Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/419
edge and transversal groove; by this is an eye, which has not been drilled but cut out. 4 is a fragment of a bone blade with a similar elongated, cut out hole. 5 is a figure which seems to represent an upright bird, presumably a bird of prey, with long, folded wings, ending in a point at the back and with a rather short, only slightly pointed head. 6–7 are sewing needles, differing greatly from the small, fine needles with round eyes from house VII; these are much bigger, more clumsy, with elongated eye. Other 11 specimens are like these; Image missingFig. 84.Comb with Caribou; Kuk. 2:3. six of them are fragments of similar needles to 6–7; they all have the long, cut-out holes instead of the round drilled holes, a feature that is characteristic of the Cape Dorset culture in the south of Baffin Land and on Coats Island and which we now recognise in these specimens. On account. of the patination of the objects Jenness considers that these types, which seem to bear proof of ignorance of the drill, are older at Cape Dorset than the Thule types. Unfortunately our material gives nothing decisive regarding the chronological position of the Cape Dorset types; we have, however, a hint as to their age in the finding of one of the harpoon heads in house ruin XVII which, chronologically, occupies an intermediate position. I will, however, later on return to the Cape Dorset culture.
Among the other objects which are stated to have come from Kuk is the comb, Pl. 73.10; it is of ivory and has originally been bigger, the outer teeth having been broken off and the fracture surfaces smoothed. The handle is beautifully ornamented, first with a frame, consisting of a double line with alternating transversal lines, then with a number of Y-figures — both of them ornaments well known in the finds of the Thule culture; finally there are two cone-shaped, hatched figures with a number of lines jutting out from the apices; this can hardly represent anything else than tents of the cone-shaped type which the Caribou Eskimos, the Alaska Eskimos and the Indians use; it is strange to find pictures of such tents on an old comb on Southampton Island; on the other side of the comb (fig. 84) are two caribou, their heads towards each other; one, with tremendous antlers, is apparently a buck and seems to be grazing.
9 is a small, finely carved slate knife, apparently a toy (or a belt amulet); furthermore there are in this collection from Kuk two harpoon heads of Thule type 2, a harpoon head, with its (?) blade of slate,