In the first millennium AD, peoples across the North American Arctic began to use and exchange metal. A group known as the Late Dorset (AD 500–1300) were the first to widely exchange metal in the Eastern Arctic. However, due to differential taphonomic processes and past excavation methods, metal objects in existing collections are rare although geographically widespread. This has led to metal being seen as a broadly exchanged but uncommon raw material among Late Dorset. This article expands the known scale of Late Dorset metal use by analyzing the blade slot thicknesses of bone and ivory objects from sites across the Eastern Arctic and comparing them to the thicknesses of associated lithic and metal endblades. These results demonstrate that Late Dorset used metal at least as frequently as stone for some activities. Given the few and geographically discrete sources, metal would have been exchanged over thousands of kilometers of fragmented Arctic landscape. The lack of similar evidence in earlier periods indicates intergroup interaction increases significantly with the Late Dorset. It is through these same vectors that knowledge and information would have flowed. Metal, consequently, represents the best material for understanding the maximum extent and intensity of their interaction networks.

中文翻译：

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检测公元 500-1300 年左右北美东部北极地区早期广泛使用的金属

在公元第一个千年，北美北极地区的人们开始使用和交换金属。一个被称为晚多塞特 (AD 500–1300) 的群体是第一个在北极东部广泛交换金属的群体。然而，由于不同的埋藏过程和过去的挖掘方法，现有收藏中的金属物品虽然在地理上分布广泛，但很少见。这导致金属被视为晚多塞特郡之间广泛交换但不常见的原材料。本文通过分析来自北极东部地区的骨骼和象牙物体的刀片槽厚度，并将它们与相关的石质和金属端刀片的厚度进行比较，扩展了已知的晚多塞特金属使用规模。这些结果表明晚多塞特在某些活动中使用金属的频率至少与石头一样频繁。鉴于资源稀少且地理位置分散，金属将在数千公里的北极地区进行交换。早期缺乏类似的证据表明群际互动随着多塞特晚期而显着增加。正是通过这些相同的载体，知识和信息才能流动。因此，金属代表了理解其相互作用网络的最大范围和强度的最佳材料。