Tree-Ring Dating of Inuit Sites in Labrador

Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract: Kaplan, Bowdoin OPP-0010982 A team of social science and natural science researchers plans to apply the techniques of tree-ring analysis to the dating of wood samples recovered from Inuit sod houses in archaeological sites in coastal Labrador, Canada. The dates derived from structural components of sod houses will help archaeologists more accurately determine when sites were occupied and certain house forms were in use. There is a pressing need to date precisely Labrador Inuit sod houses and middens in order to develop more robust theories concerning the factors that resulted in major and repeated subsistence and settlement changes in the last 700 years of Labrador Inuit history. Tree-ring dating offers archaeologists in Labrador a unique opportunity to map the culture history with more precision and to develop and test theories about the conjunction of culture, history, and environment.