A Late Dorset Site on Axel Heiberg Island

Abstract

The territory in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago known to have been occupied by the Dorset people has been extended as a result of the finding of a harpoon head on an old camp site consisting of a number of tent rings, and located about seven metres above sea level, near the east bank of a river connecting Buchanan Lake with Mokka Fjord on the east coast of Axel Heiberg Island. The find was made and reported by Robert F. Barstad of the Calgary office of the Compagnie Générale de Géophysique. The specimen, which is of ivory, belongs to a late period of the Dorset culture and exhibits a number of diagnostic attributes, viz: closed rectangular socket, bifurcated spur, double line-holes and a longitudinal lashing groove from the line-hole to the tip ....