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Lab number
GSC-1899
Material dated
whale bone collagen; collagène osseux de baleine
Taxa dated
Balaena mysticetus rib?
Locality
at the east side of the entrance to Muskox Fiord, 3.5 m asl, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut
Map sheet
49 B/05
Submitter
W. Blake, Jr.
Date submitted
September 2, 0097
Normalized Age
1110 ± 80
δ13C (per mil)
-14.9
Significance
Neoeskimo; Néoesquimau
Context
structural component of a house
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Balaena mysticetus
Comments
RcHw-1, Muskox Fiord: The dated whale bone, probably part of a rib, was one of two small pieces fitted into larger bones forming the base and lower wall of a house structure, the middle and main house of several house ruins at the site. Sea level cannot have been more than 1.5 m higher that present during the occupation or the lowest entrance tunnels to the houses would have been flooded by high water. If the bones derived from a whale killed by the occupants of the house, this age determination reinforces the data from the Cape Storm area, on the west side of the entrance to the fiord (Blake, 1972) that land uplift during the past few centuries has been negligible. If the bone derived from a whale that died before the site was occupied, then the age cannot be used to pin-point the position of sea level but does put a limiting date on the time of site occupancy.

References