Canada / NU / PeHa-1 (Saatut II) / S-755

Lab number

S-755

Field number

CMC- 594

Material dated

caribou bone collagen; collagène osseux de caribou

Taxa dated

Rangifer tarandus

Locality

on the west coast of Eclipse Sound, south of the river, Baffin Island, Nunavut

Map sheet

48 A/09

Submitter

G. Mary-Rousselière

Date submitted

August 17, 0097

Measured Age

1530 ± 80

Normalized Age

1610 ± 80

δ¹³C (per mil)

-20.0

Significance

Palaeoeskimo, Dorset; Paléoesquimau, Dorsétien

Context

Saatut I, square 7, midden

Associated taxa

Mammalia: Rangifer tarandus (see also S-2189)

Comments

PeHa-1, Saatut: Saatut I and II are at different elevations, but the artifacts suggest contemporaneity. Saatut I is an artifact-rich Dorset midden 2.7 m above sea level, and Saatut II is a Dorset house 40 m away at an elevation of 5 m. The difference in elevation might imply a difference in age, but the artifact styles suggest that they are contemporary. Father Rousselière submitted four pairs of samples from this site, each consisting of a sample from Saatut I and another from Saatut II. Initially he estimated the age of the site at 1800-1700 BP, but eventually he revised the estimate to 1550 BP after several pairs of dates were obtained. The overall results are equivocal as to the contemporaneity of the two site areas, but most of the dates are closer to the revised estimate. The picture is complicated by changes over time in the methods of sample pretreatment. All of the samples consisted of bone, and all but the first pair are identified as caribou. Six of the dates were prepared by an insoluble collagen extraction, a method that was later suspected to produce dates somewhat too recent. The last two, S-2189 and S-2190, were prepared by extracting collagen in a soluble form, and these should be considered more reliable.

References

• Harington, 2003: 413
• Mary-Rousselière, 1976
• Rutherford et al., 1975, 1979
• Wilmeth, 1978
• Faunmap 4245