Abstract

In an article published in 1963, William Taylor presented a series of linked hypotheses on the origin of the Canadian Thule culture. The central idea expressed in these hypotheses was that Thule did not appear full-blown in the Canadian Arctic, but instead developed out of an earlier Birnirk phase that had extended along the Beaufort Sea coast as far as Amundsen Gulf by A.D. 900. Excavations on southem Banks Island carried out in 1980 and 1981 provided evidence which supports this idea. This paper examines the archaeological evidence from the Nelson River site, with particular emphasis on the technological repertory represented by the artifact assemblage.