When we came to do our research, we realised that if we wanted to look at Past People in continents, Antarctica was not on the list, as there are no natives of the area (apart from penguins!) so we decided to look at the Polar Regions instead, to include the native population of the Arctic.............................

Who were the Inuits?

The Inuit people live in the Arctic and used to be called Eskimos; the name Inuit means "the people". Their history goes back for many centuries; in 1250 the first Inuit were living in Greenland.

Their houses were built on stilts, to raise them above the ice and to prevent the ice melting from the heat of the bulding. At first the houses were made out of whalebone, but as they began to move their camps and villages more often, they started to build homes from blocks of snow. These were much easier to build and could be put up anywhere in a few hours, even on the frozen sea.

Their food consisted mainly of seal, walrus and fish; they also ate seaweed. They made little boats out of sealskin called kayaks; these were only suitable for one person and they used them to go hunting for seals. They needed to eat seals to give them enough fat as there wasn't enough in fish. If they needed bigger boats to move people and things from one village to another they used umiak; or to go over land they used dog sleds pulled by huskies.

They made most of their tools out of bone or walrus ivory because in the frozen land there wasn't much wood or stone.

European explorers came into the Arctic area and they began to trade with the Inuit people and exchange gifts. In return the Inuit began to learn about the wider world, and the Europeans gave them iron which was much better for making harpoons and knife blades.

And in the Antarctic......?