Denbigh Culture

The Denbigh culture flourished in the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic from about 3000 - 4000 B.C. until about 1000 B.C. The culture is named for a noteworthy type site that was discovered and described by J.L. Giddings on the Seward Penninsula - Iyatayet on Cape Denbigh. The Denbigh Culture is associated with a well defined tool complex called The Arctic Small-Tool Tradition by Giddings. This tool complex type is distiguished by specific and unique styles of small, fine, pressure flaked flint blades and bladelets. Many of these blades were probably set in the sides of grooved antler or bone handles and points. This tool complex is found all across the coastal Arctic from Alaska to Greenland and occurs first in the west moving east through time. The Denbigh people lived on the coastal Arctic tundra in constant pursuit of game animals for food, clothing and shelter. They greatly developed the sophisticated technology necessary to survive the extemes of the high Arctic. The Denbigh became an accomplished Arctic-adapted culture, spending the summers on the Bering Sea coast hunting marine mammals and perhaps moving inland in winter to hunt caribou. The Denbigh did not, however, develop stone or pottery lamps for burning seal oil or pottery vessels for cooking. Many fire-cracked hearth stones suggest cooking may have been done by stone boiling in hide bags or bark baskets.

From:

Barnett, Don C. "Prehistoric Inuit Cultures." Posted: 25 May 1999. Accessed: 30 Nov. 1999. Available: http://www.uask.ca/education/ideas/tplan/sslp/pre.htm

Willey, Gordon R. An Introduction to American Archaeology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1966