Continuity and Change in Indigenous Copper Technologies of the Arctic and Central Subarctic

Matthew David Pike, Purdue University

Abstract

Native copper deposits in the Central Canadian Arctic have been a valuable natural resource to the diverse groups of people who have inhabited the Central Canadian Arctic and Subarctic. As early as 3200 BCE, the earliest occupants of the Central Arctic - groups associated with the Arctic Small Tool (pre-Dorset) tradition - first reach and make use of these geologic sources. By ~CE 500, Late Dorset descendants of these pioneering populations have established long-distance trade networks in exotic materials, including copper, and have expanded to the West from the Foxe Basin to inhabit Central Arctic copper source regions. Subarctic Taltheilei groups, the ancestors to modern northern Dené people expand east of the Mackenzie river by 500 BCE, sporadically exploiting sources until ~CE 1000 when the increasing presence and distribution of copper helps define the Athabaskan Taltheilei tradition. By ~1250 CE, Thule migrants from metal using polities in the Bering Sea region quickly sweep across the Arctic and distribute Central Arctic copper its furthest extent - from the Mackenzie Delta, to the Barrenlands, and to Greenland – and create the most diverse copper toolkit yet. And by CE 1500, encroaching colonial expansion began to alter, but did not destroy, the technological traditions of modern Inuit and Dené people. Over all this time, and with so many different groups, technological practices vary along regional, cultural, and temporal axes. To identify patterns in this variation, a large dataset of copper artifacts was assembled and categorized along these axes of variation using a newly developed copper typology incorporating the entire dataset. These were screened for smelted metals and alloys using pXRF compositional analysis. Distance of copper artifacts from geologic sources was modeled using Path Distance modeling as a proxy for the cost to acquire copper. Statistical Diversity measures were applied to regional assemblages to discern patterns of structural variation in technological specialization and cost-based technological decision-making when compared with Path Distance measures. Significantly unexpected variation in assemblage composition was identified using Chi-square tests of independence. Together, these analyses identify multiple significant patterns of technological specialization, innovation, and adaptation along all axes of variation, often influenced by global climatic and colonial pressures.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Cooper, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Geology|Archaeology|Cultural Resources Management|Hydrologic sciences|Indigenous studies|Management|Materials science|Medieval history|Native American studies|Recreation

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