The Norse that settled Greenland between ca. AD 985 and 1450 were sedentary agropastoralists that combined farming with hunting and organized after a North Atlantic socioeconomic model. Research of the last 40 years has emphasized the great and increasing importance of marine resources for both the Greenland Norse local subsistence economy and long-distance trade. However, the archaeological sites and features associated with the marine economy have not been systematically investigated. This study reviews documentary records and archaeological site evidence of medieval Norse marine-resource use in Greenland on local to regional scales. Contextualizing this evidence within a locally adjusted, Arctic version of a general North Atlantic settlement and land-use model, and applying a formalized interpretational framework, the study implies the existence of at least four types of seasonally occupied, specialized satellite sites related to marine-resource use—sites that tentatively may be labeled “marine shielings.” Marine shielings likely served to improve the expediency and safety of Norse marine-resource use on both Greenland’s west and east coasts, where marine hunting appears to have been a frequent, specialized, and cooperative activity.

The site of Iita (Etah) could, in many ways, serve as a poster child for climate-change-driven destruction of arctic coastal sites. Sitting on an alluvial fan at the base of a steep-sloped kame deposit on the north shore of Foulke Fjord in northwestern Greenland, the site has rich historical and late prehistoric occupations visible on its surface. However, more uniquely for the high Arctic, 1,000 years of continuous human use are locked in stratigraphically sequenced buried soils, starting with the Late Dorset, followed by the Thule-Inughuit, and topped by debris from Euroamerican expeditions. It is clear that the draw of this particular location for all these groups, directly or directly, is the results of a large, nearby dovekie colony. Unfortunately, active erosion is now undercutting these deposits, which are falling into the fjord. Based on historical photos, this destruction has accelerated since the 1940s. Here, we detail the formation of the site’s unique stratified deposits, the artifacts recovered from excavations in 2012 and 2016, and an evaluation of the remaining deposits at the site.

The red fox (<i>Vulpes vulpes</i>) is a generalist, omnivorous predator that is often drawn to human environments, exploiting anthropogenic refuse. Foxes may have had little or significant economic importance for prehistoric human foragers, depending on the environmental, economic, and cultural context. Here we investigate human-fox interaction at the Late Holocene Uyak site (KOD-145) on Kodiak Island, Alaska. We apply zooarchaeological, taphonomic, and stable isotope analyses to the fox remains and find that complete animals were processed for meat and pelts and then discarded. Stable isotope results support foxes as omnivores eating in both the terrestrial and marine environments, and a comparison of archaeological and modern foxes show more dietary variability in ancient foxes. Together, these data suggest that the Uyak foxes were drawn to the village as a stable source of food subsidies, eating discarded marine and terrestrial resources, and consequently were embedded in human subsistence as sources of meat and raw materials.

The long-contested question of the Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore has been illuminated by excavations at five 17th–18th-century sod-house villages. Few organic artifacts survive, and the preserved material culture is almost entirely of European artifacts or materials refashioned into Inuit forms. Faunal assemblages indicate winter occupations. Hare Harbor represents a departure from other settlements in having been an Inuit-Basque/French “joint venture.” Lower North Shore Inuit appear to have had a more positive relationship with Europeans than Labrador Inuit, but their presence was vigorously contested by Innu whose coastal lands they appropriated. Questions about year-round occupancy remain because few summer sites have been found. Was the Lower North Shore Inuit occupation a wave migration followed by long-term settlement and withdrawal a century later, or a series of episodic migrations followed by periodic or even seasonal withdrawal? Historical records document intermittent Innu hostilities ending with Inuit withdrawal by AD 1750. In the mid-19th century, Inuit returned, and today their genetic and cultural heritage is an important feature of Lower North Shore life.

The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which this paper disputes. The high frequency of sea-mammal hunting implements and identified faunal remains, as well as the site’s location, all suggest that coastal and marine resources figured prominently in the Dorset’s food economy at Stock Cove. Faunal remains further suggest that the biogeography of the region when the Dorset were living at the site, particularly the distribution of migratory harp seals, may have differed significantly from historical distributions. The recovery of harp seal remains on the site has broad implications for understanding Dorset colonization and abandonment of the island, as well as the appropriateness of using historical biogeographic data to interpret prehistoric economies.

This article examines precontact Yup’ik masks, maskettes, and mask fragments recently recovered from the Nunalleq site (16th–17th century AD) near the village of Quinhagak, Alaska. Remarkable in their number, size, and variety of designs, the Nunalleq masks, which represent spirits, humans, and animals, indicate a very active ceremonial life among the residents of Nunalleq settlement. This paper combines archaeological, ethnographic, and oral history accounts to demonstrate the existence of a rich mask-carving tradition in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta flourishing at least two centuries prior to European contact. The iconography of Nunalleq masks shows interesting regional connections as well as strong continuity between the pre- and postcontact Yup’ik mask making. Mask-making traditions are conservative, but far from frozen, and some fluidity can be observed within the Nunalleq mask assemblage over the course of ca. 150 years of the site’s occupation.

In this paper, we present an overview of the most recent results of the ongoing research on the Nunalleq site in Southwestern Alaska, a late pre-contact Yupik settlement. This endeavor is a long-term project that has taken place in the context of the threat that the combined effects of climate change poses to archaeological heritage in the sub-Arctic. Recent climate-change research highlights local involvement and monitoring as the way forward, and here we see the clear intersection with community-based archaeology. From its initiation by the descendant Yup'ik village of Quinhagak, the Nunalleq Project has been conducted as a community-based project, and the local engagement with archaeology has continued to increase. We identify community archaeology as crucial to the future of Alaska archaeology, and the only feasible way to monitor and preserve archaeological resources now threatened by climate change.

Agrarian activity clearly intensified in northern Finland from the 14th century onwards. This climatically marginal area was one of the northernmost locations for farming during the studied period. This study contributes to understanding the development and local adaptions in agriculture in the Late Medieval and Early Modern (ca. 1400–1700 AD) period northern Finland through zooarchaeological and stable isotope data. We analyze the faunal assemblages and stable isotope composition (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) of domestic ungulate bones from four archaeological sites representing urban and agrarian settlements. The results show that animal husbandry concentrated on cattle husbandry and secondary products. Local natural resources were utilized in varying ways to support domestic animals. Animal management was integrated into a mixed subsistence pattern of hunting, fishing, livestock husbandry, and crop cultivation. Animal-management practices were well adapted to the local natural resources and climatic conditions and had a relatively low impact on the landscape.

"Dressed up with needles," as they say in Nenets, means praising someone for their impeccable appearance, elegance, and beauty. Nenets women sew clothes for their husbands, children, and themselves. They also sew covers for their tents, bags for storing and packing, the covers for baby cradles, and the last clothes worn by the deceased before burial. Dedicated and loving, a Nenets woman works tirelessly to produce warm, functional, comfortable, and beautiful clothes and footwear for her family, relatives, and community. This article is concerned with the traditional knowledge of Nenets women in the field of sewing, and it also addresses the transfer of such knowledge to younger generations. Specifically, the process of manufacturing fur garments, their different types, and main stages of production are analyzed. The analytical approach of this study is structured within an interdisciplinary methodology.

<i>Rangifer tarandus</i> is one of the most important animals for indigenous groups living in the Arctic. This significance is particularly the case in the Iamal Peninsula of the Russian Federation. The Iamal Peninsula has produced a substantial archaeological record of human engagement with reindeer during the Late Holocene period. The archaeological site known as Iarte VI, a multihousepit settlement on the open tundra of the peninsula, has produced the region’s largest and most well-dated reindeer-bone assemblage. This study provides a chronological assessment of Iarte VI based on numerous radiocarbon and dendrochronology dates, an analysis of the site’s large faunal assemblage, and comparison of these remains with those from all other sampled sites on the peninsula. Iarte VI appears to have been a warm-season settlement where reindeer were intensively utilized during the 11th century AD. Other regional sites had broader subsistence practices, but reindeer are nonetheless consistently present.