Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/375
be taken for granted that when the upper house group and salmon dam were built, the mouth of the river was here; this means a rise of the land of five to six metres. With the present water level both houses and dam are in an absurd position. The lower house group too would seem to be unnecessarily far away from both shore and river mouth; a rise of the water level of three or four metres would, however, on this flat terrain bring the sea up to the houses. For the houses south of the river mouth, which give the impression of being the youngest, a rise of the land since their erection need not necessarily have taken place; but as on the other side one sees everywhere the modern meat caches and tent rings at lower levels than the old ones (from the time of the Sadlermiut), a rise of a couple of metres here too is probable. It must therefore be regarded as being extremely likely that the Kuk settlement has been inhabited at any rate since the sea was five or six metres higher than it is now and until it was only about two metres higher than now; the probability is, however, that the habitation of the upper house group lies still further back; this house group is 12 metres above the sea level, and some of it may thus be much older; as the following will show, there are houses in this group which appear to be very old together with those which are relatively new.
The Kuk find does not form a large, homogeneous whole from about the same period, as does the Naujan find. At Kuk there are considerable age differences between the various house ruins and the finds from these also indicate a great difference in culture. The method adopted in describing the finds from Naujan and Qilalukan-Mitimatalik, of first giving a description of the house ruins, accompanied by a brief list of what was found in each one, followed by the detailed examination of the specimens according to a type-classification, will therefore be less useful in this case; here the finds from the various ruins will be dealt with separately, by which means the chronological features will appear more clearly.
Here the house ruins, which as stated form a long row running practically E.-W. and built into a shore ridge, all have their doorways facing south or SSE., down towards the river and its extension, to which the distance is now considerable. These house ruins are of