
JOHN LEE/NATIONALMUSEET I KØBENHAVN, U.Å.
About 5,000 years ago, Paleo-Inuit migrated from northeastern Siberia across Alaska and Arctic Canada to Greenland.
The ancient times of Greenland are described on the basis of interpretations of archaeological remains. The first people left no written sources about who they were, what their religion was, how their societal structure had been built up, or what prerequisites they had for their existence. The interpretation of the material remains has been done in part by drawing parallels to the Inuit and their accounts in the form of legends and myths, among others.
The assumption that a Stone Age culture existed emerged in the 1830s, and over time archaeologists began to realise that the country’s ancient times were more complex than first thought.
However, the existence of an earlier and older culture than the Inuit culture was not definitively recognised until around the 1950s. The archaeologists gave the Arctic Stone Age peoples the term ‘palaeo-eskimos’ (palaeo = old), which is no longer used, as the word ‘Eskimo’ is generally perceived by the Inuit as derogatory. The pan-Inuit organisation ICC, adopted by resolution 2010‑2011, to replace the word Paleo-Eskimo with Paleo-Inuit because the word Eskimo is not part of the Inuit languages.
Archaeologists have named the Paleo-Inuit cultures according to their found sites in Independence Fjord, Saqqaq and Kinngait (Cape Dorset).
The Paleo-Inuit Culture
About 4,500 years ago, the first people from Arctic Canada immigrated across the Nares Strait to Greenland. They left traces in the landscape testifying to the fact that the first people have lived in all regions of the country.
Findings from Paleo-Inuit cultures have been dated from about 2500 BC to about 1350 AD. The remains are primarily stone tools and debris from making tools, as well as the remains of dwellings, because preservation of biodegradable materials such as bone, tusks and wood is far poorer.
The stone tools can most often be related to hunting, and the women, children and elderly of early huntergatherer societies are thus not as well represented as the men, which may give the impression of a cultural history predominantly characterised by masculinity.
Independence I (approx. 2500‑1800 BC)

EFTER DEN STORE DANSKE ENCYKLOPÆDI
The earliest Paleo-Inuit in Greenland are named Independence I by archaeologist Eigil Knuth, who first found remains from the culture in Independence Fjord in Northeast Greenland. The Independence I people immigrated from Arctic Canada to northwestern Greenland roughly 4,500 years ago, and they dispersed to the north, across Peary Land and further down the northeastern part of the country. Relative to subsequent cultures, the geographical distribution of the Independence I people was limited and population density was low.
Despite several variations in tool types, housing and game, some distinguishing features of this people can be highlighted. They are especially known for their exceptionally fine making of stone tools, made mostly of flint-like raw materials such as chalcedony and quartz, available in the northeastern part of the country. The tools were made by knapping with hammerstone and were then processed with pressure flakers made of bone, tusks or antler. The stone tools include arrow and lance points, side scrapers, end scrapers, microblades, burins and others, which could have had different functions. The chipped edges are serrated.
Tools made from bone or mammalian tusks include awls, which were presumably used to poke holes in skins, and side spurs for fish spears, as well as thin sewing needles made from bird bones with round drilled eyes of the needles.
Independence I lived throughout the year in round or oval tents with a skin covering. The dwelling often had an indoor mid-passage made of stones with a centrally located hearth. In the warmer seasons, the dwelling was characterised by having an outdoor hearth, typically square boxes built of thin stone slabs, and they were used as both light and heat sources, as well as for cooking. Some hearths were filled with fistsized rocks that have been construed as fire-cracked rocks used to heat the space and water as well as for cooking. Based on analyses of some dwellings with debris from making tools, the distribution of tool types is interpreted as if the dwelling was constructed with gender preferred workspaces.
In many midden deposits there is a preponderance of bones from muskoxen, which is why the archaeologists believe that Independence I primarily hunted muskoxen in the High Arctic, and that it was the hunt for these as well as the then warmer climate conditions that guided their migration to northernmost Greenland. Driftwood, which is deposited on the coasts of the Northeast Greenland by ocean currents in the Arctic Ocean, was also another important resource base. Although Independence I also exploited other terrestrial and marine mammals, it was the interaction between the warmer climate, the hunt for muskoxen and driftwood to use as fuel, which allowed them to live in the northernmost settlement in the world for a few hundred years.
Although the towns and settlements were concentrated in Northeast Greenland and thus geographically separated from the contemporary Saqqaq culture, which settled in the more southerly part of the country, there is great similarity between their tools and types of dwelling. Therefore, the Independence I and Saqqaq people are considered today to be one and the same people, characterised by differences in their resource base.
The Independence I people disappeared at the same time as a colder climate period began, but it may also have been societal dynamics that underpinned the end of the culture.
Saqqaq (approx. 2400‑700 BC)

Following archaeological findings at the Saqqaq settlement in Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay), the first people who settled on the west coast were named the Saqqaq culture by archaeologist Jørgen Meldgaard. Towns and settlements from the culture can be found along the west, south and east coasts. This suggests that they spread southwards from the north-west of the country and onwards up to Northeast Greenland.

PER OLE RINDEL, 1986.
Bottom photo: The settlement of Qeqertasussuk was inhabited all year round during the first period of the Saqqaq culture. Still, in the later phase of the culture, it was only occupied during the summer. The photo shows a drawing of what life on the summer settlement might may have looked like.
JENS ROSING, U.Å.
The Saqqaq people immigrated to the country largely at the same time as the Independence I culture, but a meeting between the two cultural groups has yet to be proven.
Despite Saqqaq’s long time span and wide geographic distribution, the culture is characterised by being homogenous and conservative. Most finds have been made in and around Qeqertarsuup Tunua as well as Sisimiut, where larger and extensive concentrations of towns and settlements can be found. Of these finds, most are dated back to the first 800 years of the culture’s presence (approx. 2400‑1600 BC), and then gradual changes are traced followed by extensive changes in the choice of raw materials and the construction of hunting and household tools, as well as in the selection of game and hunting methods.
Tools from the culture have been found in the towns and settlements that are made from driftwood, bone, tusks and antler. Among these are harpoon heads, shafts, sewing needles, spoons, bowls, and needle cases, some of which are simply decorated with lines and kayak-like vessels. Particularly well-preserved finds come from the Qeqertasussuk and Qajaa settlements in Qeqertarsuup Tunua and Nipisat south of Sisimiut. The finds have been in permafrost soil layers and provide a unique insight into a culture that existed several thousand years ago. For example, it has been possible to sequence a nearly complete genome from one DNA molecule. The genome, which turned out to originate from a man, was extracted from a knot of hair found in the compost heap in Qeqertasussuk. Finds of thin wooden strips have been interpreted as drum frames, which resemble Inuit skin drums, and finds of dog bones testify that the Saqqaq people kept dogs.
The killiaq (silicate slate) type of stone was the preferred raw material for stone tools. Only two sources are known, on the Nuussuaq Peninsula and in the southern part of Qeqertarsuup Tunua. The distribution of killiaq across vast distances attests to a vast network along the vast stretches of coastline. Raw materials for stone tools also included chalcedony and quartz, especially during the early period of the culture.
The stone tools were manufactured in the same way as by the Independence I culture; however, some tool types were given a final processing with polishing, especially in the later phase of the culture. The distinctive stone tools include two-sided weapon points, burins, end and side scrapers, lances, knife blades and axe blades. Hunting gear was nicely and precisely worked for the hunting of a wide variety of marine and terrestrial mammals.
The dwellings were round or oval tents with a central mid-passage and hearth for use in the cooler seasons. Tent rings with flagstone platforms and with a central hearth have been interpreted as winter dwellings. Dwellings from the warmer seasons often had hearths outside the tents. Soapstone vessels and lamps for lighting, heating and cooking have not been found from the early Saqqaq culture. Variations of stone hearths and fire-cracked rocks, on the other hand, characterise the early period of the culture. Around the year 1500 BC, soapstone vessels and small round soapstone lamps started to gain ground.
The Saqqaq people disappeared after 1,800 years of presence. It happened in parallel with climate change, which may have had significant implications for the presence of humans and animals. Saqqaq is the longest-lasting culture in Greenland.
Greenlandic Dorset (approx. 800 BC to 1 AD)

JOHN LEE/NATIONALMUSEET I KØBENHAVN, U.Å
A new immigration took place around 800 BC. The first finds from the culture known as Greenlandic Dorset were made in the 1920s in Cape Dorset (Kinngait) on Baffin Island in Arctic Canada. Over time, the culture was divided into three phases. The first two stages of culture were formerly called Independence II and Dorset I/Early Dorset, but are now assumed to be from one and the same cultural phase now known as Greenlandic Dorset.
Greenlandic Dorset spread rapidly along the west coast, often settling in the same places that the Saqqaq culture inhabited before. Like the Independence I people some 1,700 years earlier, Greenlandic Dorset spread northwards in the country and remained in Northeast Greenland, but moved further south to places where there were polynyas, open water areas surrounded by sea ice during the winter months. Polynyas attract marine mammals and birds and, therefore, they provided good hunting opportunities, especially at the end of the critical winter period.
Greenlandic Dorset were generally more marine oriented in their choice of game, but also exploited terrestrial mammals. For example, a specialised focus on caribou hunting has been demonstrated at some towns and settlements in the inland fjord systems of the west coast.

JOHN LEE/NATIONALMUSEET I KØBENHAVN, U.Å.
There are regional variations in the finds of tent dwellings, which are adapted to colder and warmer seasons. Dwellings for the cold season are partly built with peat on either side of the space. As with the previous cultural groups, stone tent rings with a central mid-passage or a central hearth were also used. Finds of parts of snow knives and sled shoes testify that in Greenlandic Dorset there was a more specialised use of snow and ice for dwellings than in the past, just as they have had sledges for winter use.
Dwellings for the warmer seasons are characterised by round or oval tent rings with outdoor box hearths. Double tent rings testify to a new form of dwelling in which two tents were built together.
New distinctive structures are triangular stone tile surfacing in dwellings that are interpreted as summer residence dwellings, as well as the fan-shaped ends of the central midpassage and the use of both multi-coloured and black stone tiles.
It is presumed that, for periods, Greenlandic Dorset in Northeast Greenland also lived in dwellings built of snow.
In addition to sled shoes and snow knives, there are some tool finds made from bone, tusks and antler, including harpoon heads, lances and thin needles that are pointed at both ends and equipped with a carved oblong needle eye. Finds of round and oval soapstone lamps or parts of vessels testify that these were used as sources of light or as containers.
A distinctive feature of Greenlandic Dorset is the use of colourful stone tools made of agate and chalcedony and rock crystal. Heat treatment before chipping stone tools is another characteristic, just as some stone tools have been polished. The stone tools were made with lashing notches by attaching them to a shaft or weapon, and end scrapers from the culture are characterised by bulging sides.
The possibility of a meeting between the Saqqaq people and Greenlandic Dorset is temporally not impossible; however, so far there is no evidence that they met. After Greenlandic Dorset, the country was depopulated for roughly 700 years until a new immigration from the west repopulated the country. While the country lay empty of human life, the Dorset culture however continued to exist in Arctic Canada, but the settlement moved to the more southern regions of Labrador and Newfoundland. This period of the Dorset culture is called Middle Dorset by archaeologists and no remains have yet been found from this period.
Late Dorset (approx. 700‑1350 AD.)

CANADIAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY, NIHF-4:93, CD1995‑0273‑028, U.Å.
The last Dorset period is characterised by the repopulation of the previously abandoned High Arctic areas. The Dorset culture, which is an offshoot of the Canadian culture, the Late Dorset, immigrated to Greenland and stayed in the north-westernmost regions of the country for about 600 years.
The late Dorset culture is the first archaeologically recognised and generally best-known of the Paleo-Inuit cultures. Although the evolution and relationship to the Canadian Middle Dorset and the Late Dorset is not entirely understood, it is assumed that the culture of Late Dorset developed locally from the Middle Dorset culture of Arctic Canada and Newfoundland. The archaeologists do not know the reason why the Late Dorset people spread to the High Arctic areas, but climate change during the medieval warm period is a generally accepted reason for their expansion into the High Arctic. However, an interplay is often seen between several conditions when cultures change.
The Late Dorset people developed a distinctive and conspicuous artistic tradition, which was usually small carved figurines made of bone, tusks, driftwood and soapstone, among others. They depict tools, people and animals in both naturalistic and abstract versions. At times, the figurines are seen decorated with carved symbols and signs. The tradition of making small figures is believed to be promoted by the Late Dorset culture’s use of the metals meteorite iron and copper for cutting tools. The figurines had different functions; some were related to spiritual practices, personal amulets, toys, ritual objects, while others illustrate the relationship between humans and animals as well as their surroundings.
The Late Dorset people also stand out in that they constructed buildings, which the archaeologists call longhouses or megaliths. The buildings are made of large stone blocks set in 8‑43 m-long parallel rows with internal width dimensions of 4‑6 m. It is uncertain whether the structures were originally covered with a skin roof, or if skin tents were erected inside the structures. On the whole, the purpose of the longhouses is not known. However, there is general agreement that these large buildings were constructed to be used for larger social gatherings, rather than for winter or summer dwellings.
The winter dwellings were depressed square dwellings which could measure 4 × 5 m and were constructed with peat walls. The finding of snow knives and the use of soapstone lamps with fuel from oil squeezed out or melted from the thick fat layers of marine mammals indicate that for periods they were able to live in snow huts.
The summer dwellings are very similar to the central mid-passage dwellings of the earlier cultures; however, flat stones with a recess have often been found at one of the sides of or in the central hearth. These are interpreted as pot holders.
One of the most notable things in all the Dorset peoples is that the use of the bow drill, bow and arrow disappears and no finds have been made which may suggest the use of oceangoing vessels as with the Inuit.
For Late Dorset, the population remained in the area at the Pikialasorsuaq polynya (the North Water), situated between Ellesmere Island and Northwest Greenland. Their hunting implements were custom designed for blowhole hunting on sea ice and hunting from the ice edge. The design of weapon tips and harpoon heads shows that they were specially made for hunting marine mammals.
Soapstone vessels and lamps are usually small round or oval vessels. The use of colourful types of stone is still prevalent; most especially agate, quartzite, rock crystal, basalt, shale and chalcedony were used.
Meteoric iron carved from meteor deposits at Savissivik in the northern part of Qimusseriarsuaq (Melville Bay) has been used for weapon tips and cutting tools, which were hammered into shape. Meteoric iron from Savissivik has also been found on Baffin Island and more westerly islands in Arctic Canada. Together with finds of natural copper from Kogloktok (Coppermine River) in the northwestern part of Arctic Canada, this testifies to a wide-ranging exchange network.
Finds of items from the Norse both in the northwest of Greenland, Ellesmere Island and Baffin Island also indicate that the network could include the Norse. If the situation was such, then the meeting between Late Dorset and the Norse closed the circle around the globe for human migration to the east and west more than 60,000 after populations emigrated from Africa.

Further reading
- Building customs and architecture
- Kujataa – farming on the brink of the ice sheet
- The Norse
- The Inuit culture, precolonial period
- The colonial period until the war years
- The mummies from Qilakitsoq, Pisissarfik and Uunartoq
- The mapping of Greenland
- The polar explorer Knud Rasmussen
- The strong Tuniit people
- Towns and settlements
Read more about History in Greenland