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New research questions old badumptions about what Inuit ancestors today have learned from Viking settlers.
And the researchers developed techniques to show that the ancient Dorset and Thule knew how to spin centuries before the Scandinavians "We do not know much," said Michele Hayeur Smith of the Brown University in Rhode Island and lead author of a recent article in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Hayeur Smith and his colleagues were examining pieces of wire, perhaps used to hang amulets or decorate clothes, from ancient sites on Baffin Island and the Ungava Peninsula [19659004]. had haunted Arctic scientists 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 nothing like what he had seen during years of examination of northern fibers. Second, why would Arctic people – highly skilled clothing manufacturers – need to learn such a fundamental technique from someone else?
"The idea that you had to learn to rotate something from another culture was a bit ridiculous. she said, "it's a pretty intuitive thing to do."
The problem was that the wire was hard to date.The pieces were full of whale and seal oil, and all what was impregnated with marine mammal oil was almost impossible to date.
Until now.
Gorill Nilsen of the University of Tromso in Norway proposed how to "shampoo" oil on the 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 the Brown University
"They regrouped in a period from about 100 AD to about 600 to 800 AD – about 1,000 to 500 years before the Vikings were manifest (The Dorset) manipulate the types of fibers that you find in your environment at least 100 BC "[1 9659002] In fact, the Vikings may have picked up some tips from the Thule. This is not conclusive, but Hayeur Smith said that there was evidence to suggest that Scandinavian weavers were learning how to use bear and fox hairs, as well as sheep and goats, people that they called Skraelings.
The technique of pioneering shampoo on the wire can have enormous 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 – the subtleties of when people moved to certain areas," Smith said. "How did they move? What are the migration models?" she said
"until we get good dating methods we can not even start treating that."
The study also highlights the importance of studying textiles, in addition to the accent Hayeur Smith.
"People do not spend a lot of time thinking about this as a valid form of material culture that represents something else," she said. "Covering yourself, protecting yourself, is just as important as eating."
– Follow Bob Weber on Twitter @ row1960
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
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