“...they gave Hebron, the city of refuge...” (Joshua 21:13): An Archaeological Reconnaissance at Hebron, Labrador Stephen Loring1,* and Beatrix Arendt2 Abstract - The site of the Moravian Mission community at Hebron (established in 1830–1831) on the north Labrador coast is arguably one of the premier historic properties in Atlantic Canada. Its standing architecture testifies to an impressive social experiment that inextricably linked the history of the Moravian Church with the indigenous Inuit of Labrador. Hebron’s stunning landscape and prolific natural resources have provided spiritual and economic sustenance for Inuit, Paleoeskimo, and Indian peoples for millennia preceding the arrival of European mercantile and proselytizing interests. In this paper, we use the archaeological data from Inuit houses and middens collected during a 1990 reconnaissance at Hebron in conjunction with Moravian written sources to offer a more nuanced interpretation of Inuit-Moravian interaction. Historical archaeology has a powerful potential to affirm “traditional” and core community values and instill an awareness and pride in community identity. Conducted as part of a growing suite of archaeological projects in Labrador that seek to provide opportunities for community participation and involvement, the research at Hebron dramatically affirms an Inuit voice and perspective in deconstructing the narrative of the historical period which, too date, has primarily been shaped by the voluminous records and accounts of the Moravian missionaries. Introduction The site of the Moravian Mission community at Hebron (established in 1830–1831) on the north Labrador coast is arguably one of the premier historic properties in Atlantic Canada. Its standing architecture (Fig. 1) testifies to an impressive social experiment that inextricably linked the history of the Moravian Church with the indigenous Inuit of Labrador. Hebron’s stunning landscape and prolific natural resources have provided spiritual and economic sustenance for Inuit, Paleoeskimo, and Indian peoples for millennia preceding the arrival of European mercantile and proselytizing interests. The Inuit community of Hebron was abandoned in 1959 when the Newfoundland government closed the only store in the village and relocated families to Labrador communities further south. The Inuit community was never informed of these meetings or the decision to close Hebron until its announcement at Easter Monday service in 1959, a decision that clearly undermined Inuit sense of community self-determination while reinforcing a colonial structure already in place. Yet Hebron retains a strong hold on the thoughts and memories of many Labrador Inuit families who trace their lineage there (Brice-Bennett 2000). The disruption that accompanied this forced relocation had devastating social and economic consequences not only for the displaced families and their descendants, but for the entire Labrador Inuit population as a whole (Ben-Dor 1966). We start with an account taken from a former Hudson’s Bay Company employee stationed at Hebron in the mid-20th century that illustrates the complex and uneasy relationship between Inuit and Moravian traditions: Leonard Budgell (1998) reminisces about an old Inuit man at Hebron who lived in a dilapidated house next to the water. One winter, having no boat or dog-team, no way to get wood or fuel, he started burning the floor of his house, ripping the planks up and using them to heat his stove. Once the floor was gone, he began taking the walls apart, starting at the level of the floor and going all the way around the house, a few inches at a time. The house got smaller and smaller until only the roof was left, but by then it was spring. The old man cut a hole through the roof, climbed out and set up his tent next to what was left of his house. The roof kept the tin-stove in his tent going through the summer. Besides the obvious archaeological implications—how are we to deal with disappearing houses?—for us this is a tale of Inuit ingenuity and creativity epitomizing Inuit approaches to problems that address ones immediate needs and letting the future take care of itself, a sentiment that frequently frustrated the Moravians. Archaeology conducted at Hebron provides an opportunity to examine how 19th- and 20th-century Labrador Inuit negotiated material and ideological changes introduced by German Moravian missionaries, and how these changes can contribute to an interpretation of evolving Labrador Inuit identity. The purpose of this article is twofold: 1) to serve as the initial report of the 1990 archaeological reconnaissance at Hebron, and 2) to combine the archaeological and ethnohistorical data to produce a contextualized and nuanced study of Inuit-Moravian interactions. Hebron, in particular, serves as an interesting location for such a project since the region has been occupied for thousands of years (Fitzhugh 1980, Hood 1998, Kaplan 1983), and remains an important landscape in the lives of contemporary Inuit in Quebec and Labrador. From its inception as a Moravian community, the kablanaat who came to Hebron have been aware that the land had long been previously occupied. Large sod house foundations and above-ground stone burial chambers were ubiquitous features surrounding the mission enclave, and Inuit and Paleoeskimo artifacts recovered by Moravian missionaries at Hebron prior to 1920 have made there way to museums and collections in Germany, England, and the United States. Hebron first attracted the attention of professional archaeologists during the summer of 1977–1978 when researchers associated with the Smithsonian Institution’s Torngat Archaeological Project (Fitzhugh 1980, Kaplan 1983) made occasional stops at the abandoned community and documented many pre-European sites in the region, research that Bryan Hood (1997, 1998) has continued more recently. This paper is a report on a brief reconnaissance conducted at Hebron in August of 1990 as part of a joint Torngâsoak Cultural Centre and University of South Carolina summer field-school in archaeology. The Torngâsoak Cultural Centre in Nain is the cultural arm of the Nunatsiavut Government (formerly the Labrador Inuit Association), and the archaeological project was the first done under their auspices. The main goal of that summer’s research was the systematic excavation of a portion of an over-the-bank midden in the Labrador Inuit community of Nain (Cabak 1991). The fieldwork was part of a program in community archaeology that sought to create opportunities for Inuit youth to participate in archaeology research. The Hebron reconnaissance sought to get a better understanding of the archaeological potential of the site, as indeed the architectural significance had been the subject of several proceeding Parks Canada investigations (Aksim 1981). The (Recent) History of Hebron Following a disastrous initial attempt in 1752, during which a party of missionaries were killed by the Inuit, the Moravian Church was successful in establishing a mission to the Labrador Inuit at Nain in 1771 (Davey 1905; Hiller 1971, 1977). Some Inuit were not long in recognizing the potential social and economic advantages of alliances with the Moravians, such that additional communities at Okak (in 1776) and Hopedale (in 1782) were soon established (Fig. 2). Inuit participation in the new communities was a compromise. The material advantages of direct access to European manufactured products and consumables (including tea and tobacco) and some sense of security—especially for women and older congregation members—were off-set by the perceived restraints to traditional subsistence practices and family mobility. Hebron became the fourth and northern-most Moravian mission in Labrador in 1830 (Davey 1905). The growing population of Inuit at the southern stations, a desire to shelter them from their “barbarous” relatives to the north, and the wish to spread their proselytizing message of Christian redemption to yet unenlightened heathens, inspired the Moravians to expand their influence and presence to the very threshold of Torngat’s Lair (the home of the malevolent spiritual being at the center of Labrador Inuit cosmology situated in the mountains of extreme northern Labrador). In the summer of 1831, the Moravians cajoled several families from Saglek Bay to journey with them to Kangertluksoak (which the Moravians renamed as Hebron) and form the kernel of a new settlement. Drawn north by the prospects of better hunting, and south with the hopes of acquiring European manufactured products, a number of Inuit families converged on the nascent community at Hebron, which took its name from a city of refuge in the Old Testament. In 1833, there were 125 Inuit at Hebron (PAC 1834), which rose to 68 families (313 individuals) living in 25 houses by 1861 (Kleivan 1966:35, PA30:153–154). In 1861, Hebron had the smallest number of wooden houses of the Moravian Mission settlements, but the largest number of skin tents and umiaks, indicative of the central importance of traditional subsistence activities in the lives of the Inuit families that gathered at the mission (PA24:277). The Moravians sought to control Inuit access to imported resources including the whole spectrum of manufactured European goods, as well as food and raw materials. Inuit families were encouraged to move to the community, adopt Moravian “civilized” values, and participate in the economic enterprises by which the Moravians supported their activities, including, but not limited to, exports in seal oil, dried fish, furs, and other products from the country. Despite encouraging the Inuit to work in the commercial seal hunt, which provided the blubber that was rendered into high quality oil, the Moravian accounts record a resistance to “steady employment.” One minister at Hebron in 1863 writes of his inability to hold the men to their repetitive tasks at the Mission, “... he [the Inuk laborer] is unhappy, and feels unjustly treated, if an obstacle is placed in the way of his return to his natural pursuits. An equivalent in money or goods for the proceeds of the hunt, would not be a substitute to him for the loss of his favourite employment” (PA25:92). Throughout the 19th century in Labrador, there was a growing desire by the Inuit for European foods and manufactured products which is evidenced by their acquiescence to village life (Loring 1998). At Hebron, the Moravians sought to transform both the social and intellectual landscape of the Inuit at the same time they transformed the physical landscape from that of a barren, hostile wilderness to that of a planned Christian community complete with carefully maintained paths, stone bridges, fenced gardens, and cemeteries. During this process of transformation, the missionaries’ experiences and impressions of the Inuit were detailed through meticulous record keeping in the form of missionaries’ diaries and letters, probate lists, economic reports, and meeting minutes. All of these documents as well as maps and photographs are preserved in the Moravian Archives located in Bethlehem, PA, USA, London, UK, and Herrnhut, Germany. In addition, the Moravian church published an annual journal called the “Periodical Accounts relating to the Missions of the Church of the United Brethren established among the Heathen” (herein also referred to as Periodical Accounts or PA). Letters from missionaries were collected and published in this publicly circulated journal to report on the status of indigenous conversion worldwide and serve as an additional revenue source for the church. The Periodical Accounts and the Moravian Archives provide a vivid picture of the lives and travails of the Missionary experience in Labrador and are an extraordinary window for shedding light on 19th-century Inuit society (Rollman 2002). Former residents of Hebron still retain important reservoirs of oral history and narratives pertinent to the community (Brice-Bennett 2000). However, a significant part of the story of Hebron now resides in the archaeological realm. Theoretically, archaeology can provide an interpretation of Inuit history distinct from that contained in archival documents and has the potential to empower the Inuit in telling the history—or a history—of their community. The material debris that makes up the Inuit middens at Hebron is evidence of active decisions and choices that Inuit made in defining their social, spiritual, and economic relationship with the Moravians and with their Inuit neighbors, relatives, and acquaintances residing to the north. Archaeology at Hebron potentially provides insight on how the competing interests of the Moravians and the Inuit play out in material remains, providing a unique perspective on the profound social and economic changes in Inuit life that occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Critically evaluating historical documents in relation to the archaeological record helps assess multi-faceted interpretations generated from historical contexts and offers additional evidence of indigenous culture (Lightfoot 1995, Loring 1998, Stahl 1993, Whiteman 1986). On the one hand, the intersection between historical and archaeological records offers a window into how Europeans saw indigenous social organization, customs, and beliefs, and on the other, how indigenous populations expressed and understood their culture against a changing landscape through the acceptance—or rejection—of European goods, raw materials, and manufactured products. Archaeology at Hebron Hebron’s remoteness has meant that until recently the archaeological and architectural features of the site were little impacted, although the buildings suffered from abandonment and neglect. Subsequently, the advent of more reliable snow-machine and speed-boat technology coupled with Hebron’s historic prominence has made it an attractive destination for Inuit subsistence hunting and fishing parties, for visiting researchers, as well as the burgeoning Labrador tourism industry. Not only have the peripheral buildings been scavenged for building materials and firewood, but the surface of the site, once festooned with artifacts ranging from discarded pottery and glass beads to cast-iron stoves and typewriters, has been picked clean. The goal of the 1990 fieldwork at Hebron was to document the extent of surface features and artifacts and assess the nature of sub-surface archaeological resources with a nod to conservation and preservation of this significant locality. Historical drawings, photography, and plats give some indication of the growth and extent of the Moravian community at Hebron (Figs. 3 and 4). Today only the main mission building, some ruined mid-20th-century houses used by the RCMP and by the store personnel, and a portion of the seal-oil rendering plant and cooperage are still standing (Fig. 5). Connecting these buildings and extending out to the formerly fenced gardens and the cemetery, as well as the vanishing out-buildings and cluster of Inuit sod and timber houses, is an impressive network of raised gravel paths and bridges. One of the attractions of research at Hebron is the potential for exploring the social, economic, and intellectual consequences for Inuit attending the establishment and intensification of the Christian community (Brice-Bennett 1981, Cabak 1991, Loring 1998, Richling 1978). What changes to settlement and subsistence practices, housing, and food-ways, occurred over time? What evidence is there at the site for changes in traditional Inuit access to raw materials, manufactured European products, and inter-regional networks of information exchange and social relations? The modest goals of the 1990 reconnaissance at Hebron included determining the nature and extent of archaeological deposits attributable to the Inuit tenure at the site both prior to the arrival of the Moravians, as well as for the duration of the Mission community. The most visible aspect of a potential pre-Moravian Inuit presence at Hebron is the group of four prominent Inuit sod-house foundations situated on a slope overlooking Hebron Bay and Grubb Point to the south and east of the Moravian building complex. The sod-house features are identified as Hebron-1 (IbCp-17). House-1, the largest, is an isolated structure overlooking Hebron Fiord. It is approximately 130 m southwest of the other houses (Houses 2, 3, and 4), which are clustered together along the edge of a former beach terrace overlooking Hebron Harbour and the Dog Islands. These structures were briefly visited and sampled during the course of the Torngat Archaeological Project in 1977–1978 (Kaplan 1980, 1983:555–560), when test-pits in the four houses revealed, in every case, 19th-century historic materials associated with soapstone, cut whalebone, and Dorset Paleoeskimo artifacts. The limited nature of these test-pits was not successful in determining either the relationship of the structures to the nascent Moravian community or whether they in fact pre-dated the Moravian presence at Hebron. One of our goals during the 1990 visit to Hebron was to try and refine the chronology of the sod-house occupations. Towards that end, small, controlled excavations were conducted in the large isolated House-1 (Fig. 6) and in House-2 in the group cluster (Figs. 7 and 9). Following is a brief description of the reconnaissance conducted at Hebron and an assessment of Hebron’s archaeological potential for contributing to an understanding of Inuit history at Hebron. The initial intention of the project was to identify the sites’ archaeological potential for future research and to determine the nature of sub-surface deposits and preservation. House-1 Situated on a shelf between two bedrock ledges and commanding an imposing, unobstructed view to the south over the mouth of Hebron Fiord, the sod-walls of House-1 define a roughly rectangular area about 16 m on a side (Fig. 7). An 8-m long entrance-way passage leads into what appears to be a pair of rooms. The larger, about 6 m on a side, is attached to a smaller oval room about 3 m in diameter. Four 1- x 1-m test-units were placed in House-1: one in the center of the large room, one along the rear wall of the small room, and two near the beginning of the entrance-way passage. In every case, a fairly homogenous sod layer, varying between 20 and 30 cm in thickness, overlaid a dark oil- and soot-stained sand and prepared stone floor. As there were no plans to excavate the entire house, excavations ceased at the house floor, and care was taken to leave architectural rocks and whalebone in situ. All of the test-units had surprising amounts of Ramah chert debitage and an occasional Middle Dorset artifact (including tip-fluting spalls, side-notched bifaces, polished nepherite burin-like tools and large-eared end-scrapers) scattered throughout the sod layer. Ramah chert debitage is conspicuously exposed in the game-trail/path that skirts the north side of the structure. The amount of Ramah chert debitage (over 300 flakes) suggests that the Labrador Inuit sod-house was built on the site of a previous Middle Dorset structure, portions of which may lie intact under the north wall of the house. A single Pre-Dorset burin and several small flakes of banded grey chert were also recovered and are indicative of a small Paleoeskimo component in the House-1 vicinity as well. Traces of 19th–20th-century debris in the form of wire, nails, mocha-ware, and pearlware ceramic sherds and bottle glass were found in the surface sods above the house floor. The significant presence of 19th–20th-century debris in and about House-1 testifies to the prominence of the location for its commanding view across Hebron Fiord to Harp Isthmus and to the proximity of a row of Inuit houses and out-buildings that appear on Moravian plats of the community and lay only a 100 m or so to the north (Fig. 8). Artifacts recovered from the actual living floor in House-1 replicated the few artifacts recovered previously in 1978 (Kaplan 1983:557) and included small pieces of cut baleen, hand-wrought iron nails, a sherd from the base of a lead-glazed redware vessel, fragments of soapstone kettles and lamps, and a few glass beads. Test-unit 2 was situated in the house, 3 m from the entrance, and revealed a large piece of whale bone, possibly a portion of a scapula, lying transverse across the entranceway on the floor adjacent to several seal bones and a concentration of small drawn-glass beads. The beads, found together on the stone floor pavement, consisted of twelve plain white and five Cornaline d’Aleppo beads, the latter having an outer brick-red layer surrounding a clear center giving it the appearance of a dark center. While we recognize that Cornaline d’Aleppo beads have a wide temporal range—from ca. 1600–1836 with a mean date about 1727 (Brain 1979)—they regularly occur in early to mid-18th-century Labrador Inuit contexts (including at the early 18th-century Labrador Inuit village site at Long Tickle (GgBq-1) near Makkovik [Loring and Rosenmeier 2005] and at Eskimo Island in Hamilton Inlet [Kaplan 1983:419]). Another large wound spherical bead was recovered above the house-floor and may post-date the 18th-century occupation. This artifact assemblage strongly supports an early to mid-18th-century attribution for House-1, while reemphasizing the area’s continued occupation since the prehistoric period. House-2 Situated approximately 150 m east from the isolated House-1, House-2 is the largest and most defined of the three sod-houses clustered together along the edge of a fossil cove over-looking Hebron Harbour and the Dog Islands. It is a sub-rectangular structure approximately 8 m on the side and 13 m along the rear wall, with a 12-m long entrance passage-way. A 1- x 2-m test-pit was placed perpendicular to the front of the entrance tunnel inside the house in the center of the floor depression between the entrance-way and the raised sleeping platforms (Fig. 9). Excavations revealed a jumble of large fallen blocks of stone and several large slabs of whalebone apparently used in wall and roof construction. The rocks and whalebone overlay a carefully prepared floor pavement of flat slabs. As we did not plan to excavate this house, we left all the architectural elements in situ. The surface sod layer was full of tin cans and pieces of clear bottle glass resulting from mid-20th-century dumping activities. In the fill above the house-floor was an essentially mid-19th-century assemblage that included factory-made slipware and British stoneware ceramics, green bottle glass, tobacco pipe stems, glass beads, pharmaceutical glass bottles, scissors, wire, machine-cut and hand-wrought nails, and small scraps of iron, wood, and bone (Fig. 10). Beneath the surface sod layer, resting on top of the floor pavement, were traditional examples of Labrador Inuit material culture including pieces of soapstone lamps and kettles, slabs of sawn whalebone, and whalebone sled-runners. Numerous flakes of Ramah chert and a few flakes of banded grey Mugford chert probably introduced in the sod blocks used in wall and roof construction signal the presence of Paleoeskimo components nearby. Despite the prominence of later materials in the upper levels of the sods covering House-2, the 1990 test-excavations confirm an early to middle 18th-century attribution for the construction and initial occupation of House-2. Hebron village The broad, level terrace south of the main Mission building is today a thick grassy meadow strewn with artifacts and building materials and containing more than 20 identifiable house features evidenced by remnants of sod-walls, depressions, and stone-lined foundations. Coupled with the testimony of village plats and historical photography, it is apparent that the fields adjacent to the mission building likely contain a significant archaeological record. A single 1- x 1-m test-excavation unit was placed at random in the village midden approximately 175 m south of the Mission building. The test-pit is near the edge of the level village area and the drop off to the tidal flats and the Dog Islands; an arc of remnant house-foundations—walls of stone and sod, as well as shallow depressions and tent-rings—lies adjacent to the north side of the excavation unit. The test-pit revealed continuous cultural deposits to a depth of over 120 cm (Fig. 11). Apparent in the profile of the test-pit are successive layers of peat and sod piled one atop the other and festooned with midden debris, including faunal remains and a wide variety of 19th-century trash including ceramics, buttons, pipes, rifle cartridges, soapstone, nails, and bone toggles for use with dog-team harnesses (Fig. 12). The deposit consisted entirely of bedded sods full of fire-cracked rock, scraps of wood, and faunal elements (including feathers). Closer analysis of the artifact assemblage shows the increasing variety of materials occurring over time. The relative frequencies of artifact materials was calculated according to level to determine whether the archaeology reflected historical observations that Inuit use and consumption of European goods and raw materials increased over time (Fig. 13). Since complete objects were rare, calculating artifact material frequencies identified general trends in discard patterns. The analysis supported the expected results of increasing European goods, such as ceramics and glass (Levels 1 and 2), in the later levels; however, the continued presence of local materials, such as stone and bone used to manufacture traditional Inuit hunting and domestic goods including soapstone lamps and bone harpoon heads suggests some Inuit traditions persisted. Although metals were a material brought by the Moravians, Labrador Inuit previously traded for the valued material with Europeans as early as the 16th century. Iron was used to replace slate harpoon heads and knife blades. The increasing frequency of metal artifacts in the midden suggests how a once highly-valued yet rare trading material became prevalent by the 19th century. The midden assemblage captures the subtleties of culture change as a transitional process that adopts and incorporates new forms, materials, and ideas within an existing cultural tradition. At the base of the excavation unit, the corner of a stone house foundation laid directly on the old ground surface attests to the presence of a significant architectural feature buried by subsequent house construction activities. The prepared stone foundation approximately 90 cm below the surface indicates how deeply buried 19th-century sod-house floors are likely to be. After the 1918 influenza epidemic, which devastated the community, many of the homes of the deceased were burned and destroyed, leaving the house floors deeply buried under their walls and roofs of sods. Over-the-bank-midden and surface collections The broad grassy terrace extending south of the mission building ends abruptly at the edge of a former wave-cut terrace that drops down to a fossil beach on which three 18th-century sod-houses (House 2, 3, and 4) overlooking the Dog Islands are situated. The eastern edge of the terrace slope is defined by a large bedrock outcrop that has long served as an over-the-bank refuse dump (Fig. 14). The bedrock is heavily stained with seal-oil that has congealed around its edges trapping a large amount of cultural material, ash, and faunal remains. A collection of artifacts along the edges of the exposed ledge attest to the long tenure of human activities in the area, as they include Middle Dorset side-notched bifaces, portions of whalebone sled-runners, and heaps of discarded ceramics, pipe fragments, and miscellanea from mid-19th- and 20th -century occupations (Fig. 15). The over-the-bank midden was the most conspicuous spot at Hebron for finding surface artifactual materials, but the area south of the mission building also contained rich midden deposits, as the village test-pit revealed. The thick carpet of grasses, flowers and peat that cover the terrace are an anthropogenic feature of the landscape being supported by the underlying midden deposits (Fig. 16). Moravian missionaries were deeply concerned about the social and physical well-being of their Inuit congregations at the settlements and long struggled with the complications of refuse disposal necessitated by village life. While much of the household debris was covered by snow and frozen during the winter months, it became much more evident (and redolent) during the summer when many of the Inuit families would have left the village for summer char-fishing camps at the head of the fiord. Samuel King Hutton, a Moravian doctor stationed at Okak prior to World War I, articulates this concern about Inuit health in a 1915 position paper prepared for a mission council in Labrador: “Regarded purely from a medical standpoint, the system of collecting the people together to form large settlements or stations is harmful to the prospect of increasing the population. The impossibility of proper sanitation means an increasing risk of epidemic disease, and the larger the collection of people, the greater the risk. All Eskimo huts should be near the water line, so that refuse may be thrown into the sea, or washed down to the sea at the spring thaw. Houses away from the sea, and especially behind other houses, are a source of danger to health. Bad air and dirt are apt servants of disease, and it is our duty to impress on the people the need of cleanliness and ventilation in their houses.” (Hutton ca. 1911) Despite Hutton’s request, open Inuit middens remain prominent throughout the landscape and the over-the-bank midden possibly represents one of the more productive areas for subsequent archaeological research as it is very likely to contain nicely stratified deposits. Other much more localized and shallow midden dumps occur on the lower sides of the ledges between the village area and the shore of Hebron Harbour to the east of the mission building. There is still much building debris and numerous 50-gallon oil drums in this area—many filled with rocks, sand, and cement to serve as anchors for houses and out-buildings—but the grassy vegetation cover is neither as luxuriant nor as thick as it is adjacent to the over-the-bank midden described above. When first visited by S. Loring in 1977, the Hebron village area laid strewn with an astonishing assortment of discarded furniture, building materials, and household debris including ceramics, glass, pipe stems, seal, caribou, and whale bones, wood stoves, ancient typewriters, and kegs of nails (Figs. 17–19). By 1990, most of the larger items had been removed, and by 2005 (when both authors last visited the site), most of the surface debris had been picked over such that the pre-20th-century material record is no longer readily apparent on the surface. Nevertheless, the archaeological potential of the site remains very impressive. Discussion of the Pre-historic Assemblages The gently rising land adjacent to the sheltered harbour at Hebron combined with the region’s concentration of marine resources, especially harp seals, the summer char fishery, and formerly walrus and whales, has doubtless proved an attractive resource base. Hebron is only 13 km south of the major Maritime Archaic complex at Nulliak (Fitzhugh 2006) and diagnostic Maritime Archaic artifacts have been found on the surface at several locations adjacent to “God’s Acre,” Hebron’s fenced Moravian cemetery, and in the House-2 test-excavation (Figs. 20–22). Such finds imply that a still unrecognized Maritime Archaic component is likely situated somewhere in the Hebron Village area. Further, the small assemblage of banded grey flakes and a unifacial burin found in the House-1 test-pits testifies to the presence of Pre-Dorset Paleoeskimo groups at the site as well; this finding is not surprising, given the large concentration of Paleoeskimo sites and structures on the Harp Isthmus on the south side of Hebron Fiord. Nearly every test-pit at Hebron produced Ramah chert debitage and artifacts indicative of a Dorset Paleoeskimo occupation preceding the Labrador Inuit and Moravian Village settlements of the area. The large quantity of Ramah chert debitage and the small diagnostic assemblage of Labrador Middle Dorset stone tools recovered from the House-1 sods indicate the presence of a Dorset winter-house that was partially disturbed by the subsequent construction of the Labrador Inuit house. Several test-pits adjacent to the north and east side of the House-1 structure found prolific amounts of Ramah chert debitage but no clear evidence of the Dorset structure. Although the 1990 fieldwork at Hebron was focused on making an assessment of the potential for historical archaeological research at the site, the significance of the site location for earlier cultural groups is readily apparent. There can be little doubt that the thick sods and grasses that cover the core village area at Hebron also cover extensive evidence of pre-Moravian and pre-Inuit occupations. Discussion of the Historic Assemblage The array of pre-historic artifacts revealed from the survey and excavations attest to an earlier vibrant Inuit landscape which was significantly transformed by the arrival of the Moravians, whose social, economic, and philosophical influences contrasted with much of the traditional Inuit worldview. In the following section, we explore some of the avenues our research has taken us in understanding this colonial process. Due to the exploratory nature of the test-pits and the small amount of recovered materials, this analysis can do little more than chart some areas of future research. Artifacts, such as nails, bricks, mortar, iron strapping, and window glass are ubiquitous throughout the midden deposits at Hebron. Prior to the Moravian arrival at Hebron, the Inuit lived in sod houses. Soon after the erection of the Moravian mission building, the Moravians began to exert pressure on Inuit who congregated at the Mission to change refuse practices and adopt European-style frame houses. Shipping manifests reveal a tremendous appetite for building materials and tools. Yet Inuit-style sod-houses complete with seal gut windows remained popular in the community into the early 20th century. The Moravians hoped to introduce their new building style as a means to promote hygiene and to substitute Moravian perceptions of nuclear family units over the characteristically larger kin-based groupings of traditional multi-family sod dwellings. Not only did the Moravians feel that the Inuit lived within a filthy, unhealthy environment, they felt that the children learned immoral and improper sexual tendencies due to the multi-family dwellings (Cabak 1991:87, PA18:380). Throughout the 19th century, the transition to European-style frame housing increases the further south one travels, so that by 1861, the missionaries at Okak note that “the erection of log houses is becoming increasingly general here. These habitations, though at first require more labour, are also more durable, and drier than the huts which are made of sods. They have, however, the disadvantage of being less warm, and, consequently, of requiring the consumption of more fuel.” (PA24:214). And in Hopedale, in 1876, the visiting missionary L.T. Reichel writes, “The dwellings are much better than I found them fifteen years ago. You see no more genuine Eskimo huts, with windows of seal-bladder. European block-houses are now substituted for the former hovels, some of them having a bed of carrots and cabbages on the roof of the porch out of reach of the dogs. Most have glass windows, an iron stove in the centre, curtains to the beds, on which blankets now take the place of reindeer-skins. The walls are papered with bright colours and adorned with pictures, and each house has its clock, mirror, and petroleum-lamp.” (from the Report of the Visitation of the Mission in Labrador, by Br. L.T. Reichel, in the summer of the year 1876; PA30:146–147). Hebron’s situation, north of the tree-line on the Labrador coast, meant wood for house-construction, and even more importantly, for heating houses, could only be procured by an arduous journey to the head of Napartok Fiord, a round-trip by sled of over 70 km. As a consequence, Inuit housing at Hebron, even when based on a wooden-frame structure, retained the better insulated sod roofs and walls long after such forms had vanished further south. Prior to the introduction of cast iron stoves, Inuit used open soapstone lamps, burning seal blubber to warm the insides of their houses. Pieces of soapstone were found in all of the excavation units, suggesting that retention of traditional heating apparatus lasted long after the arrival of the Moravians. Despite its connotations to a heathen way of life, blubber-burning lamps retained obvious value in an area in which little wood could be obtained. Stone lamps were reported still in use at Ramah as late as 1888 (PA34:478). Coal for wood-burning stoves was sometimes available from the mission, but it was exorbitantly priced. Maintenance of traditional heating and lighting strategies must have reaffirmed a sense of place for the Inuit and control over aspects of their lives that were rapidly being sublimated by the Moravian insistence on different morals and values. Commenting on the complaints of visitors from Nain, a missionary at Hebron in 1861 notes, “The Esquimaux at the southern stations are now accustomed to the use of stoves—an advantage enjoyed by but few of our people, on account of the scarcity of fuel.” (PA24:219). By the early 20th-century, wood-burning cast-iron stoves were adopted by the Inuit at Hebron, who relied on a mix of wood, coal, and seal blubber to heat their homes (Fig. 23). The Moravian’s imposed perceptions of the proper, orderly way to live, extended into the domestic sphere. Though the Inuit kept traditional cooking methods, such as the use of bone-handled ulu knives, new utensils and cookware were gradually adopted. Use of European utensils and ceramics imply a transition to accepting the social etiquettes the Moravians embraced. Yet the popularity of hollow wares—cups and bowls—over flatware imply continuity in Inuit foodways with their preference for stewed and boiled foods and hot beverages (Cabak and Loring 2000). The presence of refined ceramics in the archaeological assemblage at Hebron suggests that Inuit were incorporating new forms but not always new practices in food preparation and consumption. Inuit practicality is seen in the many ceramic sherds that have parallel rows of small drilled holes by which broken vessels were sewn together (a practice with antecedents in soapstone vessel repairs). The ceramics held some worth to the Inuit evident by this attempt at fusing broken shards by drilling holes, threading it with leather or twine, and sealing it with fat. Going to such means of repair shows on behalf of the Inuit an invested interest in keeping the ceramics, no matter what form. Although the number of ceramics found at Hebron was low (n = 16), research conducted by M. Cabak and S. Loring on ceramic vessels at Nain can offer directions for future research. Cabak and Loring identified an increasing inclusion of stamped decorated hollowwares in Inuit deposits. Prior to the Moravian’s arrival, Inuit diet consisted primarily of marine mammal meat and fat prepared as a liquid-based food, such as stews. Hollow forms such as soapstone kettles or wooden bowls were common in earlier, precontact Inuit deposits. The switch to ceramic hollow forms suggests that the wooden and soapstone vessels were substituted by the new material (Cabak and Loring 2000:29). But a high percentage of teaware sherds from the Nain midden deposit suggest Inuit also acquired a taste for tea. “Tea provides warmth in cold weather, has the ability to dull hunger, is a stimulant, and may provide structured social interaction” (Cabak and Loring 2000:27). Even as Inuit maintained some elements of traditional food, the archaeological record identifies the inclusion of new material culture and practices. Additional excavation and research might elucidate whether similar patterns occurred at Hebron. The recovery of a salt-glazed English stoneware jug (Fig. 24) from the 19th–20th-century village midden raises an interesting question about the nature of resistance and rewards in the community. While the Moravian shipping manifests reveal that a considerable amount of spirits was brought into the community annually, this was almost entirely for the personal use of the Moravian Bretheren. In 1852, the records show four barrels of porter, twelve gallons of wine, and a barrel of rum were sent to Hebron. The Moravians attempted to keep the liquor properly regulated, yet notice of alcohol “abuses” regular appear in the Moravian accounts. The Inuit use and consumption of alcohol testifies to the tensions in community life and their willingness to engage in behaviors frowned upon by the Moravians. The Inuit were also able to sometimes acquire liquor from independent traders and Newfoundland fisherman who were extending their range along much of the north Labrador coast in the early 20th century. Inuit at Hebron were expected to adopt to many European religious and cultural practices, while simultaneously encouraged to maintain their traditional dress. But the advantages of the lighter-weight European clothing (especially during the summer months), including considerably less care in its maintenance, had substantial appeal for the Inuit. Clothing represents another means by which social affiliation and identity is played out between the Inuit and the Moravians as the following 1861 letter from a missionary in Nain reveals: “In the mode of life of our poor Esquimaux we observe a growing desire for change, which if it promised to be for the better, even in temporal matters, we should rejoice over…But those who most seek to imitate the Europeans from the south, seldom advance farther, than to squander more than they earn, and plunge themselves into debt. Such persons are usually worse clad, and more untidy in their appearance, than those who, to some extent, adhere to a mode of life suitable to the region in which it has pleased God that they should be born. To adduce one example, -it is equally a pernicious change, and a foolish piece of extravagance, when an Esquimaux exchanges his native boots, -which are suited to the climate, and which we ourselves use- for those of European make. He who makes such a change is guilty of great extravagance, and is at last not comfortably shod, for the European boots are thrown away, as soon as the first soles are worn out, while those which are peculiar to the country can be made and repaired by any Esquimaux woman. Conduct like this can only distress us.”(PA 24:122) Nevertheless, the missionaries hoped for a civilized progression that emulated other aspects of European culture, especially aesthetics and hygiene practices. The Nain missionary continues in the same letter: “But where a family, according to their means, constructs a better house, keep it clean, and procure useful or even ornamental articles of furniture, such as the Esquimaux were not formerly accustomed to possess, we are rejoiced, and gladly seek to aid them in their efforts, as far as circumstances will admit. Those are not wanting here, who make advances of this kind. We may instance Timothy, one of our chapel-servants, who has wainscoted his house, - not a small one, - and has painted the wood-work. A handsome clock, an European lamp, and other similar articles, ornament the dwelling. Clocks are to be met with in many houses, during the winter season; and when the owners go to a distance, in summer, they leave their clocks in our care, that they may not be spoiled. Many of our people paper the walls of their houses, and adorn them with pictures. This has a much neater appearance than when the earth, of which the walls are composed, appears between the wood-work.” (PA24:122) The success of the Moravian mission to Labrador was partially dependent on the Inuit trade. As a consequence, a dilemma arises when the Moravians attempt to shift Inuit subsistence activities to fulfill global market demands. Moravians had long encouraged the maintenance of traditional foods in the Inuit diet, but Moravian practices increasingly engaged the Inuit to participate in a market economy by producing products that could be sold abroad, specifically furs, fish, seal-oil, and to less degrees, walrus ivory, baleen, and handicrafts. As their engagement increased, Inuit social relations and material culture changed as a result. As noted by Kaplan (1980), the presence of large numbers of center-fire cartridges is indicative of the increasing reliance on rifles that enabled individuals or small groups to pursue caribou which had formerly been taken in large communal, co-operative hunts. Sealing and fishing also saw an increase in productivity with the inclusion of nets as evident by the large amount of seal bone in every test-unit at Hebron and the prominence of the blubber-yard where seals were skinned and their blubber rendered into a high quality oil that was one of Hebron’s principal exports. In the late fall of 1864, 600 seals were taken, which the Moravians felt “exceeds the average” (PA25:546). These changing subsistence practices drew Inuit into greater dependence on Moravians for acquiring processed foods including tea and flour and European goods, since much of their time hunting for the mission undermined their ability to sustain independent hunting activities. Conclusion We started this article with an account of a disappearing house, since it spoke to a constantly changing Hebron landscape. Our intent was to report on our findings from the 1990 Hebron field season and begin to critically consider the social complexity of a mission landscape. Many of the artifacts recovered from the test excavations indicate an increasing reliance on European goods, including manufactured products and foods, but many distinctive features of Inuit subsistence practices are retained. The archaeology at Hebron provides a window into the emergence of contemporary Labradormiut society. The 1990 reconnaissance at Hebron has demonstrated that considerable cultural materials spanning perhaps 1500 years of Dorset-Thule and Labrador Inuit occupation are preserved at the Hebron Mission site. Test excavations in the large sod-house foundations (IbCp-17 House-1 and House-2) all produced significant amounts of whale bone—used as both architectural elements and for the manufacture of tools—and baleen, along with a modest assemblage of nails, glass, and beads that point to an early 18th-century occupation. Without more substantial excavations in the sod-houses and adjacent middens, it is difficult to interpret the significance of whaling for the Inuit in the pre-Moravian economy at Hebron. It has been noted that the dependence upon whales and whaling decreased dramatically during the early part of the 19th-century (Kaplan 1980, 1983; Taylor 1974). The early Moravian accounts indicate the disappearance of large whales to the extent that by the mid-19th century, sightings were worthy of special note (Kaplan 1980:652). Throughout the 18th century, increasing amounts of European raw materials and goods were moving north along the Labrador coast. Small amounts of European derived materials have been recovered from test-excavations at sites between Killinek and Hebron (Kaplan 1980, 1983). In contrast to Eskimo Island (a large Inuit settlement near Rigolette in Hamilton Inlet), evidence at these northern sites indicate that raw materials were arriving through hand-to-hand trade. Large communal sod-houses like House-1 and House-2 probably formed to pursue cooperative undertakings like whaling and trading (Jordan 1978, Schledermann 1976, Taylor 1974). Material remains recovered in archaeological contexts provide a fascinating insight into the nature of the changing social and economic landscapes of the Inuit at Hebron. The Moravian archival materials reveal a struggle between the continuous interest by the Inuit to incorporate foreign goods, while keeping their own social identity. The written records also reveal the ever increasing interest by the Moravians in controlling Inuit consumption of European manufactured materials. Yet the archaeological record has the potential to contribute to a much more nuanced interpretation of Moravian-Inuit interaction. Inuit selection and acquisition of specific aspects of European manufactured materials, and the incorporation, modification, and repair of European-derived items testifies to Inuit resiliency and agency in their evolving socio-economic relationship with the Moravian community at Hebron. Unfortunately, there has been a terrific amount of “damage” to the out-lying structures at Hebron in the nearly 25 years that we have been visiting the site. The boathouse, the Hudson’s Bay Company store (and post office), the blubber-yard, teacher and clerk residences, and a variety of out-buildings have all succumbed to the inroads of time and collapsed completely, or in part. A significant portion of the decline of the out-buildings was a result of Inuit hunters, fishermen, and their families “harvesting” wood for a variety of reasons. This has been a long-standing practice at Hebron. With the resolution of Labrador Inuit land-claims and the establishment of the Nunatsiavut government in 2005, the fate of Hebron and the future of the past will come to reside in the next generation of Labradormiut (Figs. 25 and 26). Acknowledgments In August of 1999, observing the 40th anniversary of the relocation of the Inuit families from Hebron, Torngâsok, the Nunatsiavut Government, and the Labrador Inuit Health Commission arranged for a reunion of the Hebron families and their descendants at Hebron (Brice-Bennett 2000). The reunion was a powerful reaffirmation of Inuit community integrity and the continuity of social and emotional bonds to their north coast of Labrador homeland. First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge our profound gratitude and appreciation to Labradormiut families, government officials, and colleagues for welcoming us to Nunatsiavut. Our lives have been tremendously enriched by the opportunity to visit and work at Hebron, and we hope these research results will be of interest to a wider Labradormiut audience. In 1990, the Taipsumani Archaeological Project went to Hebron in part because there was some interest in developing an eco-lodge there, and there was some need of an initial assessment of potential archaeological resources that might be impacted by such an initiative. Work at Hebron was conducted under the auspices of Gary Baikie at the Torngâsoak Cultural Centre in Nain, with financial support from the Management Committee of the Comprehensive Labrador Agreement (Rex Goudie), Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Resources Division (Linda Jefferson) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina (Stanton Green). Tom Goodwin in Nain helped to facilitate travel to Hebron, and the Labrador Inuit Development Corporation, through their cooperative fisheries collection boat, our return. The field crew at Hebron included Dinah Anderson, Edward Flowers, Stanley Nochasak, and Charlie Terriak of Nain, and Joan Gero, David McGivergan, Melanie Cabak, Mark Groover, Mark Williams, and Ray Craig from the University of South Carolina. Sadly, both David McGivergan (Fig. 27) and Charlie Terriak (Fig. 28) have subsequently passed away, eclipsing very promising careers in archaeology. 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