winter season occupations of Houses 1 and 3. Fauna: Pisces: Coregonus sp, Coregonus or Thymallus, Coregonus or Prosopium, Lota lota

Canada / YT / NjVi-2 (Washout) / Beta-64368

References