Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/367

Point; between this place and Iterdleq I counted six very disturbed graves, and presumably the objects secured by the Eskimos came from these. Besides the handsome two-edged slate knife Pl. 66. 4, it contains a small snow knife blade of ivory, an ivory arrow head with blade-flat and a handle for a drag-line like Qilalukan Pl. 41.7.

When the excavation of the house ruin at Mitimatalik was com- pleted in July, 1923, I excavated a later autumn house east of the stream at Mitimatalik. This qarmaq lay right out on the edge of the cliff, about 8 metres above sea-level; it was almost circular, about 3 metres in diameter; the walls, built of stones, were fairly well pre- served, although several stones had fallen into the house; platform, flooring and doorway (which was not roofed) were also more or less preserved. The house did not give the impression of being parti- cularly old and there was nothing in its construction or material that indicated that it had been built on the site of an old house ruin like the other autumn house nearer the stream seemed to be. On excavat- ing it there were found on the floor, in the doorway and on and among the platform stones, a number of specimens: a harpoon head like Qilalukan Pl. 40.8, but smaller, with closed shaft socket and very roughly shaped; a slender foreshaft of narwhal tusk for an ice-hunt- ing harpoon, cut off obliquely at the rear end; a piece of a composite bow of antler; a piece of wood with knobs at each end, for holding the harpoon bladder; fragment of a gull hook; a toy bow of baleen and a toy arrow of wood; bone edging for a kayak paddle; an iron blade for a knife; a wooden handle for an ulo with tang; short scra- per of caribou scapula; a stick with fire-drilling holes; a fragment of a blubber dripper; an unfinished, square, toy cooking pot of soap- stone; a broken wooden doll showing the fringe on the frock, which is cut straight at the front and with a rather long tail at the back, without slits; there are also a number of indeterminable objects of wood and bone, one or two pieces of flint and soapstone; there are iron nails in two of the pieces of wood. They are all objects which are known in the modern culture and, in addition, must date from the time after contact with Europeans; there is relatively a good deal of iron, but no fragments of slate blades. On the other hand this autumn house is so old that none of the Eskimos alive today can re- member that it has been inhabited.

In the summer of 1924 Freuchen excavated house V at Qila- lukan, one of the old house ruins which have later been rebuilt as autumn houses; as I have already stated, a sample excavation in front of the doorway showed that under the modern refuse heap there