Groswater – Early Palaeoeskimo

The Groswater Palaeoeskimo, so named because of the place of their first cultural identification, Groswater Bay, reached the island of Newfoundland sometime after 3000 years ago. Some archaeologists believe these Palaeoeskimo may have moved south to Newfoundland during a period when the climate cooled. Their arctic adaptation would have helped to prepare them for the exploitation of marine resources. Since the Palaeoeskimo were even more marine focussed than the Maritime Archaic Indian, some also believe, they may have out-competed the Maritime Archaic Indian for the resources.

Groswater populations spread quickly across the island, efficiently utilizing the coastal what the coastal environment had to offer; namely seals. Although still believed to have been solely sea-mammal hunters, work being done at the Peat Garden site indicates that these people were availing of a wide variety of food sources, including birds. Also, the radiocarbon dates from charcoal in a hearth found at the site in Bird Cove in 2001, shows this culture to have inhabited the area as recently as 1750 years ago; this is two to three hundred years earlier than any other Groswater Palaeoeskimo site on the island of Newfoundland. This new information may help to solve some of the questions about the relationship between the Groswater and Dorset Palaeoekimo, since at this time archaeologists do not know if these are two groups in a cultural continuum or two different ones altogether.

Assorted Groswater Palaeoeskimo artifacts.

Both Groswater and the later Dorset Palaeoeskimo had miniature tools for big tasks such as sea mammal hunting and processing. Both cultures had tiny microblades, scrapers, and asymmetric knives. The two groups also had burin-like tools, although those of the Groswater were chipped and ground, whereas the Dorset were ground only. The Groswater Palaeoeskimo had a box-based endblade and some triangular blades whereas the Dorset had tip-fluted endblades as armature for the tips of harpoons. The Dorset also used soapstone which is not characteristic of the Groswater Palaeoeskimo.

At the Peat Garden site, there are two cultures represented; the Groswater Palaeoeskimo and the Cowhead Complex Recent Indian. The original surface of the Peat Garden site is dolomite bedrock and beach cobbles. This is the surface that the Groswater Palaeoeskimo would have lived on during their occupation of the site between 2210 – 1750 B.P. It would seem that at about the same time that the Groswater Palaeoeskimo left the Peat Garden site, peat began to form. All Groswater Palaeoeskimo artifacts are found lying directly on the dolomite beach surface, whereas the Recent Indian material is found suspended in the organic, rich reddish brown peat layer.

Peat Garden Soil Profile

The presence of calcium, magnesium and carbonates in the dolomite rock formation, provides basic conditions that promote bone preservation….an archaeologist’s treasure. The faunal remains found at the Groswater Palaeoeskimo site were in direct contact with the dolomite and are very well preserved; not the case of the Recent Indian peat site.