Ancient Inuit people braved icy waters to reach a remote island in Greenland 4,500 years ago, archaeologists discover

Paleo-Inuit people arrived on a remote high-Arctic island off the northwest coast of Greenland about 4,500 years ago, according to a new study that documents evidence of prehistoric habitation there.

With sophisticated watercraft and fine-tuned seafaring techniques, these early Arctic peoples repeatedly made perilous open-ocean journeys to islands to access vital marine resources.

The island group of Kytist (also known as the Carey Islands) is located at the westernmost tip of Greenland. Consisting of six small islands, Quitist is located at the heart of a rich marine environment known as porinya. A poliña is a semi-permanently open area of ​​water in the middle of sea ice. Modern-day Inuit recognize Qichist Island as an important site for hunting seabirds and obtaining eggs, prompting a team of archaeologists to explore the island for signs of prehistoric activity.

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In a research paper published in the journal Antiquity on Monday, February 9, researchers detailed the results of an archaeological survey of three of the islands. They discovered nearly 300 archaeological features in their survey, the largest concentration of which was 15 ancient Inuit settlements on the tip of Ysbjörne Island. These dwelling sites suggest that people made many arduous journeys from mainland Greenland to Kitist.

The dwelling was identified by a stone ring indicating the former presence of a tent with a hearth in the center. Archaeologists estimated the occupation to be approximately 4,000 to 4,475 years old, based on animal bones found in one of the tent rings.

“Regionally, this is a large concentration of tentlings in one place, in fact one of the largest concentrations,” study lead author Matthew Walls, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, told Live Science in an email. This suggests that Kissist and Polinya were “places of return,” Walls said. “For example, it wasn’t a one-off visit by a family member who went off course.”

It’s unclear exactly how the Old Inuit people arrived in Qichiste, but the shortest distance from the mainland to their home on Ysbjörne Island was 33 miles (53 kilometers), the researchers wrote in the study. The route through the open sea is characterized by unstable crosswinds, dense fog and strong mixed currents. It was an extremely dangerous journey that took about 12 hours to complete on a wooden-framed, leather-covered watercraft typical of the Old Inuit people.

“They’re almost certainly coming during the warmer months, which don’t last long,” Walls said. “They are most likely to do this during the short summer months, also because of the travel situation.”

Old Inuit people probably traveled to Kittist to hunt and collect the eggs of the polar seabird, Uria lomvia, which nest in the thousands in the summer. Walls said the archaeologists discovered the remains of the dwelling, which was located just below a nesting cliff, and there were many murre bones around the tent ring.

Walls said: “The number of foot rings gives us the sense that it was a whole community traversing, rather than a small hunting group, which will likely be proven with further excavations and give us a better snapshot of community life.”

The ability of the Paleo-Inuit people to navigate the frigid open ocean in kayak-like vessels to reach Qichiste shows a strong commitment to a maritime lifestyle, the researchers write, but it also points to their advanced skills in navigation and watercraft technology.

“Archaeologists have tended to think of this area as a crossroads, or primarily a migration route between Canada and Greenland,” Walls said. But Kichist and Polinya are “better positioned as sites of innovation.”

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