Message #219148

[Ice Age Wanderer]

Hunting walrus in the open ocean

A miniaturized harpoon. It likely would have been used as a hunting amulet for good luck. Photo credit Avataq Cultural Institute
To obtain the ivory for the maskette, the people would have hunted walrus – going out on the Arctic Ocean to do so. “As far as we know the Dorset only had small skin boats, like kayaks,” Lofthouse said. “Definitely it could have been dangerous.”

The walrus would have been used for more than its ivory. It would have been consumed along with other animals such as seal, caribou and seabird. Bone remains from all these species have been found on the site.

To aid in hunting, the Dorset developed harpoons that would have been used to kill and bring in the animals.

So important was the harpoon that the Dorset even created a miniaturized version of them, examples of which have been found on site. Only a few centimetres long, these tiny figures “were definitely not for practical use,” said Lofthouse. Rather “they probably were something like hunting amulets for good luck.”

http://heritage-key.com/blogs/owenjarus/archaeologists-discover-ancient-ivory-maskette-canadian-arctic-island