Nuussuaq

• City

Nuussuaq, formerly Kraulshavn, is a settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is the only mainland settlement in the Upernavik Archipelago, located near the western tip of the Nuussuaq Peninsula, on the northern coast of Sugar Loaf Bay, an indentiation of Baffin Bay.The settlement was founded in 1923 as a trading station, growing in size during the post-war consolidation phase, when hunters from several small villages in the region of neighboring Inussulik Bay, Sugar Loaf Bay, and Tasiusaq Bay moved into the larger settlements such as Nuussuaq and Kullorsuaq further north in Melville Bay. Today Nuussuaq remains one of the most traditional hunting and fishing villages in Greenland, with a stable population.HistoryPrehistoryThe Upernavik Archipelago belongs to the earliest-settled areas of Greenland; the first migrants arriving approximately 2,000 years BCE All southbound migrations of the Inuit passed through the area, leaving behind a trail of archeological sites. The early Saqqaq culture diminished in importance around 1.000 BCE, followed by the migrants of Dorset culture, who spread alongside the coast of Baffin Bay, being in turn misplaced by the Thule people in the 13th and 14th centuries. The archipelago has been continuously inhabited since then.