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Study Finds Early Paleo-Inuit Sailed 50-Plus Kilometers to Remote High Arctic Islands

The Antiquity research ties repeated camps at Kitsissut to maritime lifeways that helped shape the Pikialasorsuaq ecosystem.

Overview

  • - An archaeological survey recorded 297 features, including bilobate tent rings and hearths, across multiple islands in the Kitsissut cluster.
  • - A radiocarbon-dated thick-billed murre bone places human presence on the islands roughly 4,400 to 3,938 years ago, soon after the polynya formed.
  • - Reaching the sites required an open-water crossing of about 50–53 kilometers through hazardous winds and currents in Baffin Bay.
  • - No boat remains were recovered, yet researchers infer larger skin-on-frame watercraft capable of carrying families and supplies, rather than single-person kayaks.
  • - The findings shift interpretations from primarily land-based subsistence to integrated marine lifeways and bolster arguments for Indigenous stewardship in Arctic conservation planning.