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22-616: Due to its vast geographical expanse and to history of research, the Pre-Dorset is difficult to define. The term was coined by Collins (1956, 1957) who recognised that there seemed to be people that lived in the Eastern Canadian Arctic prior to the Dorset, but for whose culture it was difficult to give the defining characteristics. Hence, for Collins and others afterward, the term is a catch-all phrase for all occupations of

44-558: A polar desert ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation. Cape Liddon is an Important Bird Area (IBA) notable for its black guillemot and northern fulmar populations. Cape Vera , another IBA site, is also noted for its northern fulmar population. Devon Island is also notable for the presence of the Haughton impact crater , created some 39 million years ago when a meteorite about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter crashed into what were then forests. The impact left

66-654: A crater about 23 km (14 mi) in diameter, which was a lake for several million years. The Devon Island Research Station was established in 1960 and it is maintained by the Arctic Institute of North America . It is located in Truelove Lowland, on the northeast coast of Devon Island ( 75°40′N 84°35′W  /  75.667°N 84.583°W  / 75.667; -84.583 ). The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station project entered its third season in 2004. In July 2004, Devon Island became

88-438: A meagre population of muskox and small birds and mammals; the island does support hypolith communities. Animal life is concentrated in the Truelove Lowland area of the island, which has a favourable microclimate and supports relatively lush Arctic vegetation. Temperatures during the brief (40 to 55 days) growing season seldom exceed 10 °C (50 °F), and in winter can plunge to as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). With

110-587: Is located off the south coast of Grinnell Peninsula in a small bay on the south coast of Devon Island in Nunavut , Canada . The site received its current name by Sir Edward Belcher when he sought refuge there in 1852–1853 from moving ice during his voyage in search of the missing Franklin Expedition . Port Refuge contains archaeological evidence of early human occupation of the High Arctic over

132-620: The Haughton–Mars Project . The Island's freezing temperatures, isolation, and remoteness offer scientists matchless research opportunities. Devon Island’s harsh climate and barren terrain endeared it to NASA as the Arctic day and night cycle and restricted communications capabilities offer challenges similar to those presented by long-duration space flights. HMP has conducted geological , hydrological , botanical , and microbiological studies in this harsh environment since 1997. HMP-2008

154-528: The Independence I culture , the other to Pre-Dorset. Due to the often poor preservation of organic material and the fact that bones from marine mammals can appear older with radiocarbon dating than their actual age (the marine reservoir effect ), it is typically difficult to date Arctic sites. But the Independence I settlement is several metres higher above sea level, and McGhee took this to mean that

176-665: The Queen Elizabeth Islands , Canada's sixth-largest island , and the 27th-largest island in the world . It has an area of 55,247 km (21,331 sq mi) (slightly smaller than Croatia ). The bedrock is Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales . The highest point is the Devon Ice Cap at 1,920 m (6,300 ft) which is part of the Arctic Cordillera . Devon Island contains several small mountain ranges , such as

198-615: The Treuter Mountains , Haddington Range and the Cunningham Mountains . The notable similarity of its surface to that of Mars has attracted interest from scientists. Robert Bylot and William Baffin were the first Europeans to sight Devon Island in 1616. William Edward Parry charted its south coast in 1819–20, and named it North Devon, after Devon in England, a name which was changed to Devon Island by

220-534: The Eastern Canadian Arctic that predated the Dorset. To Taylor (1968) and Maxwell (1973), however, the Pre-Dorset were a distinct cultural entity, ancestral to the Dorset, and that lived in the Low Arctic of Canada with a number of incursions into High Arctic. At the site of Port Refuge on the Grinnell Peninsula , Devon Island , McGhee distinguished two sets of occupations, one that he ascribed to

242-613: The Independence I dwellings are arranged linearly with mid-passage features. The Pre-Dorset is generally restricted to the Low Arctic, and given that incursions to the High Arctic are rare, incursions into Greenland from the High Arctic are even rarer. Grønnow and Jensen (2003:42-43) ascribe one small site in Greenland to the Pre-Dorset, the only one to date. This is a mid-passage dwelling in Solbakken, Hall Land, just across from

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264-534: The Independence I settlement was roughly 300 years older than the Pre-Dorset one at Port Refuge. Indeed, assuming that settlers are always close to the water, because sea levels fell over the centuries, older sites are expected to lie higher above the sea. Most features that McGhee believed different between the Pre-Dorset and Independence I settlements of Port Refuge are problematic and cannot systematically be used to distinguish their cultural affiliation. It has been suggested that Pre-Dorset and Independence I are parts of

286-580: The Low Arctic. But the complex is known from a number of occupations in the High Arctic as well, namely to the north of Baffin Island, on the islands of Devon and Ellesmere. One important site, the Port Refuge National Historic Site of Canada , on Devon Island, hosts occupations ascribed to the Pre-Dorset and others ascribed to Independence I. At this site, Pre-Dorset dwellings are clustered and show no mid-passage feature, whereas

308-706: The Nares Strait, separating Canada from Greenland. This occupation was identified as Pre-Dorset on the basis of the re-sharpening technique of the burins, as well as other lithic characteristics. There is an Independence I occupation at the same site that the authors believe more ancient than the Pre-Dorset on grounds of altitude (21 vs. 19 m). It appears probable that surveys or re-analysis of excavated material will reveal more Greenlandic Pre-Dorset occupations. A genetic study published in Science in August 2014 examined

330-519: The end of the 1800s. In 1850, Edwin De Haven sailed up Wellington Channel and sighted the Grinnell Peninsula . An outpost was established at Dundas Harbour in 1924, and it was leased to Hudson's Bay Company nine years later. The collapse of fur prices led to the dispersal of 52 Baffin Island Inuit families on the island in 1934. It was considered a disaster due to wind conditions and

352-536: The last 4000 years. There is evidence of Paleo-Eskimo and Pre-Dorset culture occupations. Earliest occupation was Independence I culture at approximately 2000  BCE . There is evidence of the Thule culture occupation from 1200 to 1500  CE . There is a Thule winter village including five winter houses near the entrance to the bay containing Norse and Asiatic objects. These show evidence of trade with medieval Norse colonies of Greenland . Port Refuge

374-522: The much colder climate, and the Inuit chose to leave in 1936. Dundas Harbour was populated again in the late 1940s, but it was closed again in 1951. Only the ruins of a few buildings remain today. Devon Island is located between Ellesmere Island in the north, Cornwallis Island in the west, and Baffin Island in the south, separated by Lancaster Sound . Because of its relatively high elevation and its extreme northern latitude, Devon Island supports only

396-619: The remains of a Pre-Dorset individual buried in Rocky Point, Canada between c. 2140 BC and 1800 BC. The sample of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup D4e . The examined individual was found to be closely related to peoples of the Saqqaq culture and Dorset culture . The ancestors of the Saqqaq, Pre-Dorset and Dorset probably migrated from Siberia to North America in a single migration around 4000 BC. Port Refuge Port Refuge

418-402: The same culture. Maxwell divided the Pre-Dorset in four phases, a scheme refined by Murray: It is typically difficult to ascribe a Pre-Dorset site to one of these four phases without relying on radiocarbon dates. The Low Eastern Arctic, namely Arctic regions on Baffin Island or to the south, are usually considered the core area of the Pre-Dorset. Most Pre-Dorset occupations are known from

440-463: The temporary home for five scientists and two journalists, who were to use the Mars-like environment to simulate living and working on that planet. April 2007 through 21 August 2007 was the longest simulation period and included 20 scientific studies. The Haughton crater is now considered one of the world's best Mars analog sites. It is the summer home to NASA 's complementary scientific program,

462-579: Was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1978. Devon Island Devon Island ( Inuktitut : ᑕᓪᓗᕈᑎᑦ , Tallurutit ) is an island in Canada and the largest uninhabited island (no permanent residents) in the world. It is located in Baffin Bay , Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut , Canada. It is one of the largest members of the Arctic Archipelago , the second-largest of

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484-607: Was the twelfth field season at Devon Island. In 2007, fossils of the seal ancestor Puijila darwini were found on the island. On July 16, 2013, the Canadian Space Agency assigned Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen to a secondment with the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration of the University of Western Ontario at Haughton Crater in preparation for a potential future crewed exploration of Mars,

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