This presentation will be in two parts.
The first part will summarize research, conducted in collaboration with
Allen P. McCartney, on the investigation of the nature and extent of prehistoric
Inuit bowhead whaling in the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. The focus will
be on the zooarchaeological aspects of the research, in particular how
mortality profiles can be used to address the question of active hunting
of bowheads as opposed to the scavenging of stranded bowhead carcasses.
The second part will summarize research, conducted in collaboration with
Arthur S. Dyke, that examines changes in the distribution and abundance
of naturally stranded 'drift' bowhead carcasses over the past 10,000 years.
These changes are in turn related to changing patterns of summer sea ice
conditions.
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