Eskimo Island

Figure 13. Chondtite-normalized REE patterns for soapstone from the central Labrador coast. Dashed curves (%--%) outline the range of three samples from the Moore s Island, Okak outcrops (M) and two artifacts made of this soavstone. The Eskimo Island (O) artifact is from a Labrador Eskimo site (historic period) in Hamilton Inlet and the Koliktakik (A) artifact is from a soapstone pot from a late Dorset Eskimo site in the Nain region. A sample of the soapstone outcrop near Vanse aux Meadows (L) is shown (0) along with the Viking spindle whorl (A) made from this material.

This method was used in the examination of an Eskimo who died 1600 years ago. The body was discovered in a frozen state on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska in 1972 and remained frozen until it was brought to Fairbanks in 1973. Examination of the female individual revealed that she had a skull fracture, probably resulting from instant bunal caused by a landslide. Aspaitic acid laceiuization analysis of a tooth from the mummy yielded an age at death of 53 5 years, which correlated well with earlier estimates based upon morphological features. This method is an example of the need to preserve mummies (Alaskan. Egyptian, and Peruvian, among others) for application of new dating techniques as they develop. 

Their daring journey across the North Atlantic was made in a series of shorter trips from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to the Western Isles (Britain and Ireland) and then to the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and eventually to Newfoundland in eastern Canada (Fig. 7.4). The Vikings took over parts of Britain and Ireland by AD 800 and occupied many of the island groups in the northern British Isles, including the Shedands, Orkneys, and Hebrides. As explorers and colonists, tliey were the first people to settle on the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland (ad 874). In North America, the Eskimos and American Indians had been present for thousands of years. 

They include Africans, Hispanics, Padlic Islanders, Asians, East Indians, Aleuts, Eskimos, Middle Easterners, Caribbeans, Arabs, and Malaysians. 

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