Search

The Late Bronze Age Mongolian culture known for its memorial deer stones and khirigsuur burials, the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur complex (hereafter DSK) dating to 1300–700 BCE, displays persistence over several hundred years. Radiocarbon dates from hearths and horse remains associated with these sites show little change in architecture, ritual practice, and iconography, giving the impression of an unchanging mortuary cultural regime. New research demonstrates that deer stones are memorials to recently deceased leaders that display distinctive features of personal identification within the unifying framework of an over-arching religious theme represented by deer-bird iconography. Despite continuity, the DSK complex is not monolithic. This paper presents evidence for regional cultural and chronological variation in deer stone art and ceremonial activity based on research at the Khyadag and Zunii Gol sites in northcentral Mongolia. Areal excavation, detailed survey, and recording of deer stone art revealed the presence at Khyadag of a new class of miniature deer stones and evidence of copper smelting, and at Zunii Gol — an unusual khirigsuur associated with a deer stone carrying elements of Scytho-Saka animal style art. These data indicate geographic and chronological overlap in V. V. Volkov’s deer stone types and changes in deer stone art and khirigsuur ritual in the later period of the DSK complex. In the future, emphasis needs to be given to broad excavation strategies that explore the contextual history of individual DSK sites, dating of Volkov’s Type II and III deer stones, and regional comparisons with Xinjiang, Baikal, and the Mongolian and Gornyi Altai.

Recent research traces the origins of Mongolian horse herding and riding as far as the late Bronze Age Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex (DSKC), a tradition known from its standing stones, burials, and monuments. DSKC monument sites are often found with large numbers of partial (“head and hoof”) horse burials buried at the monument periphery. However, despite the ubiquity of ritual horse inhumations, key questions remain regarding the process and significance of DSKC horse ritual. Here, we present detailed taphonomic, osteological, and cut-mark analysis of 21 individual horse burials from deer stones and khirigsuur mounds across Mongolia. Our results indicate a diversity of slaughter practices among horses at DSK sites, including blunt trauma to the forehead region with small and large implements and possibly throat-slitting. While the head, cervical vertebrae, and phalanges are the most commonly recovered elements from these sites, element presence and absence indicates the occasional inclusion of the tail and limb elements, which may be explained by the presence of connecting skin and soft tissue (e.g. hide). Most significantly, cut mark analysis demonstrates that elements found in DSK features were not only disarticulated, but were often stripped of meat – including vertebral muscle and tongue removal. These results indicate that the spread of horse-based ritual practices in Mongolia was coupled with the removal (and likely consumption) of horse meat, suggesting that, beyond their role in transportation, the role of horses as livestock was both socially and economically significant during the late second millennium BCE.

While classic models for the emergence of pastoral groups in Inner Asia describe mounted, horse-borne herders sweeping across the Eurasian Steppes during the Early or Middle Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1500 BCE), the actual economic basis of many early pastoral societies in the region is poorly characterized. In this paper, we use collagen mass fingerprinting and ancient DNA analysis of some of the first stratified and directly dated archaeofaunal assemblages from Mongolia’s early pastoral cultures to undertake species identifications of this rare and highly fragmented material. Our results provide evidence for livestock-based, herding subsistence in Mongolia during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE. We observe no evidence for dietary exploitation of horses prior to the late Bronze Age, ca. 1200 BCE – at which point horses come to dominate ritual assemblages, play a key role in pastoral diets, and greatly influence pastoral mobility. In combination with the broader archaeofaunal record of Inner Asia, our analysis supports models for widespread changes in herding ecology linked to the innovation of horseback riding in Central Asia in the final 2nd millennium BCE. Such a framework can explain key broad-scale patterns in the movement of people, ideas, and material culture in Eurasian prehistory.

Northern peoples and those living in the Arctic and environments with broad vistas created cultural landscapes with distinctive monument traditions that supported their cultural and political systems. This paper explores three societies in different geographic regions and time periods during the past 10,000 years that used stone monuments to humanize their landscapes and invoke or honor gods or spirits, mythological ancestors, or deceased leaders. Canadian and Greenland Inuit and their predecessors of the past thousand years marked their lands with abstract human figures known as Inuksuit; Neolithic and Bronze Age Europeans built megaliths, henges, and passage graves; and Mongolian Bronze Age nomadic pastoralists populated the central Asian steppe with burial mounds (khirigsuurs) and anthropomorphic deer stone monuments. Each tradition contributed in different ways to shape and perpetuate the society’s values by invoking spirits, ancestors, or heroic leaders. The enduring presence of these creations reinforced cultural or ethnic identity through ritual, group ceremonialism, landscape values, communal enterprise and labor, and collective memory. This paper identifies commonalities and differences between these traditions and how they functioned. We also see how successive societies perpetuate, change, reinterpret, or invent new uses and meanings for ancient monuments and their landscape settings to create new ethnicities and histories for their own times.

In the late 1970s, two large, multi-disciplinary, multi-year archaeological programs were initiated along the coasts of northern Labrador and Ungava in northern Quebec. Both envisioned a new model for Arctic archaeology that integrated archaeology, ethnography, environmental studies, earth sciences, and informatics. The Tuvaaluk research program was directed by Patrick Plumet at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and the Torngat Archaeological Project (TAP) by William Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian Institution and Richard Jordan at Bryn Mawr College. Project periods lasted roughly five years and included researchers and students from several institutions. The Tuvaaluk project concentrated on Paleoeskimo and Thule cultures, while TAP included research on Maritime Archaic and later Indian cultures as well as Paleoeskimo and Inuit cultures. This paper reviews and compares Tuvaaluk and TAP goals, methods, results, lessons learned, and legacies., À la fin des années 1970, deux grands programmes multidisciplinaires devant durer plusieurs années ont été lancés le long des côtes du nord du Labrador et de l’Ungava au nord du Québec. Tous deux envisageaient un nouveau modèle d’archéologie arctique alliant l’archéologie, l’ethnographie, les études environnementales, les sciences de la Terre et l’informatique. Le programme de recherche Tuvaaluk était dirigé par Patrick Plumet de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, et le projet archéologique Torngat, par William Fitzhugh de la Smithsonian Institution et Richard Jordan du Bryn Mawr College. Ces projets ont duré approximativement cinq ans et ont rassemblé des chercheurs et des étudiants de plusieurs institutions. Le projet Tuvaaluk se concentrait sur les cultures thuléennes et paléoesquimaudes, tandis que le projet archéologique Torngat incluait des recherches sur les cultures amérindiennes de l’Archaïque maritime et celles qui ont suivi, en plus des cultures paléoesquimaudes et inuit. Cet article passe en revue les projets Tuvaaluk et Torngat, et compare leurs objectifs, leurs méthodes, leurs résultats, les leçons qui en ont été tirées et l’influence qu’ils ont eue.

The emergence of mobile herding lifeways in Mongolia and eastern Eurasia was one of the most crucial economic and cultural transitions in human prehistory. Understanding the process by which this played out, however, has been impeded by the absence of a precise chronological framework for the prehistoric era in Mongolia. One rare source of empirically dateable material useful for understanding eastern Eurasia’s pastoral tradition comes from the stone burial mounds and monumental constructions that began to appear across the landscape of Mongolia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age (ca. 3000–700 BCE). Here, along with presenting 28 new radiocarbon dates from Mongolia’s earliest pastoral monumental burials, we synthesise, critically analyse, and model existing dates to present the first precision Bayesian radiocarbon model for the emergence and geographic spread of Bronze Age monument and burial forms. Model results demonstrate a cultural succession between ambiguously dated Afanasievo, Chemurchek, and Munkhkhairkhan traditions. Geographic patterning reveals the existence of important cultural frontiers during the second millennium BCE. This work demonstrates the utility of a Bayesian approach for investigating prehistoric cultural dynamics during the emergence of pastoral economies. This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Early European accounts document the presence of Labrador Inuit in northern Newfoundland, the Strait of Belle Isle, and the northeastern Gulf of St. Lawrence in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Controversy over the interpretation of the historical record and the extent and nature of Southern Inuit presence has been clarified by recent archaeological research on the Quebec Lower North shore, which demonstrates a series of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century winter sod-house villages in every major region from Brador to Petit Mécatina. House types are similar to those found on the Central Labrador coast, and all contain much Basque and other European material culture, indicating extensive trade contacts rather than the spoils of sporadic raids. The Hare Harbor Inuit settlement at Petit Mécatina is found at a Basque/European whaling and fishing station and appears to have been a European-Inuit enterprise facilitated by the Little Ice Age expansion of Arctic marine mammals.

The demographic history of Greenland is characterized by recurrent migrations and extinctions since the first humans arrived 4,500 years ago. Our current understanding of these extinct cultures relies primarily on preserved fossils found in their archaeological deposits, which hold valuable information on past subsistence practices. However, some exploited taxa, though economically important, comprise only a small fraction of these sub-fossil assemblages. Here we reconstruct a comprehensive record of past subsistence economies in Greenland by sequencing ancient DNA from four well-described midden deposits. Our results confirm that the species found in the fossil record, like harp seal and ringed seal, were a vital part of Inuit subsistence, but also add a new dimension with evidence that caribou, walrus and whale species played a more prominent role for the survival of Paleo-Inuit cultures than previously reported. Most notably, we report evidence of bowhead whale exploitation by the Saqqaq culture 4,000 years ago., Our current understanding of the demographic history of Greenland relies on preserved fossils. Here, the authors sequence ancient DNA from four midden deposits and find a prominent role for caribou, walrus and whale species in Paleo-Inuit cultures not evident from the fossil record.

Mongolia’s Bronze Age deer stones are one of the most striking expressions of early monumental art in Central Asia, yet their age, origins, relationships, and meaning remain obscure. Speculation about Scythian connections has stimulated recent research in Mongolia that has begun to peel away their mysteries and reveals connections to Scytho-Siberian and northern art. Radiocarbon-dated horse skulls indicate pre-Scythian ages of “classic Mongolian” deer stones as well as firm association with the Late Bronze Age khirigsuur [kurgan] burial mound complex.

We demonstrate here the possibility of identifying proteins trapped in few milligrams of the clay matrix of a 1200-1400 AD Iñupiat potsherd fragment from Point Barrow, Alaska, by a dedicated proteomics approach. The four main steps of a proteomics analysis, (i) protein extraction from biological samples, (ii) protein hydrolysis using a hydrolase enzyme, (iii) nanoLC, nanoESI MS, and MS/MS analysis of the generated peptides, and (iv) protein identification using protein databank proceeded from genomic data, have been optimized for archeological remains. Briefly our procedure starts by grinding the potsherds, extraction with 1% trifluoroacetic acid, digestion with excess of trypsin, nanoLC, nanoESI FT-ICR analysis, and data mining by homology search. The developed conditions were evaluated on protein extracts from remains obtained by heated muscle tissues and blubbers of different seal and whale species, these samples representing the main diet sources of the Eskimo population. Most of the proteins were identified by sequence homology to other species due to the lack of cetacean and pinniped proteins in the databanks. More interestingly, two proteins, myoglobin and hemoglobin, respectively, identified in muscle tissue samples and blubber samples highlight several specific peptides of cetacean and pinniped species; these peptides are significant to prove the presence of these marine species in the analyzed samples. Based on the developed methodology and on protein identification results obtained from the heated seal/whale muscle tissues and blubbers, the analysis of the clay matrix of a 1200-1400 AD Iñupiat potsherd fragment from Point Barrow was investigated. The described method succeeds in identifying four peptides corresponding to the harbor seal myoglobin (species Phoca vitulina) with a measured mass accuracy better than 1 ppm (MS and MS/MS experiments) including one specific peptide of the cetacean and pinniped species and one specific peptide of the seal species. These results highlight, for the first time, a methodology able to identify proteins from a few milligrams of archeological potsherd buried for years; the obtained results confirm the presence of a seal muscle tissue protein in this Punuk potsherd.

Archaeology and the Sea in Scandinavia and Britain. A Personal Account. By Ole Crumlin-Pedersen. Maritime Culture of the North, 3, The Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde. 2010. ISBN 978–87-85180–05-6 (Ha...

Baleen has been harvested by indigenous people for thousands of years, as well as collected by whalers as an additional product of commercial whaling in modern times. Baleen refers to the food-filtering system of Mysticeti whales; a full baleen rack consists of dozens of plates of a tough and flexible keratinous material that terminate in bristles. Due to its properties, baleen was a valuable raw material used in a wide range of artefacts, from implements to clothing. Baleen is not widely used today, however, analyses of this biomolecular tissue have the potential to contribute to conservation efforts, studies of genetic diversity and a better understanding of the exploitation and use of Mysticeti whales in past and recent times. Fortunately, baleen is present in abundance in museum natural history collections. However, it is often difficult or impossible to make a species identification of manufactured or old baleen. Here, we propose a new tool for biomolecular identification of baleen based on its main structural component alpha-keratin (the same protein that makes up hair and fingernails). With the exception of minke whales, alpha-keratin sequences are not yet known for baleen whales. We therefore used peptide mass fingerprinting to determine peptidic profiles in well documented baleen and evaluated the possibility of using this technique to differentiate species in baleen samples that are not adequately identified or are unidentified. We examined baleen from ten different species of whales and determined molecular markers for each species, including species-specific markers. In the case of the Bryde's whales, differences between specimens suggest distinct species or sub-species, consistent with the complex phylogeny of the species. Finally, the methodology was applied to 29 fragments of baleen excavated from archaeological sites in Labrador, Canada (representing 1500 years of whale use by prehistoric people), demonstrating a dominance of bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) in the archaeological assemblage and the successful application of the peptide mass fingerprinting technique to identify the species of whale in unidentified and partially degraded samples.

Arctic genetics comes in from the coldDespite a well-characterized archaeological record, the genetics of the people who inhabit the Arctic have been unexplored. Raghavanet al.sequenced ancient and modern genomes of individuals from the North American Arctic (see the Perspective by Park). Analyses of these genomes indicate that the Arctic was colonized 6000 years ago by a migration separate from the one that gave rise to other Native American populations. Furthermore, the original paleo-inhabitants of the Arctic appear to have been completely replaced approximately 700 years ago.Science, this issue10.1126/science.1255832; see also p.1004

Prehistoric peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador, like many northern coastal populations, produced many of their stone tools from slate; however, the procurement and movement of this material in that Province and elsewhere has gone virtually unstudied beyond generalised typologies and macroscopic evaluation. This paper provides an overview of a recent study utilising non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) technology to analyse slates used by people of the Maritime Archaic tradition (ca. 8000-3200 BP) in Newfoundland and Labrador. Because pXRF is non-destructive, these instruments allow archaeologists to chemically analyse artifacts directly in non-traditional laboratory environments. Through the examination of 164 slate artifacts recovered from 50 sites from throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, we were successful at identifying broad regional patterns in slate distribution, as well as identifying preferred use of particular slate varieties in the production of specific artifact classes. Although limitations exist in the use of this technology, mostly having to do with the physical nature of the source material and the appropriate scale of research, this study demonstrates its potential in identifying broad use patterns and distribution of slate in ancient exchange systems.

Environmental conditions of the Eastern North American Arctic make this region suitable for biogeographical approaches to culture. Although composed of a vast assemblage of large and small islands, the Eastern Arctic differs from other “oceanic” environments where modern biogeographical work has been pioneered. This paper outlines conditions which make the Eastern Arctic suitable for biogeographical study and considers the nature of “islands” as analytical constructs rather than as discrete entities. Biogeographical concepts are considered in relation to the “core-periphery model” that has been the organizing principle for interpreting patterns of Eastern Arctic culture history. Abstractions, aspects, and conclusions reached from these studies outline some of the opportunities available for application of more directed anthropological biogeographical work in the future.

Northern Hemisphere sea ice has been declining sharply over the past decades and 2012 exhibited the lowest Arctic summer sea-ice cover in historic times. Whereas ongoing changes are closely monitored through satellite observations, we have only limited data of past Arctic sea-ice cover derived from short historical records, indirect terrestrial proxies, and low-resolution marine sediment cores. A multicentury time series from extremely long-lived annual increment-forming crustose coralline algal buildups now provides the first high-resolution in situ marine proxy for sea-ice cover. Growth and Mg/Ca ratios of these Arctic-wide occurring calcified algae are sensitive to changes in both temperature and solar radiation. Growth sharply declines with increasing sea-ice blockage of light from the benthic algal habitat. The 646-y multisite record from the Canadian Arctic indicates that during the Little Ice Age, sea ice was extensive but highly variable on subdecadal time scales and coincided with an expansion of ice-dependent Thule/Labrador Inuit sea mammal hunters in the region. The past 150 y instead have been characterized by sea ice exhibiting multidecadal variability with a long-term decline distinctly steeper than at any time since the 14th century.

Biographie de Richard H. Jordan (1946-1991), professeur d'anthropologie a l'Universite d'Alaska-Fairbanks et specialiste d'archeologie et d'anthropologie arctique, et des cultures esquimaudes. En annexe, une selection des ecrits de R.H. Jordan.

Archaeological excavations have been conducted since 2002 at a complex multicomponent European whaling and fishing site at Hare Harbor, Petit Mecatina Island, on the Quebec Lower North Shore in the northeastern Gulf of St. Lawrence. European facilities so far identified include a cookhouse, a blacksmith shop, a wood processing area, and a charcoal storage or production area. The site also includes at least one and possibly two Inuit winter houses that are probably contemporary with the later European occupation. Large ballast piles in the adjacent ship ­anchorage indicate harborage by multiple vessels over a series of years, and underwater levels contain stratified deposits of whale bones and baleen, fish remains, and wood debitage. Petit Mecatina offers a rare archaeological instance combining land and sea deposits and artifacts from multiple European occupations and ethnic groups. The broader social landscape includes evidence of collaboration with and probably employment of Inuit as well as conflict between competing European and Native American groups.

D eer stones and khirigsuur mounds are the most visible features of the archaeological landscape in the steppe region of northern Mongolia. Standing as slender stelae silhouetted against the sky and dark mounds against contoured landforms, deer stones and khirigsuurs evoke a past that contrasts with as much as it conforms to the lightdrenched landscape of gers and herders today. One world we see and understand; the other is only faintly visible through the stony remains of spiritual and ceremonial life. This chapter explores a time when stone men walked and spirits plied the mountaintops; when shamans sang, and warriors rode deer spirits to heaven. Once considered a marginal late-Scythian derivative, Mongolia's deer stones and khirigsuurs have recently been dated several hundred years earlier than Arzhan, and their elaborate burial mound architecture and artistic stone monuments indicate a level of socio-political intensification and complexity previously unknown among Bronze Age societies of the eastern steppe. The Deer Stone–Khirigsuur Complex The archaeology of central and eastern Asia has seen dramatic change during the past two decades. Some areas like Kazakhstan, Inner Mongolia, and Mongolia, which have been long closed to Western scholars, have become accessible now, while others like Tibet are almost completely unexplored.

With the disappearance of Late Pleistocene glacial ice the North American Arctic and Greenland are quickly colonized and occupied by a succession of cultural groups originating from Asia. The ameliorating climatic conditions and the stability of maritime resources (principally marine mammals) supported the evolution of chiefly societies in the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea regions while in northern Alaska, the Canadian Arctic and Greenland a succession of Palaeo-Eskimo cultures – small bands of nomadic hunting families – adapted to the more extreme environmental constraints. Around 1000 AD global warming and reduced ice cover in the Beaufort Sea and the North Atlantic brought new cultural groups into the Arctic. Thule people – a whaling culture from Alaska and the ancestors of today's Inuit – rapidly expanded throughout the North American Arctic replacing Palaeo-Eskimo groups at the same time that expanding European-Norse settlers established colonies in southern Greenland and Newfoundland.

The age of the marine limit and associated deglaciation has been estimated from relative sea-level curves for the Hopedale and Nain areas of the central Labrador coast as approximately 7600 ± 200 and 8500 ± 200 yr ago, respectively. These ages indicate that the ice margin remained on the coast for up to 3000 yr longer than previously estimated. Because the central coast is due east of glacial lakes Naskaupi and McLean, the earliest the lakes could have formed was

We present a new international project to develop temporally and spatially calibrated agent-based models of the rise and fall of polities in Inner Asia (Central Eurasia) in the past 5,000 years. Gaps in theory, data, and computational models for explaining long-term sociopolitical change—both growth and decay—motivate this project. We expect three contributions: (1) new theoreticallygrounded simulation models validated and calibrated by the best available data; (2) a new long-term cross-cultural database with several data sets; and (3) new conceptual, theoretical, and methodological contributions for understanding social complexity and long-term change and adaptation in real and artificial societies. Our theoretical framework is based on explaining sociopolitical evolution by the process of “canonical variation”.

Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga explores the little-known story of the dramatic Viking/Norse expansion across the North Atlantic between 850 and 1000 AD, and their explorations and settlement in Greenland and Northeastern North America. Special emphasis is on fads and fallacies in popular beliefs about "Vikings" in North America as contrasted with new archaeological evidence from Arctic and Subarctic regions where Norse contacts occurred with Native Americans -both Inuit and Indian. Finally, the lecture addresses the likely causes of failure of the western Norse colonies and implications for future human Arctic endeavours. Dr. Fitzhugh earned his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth, and his doctorate at Harvard. His areas of specialization are the Arctic, Mongolia, Basques, North Pacific, Siberia, Circumpolar. He has done fieldwork in Labrador, Quebec, North American and Russian Arctic, and Mongolia. His main publications are books on Genghis Khan, Maine to Greenland, Vikings, Ainu, Bering Sea Eskimos, and Ancient Eskimo Art. The Archaeological Institute of America extends an invitation to this lecture to Canadian Friends of Iceland, Canadian Nordic Society, Canadian Friends of Finland, Danish Club of Ottawa, Swedish Club in Ottawa and the Arctic Circle. Paterson Hall is one of the original buildings in the quad facing the inner park, facing the Dunton Tower across the quad. Dunton Tower is the tallest building on campus. Parking Lot 1, behind the Library is close. Lot 2 is close as well, but involves a walk up the hill to Paterson Hall. Parking is a flat rate of $3 on weekends. For a map of the campus, click on to this link: http://www.doe.carleton.ca/~cp/radio/map.html

Maps, Myths, and Men The Story of the Vinland Map . By Kirsten A. Seaver . Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA, 2004. 504 pp. $65, £44.50. ISBN 0-8047-4962-0. Paper, $24.95, £17.50. ISBN: 0-8047-4963-9. Besides reviewing the controversies surrounding the map and arguing that it is a modern fake, the author discusses our current understanding of medieval Norse culture and voyages to North America.

"Some 55 scholars, mostly Japanese but with a considerable number from the US and Europe, write about the ethnicity, theories of origin, history, economies, art, religious beliefs, mythology, and other aspects of the culture of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, now principally found in Hokkaido and smaller far northern islands. Hundreds of photographs and paintings, mostly in excellent quality color, show a wide variety of Ainu people, as well as clothing, jewelry, and various artifacts." - "Choice". "The most in-depth treatise available on Ainu prehistory, material culture, and ethnohistory." - "Library Journal".

Circumpolar culture theory has been a persistent unifying theme in northern anthropology, playing a formative role in the development of general anthropological theory and stimulating numerous archaeological and ethnological studies of high latitude regions. One of the most important contributions to this field was Gutorm Gjessing'sCircumpolar Stone Age(1944). Today this work is known as a timely synthesis in which ethnological and archaeological data were marshalled in support of an hypothesis of northern diffusion through the Arctic and Taiga zones from Scandinavia to northeastern North America. The principal elements in this proposed diffusion chain included toggling harpoons, large skin boats, oil lamps, ulu-type knives, ground slate tools, the curved-back adze or gouge, and cord-marked pottery. Later additions to this circumpolar adaptive complex included parallels in social structure, religion, and mythology (Gjessing 1953; Nordland 1968).

Despite continued attention from archaeologists the origin of Dorset culture in the Eastern Arctic remains a persistent problem in northern prehistory. The transition from late Pre-Dorset to early Dorset culture is marked by a relatively rapid and consistent typological shift throughout a large geographic area at between about 1000 and 800 B.C. Although hampered by a distinct paucity of information, available chronological and distributional data do not supply a ready explanation for such consistent changes over such a wide-flung territory. However, the lack of a time slope and the presence of regional variants do not suggest that Dorset origins will be found in a single locale; rather, the transition appears to have occurred throughout a band of interacting populations within the core area of the eastern Central Arctic. Subsequent changes may be seen as a result of stylistic evolution, diffusion, and migration into more peripheral regions during the maximum extension of the Dorset sphere.