Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/353

interesting is it to recognise some of these types in finds which were excavated the following summer in southern Baffin Land and on Coats Island; it is the Cape Dorset culture, recently published by Jenness,^[1] that we have to deal with here. These are objects which have come from house ruins around Cape Dorset and on Coats Island and which, by their patination and type, stand out from the Thule types and from the modern culture, and which furthermore Jenness, mostly on account of the patination, considers to be the oldest in that locality; on this basis Jenness draws further conclusions, for instance that they come from a culture in which the bow drill was unknown — a matter to which I shall revert later.

It is interesting to find some of the same types here in northern Baffin Land. The similarity is so striking that there can hardly be any doubt as to the relationship between them. Jenness' harpoon heads with the narrow, rectangular shaft sockets, Fig. 2–3, corre- spond exactly to Button Point Pl. 61. 20-22; the most characteristic flint implements from Cape Dorset, Fig. f-g and i-j, have their match in Button Point Pl. 61. 7-9 and 11-12; the arrow heads with the line hole at the side, Cape Dorset Fig. 6c and i, answer to Button Point Pl. 62. 1; the elongated, cut out — not bored — holes from Cape Dorset are recognised in Button Point Pl. 62.2 and 13 and in many other specimens. And of the wood-carving which was so characteristic of Button Point (Pl. 62) we also find features in the Cape Dorset culture (compare fig. 9 f).

There is thus no doubt that the find from Button Point is related to the Cape Dorset culture; it is a pity that the stratigraphic con- ditions are so uncertain that they do not permit of a definite chrono- logical classification of these objects.

While at Ponds Inlet in the summer of 1923 I saw many old Eskimo graves, but nearly all of them seemed to have been very disturbed; this is particularly true of the many graves in the valley behind Qilalukan. I made a sketch-map of these graves and made a closer examination of some of them, with the result that I found two skulls and a few specimens of grave goods. A more thorough exami- nation of them did not seem to be worth while, and therefore I con- centrated on the settlement excavations. After I had left Ponds Inlet, Parsons continued the examination of the graves with the aid of Eskimos and thus got together a fairly large collection of grave goods, some from Qilalukan, some from Qaersuarsuit, just east of Mitimatalik; in the summer of 1924 P. Freuchen continued the