The impact of weapon technology on caribou drive system variability in the prehistoric Canadian Arctic

Caribou and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) played a central role in the economies of many past circumpolar peoples, and were hunted with a wide range of weapons and tactics. However, the factors leading to variability in these hunting methods are often unclear. This paper describes several large caribou drive systems on Victoria Island in the central Canadian Arctic, whose construction and use span at least a millennium. While the drives vary markedly, they tend to break down into two main types – one composed of more diffuse lines of stone cairns leading to wide gaps with shallow hunting blinds; the other composed of more robust stone walls leading to narrow gaps and substantial hunting blinds. Chronological information indicates that the first type is associated with Inuit occupations (ca. 1350 AD to the present), while the second type was used by people of the unrelated Dorset tradition (ca. 100 BC – 1350 AD in this region). Differences between the drive types are interpreted as resulting from constraints imposed by very different weapon types used by the two prehistoric peoples, with Inuit using bows and arrows for terrestrial game hunting, and Dorset using lances. Use of these different weapons led to divergent methods of exploiting caribou behavior, which in turn required construction of the contrasting drive systems.