Signs and Symbols of an Ancient People
The Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos of Brooman Point

Robert McGhee
Canadian Museum of Civilization

High in the Canadian Arctic, at a place called Brooman Point, an abundance of tiny, exquisitely carved animals (click here to see a picture of a bear carving) and human figures have been found. These objects of ivory, antler and wood have lain frozen in an arctic beach for a thousand years and owe their remarkable preservation to a lucky accident. They provide a unique insight into the beliefs and way of life of those who shaped them-the Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos.

The Brooman Peninsula extends from the east coast of Bathurst Island (click here to see a map locating Brooman Point), part of the Canadian arctic archipelago. The surrounding seas are frozen for at least ten months of the year, while the land consists of strings of barren gravel beaches rising like steps toward the interior of the peninsula. Land animals are scarce in the region, but sea mammals such as seals, walrus and beluga whales are abundant, especially around the southern tip where tidal currents maintain a small patch of open water for most of the year. It was probably the presence of this concentration of animals which first attracted prehistoric hunters. Small groups of Palaeo-Eskimos lived for a few generations at the southern tip of the peninsula, Brooman Point, around 3,500 years ago and again around 2,500 years ago, but the area seems to have been abandoned for over a thousand years when Palaeo-Eskimos of the Dorset culture arrived.

The Dorset People

The Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos probably came to Brooman Point about a 1,000 years ago from islands farther south in the archipelago. Their migration into the area was part of a general population expansion which saw Dorset people moving onto most high arctic islands and as far east as northwestern Greenland. This local population probably lived much like other Dorset people across the Arctic. They used bone or ivory harpoon heads and lance points to hunt sea marnmals from the ice; small soapstone lamps fueled with seal oil to heat and light their houses; and sleds to transport material in the winter. We know the settlement the Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos established at Brooman Point was small but we cannot determine the exact population size. Their dwelling were rectangular structures, about three by four metres, dug a few centimetres into the gravel beaches and were probably covered with either skin-tents or snow walls. Excavation of three of the outlying houses in the settlement produced very few artifacts; bones around the site indicate that they lived primarily on seals, although they also hunted walrus, caribo and musk-oxen. The remainder of the large collection of Dorset artifacts recovered at Brooman Point were found in association with evidence of a second group of people who occupied the same site (click here to see a picture of the Brooman Point site).

The Thule Arrive

The second occupation of Brooman Point was by Thule Inuit. In most regions of the Canadian Arctic, the arrival of the Thule marked the disappearance of the Dorset way of life. The Thule, ancestors of the present-day Inuit, moved eastward from Alaska about 1,000 years ago, perhaps in response to the warmer climatic conditions that expanded the ranges of whales and other sea mammals they hunted. Their bows, complex harpoon gear, kayaks, and large skin--covered umiaks used for whaling and for moving entire camps made them efficient hunters of such big game.

A few slight pieces of archaeological evidence suggest that the Dorset people had not abandoned their village at Brooman Point for more than a few years before the new Thule settlers arrived. The winter village the Thule erected on this site was never very large-three or four houses. The remains of twenty houses have been found, but it is thought new houses were constructed as the old ones became decrepit. The houses were built from stone and turf and had rafters of whalebone; the roof was covered with skins and the entire house buried beneath a thick layer of turf. The Thule dug up the remains of the Dorset village and incorporated them into the walls and roofing material of the houses. By doing so, they unwittingly ensured the preservation of many of the objects left behind by the Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos. When the roofs of the Thule houses collapsed, the insulation of the roof-turfs caused everything below them to become encased in permafrost. Both Thule and Dorset artifacts thus remained almost perfectly preserved until excavated almost nine hundred years later.

Interpreting Dorset Art

Among the Dorset artifacts recovered from the Thule house ruins were several dozen carvings in ivory, antler and wood, forming one of the largest known collections of Dorset artwork. All of the carvings are small, as is characteristic of Dorset sculpture, and most portray either humans or animals. Several arctic species are represented. There are single carvings of a musk-ox, a caribou, a seal, a fox, a falcon and a sculpin (a small fish) and over a dozen of the polar bear. Some of the bear carvings are realistic, others stylized. The latter include a flat outline of a swimming or floating bear with forelegs stretched backwards and rear legs joined at the ends as well as several small spatula-like objects whose “bear-ness” is marked only by skeleton-like designs engraved on the back. This design, which has been called an "X-ray" motif, is found on many Dorset carvings, but primarily on bears (click here to see some examples). It is thought to represent the reduction of an animal to its ultimate physical form-the skeleton.

There has been much discussion on the uses to which the carvings of animals were put. Many have holes placed so that they could be worn as pendants, which suggests they were amulets used to bring luck in hunting, or to ward off illness, bad weather and evil spirits. Some may have been connected with the shamanistic religion practised by most northern aboriginal peoples. In the world of such groups, the shaman is the link between supernatural beings and the people. These objects perhaps represented the spirit-helper of the shaman, who provided him with the power to converse with other spirits, cure illness, change the weather, and perform other magical feats. The bear, the most powerful adversary to man m the arctic environment, was probably the most effective spirit-helper; this may account for the large number of bear carvings.

Other objects in the collection may also have been used by Dorset shamans. One of these is a small hollow tube of bone engraved with skeleton designs that probably represent two bears, the open mouths of the animals joining to form a V-shape at one end. This artifact is very similar to the "soul-catchers" the Northwest Coast Indian shamans used to suck illness from the bodies of their patients. Miniature harpoon heads, also found in the collection, could have been the shaman's proof that he had sucked a magical weapon, the cause of a magically induced illness, from a patient. A finely decorated ivory tube with a carving of a walrus on either edge, the tusks meeting at the top, and a human face incised on either side, may have been a storage case for the magical tools and weapons.

A magical purpose has been suggested for some of the representations of human beings found at Brooman Point. These include a tiny ivory mask of a human face, several small sticks of wood with a human face carved on one end, and most impressively, three wands of caribou antler with several faces carved on their surface. The largest of these contains sixty faces of human or human-like creatures, each showing individual characteristics (click here to see an example). This may simply be an artistic caricature of the entire population of the local camp; it may also represent the Dorset spirits. The object fits comfortably into the hand in only one position and is well worn where fingers would have held it, implying that the function is somewhat less frivolous than mere caricature.

Besides giving us a glimpse of the spiritual world of this extinct population, the art objects from Brooman Point may also tell us something of the conditions under which these people lived. Although carvings are found throughout the Dorset period, they are found in much larger numbers at late Dorset sites dating to roughly the same period as the site at Brooman Point. Even for this period, the Brooman Point collection is distinguished by the large proportion of carvings to more utilitarian artifacts. This suggests an increase in the religious activities with which the carvings were associated, perhaps in response to stresses which the Dorset population were undergoing at the time.

What could these stresses have been? Dorset artifacts tell us that these people were restricted to hunting sea mammals from the sea ice. During a warming period sometime before A.D. 1000 the extent and seasonal duration of sea ice may have been significantly reduced by warm summer temperatures, making traditional hunting patterns less efficient and life more precarious. The same ice conditions may have attracted the Thule eastwards from Alaska, bringing the Dorset people into contact with groups of efficient and well-armed hunters who encroached on their territory and took over the best hunting sites. Inuit legend, which tells of a people called the Tunit whom their ancestors drove from the arctic regions, suggests that such events did occur. Possibly the Thule invaders, who came from a densely populated area and were in contact with Indians to the south, may have introduced epidemic diseases to which the isolated Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos had no immunity.

Handling these tiny, delicate carvings, one cannot help but admire the artistic sensitivity of an isolated arctic population, living under harsh conditions, which expended such talent and effort in reconstructing elements of their environment in such pleasing miniatures (click here to see an example). Yet we suspect they were probably inspired by a motive other than purely aesthetic pleasure. More probably the carvings from Brooman Point are a manifestation of a desperate community attempting to protect itself against the sudden threat of starvation, disease, or the invasion of powerful strangers.

Suggested Reading

Dumond, Don E. The Eskimos and Aleuts. London, Thames and Hudson, 1987.

McGhee, Robert. Canadian Arctic Prehistory. Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, 1990.

McGhee, R. Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver, UBC Press, 1996.

Swinton, George. Sculpture of the Eskimo. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1972.

Taylor, William E., Jr. and George Swinton. "The Silent Echoes: Prehistoric Canadian Eskimo Art." The Beaver (fall 1967): pp.4.