Thule Culture's Transition to Inuit (1470s)

Timeline

1. 1471–1475Baffin Island · NunavutIn the 1470s Thule people widely used dog sleds, composite bows, and skin-covered frame boats (umiaks and kayaks), and withstood polar cold in semi-subterranean stone-and-wood winter houses. This combination of technologies made Arctic coastal hunting far more efficient than the vanished Dorset culture, supporting population growth and expansion eastward and northward.
2. 1473–1478West coast of Greenland · GreenlandThule communities hunted ringed seals, walrus, narwhal, and bowhead whales as their main prey, supplemented by caribou and birds. Distribution of hunting yields, seasonal rotation between winter and summer camps, and sharing rituals formed the core of social organization. In the 1470s Thule people on the west coast of Greenland had occasional contact with the declining Norse colonies (the Eastern Settlement had already been abandoned), but their society remained largely independent of Europe.
3. 1476–1480North Slope of Alaska · AlaskaFrom Alaska's North Slope to Greenland, Thule culture formed a dispersed network of communities along the Arctic coastline, linked by seasonal gatherings, intermarriage, and exchange of tool materials. The 1470s can be seen as a period of continuous transition from late Thule to Inuit culture; linguistic and cultural diversity flourished in the far north, laying the foundation for the later pattern of Inuit peoples.