Archæology of the Central Eskimos/Part 1/Introduction

When Knud Rasmussen planned the 5th Thule Expedition, the Danish expedition to Arctic North America, one of the most important items on the programme of the expedition was an archaeological exploration of the Central Eskimo regions, particularly the areas N. and W. of Hudson Bay. From an archaeological point of view these regions had a claim to especial interest; no systematic archaeological work had been done there previously; but the material which had been secured by means of casual collections, particularly through the whaler Captain George Comer, was on the other hand extremely interesting; with this as a basis F. Boas^[1] and later on W. Thalbitzer^[2] were able to show a relationship between the old, now extinct Eskimo population of Southampton Island and earlier finds in North Greenland, whilst other features pointed westwards, to Alaska. In addition, these central regions had acquired great interest through H. P. Steensby's^[3] theories as to the origin of Eskimo culture. There was thus no doubt that an archaeological exploration of the central Eskimo region was an absolutely necessary part of the work of solving the important problems concerning the origin of Eskimo culture, its subsequent development and the immigration of the Eskimos to Greenland. It is the result of the Fifth Thule Expedition's work on the solving of these problems by means of archaeology that is to be presented in the following.^[4]

On the Fifth Thule Expedition the leadership of the archaeological work was entrusted to me, on the understanding however that the other members of the expedition would take part in it when their other work permitted. As matters turned out, however, I was unable to devote myself exclusively to archaeology in the brief summer; some ​ethnographic, carthographic and natural-historic work had necessarily to be done in this season too; but in periods when conditions made it possible I concentrated principally upon the excavations.

In 1921 the expedition arrived at headquarters, Danish Island near Vansittart Island, at such an advanced date — 18th September — that no excavating could be done. In the summer of 1922 I excavated for two months at Naujan in Repulse Bay, helped during the last month by our Greenland interpreter Jacob Olsen; besides we made a small excavation at Aivilik. From there we went in the middle of August to Kuk in Duke of York Bay on Southampton Island, where we excavated until on September 6th we made an unsuccessful attempt to get away from the island. In the summer of 1923 I made some excavations at Ponds Inlet in the north part of Baffin Land, some of the work being done at the old settlements of Qilalukan and Mitimatalik and some at Button Point on Bylot Island. During the same summer Knud Rasmussen excavated on King William's Land, Peter Freuchen at Chesterfield Inlet, Kaj Birket-Smith on Sentry Island and Helge Bangsted on Vansittart Island. After Birket-Smith and I had proceeded home in the autumn of 1923, Freuchen continued my excavations at Qilalukan in the summer of 1924. It will thus be seen that the Fifth Thule Expedition has made excavations in ten different places within the central Eskimo region; this work has been the means of getting together a collection of about 6,400 specimens. In addition we have several hundreds of specimens brought to us by the Eskimos; these scarcely have the same value as those we dug up ourselves, but in many respects they form a valuable supplement to our own collections.^[5]

The system of excavation which I employed, and which was also used by the other members of the expedition when at all possible, naturally had to be adapted to the conditions; the short time available, the frozen ground, the lack of proper equipment and implements, packing materials etc. which one must have on an expedition as compared with the equipment available when excavations of settlements are undertaken at home; in addition, I was quite alone on the work as a rule. The following method was employed: Wherever possible the ruins of the houses were divided into natural sections: the main platform, the side platforms, the floor, the doorway, and so on; but as in most cases the ruins were so fallen in that this could not be done, the houses were divided into sections as shown in the following ​sketch. In each section layers of 10 cm were excavated and these layers were numbered downwards. The section was sketched on a page of the note-book and as the specimens were gradually found, they were given consecutive numbers and the place in the section Image missing where they were found was marked on the sketch in the book; a small figure at the side of the number simultaneously indicated the depth at which the object was found. In addition, important samples of animal bones, stone rubbish, wood, etc. were included. In the refuse heaps excavations were made in square sections of 4 sq. metres and in layers of 10 cm. The specimens were packed up successively and, if necessary, treated with glycerine-carbol to prevent their drying up. In some places where the Eskimos had previously excavated or when time did not permit of a more systematic method, the work was done more superficially. Everywhere the greatest difficulty was the frozen ground; even when the summer was at its warmest only two or three centimetres thawed in the course of the day, the result being that one was three or four days in getting through a layer of 10 cm; as an example I might say that it took more than a month to get to the bottom of a house-ruin that was almost levelled to the ground, or to the bottom of a deep refuse heap. But by having a large number of ruins and sections in hand at the same time the work nevertheless proceeded fairly well.