Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/508

which will be referred to later. We thus have Thule culture ruins spread over the greater part of the territory of the Netsilik Eskimos: Pelly Bay, Boothia Peninsula, King William's Land and Adelaide Peninsula.

At Malerualik Knud Rasmussen secured a rich grave find, consisting of 47 objects. The find was not laid in any grave, but lay by the side of the ring of stones which had once surrounded the corpse, as the Netsilik Eskimos do not build stone graves. The specimens are on the whole well preserved but give the impression of being fairly old; several of them are thickly overgrown with lichen. The principal components of the find will be seen on Pl. 85. It comprises the following objects:

A small harpoon head (1), rather thin, with one spur, closed shaft socket and inserted blade parallel with the line hole; the head is of antler, the blade of caribou leg bone, nicely facetted, and it is held in place by a copper rivet. A foreshaft for an ice-hunting harpoon (3), of antler, round, cut obliquely at the rear end, with a bone rivet. Four wound plugs, all of leg bone, with big heads; three of them are square in section, the fourth ensiform (4). Foreshaft and blade for a slender caribou lance (11); the foreshaft is thin, round, wedge-shaped at the rear end; in the fore end is inserted a long, sharp blade of leg bone, fastened by two bone rivets; a head of antler, 18½ cm long, with a long sharp blade 1.4 cm wide and wedge-shaped shaft end is possibly of a similar lance. The end piece of a bow of antler, 30 cm long, about 2½ cm wide; one end with a knob for the string, the other cut obliquely, with lashing notches. Five arrow heads, all obliquely cut at the shaft end; two have no separately inserted blade and no barbs (5); two (6–7) have a carefully facetted blade of leg bone, held in place by a bone rivet; and finally, one arrow head has a small, 2.8 cm long, iron blade, fastened in by a copper rivet. A blunt, hollow bone knife, 27 cm long, 3 cm wide, with sharp edges, no especially shaped grip for the hand, is possibly an imeqtut for pressing out the water from the skins of caribou caught from the kayak; a hollow, pointed implement 40 cm long, with a bent-over, roughly shaped handle, of the crust of an antler, has possibly been used for a similar purpose. A small toggle for dog traces (20); a broken needle case of leg bone, ornamented with transversal lines (18); a long, curved, thin marrow extractor of leg bone, one end widened into a triangular, hollow blade, as is often used nowadays by the Netsilik Eskimos (17). An important part of the find consists of models, miniature specimens, of various weapons and utensils: 9 is a model of a