Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/38

roof supported upon whale bones. All the Naujan ruins are round or slightly oval, with diametres from 3 to 6 metres; in one case (perhaps 2) a double house was built with 2 circular platform spaces, in one case three houses in one with 3 platform spaces. In two cases two houses have a common entrance but otherwise retained their separate character. In 3 houses whale skulls were used in the construction of the walls besides stones and turf; in the others the walls are only of stone and turf; the shape of the house is the same, however. Not much can be said about the interior of the houses; the rear part seems to have been occupied by a main platform; in several cases this has been covered with flat stones and whale shoulder-blades. over which was laid cassiope or baleen; a number of stones placed on edge or whale bones formed the outer boundary of the platform; a side platform has also been observed. As a rule the floor was covered with flat stones; the situation of the lamp at one end of the main platform has in a few cases been determinable owing to the amount of blubber in the ground. In one or two places there seems to have been a cooking place, there being a quantity of ashes and slag. In all cases the doorways are fallen in. Regarding the construction of the roof nothing definite can be said; it is probable that there has been a roof of turf and stone, supported by whale jaw and rib bones; but as to this and to the arrangement of this type of house on the whole, reference must be made to the description later of better preserved ruins of the same type on Southampton Island and at Ponds Inlet.

It may seem strange that some of the house ruins are so levelled and collapsed that nothing has been preserved of their interior and that on excavation not particularly many large stones or whale bones have been found. The explanation of this may be that these ruins are the oldest in the locality and that the materials for building other houses may to some extent have been taken from them. The later Eskimo population of the district may also have had something to do with this. As stated above, an Eskimo has plundered one of the houses of its whale bones in order to build an autumn house for himself; in addition, the massive whale bones, especially the jaw bones, are in great demand for sledge shoes; at Ponds Inlet I know at any rate that the Eskimos often took whale bones for sledge shoes from the whale-bone houses in the old settlement Qilalukan; there is thus nothing strange in the fact that in these old ruins not so many whale bones are to be found as might have been expected.

Besides the house ruins, a 60 sq. metre area of a large refuse heap was excavated; this heap had in the course of time accumulated out-