{{Short description|Paleo-Eskimo culture (500 BCE–1500 CE)}} {{about|the Paleo-Eskimo culture in Arctic North America|the culture of the English county of Dorset|Culture of Dorset}} {{refimprove|date=June 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox archaeological culture |name = Dorset culture |map = |mapalt = |mapcaption = Maximum extent of the Late Dorset culture (AD 500–1000) |altnames = |horizon = |region = [[Northern Canada]], [[Greenland]] |period = |dates = 500 BCE – 1500 CE |typesite = |majorsites = |extra = |precededby = [[Pre-Dorset]] |followedby = [[Thule people]] }} The '''Dorset''' was a [[Paleo-Eskimo]] culture, lasting from {{BCE|500}} to between {{CE|1000}} and {{CE|1500}}, that followed the [[Pre-Dorset]] and preceded the [[Thule people]] (proto-Inuit) in the [[North American Arctic]]. The culture and people are named after [[Kinngait|Cape Dorset]] (now Kinngait) in [[Nunavut]], Canada, where the first physical evidence of its existence was found by western science. The culture has been defined as having four phases due to the distinct differences in the technologies relating to hunting and tool making. Artifacts include distinctive triangular end-blades, [[oil lamp]]s ([[qulliq]]) made of [[soapstone]], and [[burin (lithic flake)|burins]].
The Dorset were first identified as a separate culture in 1925. The Dorset appear to have been extinct by 1500 at the latest and perhaps as early as 1000. The Thule people, who began migrating east from [[Alaska]] in the 11th century, ended up spreading through the lands previously inhabited by the Dorset. It is not fully known whether the [[Inuit]] and Dorset ever met. Some modern genetic studies show the Dorset population were distinct from later groups and that "there was virtually no evidence of genetic or cultural interaction between the Dorset and the Thule peoples."<ref name="nbc-news">{{cite news|title=Dorset DNA: Genes Trace the Tale of the Arctic's Long-Gone 'Hobbits' |date=August 28, 2014 |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/dorset-dna-genes-trace-tale-arctics-long-gone-hobbits-n191156|publisher=[[NBC News]]}}</ref>
[[Inuit culture|Inuit legends]] recount them encountering people they called the '''{{lang|iu|Tuniit}}''' (in [[Inuktitut syllabics|syllabics]]: ᑐᓃᑦ, singular ᑐᓂᖅ {{lang|iu|Tuniq}}). According to legend, the first inhabitants were giants, taller and stronger than Inuit but afraid to interact and "easily put to flight".<ref>{{cite news |title=When science meets aboriginal oral history |first=Kate |last=Alan |date=August 31, 2014 |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/08/31/when_science_meets_aboriginal_oral_history.html |work=[[Toronto Star]] |language=en}}</ref>
==Discovery== {{Multiple image | align = left | direction = vertical | total_width = | image1 = Ours nageant (Musée du quai Branly) (3034045389).jpg | alt1 = | caption1 = Dorset carving of a polar bear found on [[Igloolik Island]] | image2 = Mamiffère marin (Musée du quai Branly) (3034882558).jpg | caption2 = Dorset carving of a seal }} [[File:Dorset_longhouse.jpg|thumb|Stone remains of a Dorset [[longhouse]] near [[Cambridge Bay]], [[Nunavut]]]] In 1925, [[Diamond Jenness]], a New Zealand born Canadian [[Anthropology|anthropologist]], received [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] from Cape Dorset, now [[Kinngait]]. As they were quite different from those of the Inuit, he speculated that they were indicative of an ancient, preceding culture. Jenness named the culture "Dorset" after the location of the find. These artifacts showed a consistent and distinct cultural pattern that included sophisticated art distinct from that of the Inuit. For example, the carvings featured uniquely large hairstyles for women,{{citation needed |date=December 2023}} and figures of both sexes wearing hoodless [[parka]]s with large, tall collars.{{citation needed |date=December 2023}} Much research since then has revealed many details of the Dorset people and their culture.{{citation needed |date=February 2020}}
==History== ===Origins=== The origins of the Dorset people are not well understood. They may have developed from the previous cultures of Pre-Dorset, [[Saqqaq culture|Saqqaq]] or (less likely) [[Independence I culture]]s. There are, however, problems with this theory: these earlier cultures had [[bow and arrow]] technology which the Dorsets lacked. Possibly, due to a shift from terrestrial to aquatic hunting, or the deaths of those who possessed the knowledge, the bow and arrow became lost to the Dorset. Another piece of technology that is missing from the Dorset are [[bow drill]]s: there are no drill holes in Dorset artifacts. Instead, the Dorset gouged [[Lens|lenticular]] holes. For example, bone needles have long, narrow holes that were painstakingly carved or gouged. Both the [[Pre-Dorset]] and Thule (Inuit) had drills.
===Historical and cultural periods=== [[File:Dorset,_Norse,_and_Thule_cultures_900-1500.svg|thumb|Map showing the decline of the Dorset culture and expansion of the Thule (900 to 1500 CE)]] Dorset culture and history is divided into periods: the early ({{BCE|500–1}}), middle ({{CE|1–500}}), and late phases ({{CE|500–1000}}), as well as perhaps a terminal phase (from {{circa|1000}} onwards). The terminal phase, if it existed, would likely be closely related to the onset of the [[Medieval Warm Period]], which started to warm the [[Arctic]] considerably around the mid-10th century. With the warmer climates, the [[sea ice]] became less predictable and was isolated from the High Arctic.
The Dorset were highly adapted to living in a very cold climate, and much of their food is thought to have been from hunting [[Marine mammal|sea mammals]] that breathe through holes in the ice. The massive decline in sea-ice which the Medieval Warm Period produced would have strongly affected the Dorset. They could have followed the ice north. Most of the evidence suggests that they disappeared some time between 1000 and 1500. [[Radiocarbon dating]] has shown the Dorset were living in the [[Cambridge Bay]] area as late as 1350 CE, while the Thule Inuit moved into the area around 1200 CE.<ref name="NNS2010">{{cite news |first=Kassina |last=Ryder |title=Inuit stories of the Tuniit backed up by science |url=http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2010-05/may3_10st.html |publisher=[[Northern News Services]] |date=April 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803142634/http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2010-05/may3_10st.html |archive-date=August 3, 2017}}</ref> Artifacts of the Dorset can be found all over the north.<ref>{{cite web | title=.: Inuit Mythology | url=http://www.inuitmyths.com/tuniit.htm }}</ref>{{full citation needed |date=January 2026}} ==Technology== [[File:Dorset_Parallel.svg|alt=|thumb|left|The Dorset Parallel harpoon head: one of the most common among the Dorset]] The Dorset adaptation was different from that of the [[whaling]]-based Thule Inuit. Unlike Inuit, they rarely hunted land animals, such as [[polar bear]]s and [[Reindeer|caribou]]. They did not use bows or arrows. Instead, they seem to have relied on seals and other sea mammals that they apparently hunted from holes in the ice. Their clothing must have been adapted to the extreme conditions.
Triangular end-blades and [[Burin (lithic flake)|burins]] are diagnostic of the Dorset. The end-blades were hafted onto harpoon heads. They primarily used the harpoons to hunt seal, but also hunted larger sea mammals such as [[walrus]] and [[narwhal]]s. They made lamps, called [[qulliq]], from [[soapstone]] and filled them with seal oil. Burins were a type of stone flake with a chisel-like edge. They were probably either used for engraving or for carving wood or bone. Burins were also used by [[Pre-Dorset]] groups and had a distinctive mitten shape.
The Dorset were highly skilled at making refined miniature carvings, and striking masks. Both indicate an active [[Inuit religion|shamanistic tradition]]. The Dorset culture was remarkably homogeneous across the [[Northern Canada|Canadian Arctic]], but there were some important variations which have been noted in both [[Greenland]] and [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] / [[Labrador]] regions.{{citation needed|date=April 2010}}
==Interaction with Inuit== There appears to be no [[genetics|genetic]] connection between the Dorset and [[Thule people|Thule]] who replaced them.{{sfn|Raghavan et al.|2014}} Archaeological and legendary evidence is often thought to support some cultural contact, but this has been questioned.<ref name=Park1993/> The Dorset people, for instance, may have engaged in seal-hole hunting, a method which requires several steps and includes the use of dogs.{{citation needed |date=December 2023}} The Thule apparently did not use this technique in the time they had previously spent in Alaska. Settlement pattern data has been used to claim that the Dorset also extensively used a breathing-hole sealing technique and perhaps they would have taught this to Inuit. But this has been questioned on the grounds that no evidence has been identified that the Dorset had dogs.<ref name=Park1993>{{cite journal |year=1993 |title=The Dorset-Thule succession in Arctic North America: Assessing claims for culture contact |first=Robert W. |last=Park |journal=[[American Antiquity]] |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=203–234 |doi=10.2307/281966 |jstor=281966 |bibcode=1993AmAnt..58..203P |s2cid=162383674 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/abs/dorsetthule-succession-in-arctic-north-america-assessing-claims-for-culture-contact/0AFBC36002C2CDF39D1108EC333C939A |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Inuit oral history recounts encounters with a people called the Tuniit upon their arrival; they were described as gentle and shy, speaking a simple language referred to as "Kutak" or "baby-talk". Like the Dorset, they did not possess bows or arrows, and were easily killed or driven away. They were described as living scattered amid the vast Arctic landscape, who came to live together at certain times for celebration or survival.<ref>{{cite web | title=Indigenous People Killed Indigenous People: Genocide | url=https://beothuk.ca/f/who-owns-dorset-alban-history }}</ref>{{full citation needed |date=January 2026}} How these legends prove meaningful contact with the Dorset is uncertain: some scientists have suggested that they disappeared because they were unable to adapt to [[Climate variability and change|climate change]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Krisch |first1=Joshua A. |date=August 29, 2014 |title=New Study Offers Clues to Swift Arctic Extinction |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/science/study-offers-clues-to-arctic-mystery-paleo-eskimos-abrupt-extinction.html |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> or were vulnerable to newly introduced diseases.<ref>{{cite news |last=You |first=Jia |date=August 28, 2014 |title=The strange history of the North American Arctic |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/strange-history-north-american-arctic |work=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |language=en}}</ref>
According to an Inuk from Ivaluardjuk, Igloolik, in 1922:{{quote without source |date=January 2026}}
{{blockquote |text=The Tunit were a strong people, and yet they were driven from their villages by others who were more numerous, by many people of great ancestors; but so greatly did they love their country, that when they were leaving Uglit, there was a man who, out of desperate love for his village, harpooned the rocksand made the stones fly about like bits of ice.}}
Some Inuit elders describe peace with an ancient group of people, while others describe conflict.<ref name="NNS2010"/>
===Sadlermiut=== {{Main|Sadlermiut}}
[[File:Sadlermiut whaling.jpg|thumb|Drawing of a Sadlermiut man paddling on inflated seal skins ([[George Francis Lyon]]; 1824)]] Scholars had thought that the [[Sadlermiut]], a people living in near isolation mainly on and around [[Coats Island]], [[Walrus Island (Fisher Strait)|Walrus Island]], and [[Southampton Island]] in [[Hudson Bay]] up until 1902–03, might have been the last remnants of the Dorset culture, as they had a culture and dialect distinct from the mainland [[Inuit]]. Encounters with Europeans and exposure to infectious disease caused the deaths of the last members of the Sadlermiut.<ref name=Briggs>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Briggs |first=Jean L. |title=Sadlermiut Inuit |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |date=March 4, 2015 |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sadlermiut-inuit}}</ref>
A 2002 paper suggested that the [[mitochondrial DNA]] (mtDNA) of Sadlermiut people was related to that of both the Dorset and Thule peoples, perhaps suggesting local admixture.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/pdf/news02.pdf |title=Arctic Studies Center Newsletter |page=34 |access-date=October 13, 2008 |date=June 2002 |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |work=[[National Museum of Natural History]] |archive-date=December 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151225080434/https://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/pdf/news02.pdf }}</ref>
A subsequent 2012 genetic analysis, however, showed no genetic link between the Sadlermiut and the Dorset.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Robert W. |last=Park |url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1258607 |title=Stories of Arctic colonization | journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=345 |issue=6200 |pages=1004–1005 |doi=10.1126/science.1258607 |date=August 29, 2014 |access-date=August 8, 2015 |pmid=25170138 |bibcode=2014Sci...345.1004P |s2cid=206560802|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Genetics== {{See also|Saqqaq culture#Genetics|Paleo-Eskimo#Genetics|Birnirk culture#Genetics|Thule people#Genetics|Inuit#Genetics}} A genetic study published in ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' in August 2014 examined the remains of nineteen Dorset people buried in Canada and Greenland between {{circa|{{BCE|170}}}} and {{CE|1320}}. The sixteen samples of mtDNA extracted were determined to belong to haplogroup [[Haplogroup D (mtDNA)|D2a1]] (twelve samples), D2a (three samples) and D.{{sfn|Raghavan et al.|2014|p=109|loc=supplementary materials, table S1}} These [[haplogroup]]s also predominate in the preceding Saqqaq culture, suggesting genetic continuity between the two. The authors of the study suggested that the ancestors of the Saqqaq and Dorset entered North America from [[Siberia]] in a single distinct migration about {{BCE|4000}}, after which they remained genetically largely isolated for thousands of years.{{sfn|Raghavan et al.|2014|p=1}} The Dorset were genetically distinct from the [[Thule people]] who, after expanding out of Siberia, completely replaced the Dorset people around {{CE|1300}}.{{sfn|Raghavan et al.|2014|p=1}} The study also found no evidence of genetic mixing between Dorset people and the [[Norse settlement of North America#Norse Greenland|Greenlandic Norse people]].{{sfn|Raghavan et al.|2014|p=1}}
== See also == * [[Qajartalik]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
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==External links== {{Commons category}} * [http://www.avataq.qc.ca/en/L-institut/Departements/Archeologie/Decouvrir-l-archeologie/Chronologie-de-l-Arctique "Dorset Culture in Nunavik"], Avataq *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050328183720/http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020705/news/editorial/columns.html "In the bones of the world"], ''[[Nuntsiaq News]]'' *[http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/archeo/cvh/arctic/earc7.htm "Dorset Paleoeskimo Culture"], Canada.ca.
[[Category:Dorset culture| ]] [[Category:Indigenous peoples in Northern Canada]] [[Category:Archaeological cultures of North America]] [[Category:Archaeology of Greenland]] [[Category:Archaeology of Canada]] [[Category:Archaeology of Nunavut]] [[Category:Inuit history]] [[Category:Prehistory of the Arctic]] [[Category:Extinct Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] [[Category:1st millennium BC in Canada]] [[Category:1st millennium in Canada]] [[Category:Greenlandic Inuit]]
[[de:Inuit-Kultur#Dorset-Kultur (500 v. Chr. bis 1000 n. Chr.)]]