Using bone technology and ZooMS to understand indigenous use of marine mammals at Iita, northwest Greenland

The site of Iita in northwestern Greenland had near-continual occupation
from 1000 CE to the mid-20th century, which presents an unparalleled
opportunity to examine diachronic changes in the use of marine mammals for
food and raw material resources by Pre-Inuit (Late Dorset) and
Inuit-Inughuit—two culturally distinct Indigenous groups. Limited wood in
High Arctic environments necessitated the use of antler, bone, and ivory
for tool making. Choices in the selection and processing of osseous
material reflect changes in the way these two groups used the same
resources. However, modification of osseous material during the
tool-making process is often to such an extent that few diagnostic
features remain for species identification. Here, we include
Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify typically
indeterminate pieces of manufacturing debris from preserved collagen. The
minimally destructive extraction technique using polishing films had a 99%
success rate. The results suggest that the selection of raw materials from
certain marine mammals, particularly narwhal, by toolmakers at Iita was
more frequent than previously understood through traditional faunal
analysis alone. There is a paucity of narwhal from the Pre-Inuit (Late
Dorset) assemblage, which contrasts starkly with the high frequency of
narwhal in the Inuit-Inughuit assemblage. We demonstrate the importance of
combining the analysis of bone-tool manufacturing debris with traditional
dietary faunal remains to improve our understanding of resource use in
coastal environments.