<h3>Abstract</h3> Three 600‐year‐old hooded gut‐skin parkas were excavated in 1947 at the settlement Nuulliit, situated in the North Water polynya between Ellesmere Island and Avanersuaq in northern Greenland. The parkas, radiocarbon dated to the 14th century AD, belong to the Thule Period Inuit, who migrated from the Bering Strait region through Arctic North America into northern Greenland after 1250 AD. This study compares the Nuulliit parkas with gut‐skin parkas collected from 1846–1945 among resident Inuit in Alaska and eastern Greenland. Further, a comparison is conducted with female and male fur‐skin parkas from Inuit in the Bering Strait region and Alaska. The analyses of the parkas’ cutting, sewing techniques, and material consumption show that the characteristic cut with double hood roots (inserted in the mid‐shoulders or directly connected to the hood), sleeve gussets, and vertical orientation of gut‐skin panels were used for at least 550 years among the Inuit.

<h3>Abstract</h3> The western Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands are home to Unangax̂ (Aleut), a suite of marine species, and a few terrestrial species, several of which have been introduced. As complex hunter-gatherers, the human relationship to the environment and its other inhabitants is intimate, essential for human survival, and has evolved over many centuries. The people have shaped this landscape and waters such that it is also mutually constructed. Archaeologists have made this claim as an ancient and historical phenomenon. This article documents more recent demonstrations of a constructed island chain environment, from the introduced land mammals to the subtle engineering of plant, shellfish, and fish species for abundance and variety, and it contributes to disciplinary discussions of forager models. These interactions are the result of deliberate choices to sustain communities of Indigenous Unangax̂ in volatile environmental and socioeconomic places.

<h3>Abstract</h3> This article explores the history of two ethnological collections from the Russian Far East at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Smithsonian Institution, as a part of an ongoing multistep assessment process. Both collections, currently known under the names of their respective donors/collectors, Stanisław Poniatowski and Vladimir Arseniev, were shipped to the then‐U.S. National Museum in Washington in 1918, following the 1914 field trip by Dr. Stanisław Poniatowski to the Amur River area. Poniatowski’s fieldwork was cut short by World War I; only a portion of his collections arrived in Washington, with the rest taken to Warsaw. The two Smithsonian collections are very close to each other, particularly when compared to acquisitions from the Amur River area at other museums. The NMNH collections constitute a fraction of 500+ photographic, ethnographic, and documentary materials related to Poniatowski’s trip of 1914, with the rest now held at the Polish Ethnological Society in Wroclaw, Poland, and, perhaps, in Khabarovsk, Russia. This dispersed legacy may be “reunited” via today’s digital means, which is to pave the way for the next phase, namely, to engage Indigenous and local cultural experts from the Amur River region in knowledge coproduction and to make the collections accessible to the home communities surveyed by Poniatowski 110 years ago. Regretfully, prospects for such an effort remain distant in 2024 as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues.

<h3>Abstract</h3> As global fish populations face threats from climatic change and human exploitation, the value of Indigenous knowledge and technology for guiding restoration and conservation efforts is gaining increasing recognition. Indigenous fishers on the Northwest Coast of North America traditionally employed sophisticated harvesting practices developed through long-term relationships with marine ecosystems, which promoted sustained harvests. Here we examine traditional Pacific halibut (<i>Hippoglossus stenolepis</i>) hook technology which has been shown to reduce bycatch of nontarget species and is often described as highly size-selective. We investigate this technology using ethnographic information, analysis of fishing equipment curated in museums, and measurements of modern halibut. We identify regional variation and overlap in hook styles, expand previously established hook typologies, and observe the greatest number of hooks and the most stylistic diversity originating from Haida Gwaii, a location where available zooarchaeological data indicates high halibut abundance. We demonstrate that two measurements (hook lip-gap and barb-area size) disproportionately influence the maximum and minimum body size. Based on hook and modern fish measurements, we estimate the sample of hooks targeted fish between 53 and 145 cm in length, indicating a broad but flexible size-selectivity that has presentday relevance for fisheries conservation, including nonmortality slot-limit fishing.

This issue marks my first as the editor of Arctic Anthropology , taking up the mantle from Chris Darwent, who served as editor and steward of the journal for the past ten years. Chris’s service to the journal stands out for her commitment to encouraging and promoting the high-quality research for

<h3>Abstract</h3> This article explores infant feeding customs among the population of Iin Hamina, Ostrobothnia. The carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) stable isotope ratios are measured in the collagen of dentin segments of permanent first molars (M1) of individuals (n = 6) excavated from a local, discontinued churchyard dating from late medieval times to early modernity. A little later, in the mid-18th century, high infant mortality in regions such as the province of Ostrobothnia (currently part of Finland) would alarm Swedish officials. The assumption was that local, common women refused to breastfeed even the smallest babies. While the churchyard in Iin Hamina had not been used for over a century at this time, we hypothesize that breastfeeding practices were based on traditions that were slow to change. Nevertheless, the results show variation in the length of breastfeeding periods even within this very limited sample, but they do not generally imply the disregarding of breastfeeding of infants.

How archaeologists classify and categorise artefacts has the potential to direct and bias interpretations before analysis has taken place. A clear example of this phenomenon in Arctic archaeology is the analysis of material culture classified as “art” attributed to premodern Tuniit peoples (Late Dorset Paleo-Inuit, ca. AD 800 - 1300). Often, analyses of Tuniit art pieces are restricted by the use of customary typologies that can impose modern assumptions of how Tuniit groups would have perceived their material culture. In this study, we address this problem by focusing not on the meaning embodied in the finished objects, but on the identification of decision-making patterns of the object carvers and users, as reflected through microscopic traces of manufacture and use. We argue that through such trace-focused observation, certain newly-observed patterns may suggest greater diversity in decision-making processes (with regard to manufacture and use) than would be suggested by traditional typological grouping alone. This work has wide-ranging implications for how Arctic archaeologists approach artefact classification and typological organisation.

International audience

<h3>Abstract</h3> Recent excavations in northern Greenland at the early Inuit site, Nuulliit, belonging to the Ruin Island Phase of the Thule culture, included a settlement area in front of House 30, a turf house ruin originally investigated by Holtved in 1947. A discussion of the interpretation of the feature as a <i>qassi</i> (a men’s house) is presented, and analyses of the spatial distributions of waste, tools, and preforms show that the area in front of the <i>qassi</i> served mainly as a workshop, where repair, recycling, and discard of hunting gear and tools took place. Walrus ivory tools, soapstone vessels, and blades of meteoric iron were produced. Training apprentices was an integral part of the activities, and small seals and birds were consumed in the workshop area. The workshop mainly dates to the 14th century AD. Norse iron was found, and a reevaluation of radiocarbon dates leads to a discussion of the early Inuit expansion into Greenland.

<h3>Abstract</h3> Artifact and settlement data suggest that precolonial subsistence strategies in northwestern Alaska went through an economic transition with increased importance placed on local fish and small game between AD 1400 and AD 1500. From a North American Arctic perspective, this process has been defined as “regionalization.” Here, we present results from a zooarchaeological analysis of over 31,700 faunal remains from the Shaktoolik Airport Site (NOB-072), a large multicomponent precolonial village site adjacent to the Native Village of Shaktoolik in Norton Sound, Alaska. Faunal specimens were derived from 1/4-inch (6.35-mm) screened and bulk sediment samples taken from midden deposits generated during two distinct archaeological or cultural phases from AD 1280 to the mid-1800s: 1) Nukleet, a regional variant of the Western Thule culture, and 2) three chronological periods associated with precolonial Yup’ik occupations. Comparison among archaeological deposits indicates that faunal assemblage composition varies spatially across the site and likely represents discrete seasonal activity areas. Faunal remains from bulk sediment samples also highlight the importance of small forage fish and shellfish, further emphasizing the need for sampling sites using fine-mesh screening. Based on our analysis, precolonial Yup’ik subsistence strategies diversified around AD 1500, coinciding with a broader regionalization trend. This shift may have been in response to the onset of the Little Ice Age (AD 1500–1850), but it could also have been in response to demographic pressure from increased regional populations.