THE THULE ESKIMOS IN THE DISTRECT OF NARSAQ

The Thule culture is the latest of the three Eskimo cultures in the history of South Greenland. Its people migrated to Greenland from Alaska and Canada around the year 1200, spreading to most parts of North Greenland, West Greenland and North East Greenland in the course of the following 200-300 years. Those ancient Thule Eskimos are the ancestors of today’s Greenlanders.

NEO-ESKIMOS: THE THULE CULTURE

The Thule people lived by the (ice-covered) sea and the whole culture is therefore based on this way of life.

Their most important quarry were sea-mammals: Seals, walruses and whales, parti­cularly the enormous Bowhead whale (70-100 tons) – but also reindeer, musk ox, birds and fish were hunted.

They hunted on the ice or from kayak and umiak (“wife’s boat”), and their dog sledges provided good means of transportation.

Their tools were large and powerful compared to those of the earlier Eskimo cultures, a fact based on their quarry being so large animals. They thus developed the strong, multi-jointed harpoon that was even more suited to hunting at sea.

They formed their tools from stone, bone and tooth, like the earlier Eskimo peoples did, but utilized also new and other materials. Instead of flint stones they used flat slates, which indeed can be made very sharp, yet are quite fragile. Perhaps most important was the fact that they started utilizing iron, which they hammered out of fallen meteors (without heating it).

The houses of the Thule cul­ture were either round, rectangular or cloverleaf-shaped, with walls of stone and turf, and roofs of whalebones, drift­wood or flat stones. They have a narrow, deep-sunk passage leading to the inside room, the farthest wall of which is occupied by an elevated sleeping platform, on which the skin blankets were arranged. Smaller side platforms are attached to both ends of this bed. Here the large, crescent-shaped blubber lamp of the Thule people, used for heating, lighting and cooking, was placed.

NEO-ESKIMOS: THE INUGSUK CULTURE

By and large, the Thule culture in its pure form as described above has only been found in the Thule district.

As the Thule people are spreading southward along the West coast of Greenland – be it in order to follow their quarry or because they eventually had grown too many in the original area – their culture undergoes changes and developments, as they are adapting themselves to the conditions they meet with. This further developed branch of the Thule culture has therefore been given another name: the Inugsuk culture (named after the site in the Disko Bay district where it was first found).

Similar to the Thule culture, the Inugsuk culture is sea-oriented; subsisting on the hunting of marine animals, but adapted to the open water. Consequently, it is the Inugsuk people who refine the kayak to perfection and who adapt their hunting implements and clothing to kayak hunting.

Dressed in a waterproof skin anorak, the lower hem of which was fastened tightly around the kayak ring; sitting behind the kayak bridge, on which the wound-up hunting tow-line could be placed without becoming disarranged by the waves, the Inugsuk people were able to hunt from kayaks in fairly rough waters, and by that became less dependent on ice hunting. Consequently, they could manage to survive also in areas where the sea remained open all year round. They so advanced towards Greenland’s southern-most areas and from there continued to spread along the country’s East coast.

The houses of the Inugsuk culture are similar to those of the Thule culture: They are round or rounded, with deep-sunk entrance passages and a sleeping platform along the back wall; sometimes 2 or 3 houses share an entrance passage. A new and quite frequent feature is a small annexe to this passage used as kitchen, with a fire mostly of blubber and bones.

These hou­ses are in use during the winter season. In spring, people moved to the hunting grounds at the outer coast, where they lived in tents. Those were made of sealskins, the outermost of which was hairless and waterproof; the innermost with the furry side turned inwards. The tents’ skeletons were made of driftwood and consisted of an A-frame at the front side, to which there were attached long poles, resting on the ground with their farther ends. Thus, the ceiling of the tent grew low towards the farther end. A cur­tain stitched together of intesti­nes covered the en­trance, this material allo­wing some light to enter the tent. The edges of the tent were fast­ened to the ground with a number of flat stones. These stones can be recognised today as “tent rings”.

By the end of autumn, people moved back into their winter dwellings. On arrival, they firstly re-roofed their houses – after having removed the roofs in spring before leaving for the coastal camps. So the inside of the houses could be cleaned out by wind and weather during summer.

Close to the settlements the graves are to be found: heavy stone coffins covered with a heap of stones as to make it into a small mound.

The Inugsuk culture changes by degrees

In the period between 1300 and 1600, the Inugsuk people advanced towards the settlements of the Norsemen, namely the Western Settlement in the Nuuk district and the Eastern Settle­ment in the Narsaq/Qaqortoq/­Nanortalik area. Here they encountered a way of life foreign to them. The importance of this cultural encounter is still being discussed – cf. the following section.

In the 17th century they came in touch with European whalers hunting in the Davis Strait. They are bringing with them iron knives, glass beads, clay pipes and other objects of European origin.

It is during this period that the winter houses of the Inug­suk culture change from one-family houses into common houses (or longhouses) of a considerable size, where several family units can live under one roof. The nar­row entrance passage is now leading into a large room, the back wall and side walls of which are dominated by slee­ping platforms. These platforms are partitioned into family boxes by stripes of skin, and in front of each partition the fami­ly’s blubber lamp is placed on a stone platform. Suspended above it hangs the cooking vessel from the drying rack.

The reason for this change is still being discussed. Some are of the opinion that the large rectangular houses were built under the influence of Norse building style - later the whalers' ditto. Others are of the opinion that these houses were built because of easier access to driftwood. Still others consider the emergence of the common house to be the result of the chan­ge in climate toward lower temperatures, which has been established took place in Greenland in the 17th cen­tury. The shape of the houses is supposed to have changed according to the change in the pattern of hunting along the coastal areas as a conse­quence of the lower tempera­tures. The change in climate also caused a change in the social relationships and in the way the hunting bag was shared, and thus a change in the social grou­pings. At the same time it became necessary to repair the kayak indoors, an activi­ty for which the single hou­ses were too small. The change in climate to  lower temperatures is also given as a reason for hudd­ling closer together in order to keep warm.

The Greenlandic turf house, as it is known from the pre­sent and the previous cen­turies, is a further develop­ment of the common house. Through the years it grows smaller, the inside walls get covered with wood, and it is habitated by one family only, sometimes together with older relatives.

The heating and lighting methods also change: An iron oven is installed, and lamps with different kinds of fuel. The whole of the interior design changes in accordance with the changing of the Greenlandic culture.

ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN ESKIMOS AND THE NORSEMEN

From objects found in Eskimo ruins it can be deducted that there has been some kind of contact between the Eskimos and the Norsemen, but it is hard to tell just how much and what kind of contact it was.

Previously, the Norsemen's disappearance was attributed to violent attacks by the Eskimos, but this belief has now been proved wrong. The Norsemen did not disappear because the Eskimos extermi­nated them. The explanation is less simple as stated above.

Originally the idea of contact and competition between Eskimos and Norsemen were refused on the grounds of their different choice of places to settle: the Norse­men preferred to settle in the bottom of the fiords as farmers, whereas the Eskimos settled only halfway up the fiords. It is now known that some of the Norsemen also hunted and fished, and thus had to sett­le not so far from the sea, as the Eskimos.

TODAY'S RELICS - WHAT DO WE SEE ?

In Narsaq district the National Museum of Greenland has so far registered about 80 Eskimo Sites.

The Eskimo ruins found here date from medio 1300 till ultimo 1700 and are grouped according to their type: single houses 1340-1650, common houses 1600-1700. After that the houses tend to grow smaller but retain the rectangular shape of the common houses.

Only few Eskimo-archaeological excavations have been conducted in Narsaq district. Among the most important ruins excavated are the site on Tugtutoq. This site is among the largest and finest example of Greenlandic neo-eskimo culture, and further­more representative of the various types of habitation.

TUGTUTOQ ISUA

The Eskimo site here was first mentioned in the lit­terature in 1912 in connec­tion with a zoological survey led by K. Stephensen. Parts of the site were excavated in 1934 under the supervision of archaeologist and anthropolo­gist Therkel Mathiassen.

The central habitation con­sists of 24 winterhouses, 1-2 tent foundations and a number of meat caches, grawes and two rows of "nangissat" (hop­ping stones) - see location on map.

The winter houses have not all been occupied at the same time: The oldest settlement has been in use from around 1350 until around 1650. The houses are small and round with thick walls of turf and stone, and a deep sunk, paved entrance passage - often with a small offshot used for kitchen. The food was cooked on a fire of blubber or bone. These small houses may be joined together in groups of three.

One of the meat caches be­longing to this settlement is exeptionally long - 9 met­res - stone-walled and stone roofed. This is believed to be a cache for whole seals.

This type of habitation be­longs to the eskimo culture called the Inugsuk culture, a further development of the Thule culture.

The rectangular or trapeze-shaped houses date from a­round the 1600-1700. The youngest, large rectangular house from around 1800 is placed furthest to the East in the site. These long or common houses are built after the same pattern as the ear­lier houses with an entran­ce passage and a paved floor reaching half­way under the sleeping plat­form at the back of the house. There were small window niches in the front part of the house.

The tent foundation lie close to the settlement itself on the outer part of the penin­sula near the water. They are of a solid and careful con­struction and have probably been used year after year. Very likely the inhabitants have preferred living "out­doors" during the summer, and nearer to the fiord and the better possibilities for sealing.

These ruins are historical sites protected under the Act of Nature Conservancy.

It is important to respect the ruins in order to preser­ve them for the present and the future.

It is a criminal offence to van­dalise a site or even remove anything from it.