James A. Tuck, (June 28, 1940 – May 10, 2019) was an American-born archaeologist whose work as a faculty member of the

Memorial University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...

was focused on the early history of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

Career

Tuck was born in Buffalo in 1940; he received a doctoral degree from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. He subsequently began teaching and practicing archaeology as a faculty member at

.Recipient biography
at ''Order of Newfoundland and Labrador'', Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Since the late 1960s, Tuck focused his archaeological work in Newfoundland and Labrador. His early work included unearthing the

Maritime Archaic The Maritime Archaic is a North American cultural complex of the Late Archaic along the coast of Newfoundland, the Canadian Maritimes and northern New England. The Maritime Archaic began in approximately 7000 BC and lasted into the 18th century. ...

burial ground at

Port au Choix Port au Choix or Port aux Choix (, ; from misanalyzed to mean 'choice port', from eu, Portutxoa , meaning 'little port') is a town in the Canada, Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Demographi ...

. From 1977 until the late 1980s he excavated the sixteenth century Basque whaling station at Red Bay Labrador. Starting in 1969 he led teams that excavated Inuit graves on Rose Island which is now in Torngat Mountains National Park. which is viewed by the local Inuit as a desecration and robbery. This led to the remains of 113 Inuit – 100 from Rose Island and 13 from Upernavik Island being repatriated and reburied in a common grave in 1995. A further 11 Inuit remains were repatriated in a special ceremony on August 16, 2011, attended by the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunatsiavut President Jim Lyall. Rose Island Torngats Reburial

Since the late 1980s, Tuck worked on unearthing the

Province of Avalon The Province of Avalon was the area around the English settlement of Ferryland in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in the 17th century, which upon the success of the colony grew to include the land held by Sir William Vaughan and a ...

located at

Ferryland Ferryland is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the Avalon Peninsula. According to the 2021 Statistics Canada census, its population is 371. Seventeenth century settlement Ferryland was originally established as a station for migratory fis ...

. To date the dig has found and catalogued over two million artifacts from the site. Tuck was a supporter of

Patricia Sutherland Patricia D. Sutherland is a Canadian archaeologist, specialising in the Arctic. She is an adjunct professor at Carleton University, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen, and sole proprietor of Northlands Research. Much of her re ...

's controversial theoryBarber, Elizabeth Wayland (1992
''Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean''
Princeton University Press, "We now have at least two pieces of evidence that this important principle of twisting for strength dates to the

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

. In 1953, the Abbé Glory was investigating floor deposits in a steep corridor of the famed

Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of ...

caves in southern France ..a long piece of Palaeolithic cord ..neatly twisted in the S direction ..from three Z-plied strands .. that there was

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an contact with the

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, hundreds of years before the Norse started settling in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

in 985 CE. He died on May 10, 2019, at the age of 79 at Martha's Vineyard Hospital in

Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts Oak Bluffs is a town located on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,341 at the 2020 United States Census. It is one of the island's principal points of arrival for summer tourists ...

Awards

* 1982 elected to fellowship in the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

* 2004 awarded the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador * 2009 awarded The Smith-Wintemberg Award by the

Canadian Archaeological Association The Canadian Archeological Association (CAA) is the primary archaeological organization in Canada. The CAA was founded in 1968 by a group of archaeologists that included William E. Taylor, the head of the Archaeology Division at the National Museum ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuck, James 1940 births 2019 deaths Memorial University of Newfoundland faculty Members of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador People from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador People from New York (state) Canadian archaeologists