New evidence suggests Inuit knew wire skills long before Viking contact

New research questions old badumptions about what Inuit ancestors today have learned from Viking settlers

Researchers have shown that ancient Dorset and Thule knew how to spin centuries before Scandinavians taught them, changing the way archaeologists think of Arctic history.

"We do not know much," said Michele Hayeur Smith of Brown University in Rhode Island, senior author of a recent article in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Hayeur Smith and his colleagues were examining pieces of wire, perhaps used to suspend amulets or decorate clothes, from ancient sites on Baffin Island and the Ungava Peninsula.

The idea that you had to learn something from another culture was a bit ridiculous. It's a pretty intuitive thing to do – Michele Hayeur Smith, Brown University

The origin of the yarn from animal hairs and tendons had tormented scientists in the # Arctic for generations. Most badumed that it was a skill acquired by Viking settlers who sailed west of Greenland, establishing a community at Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland about 1000 years ago. .

Hayeur Smith, specializing in the study of ancient textiles.

First, the thread was unlike anything it had seen for years of examination of northern fibers. . Second, why would Arctic people – highly skilled clothing manufacturers – need to learn such a basic technique?

"The idea that you had to learn to rotate something from another culture was a bit ridiculous. I said. "It's a pretty intuitive thing to do."

The problem was that the wire was difficult to date. The pieces were full of oil from whales and seals, and anything that was impregnated with marine mammal oil was almost impossible to date carbon.

Until now.

"Shampooed" and dated carbon fibers

Co-author Gorill Nilsen at the University of Tromso in Norway found a way to "shampoo" oil from fibers without damaging them. Some fibers from a site on the south coast of Baffin were then subjected to the latest carbon dating methods

according to co-author Kevin Smith of Brown University

"They were grouped in about 100 to 600-800 AD – about 1,000 to 500 years before the Vikings manifested. [The Dorset] manipulate the types of fibers you find in your environment at least 100 BC "

According to Hayeur Smith, there is evidence that Nordic weavers learn to use bear and fox hair, as well as sheep and goats.

People do not spend much time thinking about this as a valid form of material culture – Michele Hayeur Smith, on why clothing manufacturing is important

The pioneering technical shampoo on the wire may have huge implications for all Arctic archeology. Marine mammal oil was everywhere in old campsites, reducing the reliability of standard dating methods. And dating is everything in archeology.

"There are a lot of questions like this in the Arctic – which translate into the intricacies of when people settled in certain areas," Smith said. "How did they move? What are the migration models? Until we get good dating methods, we can not even start treating that. "

The study also highlights the importance of studying textiles, in particular more of the traditional Hayeur Smith accent

"People do not spend a lot of time thinking about this as a valid form of material culture that represents something else," she said. you are just as important as eating. "