Île du Petit Mécatina
| Île du Petit Mécatina | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Gulf of Saint Lawrence | |
| Archipelago | Archipelago du Petit Mécatina | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 34 ′ N , 59 ° 20 ′ W | |
|
||
| length | 14.8 km | |
| width | 3.6 km | |
| surface | 43 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 135 m | |
The Île du Petit Mécatina , in the language of the Innu Mikatnam Ministukua ('island of mountains'), is a Canadian island on the northern edge of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the far east of the province of Québec . The island is located in the Archipelago du Petit Mécatina , where only Harrington Island is inhabited. The island is located in front of the mouth of the Rivière du Petit Mécatina , south of the town of Tête-à-la-Baleine . Tête-à-la-Baleine is one of the four villages in the municipality of Côte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent .
The name 'Mécatina' goes back to the Innu's name for the island, while makatinau means ' It is a big mountain'. Although the island is two and a half times the size of the neighboring Île du Gros Mécatina , the names were chosen that way. This is due to the fact that the islands got their names after trading bases of the same name. Gros Mécatina was founded in 1740.
Basques can be found on the island between 1630 and 1713 , who regularly went whale hunting and fishing here . Overall, their seasonal presence in the region can be documented between 1517 and 1767. The remains were examined in the course of archaeological digs at the Hare Harbor site (EdBt-3). This site is located in a natural sheltered harbor that is overlooked by a rock. Countless red roof tiles that were used for roofs and paths were found there, as well as a forge and a bakery. Large quantities of ship ballast originating from the Bay of Biscay were found in the neighboring bay . This created anchorages, under which the archaeologists again discovered Spanish earthenware and Burgundian storage vessels, but also parts of barrels, guns, clay pipes, glass, tiles, as well as leftover clothes and shoes. The absence of harpoons , which were otherwise used to hunt harp seals , suggests that fishermen returned to Europe each year before these animals passed the island on their south migration.
Underwater archaeologists were able to carry out stratigraphic studies in front of the harbor . The bottom layer is shaped by the time the port was built and contains corresponding material. Above that, there are whale bones in a further layer, in the uppermost layer, finally, remains of cod , which replaced the whale as the main prey.
Before and during the Basque presence, Inuit lived on the island , a winter house of which was excavated at the Hare Harbor site in 2010 . The station was jointly maintained from around 1680 to 1730. South Labrador and the Strait of Belle Isle were used by them to get iron goods, boats and other European goods. However, their places of residence remained Central and Northern Labrador. But after the departure of the Basques, they also lived in the south and founded villages in Brador , Belles Amours and Petit Mécatina, where they also worked for the Basques.
A projectile point , a Maritime Archaic Indian point , of the Innu who lived on the island around 1000 documents contacts as far as Ramah Bay in northern Labrador, from where the starting material comes, the Ramah Chert . Before that lived around 500 BC. In turn, the Inuit groups on the island, known as Groswater Dorset , who used the same material for the manufacture of their tools and weapons.
literature
- Anja Herzog: L'Île du Petit Mécatina sur la Basse-Côte-Nord du Québec: Results Préliminaires des Analyzes Céramiques d'un site voué aux activités des peches Saisonières dans le Golf du Saint-Laurent entre le XVIe et le XVIIIe siècle , paper for the 133rd Congress of the Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, Québec 2008.
- Anja Herzog: The Study of Petit Mecatina 3 and the History of Whaling and Cod-Fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the XVIth to the early XVIIIth centuries , Amelia Island 2010.
- William W. Fitzhugh, Anja Herzog, Sophia Perdikaris, Brenna McLeod: Ship to Shore: Inuit, Early Europeans and Maritime Landscapes in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence , in: Ben Ford (Ed.): The Archeology of Maritime Landscapes , Springer , 2011, pp. 99-128.
- Brad Loewen, Vincent Delmas: The Basques in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Adjacent Shores , in: Canadian Journal of Archeology / Journal Canadien d'Archéologie 36 (2012) 351–404.
Web links
- Archaeologists Investigate an Early Whaling Community , website about the excavations on the island
- Commission de toponymie du Quebec
Remarks
- ^ Francis P. McManamon, George R. Milner, Linda S. Cordell, Kent G. Lightfoot (Eds.): Archeology in America. An Encyclopedia , ABC-CLIO, 2009, p. 90.