Kangeq

Last updated
Kangeq
Håbets Ø
Kangeq 1890.jpg
Kangeq, ca. 1890
Greenland edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Kangeq
Location within Greenland
Coordinates: 64°07′00″N52°04′00″W / 64.11667°N 52.06667°W / 64.11667; -52.06667 Coordinates: 64°07′00″N52°04′00″W / 64.11667°N 52.06667°W / 64.11667; -52.06667
StateFlag of Denmark (state).svg  Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country Flag of Greenland.svg  Greenland
Municipality Sermersooq-coat-of-arms.png Sermersooq
First settledbefore 1000 CE
Abandoned1973[ citation needed ]
Time zone UTC-03

Kangeq or Kangek (Kalaallisut: "Promontory") is a former settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It is located on the same island that formed the first Danish-Norwegian colony on Greenland between 1721 and 1728.

Contents

History

A map of Haabet Oe and Baal's River by Hans Egede. Habets-o-hans-egede-1722.JPG
A map of Haabet Oe and Baal's River by Hans Egede.

As a coastal settlement, Kangeq was positioned on the migration route of the ancient Inuit peoples. Archeological finds from the Dorset culture era have been found near Kangeq. [1] The Dorset people had vanished from the Nuuk region prior to 1000 CE. [1]

The island of Kangeq, dubbed Håbets Ø ("Island of Hope"), formed the site of Hans Egede's first settlement in Greenland after his landing on July 3, 1721. [2] The settlement was relocated to the mainland by Major Claus Paarss in 1728. [3]

Tupilak, woman and man by Aron of Kangeq. Aron von Kangeq Tupilak.jpg
Tupilak, woman and man by Aron of Kangeq.

In the mid-19th century, it was also home to the artist Aron of Kangeq (1822-1869), a Greenland Inuit hunter, painter, and oral historian. [4] In 1854, Kangeq became an official trading station, and an official residence was built for the assistant representing the Royal Greenland Trade Department. [5]

Today the ruins of Kangeq are sometimes visited by historically oriented tourists. [6] In 2009, the old houses of Kangeq were used as a backdrop for the Eksperimentet film, with the settlement emulating the look of Nuuk in 1952. [7]

Geography

Kangeq was located in an island at the mouth of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, [8] on the coast of Labrador Sea, approximately 18 km (11 mi) west-south-west of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. [5]

Former notable residents

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References

  1. 1 2 "Human History". Nuuk Tourism. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  2. Saabye, Hans Egede; Fries, Georg; Lloyd, Hannibal Evans (1818). Greenland: Being Extracts from a Journal Kept in that Country in the Years 1770 to 1778. Boosey and Sons. p.  73.
  3. "Hans Egede". Missionariesbiography.com. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  4. "Suluk 2007 No.2" (PDF). Air Greenland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  5. 1 2 Gulløv, Hans Christian (1997). From Middle Ages to Colonial Times: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Studies of the Thule Culture in South West Greenland 1300-1800 AD. Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland. p. 412. ISBN   978-87-90369-21-7.
  6. "A sailing adventure to the abandoned fishing village of Kangeq". The Fourth Continent. 2013-06-19. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  7. "Kangeq med i film". Sermitsiaq (in Danish). 21 July 2009. Archived from the original on September 12, 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  8. The Atlantic Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in West Greenland. Museum Tusculanum Press. 1994. p. 6. ISBN   978-87-635-1227-5.
  9. Nuttall, Mark (12 November 2012). Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Routledge. p. 158. ISBN   978-1-136-78680-8.