Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/384
House ruin IV. Fairly well preserved; the doorway and a part of the walls still standing. Almost circular, 3.2 m in diameter; one main platform and two smaller side platforms; the construction of the walls as in III but without whale skulls. The excavation, which could not be quite completed owing to the frost, gave only small results:
A knife handle of antler, flat, rather curved, 11.1 cm long, 2.4 broad; at the front a flat and a notch for lashing on the blade; in the edges, opposite each other, two projecting knobs and, a little further back, two notches, Two fragments of flint flakers, of walrus rib. Two whetting stones of reddish sandstone, prismatic, ground on all 4 sides, one of them almost quadratic in section, the other very flat. Three fragments of small flint blades. A thin point of caribou legbone, 13.2 cm long, apparently a bodkin. A small oval disc of ivory, 1.8 cm long, pierced by a hole. A bear tooth pierced through the middle. A small wooden stick. Two pieces of flint waste and 170 animal bones.
House ruin V. The doorway preserved, the walls collapsed. Three platforms, two of them 3 metres, that to the east 2 metres in diameter. Not excavated.
House ruin VI. Prior to excavation appeared as a very low, flat hollow, 3 metres in diameter, from which led the doorway; wholly overgrown with grass and moss and apparently very old; the interior completely collapsed. Neither large whale bones nor lime-stone slabs were seen; material has presumably been taken from these old houses for building the later ones.
In this house ruin were found: A side prong for a salmon spear, of whalebone (Pl. 68.5. P4. 905), a scarf-face in the fore end for the barb and two grooves for the lashing. The broken end of a trout needle, of whalebone; on one side a longitudinal groove. The cut off, slightly pointed rear end of a lance head, of whalebone. A bola ball of whalebone (Pl. 68.6. P4. 904). The blade of a snow knife of whalebone, with 2 shoulders at unequal distances from the handle, very broad, blunt at the fore end (Pl. 68.7. P4. 899). A piece of a whale scapula with 5 holes, presumably the blade of a snow shovel. A knife handle, antler, with an extension at right-angles to the plane of the handle (Pl. 68.8. P4. 889). The groove, which has formed a bed for the lashing, of the blade, has been made by boring a row of holes; when the knife was found there was a slate blade in it; this, however, has been lost on the way home. A large chisel or wedge of antler, 21 cm long, up to 5 cm broad; a piece of a scraper of caribou scapula; a pointed piece of ivory. 250 animal bones.