Ancient burial and tent sites, food caches found on Hudson Bay
WINNIPEG — On the western coast of Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba there’s a gravelly cliff, covered in grass and large rocks, with a 360-degree view of the stark and wild area around it.
It doesn’t look like much to the untrained eye, but some 400 years before Europeans set foot in North America, the cliff was a thriving hunting camp for the ancestors of today’s Inuit.
Today, there are remnants of 22 large tent rings, as well as food caches, burial grounds and kayak rests — all estimated to be about 1,000 years old.
Researchers are heading to the site, just south of the Manitoba-Nunavut border, next weekend to excavate for animal bones and tools in the hope of gaining insight into the lives of the ancient Inuit known as the Thule.
“We’re hoping that the kinds of structures we find, and maybe some of the tools we find, will help to give us some connection with the High Arctic,” said Virginia Petch, the project’s chief archeologist.
Petch first stumbled on the site 17 years ago, when she spotted the tent rings from the air. She didn’t stay long when she reached the site by foot because a half-dozen polar bears were “surveying us for lunch.”
She was able to determine the settlement was likely 1,000 years old, since there was no evidence of metal. The tent rings are huge, she said, almost as though they were made “by giants.” Some tents were positioned in a figure eight, suggesting an extended family lived together.
It was — and still is — a perfect place to hunt and gather food for a harsh winter.
“It was very safe,” Petch said. “You could see the beluga coming in. You could see the seals. If you looked inland, you could see caribou and you could watch out for bears. There would be fish in the river. It was a very productive area for people to be.”
Petch and a team consisting of marine biologists, elders, research assistants and a Nunavut student plan to spend a week mapping the site and studying whatever settlement remnants they can find. The burials will remain untouched.
The Thule first settled in Alaska before moving eastward into Arctic Canada and Greenland about 1,000 years ago.
The archeological survey is being conducted by Inuit Heritage Trust and the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Oceans North Canada.