Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/482

The summer of 1923 was spent by Knud Rasmussen on King William's Land. While there he learned through the Eskimos that there were house ruins there of the same character as those already known from the Hudson Bay region; as he realised that it was of extreme importance to obtain an archaeological collection from these regions, where no excavations had ever been made before, he spent the greater part of the summer with his companions, the Polar Eskimos Miteq and Arnarulunguaq, at the ruined village Malerualik, where systematic excavations were made in the period from 8th July to 3rd September. This period could not, however, be wholly devoted to archaeological investigations, as they also had to hunt for food and dog-feed, nor had the study of the present Netsilik Eskimos to be neglected. As Eskimos were to some extent used in the excavations, the work was done in this manner: the platform, floor and doorway of each house were used as natural fields and a note was made of in which field and at which depth (layer of 10 cm) each object was found; the objects found were labelled and a list of them was made, their use being indicated according to the statements of the Netsilik.^[1] The settlement and the ruins excavated were also measured and photographed. In all, 13 house ruins were examined at Malerualik, the result being 210 specimens besides a number of animal bones. A house ruin was also excavated at the adjacent settlement Kangerarfigssuaq, resulting in the finding of 17 specimens. Finally, through the Eskimos a lot of information was secured regarding the existence of house ruins elsewhere' within the territory of the Netsilik Eskimos, and a number of specimens — some of them from the time of the Thule culture and others from the later culture — were acquired, as for instance a handsome, later grave find consisting of 47 objects, found by Knud Rasmussen in the vicinity of Malerualik.