Nipisat Island (

Kalaallisut Kalaallisut may refer to: * Greenlandic language * West Greenlandic West Greenlandic ( da, vestgrønlandsk), also known as Kalaallisut, is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of ...

: " Lumpfish", referring to the island's shape) is a small, uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Qeqqata Qeqqata (, da, Centrum, lit=Centre) is a municipality in western Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. The municipality was named after its location in the central-western part of the country. Its population is 9,378 as of January 2020. Th ...

municipality in central-western

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 ...

Geography

Nipisat Island is situated south of

Sisimiut Sisimiut (), formerly known as Holsteinsborg, is the capital and largest city of the Qeqqata municipality, the second-largest city in Greenland, and the largest Arctic city in North America.The term 'city' is loosely used to describe any popula ...

, on the shores of

Davis Strait Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer Jo ...

. It belongs to the group of small islands and skerries located at the mouth of

Ikertooq Fjord Ikertooq Fjord (old spelling: ''Ikertôq'') is a long fjord in the Qeqqata municipality in western Greenland. The fjord empties into Davis Strait south of Sisimiut. Geography The upper part of the fjord, a confluence of three tributary inle ...

, immediately to the west of

Sarfannguit Island Sarfannguit Island ( kl, Sarfannguit Nunataat, da, Sarfannguaqland) is an island in the Qeqqata municipality in western Greenland. Geography The island is of elongated shape, separated from the mainland of Greenland by Sarfannguit Channel, a n ...

. Dwarf scrub heath,

dwarf birch ''Betula nana'', the dwarf birch, is a species of birch in the family Betulaceae, found mainly in the tundra of the Arctic region. Description It is a monoecious, deciduous shrub growing up to high. The bark is non-peeling and shiny red-coppe ...

Arctic willow ''Salix arctica'', the Arctic willow, is a tiny creeping willow (family Salicaceae). It is adapted to survive in Arctic conditions, specifically tundras. Description ''S. arctica'' is typically a low shrub growing to only in height, rarely to ...

, well-drained

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Hans Egede Hans Poulsen Egede (31 January 1686 – 5 November 1758) was a Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inui ...

found native people actively engaged in hunting large whalebone whales in Nipisat and the

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...

established the first settlement, a trading station here. Two years later, a small mission was established on the island, but it was abandoned the following year, and then burnt down by

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

whalers. In 1727, the Norwegians Ditlev Vibe and Bishop Deichmann of Christiania recommended to the King of Denmark the re-establishment of a trade station at Nipisat and the establishment of a whaling station. In 1728,

Frederick IV of Denmark Frederick IV (Danish: ''Frederik''; 11 October 1671 – 12 October 1730) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of Christian V of Denmark-Norway and his wife Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel. Early lif ...

ordered a fortress be constructed at Nipisat, but two years later, he ordered its abandonment and evacuation.

Archaeology

The island is notable for its well preserved

Saqqaq culture The Saqqaq culture (named after the Saqqaq settlement, the site of many archaeological finds) was a Paleo-Eskimo culture in southern Greenland. Up to this day, no other people seem to have lived in Greenland continually for as long as the Saqqaq ...

archaeological site, containing some stone artifacts that were previously unknown from the Saqqaq culture. The Saqqaq people are not the ancestors of modern

Kalaallit Kalaallit make up the largest group of the Greenlandic Inuit and are concentrated in Kitaa. It is also a contemporary term in the Greenlandic language for the indigenous people living in Greenland (Greenlandic ''Kalaallit Nunaat'').Hessel, 8 Th ...

people, rather they are related to modern Chukchi and Koryak peoples.Walton, Doreen
"Analysis of hair DNA reveals ancient human's face."
''BBC News.'' (retrieved 11 February 2010) The site, named after the island, was discovered in 1989 by Finn Kramer, curator of the Sisimiut Museum.Gotfredsen, pp. 24 It lies approximately from the present coastline, situated on raised beaches with a southeastern slope. The area elevation ranges between and

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. This part of the island that contains the archaeological site, did not show signs of later occupation by

Dorset culture The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in ...

Thule culture The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people o ...

. However, it does show signs of pre-Dorset, and of

Arctic small tool tradition The Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) was a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait around 2500 BC. ASTt groups were the first human occupants of Arctic ...

. During the five year evacuation period of 1989–1994, over 70,000 bone fragments and approximately 1,000 artifacts were recovered, including 314 tools. On 30 June 2018, it was inscribed as part of Aasivissuit – Nipisat: Inuit Hunting Ground between Ice and Sea, a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

that stretches inland to the

Greenland Ice Sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( da, Grønlands indlandsis, kl, Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering , roughly near 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or under the term ''inland ice'', or its Danish equiva ...

. The world heritage site includes six other archaeological sites that each display different aspects of hunter-gatherer societies through 4000 years of occupation in Greenland.

References

{{Abandoned sites in Greenland Uninhabited islands of Greenland Archaeological sites in Greenland Former populated places in Greenland Human remains (archaeological) Prehistory of the Arctic 1989 archaeological discoveries Davis Strait