Curator to return to Resolute to unearth Thule homes

A Canadian curator who has written books on the Arctic hopes to further uncover the history of Canadian Inuit ancestors this summer by excavating Thule houses near Resolute, Nunavut.

With the help of International Polar Year funding, Robert McGhee, an curator of Arctic archeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and McGill University archeology doctoral student Sarah Hazell plan to excavate two Thule-era houses about four kilometreswest of the community, starting in late June.

McGhee, whose books include The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic, has been excavating and restoring three of the area's 800- to 1,000-year-old winter houses that belonged to the Thule Inuit, the ancestors of present-day Canadian Inuit.

To help in their latest effort, McGhee said he is looking to hire four local high school students this summer.

"I hope that they will develop a greater interest in the Inuit past," he said. "It will give them a better sense of where their people came from, what kind of people they are and how they fit into the larger world."

One of the reconstructed houses, which have become tourist attractions, has a roof made of large whale bones. While McGheecautioned that there won't bea similarreconstruction this summer, due to a lack of whale bones, he hopes the new work will continue to educate and entertain Resolute residents and visitors.

"Local people have expressed interest in what these old ruins tell about their ancestors, and it provides a bit of a heritage resource for the school kids to get in touch with the past, for local outfitters to have something to show the tourists while they're waiting to get on the plane and so on," he said.

Hazell said she wants to put a more precise date on the Thule houses this summer, thus helping to resolve debate on when the Thule Inuit came to Canada from Alaska. Experts have pegged their arrival from 800 to 1,000 years ago and Hazell said carbon-dating uncovered artifacts may determine which end of the range is more accurate.

"Having really good radio carbon dates is going to be very important in terms of either proving or disproving either hypothesis," she said.

Hazell said they are also planning to restore the Thule houses to their previous state and create more of a tourist attraction.

McGhee and Hazell will continue their work next summer. A total of four homes will be excavated and restored over the next two summers.