The Dorset culture was first recognized and described by Jenness (1925), on the basis of materials in the National Museum of Canada that had been excavated by Eskimos at Cape Dorset on Hudson Strait and on Coats Island in Hudson Bay. Since then Dorset material has been found at many sites in the eastern Arctic from Newfoundland in the south, along the coasts of Labrador and the northern Canadian islands to Inglefield Land in Northwest Greenland. Though some of the Dorset sites have been excavated carefully and systematically, there are many points about the culture that remain obscure. It is somewhat exasperating to realize that we actually know little more about the Dorset culture than we did when Jenness first described it 26 years ago.

While recent excavations in Canada or Greenland have not added significantly to our knowledge of the origin of the Dorset culture or the role it played in the eastern Arctic, some of the earlier evidence, if reexamined and reappraised, is seen to have important implications in connection with recent discoveries in Alaska.