Qajartalik Petroglyph Site Documentation

Record summary

Qajartalik is a major Inuit and Dorset-period petroglyph locality in Nunavik, with carved human-like faces and other figures on soapstone outcrops. Documentation and study during the late twentieth century made it important for examining Arctic symbolic practices, chronology and the relationship between Dorset and later Inuit cultural landscapes. The carvings are genuine archaeological features, but individual meanings, dates and makers are not securely recoverable from visual resemblance alone. Comparison should include Indigenous knowledge and conservation history as well as archaeological typology.