"The strange history of the North American Arctic" Topic

"Archaeologists mapping ancient cultures in the North American Arctic—a region spanning present-day Greenland—have long puzzled over how different cultures relate to one another. Now, an unprecedented large-scale genomics study has traced many such cultures to the Paleo-Eskimos, a people who early inhabited the harsh environment continuously for 4000 years, only to vanish mysteriously about 700 years ago. The discovery could change how scientists understand migration patterns in the North American Arctic.

"This type of study … will be the key to solving many questions in history and prehistory," says Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who was not involved with the research.

Archaeologists have found many distinct cultures in the New World Arctic's past that belong to the Paleo-Eskimo tradition. First came the Saqqaqs, people who lived in tent camps and chased caribou and seals about 4000 years ago. Succeeding them were the Dorsets, walrus hunters whose culture went through three distinct phases 2800 years ago. Finally came the Thules, ancestors to modern Inuits, who sailed in large skin boats and hunted whales 1000 years ago…"
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