Abstract

The archaeological remains of Martin Frobisher's sixteenth century expeditions searching for a northern route to Cathay and mining gold ore in Frobisher Bay, southeastern Baffin Island, were investigated by a joint Canadian-American team in August 1990. The four-week survey by archaeologists, geologists, and historians was the first of a planned multi-year community-based project which will involve local participation in field excavation and oral history reconstruction. The primary focus of the study is the earliest documented European voyages to the North American Arctic and their impact on early Inuit cultures during a period of significant climatic change, the Little Ice Age. Eventually this material will be compared to the later culture contact experienced in the whaling period. During the 1990 season, 46 archaeological sites were located including several Frobisher sites and Inuit contact period sites. The sites suggest a considerable amount of artifactual and faunal evidence for European-Inuit contact exists in outer Frobisher Bay and that Inuit interaction with the Frobisher expeditions and material remains was more extensive than suggested in the historic accounts. The sites also should permit study of broader issues including the effect of environmental conditions on resource availability during the Little Ice Age and the indirect effects of European contact on Eastern Arctic Inuit political,economic, and demographic systems.