CARD

Locality: on the east bank of East Channel, Mackenzie River, where the river flows into Kittigazuit Bay, Arctic coast, Northwest Territories
Map sheet: 107 C/07

Comments: NiTr-2, Kittigazuit: The site records occupations by Mackenzie Inuit beluga hunters between roughly AD 1400-1900. S-612 and S-613 are reasonable dates for late prehistoric Mackenzie Inuit, but the earlier age for S-614 suggested to McGhee (1974) that the basal level of the site might bear some relation to the Norton tradition rather than to the Thule tradition. RIDDL-344, from the same layer (M-5), prompted the following comment from D.A. Morrison: the specimen [a caribou antler bird dart side prong, NiTr-2: 1543] is illustrated by McGhee (1974: Pl. 22,i) as coming from his enigmatic "Norton" basal level at Kittigazuit... One other date from this level was derived from a mixed sample which included some sea mammal material, and was almost 400 years older (S-614). I find [RIDDL-344] more convincing since it is unmixed and derived solely from terrestrial material. It tends to undermine McGhee's suggestion of a Norton cultural affiliation for this level and is in fact a very acceptable date for the first Mackenzie Inuit occupation of Kittagazuit." The Chalk River AMS lab dated a mammoth tusk found on the beach in front of the site. A chipped stone tool was found nearby on the tidal flats, but the two objects are not necessarily related to one another.

Canada / NT / NiTr-2 (Kittigazuit) / S-612