Independence I
(2000 - 1700 B.C.)

Throughout most of arctic Canada, archaeological sites can be dated roughly by their elevation above the present sea level. Since its release from beneath the burden of glacial ice, most of the Arctic has been gradually rebounding upwards, and many of the coasts are lined by series of raised beaches that represent the sea level at various times in the past. As most arctic hunters seem to have preferred to live on the beach to have direct access to the sea and sea ice, the elevation to which the remains of their camps have been raised gives us some idea of their age. Everywhere in the High Arctic, and in some Low Arctic localities, sites at the highest elevations are those of the Independence I people. The value of this method of dating by means of elevation is confirmed by a series of radiocarbon dates on local willow charcoal, which generally range between 2000 and 1700 B.C.

Independence I camps are generally small, often consisting of the remains of one to four tent camps that appear to have been occupied for only a few days or, at most, a few weeks. The ground plans for the tents were either oval or rectangular and measured only about three by four metres (figure). The edges of the structure were held down by rocks or piles of gravel. The floor of the tent was generally divided into two halves by a "mid-passage"   two lines of stone slabs set upright in the gravel to form a passage approximately eighty centimetres wide. The passage had a slab floor and, in the centre of the structure, upright slabs set across the passage formed a hearth-box. This style of house may have an ancient history in Asia, and a very similar interior arrangement could be found in the tents of the northern European Lapps during the historic period. In the hearths, we find fragments of charcoal from arctic willow or driftwood and, more frequently, fragments of burned animal bones. The small amount of charcoal and burned bone in most hearths suggests that fires may have been relatively rare luxuries. Fire-reddened or cracked pebbles in and around the hearths suggest that cooking may have been accomplished by heating these rocks and dropping them into skin containers of water in order to boil the food.

Animal bones found around the camps indicate that the Independence I people hunted musk- oxen and a few caribou. Their diet was supplemented with small ringed seal and larger bearded seal when they were available. The absence of walrus and whale bones, however, suggests that Independence I technology did not furnish the wherewithal to permit the successful pursuit of those creatures. Large numbers of arctic fox, duck and goose bones indicate that, at times, these people may have depended heavily upon the hunting of small game. Amongst their hunting weapons were bows and arrows, as evidenced by small stemmed arrow points of chipped stone (figure), and larger stone points that must have been used to tip lances that were held and thrust or else thrown. These stone points were probably mounted in bone weapon heads or foreshafts, which were in turn mounted on wooden shafts, although none have yet been found. We have, however, found bone or ivory harpoon heads, and these were sometimes fitted with small triangular stone "endblades." Small oval "sideblades" were occasionally mounted in the edges of weapon heads in order to provide a sharp cutting edge -- a technique that can be traced to the European and Asiatic Mesolithic period at the end of the last Ice Age. The harpoon heads were small, and they could have been used for thrusting or throwing at seals that basked on the ice, swam in leads in the ice, or appeared at breathing holes.

The development of harpoon technology was very important for human occupation of the Arctic in that it allowed an increasingly efficient use of the large sea-mammal resources of the region. This development is also important to archaeology, as the gradually changing styles of harpoon heads and associated equipment allow us to assign an approximate age to these objects on purely stylistic grounds. The Independence I harpoon heads are either male or female-socketed. The former have a basal tang that fits into a cup-shaped socket in the end of the harpoon shaft, a technique that had always been favoured by maritime hunting peoples of the Pacific rim and eastern Siberia. The female-socketed harpoon heads, on the other hand, possess a basal channel or hole into which is fitted a bone foreshaft on the end of the wooden harpoon shaft, a technique that was used throughout the remainder of the prehistoric period by the Palaeoeskimo and Eskimo peoples of arctic North America. What distinguishes the harpoon from other weapons is that the head is designed to break free from the shaft once it has struck the animal. Attached to the head is a line that is held by the hunter and, when drawn in, retrieves the wounded animal from the water or from beneath the ice. Independence I harpoon heads employ two methods by which to hold the animal: either a single, lateral barb bifurcated at the tip or a basal spur designed to "toggle" the harpoon head sideways inside the skin of the creature. The heads had either a sharply pointed tip or a slot in which to mount a sharp stone blade to pierce the animal's thick skin.

No remains of either pottery or stone blubber lamps have been found in Independence I camps, indicating that all heating and cooking was done on the open hearths in the centre of the tents. From the absence of blubber lamps we can conclude that these people did not use snowhouses, since an open hearth cannot be used in such a structure. This limiting factor must have restricted the range of Independence I occupation to some extent, despite the fact that animal bones and blubber were also burned.

Without blubber lamps, these people may not have been able to camp on the ice during the winter, as did the Eskimos of the historic period. We think of the Independence I people as living in small camp groups, probably leading a rather precarious existence and being forced frequently to move their area of occupation in search of new resources of food and fuel. Such movements may account for the apparent rapidity with which ASTt people spread throughout the Arctic.