Environmental impact of early Sadlermiut settlements at Native Point (Southampton Island, Nunavut, Canada) before the Little Ice Age

Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 19, EGU2017-18213-1, 2017 EGU General Assembly 2017 © Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Environmental impact of early Sadlermiut settlements at Native Point (Southampton Island, Nunavut, Canada) before the Little Ice Age Finn Viehberg (1), Reinhard Pienitz (2), Birgit Plessen (3), Derek Muir (4), and Xiaowa Wang (4) (1) Universität Köln, Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Cologne, Germany (finn.viehberg@uni-koeln.de), (2) University Laval, Centre d’Etude Nordique, Quebéc, Canada, (3) GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, Potsdam, Germany, (4) Environment and Climate Change Canada, Aquatic Contaminants Research Division, Burlington, Canada Several Thule forager groups settled successfully in the Hudson Bay region of the Canadian Arctic starting at ca. AD 1050. First evidence of settlements at Native Point on Southampton Island dates prior to AD 1400 by Sadlermiuts. The village consisted of numerous sod and winter houses which framed a small shallow freshwater body (ca. 20,000 m2 ). Numerous butchered carcasses of mainly walrus, seal, bowhead whales and caribou remained in the pond and further decayed in the water. Here, we present first results from three short sediment cores taken from the bottom of the settlement pond. Sedimentological, geochemical and micropaleontological analyses show an abrupt change at ca. AD 1500 from pristine aquatic environments to eutrophic conditions. Variation in d15N and d13C of the organic matter suggest that this shift is related to the first butchering activity of Sadlermiuts in the area.