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Lab number
S-1533
Field number
CMC- 968
Material dated
charcoal; charbon de bois
Locality
0 m asl, Pauline Cove, Herschel Island, Yukon Territory
Map sheet
117 D/11
Submitter
B. Yorga
Date submitted
April 28, 0097
Measured Age
990 ± 100
Normalized Age
990 ± 100
δ13C (per mil)
-25.0
Significance
Neoeskimo, Western Thule; Néoesquimau, Thuléen
Stratigraphic component
House 1
Context
square N5/E3, NE quad, basal midden
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Phoca hispida, Phoca vitulina, Erignathus barbatus, Rangifer tarandus, Alces alces, Balaena mysticetus, Delphinapterus leucas, Ursus maritimus, Lepus arcticus, Canis familiaris, Mustela erminea; Aves, Lagopus sp, Gavia sp, Anas acuta, Larus hyperboreus; Pisces (unid.)
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.

References