The last one hundred and twenty years of palaeoeskimo research in Newfoundland has evolved, perhaps as all subject matter does, from an initial speculative stage to a level where data is accumulated and loosely interpreted, and consequently to a level where this information is synthesized under the auspices of more general theoretical frameworks. This pattern can be traced from the earliest years of prehistoric research between the mid 1800's to about 1950 when the identification of a palaeoeskimo presence on the island was questioned, followed by the pioneering efforts of a handful of researchers throughout the 1970's who clarified this question, and the 1980's which saw research and excavation of palaeoeskimo occupations grow at an unprecedented rate. While the pace of excavation, and perhaps even research, into palaeoeskimo groups in Newfoundland has since slowed down since the "golden years" of the eighties, researchers are continuing to synthesize the information into a broader analytical context.
1850's to 1950 : Terra Incognita - The Palaeoeskimo Question in Newfoundland
The years between the 1850's and 1950 rang in the initial period of research in Newfoundland palaeoeskimo prehistory. In the beginning though, the search for palaeoeskimo material was in many ways accidental, as researchers were for the most part convinced that the culture-history of Newfoundland was confined to Beothuk or Naskapi peoples (Fitzhugh 1980a). However, as Wintemberg would notice, both Lloyd (1875) and Howley (1915) were suspicious of some of the materials which were attributed to Indian cultures:Caution should, I think, be used in attributing all the relics to the 'Beothucs,' because some of them may have belonged originally to the Micmac Indians, and perhaps also to the mountaineers and Esquimos of Labrador, with whom it appears they were in communication (Lloyd 1875, 36).Howley also noted that some of the artifacts from a grave assemblage at Port au Choix (probably the assemblage collected by Kidder) more closely resembled "Eskimo" rather than Beothuk peoples (Howley 1915: 330). Five years prior to Howley's publication, A.V. Kidder had conducted a survey of the west coast of Newfoundland as well as southern Labrador. His results were never published; however, he wrote a brief article assessing the possibility for a preglacial occupation of the New World based on this evidence (Kidder 1927).
Diamond Jenness, who had recently come off from his discovery of the Cape Dorset culture in 1925, along with W.J. Wintemberg, often considered the 'father of Ontario archaeology', set out on an archaeological reconnaissance of the east and west coasts of Newfoundland. Their purpose was to locate residential and burial sites of the Beothuk peoples; however, Wintemberg was "surprised" to find a substantial amount of evidence indicating the presence of Eskimo groups during their survey (Wintemberg 1939, 1940). His analysis of this material was published in two parts in the years 1939 and 1940, ten years after the initial testing began. In these essays, Wintemberg provided the first clear argument for an Eskimo occupation of Newfoundland. This somewhat contradicted Jenness' earlier statements regarding this material, in which he pronounced this Dorset material as indeed Beothuk, maintaining that the close resemblance of this material with that of the Dorset was evidence for contact between Beothuk groups of Newfoundland and Dorset groups in Labrador. His attribution of Dorset material in Newfoundland to Beothuk groups led Fitzhugh (1980:22) to suggest that Jenness was "perhaps suffering from birth pains following his Cape Dorset revelation."
Frederica De Laguna (1940) referred to the Dorset groups of Newfoundland in her analysis of soapstone vessels, concluding that the lack of suspension holes in the vessel technology was as result of an abundance of available firewood on the island which made it unnecessary to hang pots above a blubber lamp. Instead, they would place these pots over a fire. In addition, she noted that Newfoundland Dorset pots had small lateral "lugs" which were used when lifting the pots off the fire. Apart from this reference, there appears to have been little interest in Newfoundland Dorset groups until 1949, when Elmer Harp Jr. enters the picture.
Harp (1951) conducted surveys along the Strait of Belle Isle region during the summers of 1949 and 1950 to investigate the origins of the Beothuk, and to clarify the issue of the Dorset occupation in Newfoundland, which according to Harp (1951: 203) was "largely a puzzle." It was during this time that Harp first became acquainted with sites along the west coast, including Norris Point, Keppel Island, and finally Port au Choix, where he would later focus his energies. Therefore, this initial period of palaeoeskimo research can be best described as a period of initial speculation and uncertainty as the earliest archaeological discoveries, which at that time were an extension of ethnology, were attributed to Beothuk groups (Wintemberg 1939).
The 1960's : Early Pioneers - Who Were The Newfoundland Dorset?
While the 1950's produced little if anything in the way of palaeoeskimo research, the 1960's was a much different story. Harp (1964) ushered in this decade with perhaps the first comprehensive look at the palaeoeskimo tradition on the Island during his excavations along the west coast between 1961 and 1964. The focus of excavation was at Port au Choix, where Harp located and partially excavated over thirty-two dwellings of the Cape Dorset manifestation. His primary objective was in determining how this Newfoundland contingent of Dorset groups fit in with the overall scheme of the Cape Dorset manifestations which had been identified in the Arctic regions of Hudson Bay, Baffin Island, Greenland, and in the sub-Arctic northern Labrador. Extensive excavations were carried out at Phillip's Garden at Port au Choix, with Harp concluding that the Arctic and Newfoundland Dorset groups were closely connected with each other. Several Dorset burials were recovered from these excavations, which were later analysed by Harp and Hughes (1968), and Tuck and Anderson (1974).
From 1964 to 1966 Helen Devereux (1965, 1966,1969) undertook a survey of parts of Newfoundland including the southwest coast, Notre Dame Bay, Bonavista Bay, and the interior. While Devereux was mainly interested in the Beothuk, her research led to the discovery of the large palaeoeskimo site at Cape Ray in the southwest, several Dorset sites in the region of Notre Dame Bay, the Beaches site in the northeast, and Pope's Point in the interior - one of the few interior Dorset sites to date. Shortly after this, Urve Linnamae followed up on Devereux's investigations by excavating the Cape Ray Light site near Port au Basques, as well as the Pittman site in White Bay.
Linnamae's excavations would comprise the foundation for her Ph.D thesis. Her excavations during the summers of 1967 and 1968, in addition to the research of Harp and Devereux, resulted in one of the first characterizations of the Dorset in Newfoundland. In a similar manner as Harp (1964), Linnamae's objectives were to compare the Dorset groups in Newfoundland, which was perceived as a peripheral region in Dorset prehistory, with the Arctic groups around Hudson Bay and Baffin Island, areas in which core or "parent" Dorset groups were believed to have occupied (Linnamae 1975). In her conclusions, Linnamae observed that while there were many similarities between the Newfoundland and Dorset Arctic groups, the Newfoundland Dorset groups in some ways exhibited a distinct material culture. We now know that this "distinctiveness" identified by Linnamae was in fact, the remains of the Groswater phase of palaeoeskimo prehistory which is particular to Newfoundland and Labrador. Ironically, in 1968, the same year that Linnamae completed her excavations at Cape Ray, William Fitzhugh embarked on a survey of the central coast of Labrador from Hamilton Inlet to Okak. In his investigations, Fitzhugh discovered the first substantial Dorset remains in Labrador, and became the first researcher to identify what he called "Groswater" palaeoeskimo remains, named after the region in which they were discovered (Fitzhugh 1972). Fitzhugh determined that Groswater groups represented an early phase of palaeoeskimo occupation prior to the Dorset occupations of Labrador. While Linnamae had also noticed the presence of the peculiar lithics of the Groswater groups in an otherwise predominantly Dorset assemblage, she attributed this peculiarity to a regional distinctiveness of Early Dorset groups in Newfoundland. Furthermore, Linnamae building on Harp's work, suggested that a relatively homogenous Dorset occupation of Newfoundland could be inferred from the material.
At about the same time that Fitzhugh was investigating
the coasts of central Labrador, James Tuck was conducting excavations at
Saglek Bay in northern Labrador from 1969 to 1970 (Tuck 1975). Tuck had
discovered evidence for what he thought was an early occupation of late
palaeoeskimo groups, and classified these remains as Early Dorset. However,
as these remains closely resembled material which Fitzhugh had classified
as representing "Groswater," it became evident that a more consistent terminology
with respect to these remains needed to be established. As will be discussed
later, this issue was resolved later in the mid 1980's. Also in 1969, Tuck
excavated Englee on the east coast of the Northern Peninsula. This small
Dorset site turned out to be a very productive one. According to Tuck (1976)
a single 1.5 metre unit yielded a large amount of refuse bones in addition
to more than two hundred artifacts. Raymond LeBlanc (1974) later analysed
the faunal material.
Therefore, in the 1960's while researchers were
confident that a Dorset presence had indeed been established on the island
of Newfoundland, there was an uncertainty as to how these Dorset groups
fit in with the overall scheme of Dorset as it had been defined for the
eastern and central Arctic. Linnamae had integrated the Newfoundland Dorset
groups into this scheme by suggesting a peripheral and distinct occupation,
and as with Harp, Devereux, and Tuck, set out to more clearly define the
general flavour of the Dorset cultural occupation on the island. In the
meantime up in Labrador, Fitzhugh (1972) and Tuck (1975) were laying the
grounds for research into the question of the early palaeoeskimo occupations
of the province.
The 1970's : The Spread to the East and The Groswater/Early Dorset Question
The 1970's begin with Linnamae's survey of Placentia Bay from June to August, 1970. This was the first significant archaeological survey in this region, and Linnamae found and recorded twelve single component and multi-component Dorset sites of which six yielded productive material remains (Linnamae 1971). Following this study, interest in the southeast coast would wane until the early 1980's with the research of Evans (1981) and Robbins (1985).In 1972, James Tuck (1972) carried out an intensive survey of the proposed Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of the Northern Peninsula. The purpose of this survey was two-fold: Parks Canada contracted Tuck to conduct a cultural assessment of the park which was scheduled for future development; furthermore, Tuck's survey involved examining previously unexamined areas (in addition to areas formerly surveyed) which could yield information on the prehistory of the Bonne Bay region. A number of areas along the coast, at river mouths, interior lakes and ponds, and any other area suitable to habitation were investigated (see Krol 1986). As a result of this investigation Tuck located a number of small Dorset sites along the coastline.
In that same year and the next, Paul Carignan excavated the multi-component Beaches site in Bonavista Bay, following up on the initial reports of the site from Helen Devereux (Devereux 1969). Two occupation layers were uncovered in the excavations, with an exclusively Maritime Archaic component in the bottom layer 1, and a mixed Maritime Archaic, Dorset, and Beothuk component, all within a 3 inch layer comprising the upper layer 2 (Carignan 1975a). Carignan attempted a chronological framework of all three occupations using the information from the excavation in addition to previously recorded information. Although no structures were located, he determined that the Beaches site was a major habitation center for Dorset groups during its "prime" occupation. Carignan also came across a multiple-notched endblade that resembled the early Dorset sequences which had been defined by Linnamae at Cape Ray, and Tuck at Saglek Bay (Tuck 1975). However, by this time Fitzhugh's report on the Groswater presence in central Labrador had been published, and Carignan was able to surmise that this artifact may have been affiliated with that cultural group. Therefore, Carignan's work was perhaps the first serious palaeoeskimo investigation to be conducted in the Bonavista Bay region of the northeast coast. He was also one of the first researchers to question the presence of Groswater groups on the island. However, perhaps the first researcher to do this was Paul Bishop, following his excavations at Norris Point.
In 1973, Bishop (1974) uncovered an early palaeoeskimo component in his excavations at Norris Point-1 in Bonne Bay along the west coast. Although the vast majority of the assemblage was Dorset, Bishop came across two artifacts types, including side-notched endblades and chipped and ground burin-like tools, which he assigned to an earlier stage of occupation. Although he reportedly ended up assigning these artifacts to an Early Dorset occupation (Tuck and Fitzhugh 1986: 162), he did observe that they closely resembled the artifacts encountered by Fitzhugh in terms of style and use of raw materials. As such, there was a possibility that this Early Dorset occupation was in fact a Groswater one, and Bishop dated the site between 2650 and 2450 B.P., within the Groswater occupational range.
Archaeological activity on the island between the mid to late 1970's included Carignan's survey of the west coast Port au Port area, in which he located and tested a handful of Dorset sites (Carignan 1975b); and Tuck's (1978) excavations at Cow Head where he located evidence for an early palaeoeskimo occupation of the island dating to around 3000 B.P., which preceded the Groswater influx about two hundred years later. According to Tuck, the artifacts resembled the Early Dorset material that Cox (1978) had retrieved from northern Labrador (Tuck 1978: 139). The only evidence for a Dorset occupation at Cow Head came in the form of two endblades.
In 1977 Fitzhugh launched the Torngat Archaeological Project, an intensive survey of the northern Labrador region between Nain and the Button Islands. Survey was carried out by boat and ground crews, and just under 350 archaeological sites representing an expanse of arctic groups including Pre-Dorset, Dorset, Thule, and Inuit, as well as Indian cultures, were located (Fitzhugh 1980b). Initial survey and testing was followed up in 1980 with continued survey and excavation of sites between the Nain to Okak region. The outcome of this project was a number of important papers which contributed to the body of information on palaeoeskimo groups (Fitzhugh 1980b, Sutton et al. 1980, Cox 1978, Hood 1986).
In 1979, while investigating Indian cultures at the northern extension of Bonavista Bay, Shawn Austin (1981) came across an endblade fragment, an asymmetric endblade, and a soapstone vessel fragment - all of which were palaeoeskimo in origin - at Cape Freels. This led Austin to suggest that the Indians of Bonavista Bay may have been influenced by the palaeoeskimos. The possibility of a relationship between Indian and palaeoeskimo groups has been discussed by a number of researchers including Harp (1964), Linnamae (1975), Tuck (1975), and Carignan (1975a).
Finally in 1979, Tuck was again contracted by Parks Canada to conduct an intensive archaeological survey, this time at Terra Nova National Park on the northeast coast (Tuck 1980). A number of palaeoeskimo sites were discovered during this survey, which would later form the basis for research conducted by Sawicki (1984).
To summarize the 1970's, it appears that in this decade the extent of survey and excavation in Newfoundland, as well as Labrador, increased significantly. Following Devereux's lead in the 60's, Linnamae, Carignan, Austin, and Tuck were extending the research of palaeoeskimo groups to the eastern coast, adding to the information from the much more intensively studied western region. Additional sites along the west coast were being discovered through the efforts of Tuck, Bishop, and Carignan (two years after his excavation at Beaches). Furthermore, at around the same time but at opposite ends of the Island, both Bishop and Carignan were questioning the feasibility of a Groswater occupation in Newfoundland from the evidence of small but significant lithic samples.
The 1980's : The "Golden Age" of Palaeoeskimo Research in Newfoundland
The 1970's end with Gerald Penney's survey of the south coast which lasted from 1979-1981. The focal point of this research was the excavation of L'Anse a Flamme, a multi-component site on the southwest coast, during the 1980 field season. In his thesis (Penney 1985), he describes each component of the assemblage which included Maritime Archaic, Dorset, and a distinctive Recent Indian complex which he termed "Little Passage Complex." According to Penney, this complex followed the demise of the Dorset on the island, and preceded the Beothuk occupation - the Little Passage Complex being the ancestors of the Beothuk. Although the focus of this research was on this Indian complex, the palaeoeskimo component at L'Anse a Flamme comprised 44% of the total assemblage, and by the time Penney published his results he had isolated a Groswater and Dorset occupation at L'Anse a Flamme, in addition to other palaeoeskimo sites which he had located during his survey. No structural remains had been found associated with any of the components. However, the repeated use of the hearths suggested to Penney that L'Anse a Flamme was a temporary habitation site.In 1980 Anna Sawicki continued examining the palaeoeskimo presence in Bonavista Bay using the information obtained during Tuck's 1979 survey of Terra Nova National Park. The purpose of these investigations was to compare the artifacts from Ashley Baker, Moore Pasture, and Zodiac Island sites - all of which appeared to have traits suggestive of a Groswater occupation - with more typically Dorset occupations in the Bonavista Bay region. In her results (Sawicki 1984), she concluded that the Groswater and Dorset phases of the Bonavista Bay region were indeed temporally and technologically distinct. However, there was no clear relationship between the two groups; the Groswater occupation was not ancestral to the Dorset. Instead, she proposed that two separate migrations of these groups from Labrador into the island had taken place.
Nineteen eighty-one was a busy year for palaeoeskimo research in Newfoundland as indicated by the work of Nagle (1982), Evans (1981), Auger (1982), Robbins (1985), and Pastore (1982). Christopher Nagle spent two weeks investigating the Fleur de Lys soapstone quarry in White Bay. The main purpose of this investigation was to confirm the use of the quarry by Dorset groups, to determine the methods for soapstone extraction, to recover the tools used in quarrying operations, and to recover initial stages of soapstone vessel manufacture (Nagle 1982).
Excavations in 1981 were carried out by Evans (1981), Auger (1982), and Robbins (1985). At Stock Cove in Trinity Bay, Douglas Robbins excavated a Dorset site which he believes was occupied during the terminal phase of the Dorset period in Newfoundland. According to Robbins, while the Stock Cove site was occupied repeatedly and intensely, it was not occupied for a relatively long period of time which is shown by the lack of typological variability in endblades in addition to the radiocarbon dates ranging from around 1560 to 1280 B.P. (Robbins 1985). These dates, combined with an artifact analysis suggested a late Dorset occupation in this area. Robbins also unearthed what appeared to be a large and permanent house structure, noting that a considerable amount of time and energy had gone into its construction. Perhaps the main contribution of Robbin's thesis (1985) was his proposal of a regional approach to the investigation of Dorset groups on the island. His comparative analysis of Dorset groups indicated regionally distinctive endblade typologies, settlement and subsistence practises, and raw materials. Suggesting that the Dorset occupation of Newfoundland was in fact heterogeneous went against the initial hypothesis offered by Linnamae (1975) in which a geographical homogeneity of Dorset groups on the island was suspected.
In 1981, Clifford Evans conducted a preliminary excavation at Frenchman's Island in Trinity Bay, which yielded artifacts relating to the Dorset period. Evans noticed a linear pattern of stones which he believes could have been the remains of a Dorset structure. Unfortunately, due to time constraints this was not excavated (Evans 1981: 90). He noted that the majority of artifacts were typologically comparable to the material retrieved from Stock Cove, and as such, maintained that the site was most likely occupied late in the Dorset sequence, between 1600 and 1400 A.D.
Also in 1981, Reginald Auger (1982) conducted the first exclusively Groswater excavation on the island at Factory Cove near Cow Head. The site, which dates to around 2700 to 2150 B.P., produced a significant amount of lithics and lithic debitage which led Auger (1986: 113) to describe it as a "workshop." According to Tuck (n.d.: 110) the lithic assemblages from Factory Cove and Cow Head represented all stages of manufacture, and unfinished artifacts could be classified as either "blanks," or "preforms." In addition, nearly 2000 faunal remains and at least six habitation structures, including a lean-to, tent-ring, shallow semi-subterranean dwelling, and a bilobate mid-passage structure, were unearthed. This was the first time that researchers could get a good glimpse at the settlement and subsistence practises of the Groswater groups. The faunal analysis indicated that seal and caribou comprised the foundation of the diet, followed by arctic hare, beaver, red fox, and migratory fowl (Auger 1986). Furthermore, information on the diversity in dwelling type for these Groswater groups in Newfoundland was unprecedented. Perhaps Auger's main goal in excavating Factory Cove was to determine whether or not a cultural continuity between Groswater and Dorset groups could be demonstrated. He found no evidence for this continuity.
Finally in the fall of 1981, an intensive survey of parts of eastern Notre Dame Bay was conducted by Ralph Pastore (1982). At least 11 palaeoeskimo sites were located, the majority associated with the Dorset period.
Two contract projects were conducted by Auger and Tuck in 1982 on opposite sides of the island: at Broom Point in Gros Morne National Park and at Shambler's Cove in Bonavista Bay (Tuck and Auger 1982, Tuck 1983). The Broom Point excavation was a continuation of the survey had that been initiated by Tuck (1972) under the auspices of Parks Canada. The purpose of this excavation was to obtain additional information on the palaeoeskimo occupation of this area for the proposed interpretation centre at the Park. On the other end of Newfoundland at Shambler's Cove, a salvage excavation took place in light of the proposed construction of the Shambler's Cove-Greenspond causeway (Krol 1986). Tuck (n.d.: 124) later suggested the possibility that this site represented a satellite camp which was utilized by the inhabitants of the Beaches site (base camp) for the main purpose of hunting seal. This was indicated by the presence of specific extractive tools such as endblades and microblades for hunting and processing, combined with the absence of hide processing tools such as end scrapers (Tuck n.d.). This interpretation was one of the first in which an attempt to understand the relationship between Newfoundland Dorset occupations, in terms of site function, was hypothesized (see also Pastore 1986).
In 1983 David Simpson, building upon the information previously offered by Carignan (1975), surveyed and tested the area surrounding the Port au Port Peninsula. Sites affiliated with Dorset, Little Passage, and Recent Indian occupations were discovered or re-located. Simpson's goal was to reconstruct a settlement and subsistence system of both Dorset and Little Passage cultural groups within this region - a large task by anyone's definition. To accomplish this, Simpson analysed the faunal material, lithic sources, and lithic typologies of the various sites along the Port au Port Peninsula. The relationship between the Dorset sites, especially of the Long Pond inland site and the Port au Port site, was hypothesized in terms of site function. According to Simpson (1986) evidence from this region pointed to a seasonal round involving the movements of Dorset groups from the coastal region (Port au Port site) to the interior (Long Pond site). A summer and possibly mid-winter occupation of the Port au Port site, coupled with spring and fall excursions to exploit interior resources was hypothesized. Therefore, as with Tuck (1983), Simpson was one of the first researchers to connect the palaeoeskimo occupations in a given region to a larger settlement and subsistence model.
Krol (1986) continued the research initiated by Tuck (1972), and Auger (Tuck and Auger 1982) at Broom Point in Gros Morne National Park. In 1984 she excavated a small palaeoeskimo component, identifying two separate and short-term occupations of Dorset and Groswater distinctions. Her objective was to investigate site function: what were the reasons why palaeoeskimo groups utilized this relatively small site along the western coast? From an analysis of the artifacts, Krol concluded that Broom Point most likely represented a lithic manufacturing and processing site, and a place where extractive pursuits, most of them marine-related, took place. A summer occupation is proposed, as Krol connects this site to a broader settlement and subsistence system involving west coast Dorset groups. She concludes that Broom Point represented a temporary seasonal camp which was occupied by a task group, originating from a larger semi-permanent base camp of unknown origin with the inhabitants returning to the base camp in the fall.
In 1984 M.A.P. Renouf began what would end up being a six year seasonal programme of investigation at the Port au Choix site, contributing to the six seasons of fieldwork pioneered by Elmer Harp Jr. The Port au Choix Archaeology Project, under the direction of Renouf, lasted between 1984 and 1986 with work resuming from 1990 to 1992. Through the efforts of both Renouf and Harp, the site has become the best known and most intensively studied archaeological site in the province, and has yielded a significant body of information relating to the prehistoric occupations of both Indian and palaeoeskimo groups. Port au Choix, now a National Historic site, is situated upon limestone bedrock which has allowed for the preservation of organic materials, providing us with an opportunistic glimpse at the burial ceremonialism, subsistence practises, and osteology of palaeoeskimo and Indian groups.
In the first three seasons of fieldwork, Renouf conducted a general reconnaissance and survey of Port au Choix, locating twelve additional sites - seven of which were palaeoeskimo. Phillip's Garden East, an undisturbed Groswater site, and Point Riche, an undisturbed Dorset site, were tested and excavated. A midden feature and house feature at Phillip's Garden were also excavated in addition to an area external to the house features. Perhaps the main objective of the Port au Choix Archaeology Project was to provide a more complete picture of palaeoeskimo prehistory in this region. This involved testing and excavating not only the more obvious house features, but also areas outside of house features, midden features, and smaller or less substantial house features (Erwin 1996: pers. comm). Renouf's analysis has encompassed a number of issues relating to the individual sites and their inter-connection, including seasonality and site function, intra-site variability, and chronological and occupational coherency (Renouf 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994).
Another outcome of the Port au Choix Archaeology Project was Brown's (1988) publication of the Dorset burials in which he summarized past and continued burial investigations, Kennett's (1991) analysis of Phillip's Garden East, Murray's (1992) faunal analysis of Feature 1 at Phillip's Garden, and Erwin's (1995) examination of the contemporaneity of houses and pattern of occupation of Phillip's Garden.
Kennett (1991) analysed the faunal and artifactual evidence of the undisturbed Groswater site at Phillip's Garden East to determine the settlement and subsistence pattern, and to understand this Groswater occupation in a broader context through comparisons with Early Dorset occupations in Labrador, Dorset occupations in Newfoundland, and other "transitional" Pre-Dorset/Dorset occupations from the Arctic. A number of conclusions were drawn from this analysis. A strong maritime focus was hypothesized. Furthermore, anomalous artifact traits, the house type (semi-subterranean), and a series of radiocarbon dates circa 1900 B.P. (extending the Groswater occupation of Newfoundland by two hundred years) necessitated a re-analysis of Groswater in Newfoundland. As with Sawicki (1984), and Tuck and Fitzhugh (1986), Kennett did not feel that there was adequate evidence to support an ancestral relationship between Groswater and Dorset groups.
By 1986 a series of essays on the state of palaeoeskimo research in the province were published in a volume entitled "Palaeo-Eskimo Cultures in Newfoundland, Labrador and Ungava." In this report a number of papers of an analytical nature emerged, including Pastore's (1986) examination of the spatial distribution of palaeoeskimo site in terms of site function and optimal foraging theory, Jordan's (1986) regional comparison of Dorset in Labrador and Newfoundland, and Tuck and Fitzhugh's (1986) critical analysis of palaeoeskimo terminology in the province. From an historical perspective, the impression is that the vast body of information that had accumulated in both Labrador and Newfoundland was now being synthesized into more analytical discussions of the palaeoeskimo presence. Tuck and Fitzhugh (1986) discussed the differences in the terminology and interpretation of palaeoeskimo groups, agreeing upon a universal acceptance of at least the former. In this way, the "Early Dorset" groups of Saglek Bay and Newfoundland were now recognized as Groswater. Pastore's analysis of the geographical positioning of palaeoeskimo sites in Newfoundland was in accord with the analyses of Tuck (1983), Simpson (1986), and Krol (1986), as the question of settlement, subsistence, mobility, and site function (all inter-related) was now becoming a popular and important issue. Interestingly, the excavations of Auger and Tuck (Shambler's Cove), Simpson (Port au Port region) and Krol (Broom Point) coincided with the publications of crucial discussions on optimal foraging theory (Winterhalder and Smith 1981), and site function and mobility (Binford 1980) appearing at that time.
The 1980's end with Schwarz's two month excavation of Gambo II, a series of small prehistoric sites (including palaeoeskimo) along Gambo Pond in the interior. Again, the analysis was of the settlement and subsistence patterns, or more specifically, of a comparison between short-term and long term prehistoric occupations (Schwarz 1989, 1990).
The 1980's has been described in this paper as the "golden years" of palaeoeskimo archaeology in Newfoundland. This is rightly so, because the decade is divided between an expansion of research in all areas of the island, an accumulation of information at an unprecedented rate, and a synthesis of this vast amount of information into broader comparative and theoretical frameworks. The early eighties could be defined as a period in which master's students, along with the work of Pastore (1982) and Tuck (Tuck and Auger 1982, 1983), "took over" palaeoeskimo research with a number of important excavations. In the mid to late eighties an interpretive pattern emerges as researchers begin to question the inter-relationship of sites in a larger settlement and subsistence scheme, and to discuss the state of palaeoeskimo prehistory in the province now that a significant and perhaps overwhelming amount of information had been accumulated. By the end of the eighties the pace of excavation slows down in all areas of the province except for the southwest coast, where Renouf begins the multi-seasonal Port au Choix Archaeology Project.
The 1990's : Towards An Even Better Understanding
The 1990's begin with the re-installment of the Port au Choix Archaeology Project, again under the direction of M.A.P. Renouf. This second phase of the project lasted between 1990 and 1992 and involved the excavation of Phillip's Garden West, an undisturbed Groswater site, continued excavations at Phillip's Garden, and intensive survey and testing of potential Indian sites in the town of Port au Choix. As with the first three years, Renouf was interested in obtaining a more complete picture of prehistory in this region, and an analysis of settlement and subsistence within and between sites, along with a reconstruction of the particular prehistoric sequences of Groswater and Dorset groups was given (Renouf 1991, 1992, 1993).An analysis of the faunal material from Feature 1 at Phillip's Garden was carried out by Maribeth Murray (1992). In her thesis, Murray focused on an examination of the subsistence practises within a single dwelling at Phillip's Garden to determine seasonality and site function. In addition, Murray looked at the pattern of house organization and the use of internal space in her analysis of dwelling function. In her conclusions, she noted that harp seal hunting was the focus of economic pursuits during the Dorset occupation, with Feature 1 occupied in the early winter and possibly representing a temporary qarmat. Furthermore, the particularistic house organization of Feature 1 suggested a more complex usage of Dorset dwellings than previously thought. This was perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of a single dwelling at Phillip's Garden to date. As we come closer to the present date, the investigations of palaeoeskimo prehistory on the island end with the work of Erwin (1995) and LeBlanc (n.d.). Erwin's analysis of the contemporaneity of houses at Phillip's Garden was an attempt to resolve the issue of the life history of the site in terms of the sequence of occupation and the changes in the nature of the Dorset occupation over time. This issue had been attempted by Harp almost two decades earlier (Harp 1976), who was faced with the difficult question of determining how many houses had been occupied at any one time at Phillip's Garden. Erwin developed a computer programme which estimated house contemporaneity based on the technique developed by Helskog and Schweder (1989). This, combined with an artifact analysis enabled Erwin to conclude that a considerable amount of variability and economic specialization could be observed throughout the life history of Phillip's Garden. This view thus contrasted with the idea that the entire occupation of Phillip's Garden, in terms of settlement and subsistence, was a generalized one with little or no change taking place over time.
Finally, the investigations of Sylvie LeBlanc (n.d) completes this synthesis of palaeoeskimo prehistory in Newfoundland. LeBlanc examined a series of Groswater occupations from the Quebec north shore, Labrador, and Newfoundland in an attempt to determine the relationship, if indeed there was one, between these groups. This relationship was investigated using a predictive model for the movements of Groswater groups as represented by seven sites. Prior to this analysis, few other researchers had conducted a comprehensive investigation of the possible relationship between Groswater groups in Quebec and the province. An extensive analysis of faunal material, lithic raw materials and stages of manufacture was undertaken, and the link between these groups is determined from a comparative analysis of the ways in which technology was organized.
Therefore, the 1990's have so far marked a significant decrease in actual excavation, and a continued trend of more interpretive and comprehensive analyses of previous research in palaeoeskimo prehistory. It may even be said that the scope of palaeoeskimo prehistory has more recently focused on particular research questions involving more intensive analyses of the data.
Conclusion
This paper has summarized the investigations of the palaeoeskimo presence in Newfoundland from an historical perspective. Initially the very presence of these groups on the island was questioned and doubted until the late 1930's and 1940's with the research of Wintemberg (1939, 1940) and Harp (1951). However, intensive investigations of palaeoeskimo groups did not begin until the 1960's with the pioneering efforts of a handful of researchers including Harp, Devereux (1965), Linnamae (1975) and Tuck (1969). The 1970's marked the years when investigations began to spread out towards the eastern and southern parts of the island, and more evidence was pointing to the presence of two different palaeoeskimo occupations on the island; an early (Groswater) and a late (Dorset) manifestation. The "golden years" of archaeology in Newfoundland in the 1980's represented an era of intense excavation and research as the palaeoeskimo occupation was observed with more clarity due to the increasing body of information. By the mid 1980's and into the 1990's, researchers began to synthesize this vast body of information in context with broader analytical frameworks to investigate issues such as settlement and subsistence, intra-site variability, temporal variability (the life history of a site), seasonality, site function, and mobility practises. To summarize, throughout the approximately one hundred and twenty years of palaeoeskimo research on the island the overall picture has been a progressive one as researchers continue to define the character of palaeoeskimo groups in a place that was not so long ago considered terra incognita.
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