The Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) was a broad cultural entity that developed along the
Alaska Peninsula, around
Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the
Bering Strait around
2500 BC. ASTt groups were the first human occupants of Arctic Canada and Greenland. This was a terrestrial entity that had a highly distinctive toolkit based on
microblade technology. Typically tool types include
scrapers,
burins and side and end blades used in composite
arrows or
spears made of other materials, such as
bone or
antler. Many researchers also assume that it was Arctic Small Tool populations who first introduced the
bow and arrow to the
Arctic, that eventually became the
Eskimo archery material culture. ASTt camps are often found along coasts and streams, to take advantage of
seal or
salmon populations. While some of the groups were fairly nomadic, more permanent, sod-roofed homes have also been identified from Arctic Small Tool tradition sites.
According to Pavel Flegontov, ASTt may have originated in East Siberia about 5,000 years ago,
"
Paleo-Eskimo archeological cultures are grouped under the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt), and include the Denbigh, Choris, Norton, and
Ipiutak cultures in Alaska, and the Saqqaq, Independence, Pre-Dorset, and Dorset cultures in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. The ASTt source has been argued to lie in the
Syalakh-Bel’kachi-
Ymyakhtakh culture sequence of East Siberia, dated to 6,500 – 2,800 calBP."[1][2]
The earliest form of the Norton tradition of Alaska is known as the
Choris Stage (ca. 1600—500 BC).[3] The sites are mostly coastal and contain pottery similar to that of Siberia. This culture expanded as far as the
Mackenzie River Delta and
Banks Island.[3]
Genetic DNA studies also support the connections.[4]
References
^Flegontov, Pavel; Altinişik, N. Ezgi; Changmai, Piya; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; et al. (2017-10-13). "Paleo-Eskimo genetic legacy across North America".
bioRxiv10.1101/203018.
^Flegontov, Pavel; Altınışık, N. Ezgi; Changmai, Piya; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Adamski, Nicole; Bolnick, Deborah A.; Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen; Candilio, Francesca; Culleton, Brendan J.; Flegontova, Olga; Friesen, T. Max; Jeong, Choongwon; Harper, Thomas K.; Keating, Denise; Kennett, Douglas J.; Kim, Alexander M.; Lamnidis, Thiseas C.; Lawson, Ann Marie; Olalde, Iñigo; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Potter, Ben A.; Raff, Jennifer; Sattler, Robert A.; Skoglund, Pontus; Stewardson, Kristin; Vajda, Edward J.; Vasilyev, Sergey; Veselovskaya, Elizaveta; Hayes, M. Geoffrey; O’Rourke, Dennis H.; Krause, Johannes; Pinhasi, Ron; Reich, David; Schiffels, Stephan (2019).
"Palaeo-Eskimo genetic ancestry and the peopling of Chukotka and North America"(PDF). Nature. 570 (7760): 236–240.
Bibcode:
2019Natur.570..236F.
doi:
10.1038/s41586-019-1251-y.
ISSN0028-0836.
PMC6942545.
PMID31168094.
^
abStern, Pamela (2009). The A to Z of the Inuit. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 42.
ISBN978-0-8108-6822-9.
^Flegontov, Pavel; Altınışık, N. Ezgi; Changmai, Piya; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Adamski, Nicole; Bolnick, Deborah A.; Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen; Candilio, Francesca; Culleton, Brendan J.; Flegontova, Olga; Friesen, T. Max; Jeong, Choongwon; Harper, Thomas K.; Keating, Denise; Kennett, Douglas J.; Kim, Alexander M.; Lamnidis, Thiseas C.; Lawson, Ann Marie; Olalde, Iñigo; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Potter, Ben A.; Raff, Jennifer; Sattler, Robert A.; Skoglund, Pontus; Stewardson, Kristin; Vajda, Edward J.; Vasilyev, Sergey; Veselovskaya, Elizaveta; Hayes, M. Geoffrey; O’Rourke, Dennis H.; Krause, Johannes; Pinhasi, Ron; Reich, David; Schiffels, Stephan (2019).
"Palaeo-Eskimo genetic ancestry and the peopling of Chukotka and North America"(PDF). Nature. 570 (7760): 236–240.
Bibcode:
2019Natur.570..236F.
doi:
10.1038/s41586-019-1251-y.
ISSN0028-0836.
PMC6942545.
PMID31168094.
Further reading
Bielawski, E. (January 1988). "Paleoeskimo Variability: The Early Arctic Small-Tool Tradition in the Central Canadian Arctic". American Antiquity. 53 (1). Cambridge University Press: 52–74.
doi:
10.2307/281154.
JSTOR281154.
Fagan, Brian. Ancient North America. Thames & Hudson, London. 2005, p. 179-81.
Grønnow, Bjarne (2012). "The Backbone of the Saqqaq Culture: A Study of the Nonmaterial Dimensions of the Early Arctic Small Tool Tradition". Arctic Anthropology. 49 (2). University of Wisconsin Press: 58–71.
JSTOR24475857.
Stewart, Henry (1989). "The Arctic Small Tool tradition and early Canadian Arctic Palaeo-Eskimo cultures". Études Inuit Studies. 13 (2). Université Laval: 69–101.
JSTOR42869667.