Qijurittug facts for kids

The Qijurittuq archaeological site (IbGk-3) is an ancient place where people lived a long time ago. It's on Drayton Island in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. This island is on the eastern side of Hudson Bay.

At Qijurittuq, archaeologists found old buildings and tools. These items belonged to the Thule and Inuit people. They lived here about 700 to 800 years ago.

Scientists studied how these people found wood for building. They also looked at how they set up their homes. A big question was why they kept using semi-subterranean houses. These were homes built partly underground. People in other areas had stopped using them much earlier. Researchers also checked how climate change affected the Inuit. They also looked at how meeting Euro-Canadians changed their way of life.

Discovering the Past at Qijurittuq

Research at the Qijurittuq site started in 2007. It was part of a bigger study. This study looked at how climate change affected the Thule and Inuit people. It also included the Paleo-Eskimos who lived near Hudson Bay. This research was part of a huge worldwide project called International Polar Year.

The part of this project in Nunavik focused on Thule and Inuit archaeology. They wanted to see how climate change affected these cultures. The Qijurittuq site helped them study changes in semi-subterranean dwellings. They wanted to know if these changes were due to climate, new tools, or how people found resources.

Exploring the Qijurittuq Site

The Qijurittuq site (IbGk-3) research focused on four main things. First, they studied old environments, especially during the Little Ice Age. Second, they gathered archaeological information from Qijurittuq and other nearby sites. Third, they learned from local people and their traditional knowledge. Fourth, they looked at historical records. This helped them understand why semi-subterranean homes were left behind in the Eastern Arctic.

The Qijurittuq site is on Drayton Island. This island is part of the Hopewell archipelago in Nunavik. It's along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Northern Quebec. The site is in a valley. This valley protects it from strong winds in fall and early winter.

The land here has permafrost, which is ground that is always frozen. Strong winds blow in fall and winter. The area is a shrub tundra with willow and birch trees. There are also other plants, mosses, and lichens. The islands have Cuesta formations. These are made of sandstone, quartzite, and dolomite. They have steep cliffs on one side and gentle slopes towards the sea. Siltstone is common here. The first Paleo-Eskimos used it to make tools.

The site has nineteen structures. Thirteen of these are semi-subterranean houses. This suggests people lived there in the fall and winter. Other structures show spring and summer use. This was typical for the Late Paleo-Eskimo time.

Paleo-Eskimo structures were often tents. They were built with driftwood poles and covered with animal skins. Rocks held the skins down. Stones inside created a path that divided the living areas.

Three other sites were close to Qijurittuq. Site IbGk-7 was likely used in spring and summer. It had tent rings, food caches, fox traps, and graves. IbGk-7 was near the water, down in the valley. Sites IbGk-8 and IbGk-38 were on top of the hill. They overlooked the valley and were open to winds from all directions.

Working with Local Communities

Local high school students from Inukjuak helped with the digs. These students learned basic archaeology skills. They practiced collecting artifacts and recording data. They also learned about excavation and dendrochronology. This is how scientists date wood using tree rings. They also learned about geomorphology, which is the study of landforms.

Elders from the community shared their stories. They talked about traditional life in the area. When they visited the site, the elders were surprised. They saw how much wood their ancestors used to build houses. Traditional storytelling about life long ago also helped the research. Elders shared memories from their own childhoods.

Findings and Ongoing Studies

The Qijurittuq site was home to Paleo-Eskimo and Thule/Inuit people. They lived in semi-subterranean houses. Archaeologists found many items there. They collected 29,085 lithic tools and pieces of stone. They also found 2,577 animal bones and teeth. There were 14 objects made from worked bones and ivory. Researchers also collected 215 charcoal samples and 100 wood samples. They found 38 mineral and organic sediment samples. Six metal pieces were also found, including a barbed point and two nails or rivets.

Scientists also took samples from 17 lithic raw material sources. They sampled 3 quarry sites. Peat samples helped them understand the plants and climate history of the region. Some plant species declined when the Little Ice Age began. This period was cooler and drier.

Ancestral knowledge was very important for the research. Local elders visited the site. They described memories of past weather patterns. They also shared family stories about houses and stone tools. They remembered homes with entryways for drying clothes. They also recalled elevated beds. People used mattresses made from branches, grass, cloth, and caribou skin.

The elders said that summers are now warmer and start earlier. But the weather is much less predictable than in the past. They also see types of insects and animals they had not seen before. Much colder conditions in the past may have ended the Little Ice Age around 1850 A.D. Wood is rare in the tundra region. So, the elders were very curious about how so much wood got to the Qijurittuq site. This wood was used to build these semi-subterranean homes. Studying the houses showed they were similar to typical homes across the Arctic.

Some elders thought the wood was driftwood. Others believed it came from the tree line. This tree line was 100 meters inland near the Boniface River. Scientists used radiocarbon dating on wood samples from the houses. They found that the wood came from two different tree species. One sample showed a possible link to trees from the Boniface River area. This suggests that wood for the roofs came from there. Driftwood also collected over about 400 years. The conditions were not good for preserving the logs. Research showed that these homes were not used again after 200 years.

Why Homes Were Left Behind

The most common type of building in the Canadian Arctic is the semi-subterranean dwelling. Studies of three Thule/Inuit structures and middens (trash heaps) showed something interesting. Almost all of them were linked to earlier Paleo-Eskimo people. By studying the layers of earth and the ancient environment, scientists learned something. The Thule/Inuit people used these empty homes hundreds of years after the Paleo-Eskimo people left them. A lot of effort went into building Structure 1. This made researchers believe the Thule/Inuit planned to live there for a long time.

Homes in the Central and High Arctic were usually made of Bowhead whale bone. But during the Thule migration, wood was more common. This allowed them to build semi-subterranean houses with wood. Research suggests that the Qijurittuq houses were among the last ones built in Nunavik.

Some experts believe people started leaving semi-subterranean homes at the start of the Little Ice Age. This was before the 16th Century. In Labrador, these homes were used until the late 17th Century. Then, shared sod houses became common. These sod houses were different sizes and shapes. They were built when there wasn't much snow. This might have been because of warmer weather. However, no sod houses have been found in the Nunavik area of Hudson Bay. Semi-subterranean homes were used there until the 19th Century.

Around this time, people also started meeting fur trappers from Europe. Trading posts were set up, and long-distance trading began. This meant people needed to move more often to trap animals. They needed homes that were less permanent. So, they didn't put as much effort into building long-term homes.