Context: The Dorset people were the first humans to settle the Arctic circle regions of North America around 800 BCE (although some say they've been there since 3200 BCE, their arrival date is a bit ambiguous).
They lived there for quite some time until around 1000 CE when three things happened:
- There was a "little Ice Age", where the Earth saw a massive drop in temperature, so it was even colder than usual in the Arctic Circle.
- The Thule people (ancestors of the modern Inuit people) had just arrived in North America and were settling the arctic circle region.
Between 1000 and (possibly) 1500 CE, the Thule civilization went extinct, and while we don't know exactly how they disappeared, there are a few theories:
- They failed to adapt to the massive temperature drop during the Little Ice Age period. This is the most likely correct theory because there is no evidence that they interacted with the Thule people, otherwise they would've lived long enough to interact.
- They were not as technologically advanced as the Thule people.
- They may have come in contact with the Norse, who probably transmitted a disease that wiped them out or contributed to their disappearance.
by MrStoccato
4 Comments
Not sure what your source is, but there’s substantial evidence that modern humans inhabited the Arctic regions of N America and Eurasia as much as 40 thousand years ago.
And we know for a fact that Berringia was inhabited during the last Ice Age and that many of those inhabitants eventually moved south and west to inhabit the rest of N America.
I have a feeling there are several species of bacteria that would contest that claim.
I have doubts about the Viking thingy since the Inuits had prolonged contact with them and didn’t suffer from Old World diseases until after the Colombian contact.
Inuits (the descendants of the Thule people) were incredibly hardy sailors. I mean, there are stories of Inuits kayaking down to Iceland, the British isles and Siberia from the Middle Ages onward.
It took stern stuff to do it in a drakkar, It needs crazy stubbornness to do it in a seal skin kayak!
Talking about kayaks, the Inuits used to go hunt whales in these! I mean… Think about it. Go in a kayak in subzeroes temperature, paddle your way through the Arctic Ocean up to a whale and harpoon it. Rinse and repeat it every “summer” (because you can’t go in winter, it’s dark for 6 months). Oh and by the way, not only they did that every year of their adult life, but they looked forward to it.
Meanwhile, people look at the Polynesians with awe: “oh you sailed on a catamaran several hundred kilometers of tropical sea to reach this island, living off “only” of breadfruit, coconut, sweet potatoes and the best tasting fishes in the world? Dear Lord, what a Calvary! Hey Margaret, come look at this fine young man! See the muscles and his well tanned, oiled skin… Oh Marge, I’m gonna feint, must be the heat.”
Meanwhile the Inuits…