Journal
QUATERNARY RESEARCH
Volume 55, Issue 3, Pages 371-379Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1006/qres.2001.2228
Keywords
bowhead whale fossils; Beaufort Sea; Holocene climate change; Arctic sea-ice history; Thule culture; sea-level change
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The fossil remains of 43 bowhead whales were mapped on the raised beaches of western Wollaston Peninsula, Victoria Island, Canadian Arctic, near the historic summer range limit of the Bering Sea stock in the Beaufort Sea. The elevations and radiocarbon ages of the remains demonstrate that the bowhead ranged commonly into the region following the submergence of Bering Strait at ca, 10,000 C-14 yr B.P. until ca, 8500 C-14 yr B.P. During the same interval, bowheads ranged widely from the Beaufort Sea to Baffin Bay. Subsequently, no whales reached Wollaston Peninsula until ca, 1500 C-14 yr B.P. Late Holocene populations evidently were small, or occupations were brief, in comparison to those of the early Holocene. Although the late Holocene recurrence may relate to the expansion of pioneering Thule whalers eastward from Alaska, there are few Thule sites and limited evidence of Thule whaling in the area surveyed to support this suggestion. (C) 2001 University of Washington.
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