First High Arctic Seafarers: 4,500-Year-Old Voyage to Kitsissut Revealed

: A view of the crossing between Kitsissut and the shores of northwest Greenland.

February

/ 2026

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A cluster of 4,500-year-old sites on the remote Kitsissut islands in north-west Greenland is changing how archaeologists picture the first people lived in the High Arctic. Rather than hugging the land as primarily terrestrial hunters, the evidence points to communities that repeatedly ventured into dangerous open water to reach rich seabird and marine resources.

One of the key details is the journey itself: reaching Kitsissut required at least a ~52.7km open-water crossing, a distance the researchers describe as potentially the longest sea voyage that can be reasonably inferred for the Early Paleo-Inuit period. If correct, that makes “Paleo-Inuit seafaring” a more central part of the story of Arctic settlement than many earlier models allowed. The study has been published in the journal Antiquity.

Kitsissut and the long crossing into a living “oasis” of open water

Kitsissut sits within Pikialasorsuaq (the North Water Polynya), a rare High Arctic region that stays partly ice-free and biologically productive, drawing fish, marine mammals, and vast numbers of seabirds. In the Antiquity study, the authors frame the polynya not just as a natural feature, but as a place where human decisions and ecosystems may have developed together from the very beginning of settlement.

Polynyas are often compared to ecological “oases” because open water can support early plankton blooms and concentrate wildlife at the ice edge. The North Water Polynya is widely described as one of the Arctic’s most productive marine areas, supporting species such as walrus, narwhal, beluga, and thick-billed murres.

Study author near a tent ring of rocks in the rocky landscape.

Study co-author Mari Kleist documents an Early Paleo-Inuit tent ring on Isbjørne Island, Kitsissut. (M. Walls, M. Kleist & P. Knudsen / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Stone tent rings and repeated visits, not a single lucky landing

During field survey work on three of the islands, the team documented nearly 300 archaeological features across multiple periods, including a notable cluster of Early Paleo-Inuit dwellings. On Isbjørne Island, they identified 15 tent-ring structures with axial features, an architectural form considered diagnostic of Early Paleo-Inuit occupation across the wider region.

A radiocarbon date from a thick-billed murre bone recovered from one dwelling, calibrated with caution due to marine reservoir effects, supported an occupation roughly in the 4,400–3,900 years BP range. The important takeaway is less the exact year and more the implication that the site belongs firmly to the Early Paleo-Inuit period, not later waves of Arctic settlement.

Reporting on the study, Live Science notes that the number and clustering of tent rings suggests Kitsissut was “a place of return,” not simply a one-off arrival by a small party pushed off course by weather. That repeated use is what turns a risky crossing into evidence of a maritime system - boats, navigation skill, planning, and a seasonal schedule.

Map of the crossing options to reach Kitsissut

The minimum crossing between northwest Greenland and Kitsissut is about 53 km (33 miles).
Source: M. Walls, M. Kleist & P. Knudsen / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Paleo-Inuit seafaring and the ecosystems they helped shape

Because organic boat parts rarely survive at sites this old, Kitsissut adds something unusual: not direct remains of a vessel, but a hard constraint on what boats and navigators must have been able to do. The Antiquity authors argue that consistent travel across year-round open water implies sophisticated skin-on-frame watercraft and strong navigation skills, comparable in principle (if not identical in design) to later Inuit boat technologies.

Early Paleo-Inuit features on Isbjørne Island; A) location of site beneath the nesting cliff; B & C) sample of bilobate tent rings with axial features, which bisect the dwelling and include central hearths; D & E) Early Paleo-Inuit tent rings included adjacent dwelling structures or box hearths (figure by authors)/Antiquity Publications Ltd)

The study also pushes beyond technology into ecology. The tent rings sit below major thick-billed murre nesting cliffs, and the researchers link repeated visits to seasonal harvests of seabirds and marine resources. Over time, such activities could have moved marine nutrients onto land around camps, subtly shaping soils, vegetation, and animal patterns, suggesting humans influenced Arctic ecosystems from the very start of High Arctic occupation.

That long view resonates with wider concerns about cultural heritage in Greenland, where thawing permafrost and coastal erosion threaten sites that still hold key evidence for Saqqaq and Dorset-period lifeways. In other words, discoveries like Kitsissut arrive at a moment when Arctic archaeology is also a race against environmental loss.

Top image: A view of the crossing between Kitsissut and the shores of northwest Greenland. The minimum distance to land (Nuuliit) is 33 miles (53 kilometers). Source: M. Walls, M. Kleist & P. Knudsen / Antiquity Publications Ltd.

By Gary Manners