The Thule Culture

Around the year 1200, the Thule people arrived in the northern part of Greenland and moved down the west coast.

One could argue that the first time humanity met after spreading across the Earth from their respective sides must have been between the Thule people and the Norse settlers sometime in the 1200s.

It can then be further suggested that with Qooqqut’s location as the farthest farm in the northernmost settlement, it is only natural that this area was the setting for such a meeting.

In fact, excavations of the kitchen midden in Qooqqut have revealed stone fragments from both Igaliko (Eastern Settlement) and soapstone pieces, which are believed to be of Neo-Eskimo origin. The Thule culture also lived in turf houses, so they were likely to have visited Qooqqut during the summer.

However, there was likely no permanent settlement in Qooqqut. The Thule people preferred to settle along the coast in the winter to live off marine animals, and in reindeer lands in the summer. This is evidenced by the stone cairns in the farthest valley. These stone markers were used to herd reindeer in a form of driving hunt, where all the hunters and the rest of the settlement worked together. A hunting technique that was forgotten after the arrival of Hans Egede and the introduction of firearms.

It has been possible to find a “Seba – Igatak” in church records, who was born in Qooqqut on August 18, 1780, and baptized in Kangeq two days later.

She passed away in 1847 at the age of 67, and her father’s name was Valerus, and her mother’s name was Pernelle—they are the oldest named people that can be traced back in time.

The famous Eske Brun later mentions Qooqqut when he spent three weeks alone in a tent in 1932, quarantined due to a measles epidemic in Godthåb, thus avoiding being stuck there for half a year.

He also mentions the bird cliffs in front of Qooqqut, which were full of birds, and I have managed to find a black-and-white photo with many birds in it. However, they must have been extinct between 1932 and 1960, but we still call it the bird cliffs.