Eirik Roe

This PhD research explores regional and diachronic variations in Pre-Inuit social organisation and adaptation during the Early Dorset period of Greenland (800 BC – 1 AD), through inter-regional technological analysis of remaining lithic toolkits. The Early Dorset was one of the few Arctic cultures that achieved a ‘circum-Greenlandic’ colonisation. The tradition for lithic tool-making of the Greenlandic Early Dorset is characterised by a high degree of homogeneity across the different regions of the island. Earlier research has interpreted this material homogeneity as a reflection of highly conservative traditions of lithic crafting. However, the primary concern has here been to construct chronologies and typologies to separate different periods of Pre-Inuit culture-history, while concerns regarding the different lifeways and social variability of each period have been secondary. To provide a new perspective on the lifeways of the Greenlandic Early Dorset, I will approach the remains of their lithic toolkit with a chaîne opératoire methodology that integrates theoretical concepts highlighting the importance of human-material relations and social learning in the development of spatiotemporal variability of material culture.

Eirik Roe