Email: dstenton@uwaterloo.ca
Background
Douglas Stenton is the former (retired) Director of Heritage for the Government of Nunavut Department of Culture and Heritage. Dr. Stenton has directed archaeological research and training in the Eastern Canadian Arctic (Nunavut) since 1980. His research has focused on settlement-subsistence systems of the late prehistoric (Thule) period and, for the past decade, on the investigation of archaeological record of the 1845 Sir John Franklin Expedition.
Dr. Stenton played a central role in the development and implementation of archaeological legislation and policy in Nunavut. He is the former Executive Director of the Inuit Heritage Trust, the Designated Inuit Organization under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement responsible for representing Inuit interests in archaeological resource management. Dr. Stenton was the first Government of Nunavut Archaeologist and was appointed Director of Heritage in 2002.
In 2015, Dr. Stenton was awarded the Polar Medal in recognition of his efforts to strengthen awareness and understanding of Northern Canada and its peoples. In 2017, Dr. Stenton was appointed to the Order of Canada in recognition of his contributions to helping to preserve the cultural legacy of Canada's North.
Dr. Stenton received his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, in 1989.
Refereed Journal Articles
2018 - Stenton, D. R., Finding the dead: bodies, bones and burials from the 1845 Franklin northwest passage Expedition. Polar Record 54:197-212.
2018 - Swanston, T., T. L. Varney, M. Kozachuk, S. Choudhury, B. Bewer, I. Coulthard, A. Keenleyside, A. Nelson, R. R. Martin, D. R. Stenton, D. M. L. Cooper., Franklin expedition lead exposure: New insights from high resolution confocal x-ray fluorescence imaging of skeletal microstructure. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0202983.
2017 - R.E. ten Bruggencate, S.B. Milne, R.W. Park, M. Fayek, D.R. Stenton, Combining chert provenance and least-cost pathway analysis to reconstruct Pre-Dorset and Dorset mobility on southern Baffin Island. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14:651-661.
2017 - D. Stenton, A. Keenleyside, S. Fratpietro, S., and R. Park., DNA analysis of human skeletal remains from the 1845 Franklin expedition. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2017).
2017 - Stenton, Douglas R. and Robert W. Park, History, Oral History and Archaeology: Reinterpreting the ‘Boat Places’ of Erebus Bay. Arctic 70(2):203-218.
2017 - Park, Robert W. Milne, S. Brooke and Douglas R. Stenton, Burin and Spall Use at an Inland Arctic Small Tool Tradition Site, Southern Baffin Island, Nunavut. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 41:63-78.
2016 - Rachel E. ten Bruggencate, S. Brooke Milne, Mostafa Fayek, Robert W. Park, Douglas R. Stenton, Anne C. Hamilton, Characterizing southern Baffin Island chert: A cautionary tale for provenance research. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
2016 - Rachel E. ten Bruggencate, Jeffrey P. Stup, S. Brooke Milne, Douglas R. Stenton, Robert W. Park and Mostafa Fayek, A human-centered GIS approach to modeling mobility on southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. Journal of Field Archaeology 41(6):684-698.
2015 - Stenton, Douglas R., A. Keenleyside, Diana P. Trepkov and R. W. Park, Faces from the Franklin Expedition? Craniofacial reconstructions of two members of the 1845 northwest passage expedition. Polar Record: (52) 262:76-81.
2015 - R. E. Ten Bruggencate, S. B. Milne, M. Fayek, R. W. Park and D. R. Stenton, Characterization of Chert Artifacts and Two Newly Identified Chert Quarries on Southern Baffin Island. Lithic Technology: Vol. 40, No. 3, 189-198.
2015 - Stenton, Douglas R., A. Keenleyside, R. W. Park, The ‘Boat Place’ Burial: New Skeletal Evidence from the 1845 Franklin Expedition. Arctic 68(1):32-44.
2014 - Stenton, Douglas R., A Most Inhospitable Coast: The Report of Lieutenant William Hobson’s 1859 Search for the Franklin Expedition on King William Island. Arctic 67(4):511-522.
2014 - Rachel E. ten Bruggencate, Mostafa Fayek, S. Brooke Milne, Robert W. Park and Douglas R. Stenton, Just a crush? Contamination of archaeological samples by different grinding media. Open Journal of Archaeometry 2(2):134-138.
2013 - Brooke S. Milne, Robert W. Park, and Douglas R. Stenton, For Caribou, Chert, and Company: Assessing Mobility as Evidence of Cultural Continuity Among the Palaeo-Eskimos of Southern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. In Mobility, Transition and Change in Prehistory and Antiquity. Proceedings of the Graduate Archaeology Organisation Conference at Hertford College, Oxford, UK, eds. P. R. Preston and K. Schorle, pp. 49-61. British Archaeological Reports, International Series No. 2534. Archaeopress.
2012 - Brooke S. Milne, Robert W. Park, and Douglas R. Stenton, Dorset Culture Land Use Strategies and the Case of Inland Southern Baffin Island. Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 36(2): 267-88.
2010 - Stenton, Douglas R., Robert W. Park, and Tara Grant, Retracing the route of Hans K. E. Kruger’s 1930 German Arctic Expedition. Polar Record 46(239): 349-358.
2007 - Stenton, Douglas R., Robert S. Janes and Hector Pitchforth Grave Relocations. Arctic 60(2): 217-220.
2007 - Robert W. Park and Douglas R. Stenton, A Hans Krüger Arctic Expedition Cache on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada. Arctic 60(1): 1-6.
2002 - Stenton, Douglas R. and C. D. Arnold, New Archaeological Regulations for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. Revista de Arqueologia Americana 21:33-43.
2001 - Stenton, Douglas R and R. W. Park, Ideology and Site Formation Processes: An Example of Discard Behaviour from Baffin Island. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, Volume 1, Number 1: 23-34. Fairbanks.
1996 - Stenton, Douglas R., The Inuit Heritage Trust. In: Archaeological Resource Management in a Land Claims Context. Parks Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada.
1995 - Stenton, Douglas R. and B. G. Rigby, Community-Based Heritage Research, Education and Training: A Preliminary Report on the Tungatsivvik Archaeology Project. Arctic 48(1): 47-56.