User:Anne Brygger/sandbox

Archaeological site[edit]
Archaeological evidence indicates that Point Barrow was first occupied between 300-400 AD by Ipiutak people. It was later occupied by the ancestors of the Iñupiat for over 1,000 years prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. Occupation continued into the 1940s. The headland is an important archaeological site, yielding burials and artifacts associated with the Thule culture and their Inupiat descendants, including uluit and bola. The waters off Point Barrow are on the bowhead whale migration route and it is surmised that the site was chosen to make hunting easier. There are other sites in the area, including the nearby Birnirk Site, associated with the earlier Birnirk culture, a pre-Thule culture first identified in 1912 by Vilhjalmur Stefansson while excavating in the area.

The settlement was called Nuvuk (which is the Iñupiaq name for the landform). It was near the "migration path of bowhead whales which would become the cultural and nutritional centre of Nuvuk life."