Pre-Dorset - 1800 to 500 BC

Three tiny stone microblades, from the Middle Dorset period, only about 4 cm (1½ inches) long (on right), which were removed from the stone core on left (Max Friesen).

Pre-Dorset people probably used this tiny broken barbed point for fishing (Max Friesen).

Archaeologists at work on the earliest site at Iqaluktuuq – the Wellington Bay site – occupied by Pre-Dorset people almost 4000 years ago (Max Friesen).

The earliest settlement of Iqaluktuuq was by Pre-Dorset people around 1800 BC (almost 4000 years ago). At this time, Iqaluktuuq was not yet a river – sea levels were much higher, and Pre-Dorset people settled on a series of islands where they hunted seals and caribou. The Pre-Dorset way of life was very different from the Tuniit and Inuit who followed them. They moved around often, and lived in very small groups of only one or two families for most of the year. Pre-Dorset sites at Iqaluktuuq contain thousands of stone flakes left behind as waste after they made finely crafted arrowheads, spear points, and cutting tools. We have not found any Pre-Dorset living structures, although they must have lived in skin tents for much of the year.