Abstract

Thule Eskimo hunting techniques will be examined through the analysis of ringed seal (Phoca hispida) mortality patterns. These patterns are based on canines recovered from five Thule semisubterranean winter houses located at Hazard Inlet, Somerset Island, in the Central Canadian Arctic. Dental annuli studies on these canines provide a mortality profile of an archaeological population. Using ringed seal behaviour and ethnographical accounts of Inuit seal hunting, variations of similarities between the archaeological and modern seal age profiles provide evidence of past hunting techniques.