This 400-year-old house ruin is located on the Hutton Peninsula in northernmost Labrador. It was built by the ancestors of the modern Labrador Inuit, arctic peoples who crossed into Labrador about 500 years ago. As they moved farther south, these people of the Thule tradition lived in small villages composed of oval houses dug into the ground and walled with turf. Rocks and bones are all that remain of this house today.
The Thule house was roofed with baleen, hides and sods, and each had a raised sleeping platform at the rear covered with twigs and hides. The floor was paved with flagstones, and heat and light were provided by soapstone lamps which burned seal or whale oil.
During the eighteenth century, larger communal houses enjoyed a period of popularity coinciding with the early stages of European contact. When traders and missionaries established themselves in the area, however, they encouraged a return to smaller single family dwellings. Eventually, the traditional native settlements were abandoned in favour of new locations near mission stations.
