Ruin Island is a small island off the coast of the

Inglefield Land Inglefield Land is an unglaciated area along the northwestern coast of Greenland. It was named after English explorer Edward Augustus Inglefield. History Inglefield Land is noted for its archaeological sites, which show evidence of occupation by ...

region of northwest

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 the 1930s, Danish archaeologist

Erik Holtved Dr. Erik Holtved ( Greenlandic nickname: ''Erissuaq''; translation: "Big Eric") (21 June 1899 in Fredericia, Denmark – 1981 in Copenhagen, Denmark) was a Danish artist, archaeologist, linguist, and ethnologist. He was the first university ...

discovered the remains of human habitation on the island. The culture associated with this archaeological site became known as the Ruin Island phase of

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 ...

. Items traded by the

Greenlandic Norse Greenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found in Greenland. The limited ...

travelled as far as Ruin Island.

History

The earliest known inhabitants of Ruin Island are ancestors of the Inuit known as Thule culture, named after the nearby archeologic site of Thule. These Thule culture inhabitants have been estimated to arrive at Ruin Island between 1280 and 1330.The Northern World: AD 900–1400. Edited by Herbert Maschner, Owen Mason, and Robert McGhee. 2009

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Inglefield Land Archaeological Project page about Ruin Island
Islands of Greenland Inuit history Archaeological cultures of North America Greenlandic Inuit people Prehistory of the Arctic