Thule Culture (figure)
(A.D. 1000 - 1600)

Sometime around A.D. 1000, the whalers of North Alaska began to move eastward, probably travelling by umiak and bringing with them most of the elements of the sophisticated sea-hunting culture that had developed in Alaska over the previous millennium (figure) (figure). We do not know why this movement took place, but it may have been related to a general climatic warming throughout the Arctic at this time. The higher temperatures probably reduced the amount of sea ice, making a greater area available for the summer feeding of bowhead whales and other large sea mammals, and perhaps at the same time making whaling more difficult during the brief spring migration season along the coast of North Alaska. The archaeological remains of these migrant whalers were first found near Thule in northern Greenland, hence the appellation Thule culture. We suspect that the Thule people followed the whales eastward and northward to Parry Channel, where they encountered the Greenland whale, the Atlantic race of the Alaskan bowhead whale, and then followed these creatures to Greenland, Baffin Island and Hudson Bay. With the open water conditions of the time, and with whale populations not yet reduced by European hunting, whales must have been widely available throughout the summer months. This situation contrasted with the brief migration season these people had come to expect at localities in North Alaska. The existence of such a widespread and dependable resource may have encouraged exploration of new country and frequent movements to new areas.

Thule villages are spread throughout the coastal areas of arctic Canada. After the first, apparently rapid, movement across the Arctic, Thule people began to penetrate other areas where whales were not available but other resources could be found. On Victoria Island and the adjacent mainland, for example, we find evidence of Thule people who seem to have subsisted primarily on seals, caribou and fish. In the region around Igloolik, they must have soon discovered the immense walrus resources of the area and built villages in good walrus-hunting localities. Even in those areas where whaling was clearly a very successful activity, Thule villages contain large numbers of bones of seals, walrus, caribou and other animals. One concludes that they were diversified hunters who utilized their technology to fully exploit the surrounding environment (figure). Yet the number of whales they killed suggests that much of their food and fuel must have continued to come from that source (figure). In one small High Arctic village of eight houses, there are the bones of at least twenty large whales. Larger villages contain the bones of up to fifty whales.

The Thule people's exploitation of whales was not confined to the mammal's meat and blubber; their bones were also used, as construction material. The driftwood with which they had built their winter houses in Alaska was not widely available in arctic Canada, and in order to maintain the same style of house they had to adopt other materials (figure). Floors and raised sleeping platforms were now constructed of flat slabs of rock, and the lower walls, of piled boulders (figure). Whale bones were used as roof supports, covered with skins and a thick layer of turf (figure). The resulting winter houses must have been as comfortable as those of their Alaskan ancestors. During the summer months, as in Alaska, they lived in skin tents. The Thule people, however, also used a type of winter dwelling that was unknown to the peoples of Alaska, the domed snowhouse. Specialized tools for building snowhouses   probes for testing the depth and consistency of snow, and knives for cutting large blocks   are common finds in Thule villages. The Thule people may have invented this style of structure, but it seems likely that they adapted it from snowhouses used by their Dorset predecessors in the area. Another element of technology they may have learned from the Dorsets is the use of soapstone for the construction of lamps and cooking pots (figure). Although the early Thule people continued to use pottery, the lack of wood with which to fire ceramics must have encouraged them to search for a substitute. Their soapstone pots and lamps are larger than those of the Dorsets and completely different in design, but the original idea may have come from contact with the earlier occupants of the area.

The remainder of Thule technology, however, is based directly on the tools and ideas the original migrants brought with them from Alaska. The Thule people did make one vast improvement on an earlier piece of technology, the sled. Although sled parts are found both in the Dorset culture of arctic Canada and in early Alaskan sites, these sleds all appear to have been small and were probably pulled by humans. The first appearance of dog harnesses and other specialized equipment for dog traction occurs in Canadian Thule sites, and it may have been these people who invented this mode of transportation that greatly increased the range of winter hunting and travel.

One of the mysteries of the Thule occupation of arctic Canada involves their relationships with the Dorset people, the previous occupants of the area. As we have mentioned, a few elements of Thule technology may derive from Dorset prototypes, suggesting that some contact occurred. Canadian Inuit legends recount that when their ancestors first arrived in the country, they encountered a people known as Tunit, described as a large and gentle race of seal hunters who lacked several elements of Inuit technology. The stories tell of fights between the two groups, and of the Tunit being driven away. These Tunit may well be the people we know archaeologically as the Dorset, and the archaeological evidence for the disappearance of Dorset culture at roughly the same time as the Thule migration is consistent with the Inuit legends. The Dorset people appear to have survived in arctic Quebec as late as A.D. 1400, and this is the area last occupied by the Thule culture; no Thule sites from Quebec or Labrador can be dated to earlier than A.D. 1500. By that time, the Thule Inuit had completed their occupation of arctic Canada.