Emma Vitale & Bjarne Grønnow

During a British expedition to the Arctic headed by John Ross in 1818, a dogsled made of bones was procured from the Inughuit people in Northwest Greenland, hitherto unknown to Europeans. We present a contextual and technological analysis of this, the oldest known dogsled from the Arctic still intact. Our work leads to discovery of a hidden artefact, a dog whip mounted on the sled. This study highlights that the bone sled reflects a historic period of the early nineteenth century, during which the Inughuit were isolated. We conclude that the dogsled technocomplex (an integrated system of technological components and processes) both demonstrates the opportunistic ingenuity of the Inughuit and has shaped important aspects of the society through time.

Emma Vitale is a PhD fellow in Arctic archaeology at Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland), Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu (National Museum and Archives of Greenland), the National Museum of Denmark, and the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on Greenlandic dog sledding culture, the origins of the dog sledding complex, and the material culture associated with the practice. 

Bjarne Grønnow holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Arctic archaeology and is a research professor emeritus at the Arctic Institute. He was formerly a lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Historical-Archaeological Experimental Center in Lejre. In 1999, he founded and led the Greenland Research Center at the National Museum, SILA, and served as senior researcher and research professor at the Ethnographic Collection, National Museum of Denmark, until the spring of 2025.