Although the North American Arctic is blessed with high levels of site visibility and often excellent organic preservation, many aspects of its archaeology remain poorly understood. This is particularly true for the Early Paleo-Inuit (or Palaeoeskimo/Arctic Small Tool tradition) period, consisting of archaeological entities labelled Denbigh Flint Complex (Alaska), Pre-Dorset (most of Arctic Canada), Independence I (High Arctic) and Saqqaq (West and East Greenland). These were the earliest pioneering societies who migrated from Alaska to the Eastern Arctic around 3000 cal BC, subsequently peopling most of this vast region. In this book, Bjarne Grønnow single-handedly revolutionises our understanding of the range of material culture in this period, and in the process provides a wealth of insight into the broader picture of Early Paleo-Inuit lifeways.
The study is centred on the analysis of artefacts and architectural data from the Saqqaq sites of Qajaa and Qeqertasussuk in Disko Bay on Greenland's west coast. Qajaa is a very large, deep site that probably served as a regional aggregation location; Qeqertasussuk is a smaller, multi-seasonal settlement. The total occupation span for these two sites is about 2400–900 cal BC, although most of the book is based on artefacts recovered from the intensively occupied early components from Qeqertasussuk that date to around 2350–1750 cal BC. Due to the rapid accumulation of sediments, combined with the preservation afforded by permafrost, these two sites contain an amazingly diverse array of organic and lithic artefacts that represents almost the entire Saqqaq material culture inventory. Qeqertasussuk also contained a well-preserved and rapidly buried dwelling, as well as other features. It must be emphasised, however, that the importance of this study does not derive simply from the quantity of artefacts; rather, its value results mainly from the high quality of the careful and extensive fieldwork, combined with intensive and insightful analysis and interpretation.
While the technological inventory is far too diverse to summarise here, it is worth pointing out that there are few unique artefacts; rather, there are multiple examples of almost every type or functional class, allowing Grønnow to discuss variability and, in some cases, to propose sub-categories within each class. For example, Qeqertasussuk yielded no fewer than 57 complete or partial harpoon heads, allowing the definition of four types based on tang or socket form, presence and location of barbs, and other features. Manufacturing waste of all categories is also discussed, allowing detailed description of technological processes. Artefacts are discussed in terms of functional groupings derived mainly from analogy with the Inuit ethnographic record. These include some classes never before confirmed for Early Paleo-Inuit; most remarkably, several ribs from a kayak-like vessel, as well as paddle fragments, confirm the existence of watercraft. While the use of this form of analogy comes with some risks due to the lack of a close genetic or cultural relationship between Paleo-Inuit and Inuit, most Arctic archaeologists will be comfortable with the usage here as the source (Inuit ethnography) and subject (Saqqaq) artefacts are so similar in form, and as Grønnow is careful to cast the net wide, basing his comparisons on the full North American Arctic from Alaska to Greenland. Some aspects, such as the interpretation of spatial patterning within the Saqqaq dwelling, owe less to analogy and more to high-resolution pattern recognition and interpretation.
The monograph is also noteworthy for its synthesis of where Saqqaq fits within the rest of the Early Paleo-Inuit world, with three important themes emerging. First, it confirms that Saqqaq is part of a cultural continuum with its Pre-Dorset and Independence I neighbours; most of the much more fragmentary and scattered material culture from elsewhere in the Arctic at this time shows close similarities to the Saqqaq artefact inventory. Second, Saqqaq, and by extension its neighbouring traditions, are quite conservative, with low levels of variability over time and space; differences that do exist probably result mainly from the different resource distributions in each region. Third, Grønnow makes the case that Early Paleo-Inuit technology is extremely complex, finely made and functionally specific—in many ways comparable to later Inuit technologies. This is perhaps the most important point, as it has clear implications for our understanding of the prerequisites for successful human colonisation of the North.
Alas, similar sites that could enable detailed interregional comparisons may not exist elsewhere during the Early Paleo-Inuit period. For example, in areas of the Canadian Arctic with similarly rich resource bases, rapid isostatic rebound in the middle Holocene ensured that few sites were occupied for long enough to develop the deep middens that are required for the consistent preservation of organic materials. In other areas, including large parts of Alaska and Labrador, soil chemistry and other factors led to conditions that rarely allowed organic preservation. Thus, it is conceivable that Qeqertasussuk and Qajaa will never be matched elsewhere.
To sum up, publication of this monograph is an important event in the archaeology of the North American Arctic. It provides by far the most detailed description of Early Paleo-Inuit technology ever produced, and the high quality of the research and writing are matched by generally excellent photographs, graphics and production quality. Its importance is further expanded when it is paired with Morten Meldgaard's (Reference Meldgaard2004) similarly detailed study interpreting the extensive faunal samples from Qeqertasussuk. It rewrites the story not just for Saqqaq, but for other Early Paleo-Inuit societies as well, all of which must have had a technological base very similar to the one described here. Perhaps its most important lesson is one that should have been obvious all along: people cannot live in the Arctic without a complex and specialised technological repertoire.
