Snow Goggles- Northwest Territories, Canada

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Institution: Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre

Territory: Northwest Territories

Object: Eyeglasses

Era: Late Prehistoric Period

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These snow goggles were recovered from Banks Island, an arctic region of Canada occupied over the last 4000 years. Between 1250 AD and 1600 AD, Thule Inuit primarily used the southern coast of the island as a winter camp for whale hunting.

The goggles were made with narrow slits to reduce light exposure and heightened the wearer’s visual acuity. Some goggles were made of wood, like the one above, as well as bone and ivory. This particular pair is also notable for its curved apertures, despite the fact that most Thule goggles have linear, horizontal slits. The other notable feature are the baleen ties that would have held the goggles in place.

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Sources:

• Lauffenburger, Julie A. "Baleen in museum collections: its sources, uses, and identification." Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 32.3 (1993): 213-230.

• Finkelstein, Sarah A., J. M. Ross, and J. K. Adams. "Spatiotemporal variability in Arctic climates of the past millennium: implications for the study of Thule culture on Melville Peninsula, Nunavut." Arctic, antarctic, and alpine research 41.4 (2009): 442-454.

• Kotar, Kathryn. "Variability in Thule Inuit Subsistence Economy: A Faunal Analysis of OkRn-1, Banks Island, NWT." (2016).

• Haukaas, Colleen. "New Opportunities in Digital Archaeology: The Use of Low-Cost Photogrammetry for 3D Documentation of Archaeological Objects from Banks Island, NWT." (2014).

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