Middle Dorset settlement-subsistence patterns in western Newfoundland: a view from Broom Point

The reconstruction of Middle Dorset settlement-subsistence patterns along the west coast of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula has been hampered in the past by lack of information concerning variation in site types. Research has tended to concentrate on the intensive investigation of a single site type, the large semi-permanent base camp, and little is known about the smaller Middle Dorset sites of an apparently temporary or seasonal nature that exist in the region. -- Recent excavations at Broom Point, a small seasonal Palaeo-Eskimo site located in Gros Morne National Park, have succeeded in identifying at least two separate short-term Middle Dorset occupations in addition to an earlier, small Groswater phase component. The most prominent activity reflected in the Middle Dorset artifact assemblages from Broom Point relates to the manufacture and maintenance of stone tools, from the initial reduction of raw material (represented by a variety of local cherts) to the final stages of tool production. Other extractive pursuits, primarily marine related, and processing activities are also represented at the site, and seasonality is suggested as “non-winter,” with Broom Point likely representing a repeatedly occupied summer site. -- With regard to Middle Dorset settlement-subsistence patterns along the west coast of the Northern Peninsula, it is postulated that Middle Dorset populations in this region of Newfoundland represent northern coastal hunter-gatherers, characterized by a settlement pattern that includes the establishment of semi-permanent base camps, from which a seasonal departure of at least a portion of the population took place in the summer to small, more mobile camps along the coast (in response to a combination of ecological as well as cultural factors), with populations returning to the large semi-permanent bases in the fall. It is suggested that Broom Point represents such a seasonal site, although the exact location of the large semi-permanent site that it was connected to is unknown at present