Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/414

That the lower house group has been inhabited at the time of the Thule culture can also be seen from the find from refuse heap A which, as might have been expected, shows a mixture of old and new; besides the pronounced Thule types such as several of the harpoon heads and the soapstone cooking pots, the find contains later objects such as other harpoon heads and cooking-pot slabs of lime-stone.

As the next group we can take those house ruins which are, it is true, collapsed and levelled out, but not so much as the foregoing. To this group belongs first and foremost house VII, which gave the largest and richest find at Kuk and whose chronological position is therefore particularly important. A consideration of this find will show that it very closely approaches the Naujan find but is undoubtedly somewhat later than this. The harpoon heads alone show this; in opposition to the nine harpoon heads of the Thule type there are four which are thin, but have closed shaft sockets, and one small harpoon head which here is alone in representing the later, flat forms. A large number of other objects attach this find to the Naujan find: the heavy socket piece for the harpoon shaft, the facet-ground slate and jade blades, arrow heads with conical tangs with two knobs, side prongs and barbs for salmon spears, the wooden bow, sinew twisters, bola balls, whittling knives, mattocks, adzes, wedges, ulo handles, lamps of soapstone (with knobs), scrapers of caribou scapula, the well-made bone birds. As will be seen, by far the greater part of the find is connected with the Naujan find. But besides these we have the objects which prove that we are on new ground and in a later period. The harpoon heads have already shown this. The flint flaker of walrus rib is an implement which is not known from Naujan — a special Southampton type,^[1] and, with the appearance of this, the flint technique improves and excellent flint implements are produced such as the arrow heads with tang, the knife and the ulos, types which are not known from Naujan; slate objects, which are easier to make, are however still used, although slate is more difficult to obtain on Southampton Island. One of the arrow heads has a pyramid-shaped tang with lashing notches — a transition form to the later obliquely cut scarf face which one of the arrow heads from here also has. The four sewing needles are not known from Naujan, although this may be accidental, as no needles were found at all in the Naujan settlement. Besides the soapstone shards there are small fragments of lime-stone slabs for cooking pots, these also being a special Southampton form; soapstone is not found on Southampton Island, so that all the soapstone