Dorset culture

Dorset culture

Maximum extent of the Late Dorset culture (AD 500–1000)
Geographical range	Northern Canada, Greenland
Dates	500 BCE – 1500 CE
Preceded by	Pre-Dorset
Followed by	Thule people

Dorset carving of a polar bear found on Igloolik Island

Dorset carving of a seal

The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from 500 BCE to between 1000 CE and 1500 CE, that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in Nunavut, Canada, where the first evidence of its existence was found. The culture has been defined as having four phases due to the distinct differences in the technologies relating to hunting and tool making. Artifacts include distinctive triangular end-blades, oil lamps (qulliq) made of soapstone, and burins.

The Dorset were first identified as a separate culture in 1925. The Dorset appear to have been extinct by 1500 at the latest and perhaps as early as 1000. The Thule people, who began migrating east from Alaska in the 11th century, ended up spreading through the lands previously inhabited by the Dorset. It is not fully known whether the Inuit and Dorset ever met. Some modern genetic studies show the Dorset population were distinct from later groups and that "[t]here was virtually no evidence of genetic or cultural interaction between the Dorset and the Thule peoples."^[1] However, the question of why the Dorset disappeared so completely has led some to suggest that Thule invaders wiped out the Dorset people in "an example of prehistoric genocide."^[1]

Inuit legends recount them encountering people they called the Tuniit (in syllabics: ᑐᓃᑦ, singular ᑐᓂᖅ Tuniq). According to legend, the first inhabitants were giants, taller and stronger than the Inuit but afraid to interact and "easily put to flight".^[2]