Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Peterhead Inlet, Frobisher Bay

Tungatsivvik (KkDo-3) is a large Thule site located about seven kilometres west of lqaluit, along the east shore of Peterhead Inlet. It was reported in 1984 by lnuit residents of lqaluit and a preliminary assessment was made by Douglas Stenton in August of that year. Excavations were carried out at the site in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1994, focusing on training for college students but also recovering over 3000 artifacts and many thousands of animal bones. The 1998 excavations at Tungatsivvik were conducted under the direction of Robert Park (University of Waterloo). Douglas Stenton used his summer vacation to assist with the excavations and Conservator Tara Grant (Canadian Conservation Institute) was responsible for all matters related to artifact conservation. Students for the University of Waterloo, Trent University and Nunavut Arctic College took part in the excavation of one of the 19 Thule winter houses at the site. The long-term goal of this research is to compare the Thule occupations at this large site with those at the nearby but much smaller Thule site on Davidson Point, excavated by Park in 1996 and 1997.

Southern Hudson Strait, Nunavik

The department of Archaeology of the Avataq Cultural Institute carried out its Petroglyph Project in the Kangirsujuaq region for the third year. The Project was divided into three parts. The first part was the continued work at the Qajartalik petroglyph site located on Qikertaaluk. The second part concentrated on the excavation and extensive sampling of five Early Palaeo-Eskimo sites also located on Qikertaaluk. Finally, the third part focused on a preliminary survey of Aivirtuuq and Ukuvik Island in Whitley Bay, and the coastal sector around Qanartalik (Douglas Harbour) and Tasialujjuap Kuunga. The field crew was composed of Daniel Gendron, Daniel Arsenault, and Louis Gagnon for the work at the petroglyph site. The excavation and extensive sampling team was under the supervision of Claude Pinard, assisted by Luc Litwinionek and Leila Inksetter. They were accompanied by four Inuit students from Kangirsujuaq. The survey was conducted by the latter team with two lnuit students and two Inuit guides, including an Elder. The continued work at the petroglyph site focused once more on the identification and recording of the engravings. A dozen new faces were identified this year bringing the total number of engravings to 175. In addition, the crew began identifying the Dorset quarrying zones on the two major outcrops. Over 200 such zones were observed. It is interesting to note that these zones have been exploited during the period of production of the engravings as illustrated by the superposition of these extraction zones with some engravings. In several cases, the extracted block has obliterated portions of the engravings, and, conversely, some petroglyphs have been engraved after an area had been used for extraction purposes. In addition, the partial excavation of the surface of Block A yielded seven large metabasalt choppers that were most likely used to prepare or rough out the extraction zones. These choppers were associated with thousands of soapstone waste flakes with percussion marks. Other tool categories (i.e., side scraper, burin-like implements, etc.) have yet to be identified at the site, but their use is suggested by the working marks observed in the extraction zones. A small lamp preform, oval in shape, was also retrieved from the site a few metres from Block A. Its shape and size are reminiscent of the Late Dorset period. This discovery is important because it would support the presumed production period of the petroglyphs. Finally, the survey work on Aivirtuuq resulted in the recording of three new sites, one of which appears to be a butchering site where large whale, walrus, seal and caribou bones were processed. The artifacts associated with these faunal remains tend to place the site at the end of the 19th or at the beginning of the 20th century. Five new sites were discovered on Ukuvik: three early Palaeo-Eskimo and two Dorset sites. One of the latter is a winter site with shallow semi-subterranean dwellings. The survey around Qanartalik and Tasialujjuap Kuunga yielded 60 new sites representing the cultural period from early Palaeo-Eskimo to historical times. In Tasialujjuap Kuunga, a Thule site with eight large semisubterranean dwellings was identified. The project should continue next summer with the petroglyph site once more as its primary focus, but special attention will be given to the Dorset habitation sites in order to complement the information collected at the Qajartalik petroglyph site.

lgloolik

Urgent archaeological fieldwork was undertaken in Igloolik. The purpose of this work was twofold: salvage and preservation. Salvage work was required on several sites inadvertently damaged when a road was constructed from a quarry location to the airport runway. Preservation work involved identifying sites near this year's resurfacing of the runway and marking sites to ensure that they would not be destroyed. This work was conducted under contract with the NWT Department of Transport and with the assistance of the Nunavut Research Institute. All fieldwork was undertaken by Susan Rowley, Pittsburgh and Lucy MacDonald, lgloolik. The first job was to ensure that no sites were damaged during the planned resurfacing of the runway. Sites on the eastern edge of the runway were of particular concern. The crew surveyed both sides of the runway to ensure that no sites had previously been missed. Fluorescent red lines were then spray painted on the leading edges of the sites. In addition, all sites were pointed out to construction personnel and assurances were secured that trucks would not drive off the eastern edge of the runway but stay on the runway. The present runway and quarry are located at an elevation from 30-50 m above sea level, and all sites investigated were Pre-Dorset. Four sites were mapped, four partially bulldozed dwelling features were excavated and five completely bulldozed features were examined. This work confirmed earlier impressions of the diversity, in both size and architecture, of Pre-Dorset dwellings on the island. In the past, Dr. Rowley has excavated only three Pre-Dorset soapstone lamps from sites on the island. All were of the typical Pre-Dorset shallow, oval form. One example of this type was surface collected this summer from NiHf-90. During the excavation of NiHf-90 Feature 1, a large dwelling, a new form of lamp was recovered. These lamps appear to be semi-lunar in form with an extremely thin, flat base and a straight wick edge. They look like small, much thinner versions of classic Inuit alliq (the small lamps used to provide light rather than heat in dwellings). Fragments of six or seven of these lamps were recovered from this one feature. Future development plans call for the lengthening of the runway to accommodate jet service. When this occurs, several more Pre-Dorset sites on the island will be excavated further adding to our knowledge of this time period.

lqaluit

Douglas Stenton (Timescapes, lqaluit) identified and conducted a preliminary assessment of a Pre-Dorset component at the Crystal II site (KkDn-l) near lqaluit. The site consists of a small surface scatter of lithic tools and debitage approximately 50 metres north of Crystal II. The collection includes fragments of a chert core, scrapers and a burin, which have been provisionally assigned to the Pre-Dorset period. Because the materials were on the surface and in an area used intensively by lqaluit residents for recreational purposes, a permit was issued to collect the specimens to prevent their loss or damage, and to conduct a site assessment.