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On the Headland: Dorset Seal Harvesting at Phillip’s Garden, Port au Choix

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The Cultural Landscapes of Port au Choix

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

This chapter reviews data from the Dorset Palaeoeskimo site of Phillip’s Garden (EeBi-1) on the Point Riche headland (Fig. 7.1) that show how harp seal hunting and processing were labour-intensive activities, involving specialized technology and large multi-family dwellings. The geography of Phillip’s Garden was ideal for exploiting the large numbers of harp seals that regularly appeared a short distance offshore, offering the Phillip’s Garden Dorset an unprecedented economic opportunity. This chapter argues that because the seals were available only for a short time, a large and coordinated labour force was necessary to capitalize on a narrow window of economic opportunity. Phillip’s Garden is unique among Dorset sites in Newfoundland and is more comparable to a culturally diverse range of large and intensively occupied northern and Arctic sites which were based on similarly predictable, abundant and accessible resources.

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Notes

  1. 1.

     Except where indicated, all calendar dates in this chapter were calibrated using Calib 6.0html (Stuiver and Reimer 1993) and are represented by the one sigma probability range.

  2. 2.

    Harp used House numbers (e.g. Houses 1–21) as opposed to my use of feature numbers (e.g. dwelling Features 1, 14 and 55).

  3. 3.

    Calibrated median dates are used for these ranges; details of radiocarbon dates from Phillip’s Garden are in the Appendix.

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Acknowledgements

The Port au Choix Archaeology Project is generously funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, Parks Canada, Memorial University and the Provincial Archaeology Office. I thank each member of the many Phillip’s Garden excavation crews over the years and the many graduate students who analysed pieces of the Phillip’s Garden puzzle. I thank the staff of the Port au Choix National Historic Site for their continued support. Thanks to marine harvester, Dwight Spence, for his insight on harp seal hunting from Port au Choix. Patty Wells and Dominique Lavers updated the bone artefact catalogue, Dominique Lavers took the artefact photographs, and Charles Conway, Memorial University Geography Department, drafted all but one figure. Thanks to Gary Coupland, Max Friesen, Bjarne Grønnow and Patty Wells for their careful comments on an earlier version of this paper. A particular acknowledgement to the late Elmer Harp for generously allowing us to use his field notes, drawings and photographs which have allowed us to build on his pioneer work.

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  1. Department of Archaeology, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, Canada, A1C 5S7

    M. A. P. Renouf

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  1. Archaeology Unit, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, A1C 5S7, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

    M. A. P. Renouf

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Renouf, M.A.P. (2011). On the Headland: Dorset Seal Harvesting at Phillip’s Garden, Port au Choix. In: Renouf, M. (eds) The Cultural Landscapes of Port au Choix. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8324-4_7

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