Tracking the Chemical Footprints of Taltheilei Settlement Strategies: Multi–Element and Molecular Analyses of Soils from the Ikirahak Site in Southern Nunavut
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2015-10-02
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Abstract
This dissertation presents the results of chemical and physical soil surveys undertaken at a 2,000 year old Taltheilei hunter–gatherer site off the west coast of Hudson Bay in southern Nunavut. My goal is to develop archeological soil chemistry research in Canada. Research focuses on refining methods for determining whether northern soils can accept and preserve anthropogenic chemical residues, and for distinguishing natural from human chemical patterns. Linking the concepts of soilscapes and site structures, I also discuss how anthropogenic chemical archives are formed, and I highlight what these records tell us about hunter–gatherer site functions, residential mobility, and site seasonality. Archaeological site structure and soilscape analyses are used to define said variables at the Ikirahak study site. Results contribute to building understandings of the preservation of anthropogenic chemical records and to clarifying previously unrecognized Taltheilei lifeways, in turn better resolving diversities in their cultural identity.
Over 100 soil and reference samples were analyzed. Methods included multi–element analyses using x–ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma – mass spectroscopy, mineral and bimolecular analyses using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, along with assessments of a suite of physical and chemical soil parameters such as porosity and cation exchange capacity. Statistical and spatial patterning were assessed using enrichment factor analysis, analysis of variance, principal components analysis, inverse distance weighted interpolation, and trend surface analysis.
MgO, CaO, Cu, P2O5, Ba, K2O, MnO, and Fe2O3 were useful indicators of human influences on the Ikirahak soils. Calcite, carbonate hydroxylapatite, montgomeryite, and trans fats derived from human activities were preserved in the site soils. Crystallinity indices and carbonate/phosphate ratios for tested bone samples indicated high intensity burning.
Soilscape analyses at Ikirahak provides unique insight into how Taltheilei people used settlement space. Evidence supports the argument that Ikirahak was occupied by groups of people from late summer to mid/late fall for the purpose of amassing surpluses of caribou products. The chemical footprints of this settlement strategy exemplify a key difference in Taltheilei and Chipewyan identities. Unlike their Chipewyan descendants, some Taltheilei groups made more extensive use of tundra environments for longer periods of time during colder seasons.
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Archaeology
Citation
Butler, D. (2015). Tracking the Chemical Footprints of Taltheilei Settlement Strategies: Multi–Element and Molecular Analyses of Soils from the Ikirahak Site in Southern Nunavut (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28496