Discovery of the Skull of a Grizzly Bear in Labrador

Abstract

The skull of a small, young adult grizzly bear was discovered in the course of archaeological excavation of an early historic Eskimo house in northern Labrador. This discovery confirms the rumoured presence of Ursus arctm in Labra-dor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is suggested that the Labrador grizzly represents an eastward extension of the barren-ground grizzly population across the mouth of Hudson Bay. RhUMfi. DJcouverte d'un crane de grizzli QU Labrador. Le crâne d'un petit et jeune grizzli adulte fut dicouvert au cours de fouilles archéologiques destin& 8 mettre 8 jour une des premihes maisons historiques esquimaudes dans le nord du Labrador. Cette découverte confirme la rumeur de la prCsence de I'Ursus arctos au Labrador au cours des dix-huitihme et dix-neuvihme siècles. L'auteur sugghge que le grizzli du Labrador reprknte une extension vers l'est de la population grizzli de l'autre cat6 de la bouche de la mer d'Hudson. THE SPECIMEN The well-preserved skull of a small grizzly bear (Ursus arctos L.) was discovered during the course of archaeological excavation in an eighteenth century Eskimo midden at Okak Bay, Labrador (57'34'30'' N, 61 O 5 9 ' W) by Steven Cox during the summer of 1975. This skuU represents the first definite evidence of the existence of the species east of Hudson Bay during the Holocene, and provides confirmation of the long-standing rumours that a Labrador-Ungava barren-ground brown bear did exist. The skull was discovered during test excavations of a Labrador Eskimo sod winter house on the north side of Okak Island. The house lies within a site containing 49 winter houses, some of which are known from historical sources to have been occupied by people who moved to the Moravian Mission settlement in Okak Harbour at the end of the eighteenth, or beginning of the nineteenth, century. The skull was found in a one-metre test square in the midden at the end of the entrance passage to the house. It was associated with artefacts of the contact period which serve to date the house to the latter half of the eighteenth century. The Okak specimen consists of a nearly complete cranium with right and left fourth premolars, and first and second molars, intact, The rest of the teeth have