The Dorset Inuit hunted with spears and harpoons rather than bow and arrrow. Their harpoons would have been effective for seals and possibly small whales but they did not have the other technology tequired for hunting the large whales.
The first people documented to have lived in the Iqaluit area were the Dorset culture people. Inuit refer to these people as giants, the Tuuniit, in their oral history and legends.Archaeologists have found the remains of Dorset settlements at several locations in and around the present town site.
The Dorset culture developed in a core area along the shores of Northern Foxe Basin, Hudson Strait and the northern tip of Baffin Island. The culture spread across Northern Canada as far south as Newfoundland and east to Greenland from 500 BC until 1000 AD. The Dorset culture was a more successful adaption to the climatic conditions of the period than the earlier pre Dorset culture. There was a cooling trend that reached its peak in AD 0. Cooler conditions probably reduced the number of land mammals that the earlier cultures had hunted and increased the importance of seal hunting.
The remains of snow knives and sled shoes indicates that the Dorset developed the use of sleds although these were small and probably pulled by hand, as no dog sledding equipment has been found.
The Dorset Inuit hunted with spears and harpoons rather than bow and arrrow. Their harpoons would have been effective for seals and possibly small whales but they did not have the other technology tequired for hunting the large whales.
The Dorset had small blubber lamps and so could have lived in snow houses or semi permanent sod houses. Most house remains that have been found are rectangular shaped with a central hearth similiar to that of earlier people. No wood or bone appears in the construction so houses must have been roofed with skins.
Many small carvings are found at Dorset sites. The masks, drums and carved teeth often found were probably the property of a shaman.The number of carvings that appear to have magical or religious connotations signify the importance of religion to these people
The Dorset culture disappeared quite suddenly around 1000 BC. Perhaps the warming climate destroyed their way of life or possibly the Thule Inuit who arrived from the west around that time, forced the Dorset out of the better hunting areas. Inuit oral history tells of a new people (Thule) who drove the giant Tuuniit from the land.
