Independence II was a
Paleo-Eskimo
The Paleo-Eskimo (also pre-Thule or pre-Inuit) were the peoples who inhabited the Arctic region from Chukotka (e.g., Chertov Ovrag) in present-day Russia across North America to Greenland prior to the arrival of the modern Inuit (Eskimo) and rel ...
culture that flourished in northern and northeastern
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 ...
from around 700 to 80 BC, north and south of the
Independence Fjord. The Independence II culture existed in roughly the same areas of Greenland as the
Independence I culture, which became extinct six centuries before the beginning of Independence II.
Independence II is attested in northern Greenland by settlements on central
Peary Land. There, it is estimated that the Independence II population was of no more than four to six families, and that it must therefore have been in contact with people of Ellesmere island in Canada or with people in north-eastern Greenland.
It has been argued that there is virtually no difference in the material cultures of Independence II and the contemporary
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 ...
in southern Greenland, locally known as Dorset I. Those who lump these two entities together refer to them jointly as ''Greenlandic Dorset''.
Unlike Independence II, to the south, Dorset I persisted to at least AD 800.
Danish explorer Eigil Knuth first recognised the existence of Independence I and II.
[Dan Laursen, "Eigil Greve Knuth (1903-1996)"](_blank)
''Arctic'', University of Calgary, Dec 1006, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 401-403, accessed 13 Apr 2010
References
Archaeological cultures of North America
Archaeology of Greenland
Prehistory of the Arctic
Peary Land
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