Aasiaat

Aasiaat or Ausiait, formerly Egedesminde, is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 3,102 as of 2014, it is Greenland's fifth-largest town.

Etymology

In Greenlandic, Aasiaat means "Spiders". The exact explanation for this is yet to be determined because of the lack of historical facts of the origin of the name. The most common assumption is that when the town was founded as a mere settlement, it was abundant with spiders. Like in the rest of Greenland, spiders are rarely seen in the town in modern times.

Aasiaat is sometimes referred to as the Town of the Whales, since marine mammals such as whales and seals are a common sight.

History

Native peoples

Archaeological projects in the region have suggested human habitation in the region that includes Aasiaat as far back as the 5th millennium BC. The earliest modern settlers dated to around 1200; these were probably subsistence hunters. These inhabitants hunted harp seals and capelin (ammassaat) near Sydøst Bay in the spring. In the summer, they moved to Nassuttooq for reindeer and halibut. During autumn, the people of Disko Bay returned home to hunt small harp seals. In the winter, the bay froze over, and they hunted narwhals and Beluga whales. These early people designed and built their own kayaks and umiaks when the water freed up; in the winter, they used dogsleds.