Kangeq

Summary

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.

Kangeq
Håbets Ø
Kangeq, ca. 1890
Kangeq, ca. 1890
Kangeq is located in Greenland
Kangeq
Kangeq
Location within Greenland
Coordinates: 64°07′00″N 52°04′00″W / 64.11667°N 52.06667°W / 64.11667; -52.06667
State Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country Greenland
Municipality Sermersooq
First settledbefore 1000 CE
Abandoned1973[citation needed]
Time zoneUTC-03

History edit

 
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.

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 edit

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 edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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.