Overview
- A 2019 survey of the Kitsissut (Carey) Islands documented 297 features, including Paleo-Inuit tent rings and hearths, indicating repeated visits.
- Radiocarbon dating of a thick-billed murre bone from a tent ring places human presence at roughly 4,400–3,938 years ago, soon after the Pikialasorsuaq polynya formed around 4,500 years ago.
- Reaching the islands required open-water crossings of about 50–53 kilometers across the polynya, among the longest sea journeys inferred in the Arctic for this period.
- Researchers infer the use of larger skin-on-frame watercraft capable of carrying families, though no boat remains were found and such interpretations rely on site patterns and analogy.
- Findings by Matthew Walls and colleagues from the University of Calgary and Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland appear in Antiquity, outlining early seafaring lifeways and their ecological consequences.