After at 40 year career in Quaternary geology with the Geological Survey of Canada and collaborative research in demography of pre-Inuit cultures with McGill University, my focus now is on the Quaternary geology of Newfoundland.
In this paper we discuss beach level chronology and settlement at Alarniq—the ‘type-site’ for Dor... more In this paper we discuss beach level chronology and settlement at Alarniq—the ‘type-site’ for Dorset culture history and one of the largest Dorset archaeological sites in the Eastern Arctic. The Dorset occupation at the site extends approximately 5.5 km along a succession of raised gravel beach ridges, ranging in elevation between 8 to 24 m asl, and is almost entirely comprised of semi-subterranean structures that would have been occupied during the cold season. The number of houses varies across the beach ridges suggesting populations fluctuated throughout the site’s use. However, new radiocarbon analyses indicate that all houses between 22-16.5 m asl are of the same general age, and that paleodemography at Alarniq is less straightforward than suggested by the number of features per beach ridge. Here we examine how settlement at the site was impacted by the season of occupation, and discuss how ideal house construction locations seem to be a stronger indicator of the placement of winter houses at the site versus proximity to the shoreline.
Uploads
Papers by Arthur Dyke