Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/490

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3.8 m; breadth of platform 2.5 m; doorway facing S. Excavated to a depth of 0.8 m, and there were found: two ice picks (?); small arrow head with one barb and wedge-shaped shaft end; fish hook (Pl. 83.6); knife handle with side blade socket (Pl. 83.10); wedge; miniature bull roarer (Pl. 84.9); two indeterminable objects of bone.

As regards the construction of the houses, we have here the same type of house that we know from the other Central Eskimo settlements, but without the use of whale bones for the roof; as these have apparently only been procurable in very small quantities, flat roofing stones have in some cases been used as on the houses of the Polar Eskimos, while the support stones characteristic of these houses has also been seen; in others, where sufficient stones were not available, it must be supposed that a skin roof was made, i. e. as a sort of qarmaq, but preserving otherwise the character of a winter house; this seems to have been the case at any rate in house 10, which must be regarded as being the latest in the settlement. As regards their ages on the whole, the houses in the uppermost and lowest rows — 1, 2, 11, 12 and 13 — were more levelled out and overgrown and are thus older than the houses in the next-lowest row 3–9, in which the biggest finds were made. Among the specimens, however, no age difference can be seen except for those in house 10; they all seem to belong to the same section of culture and will therefore in the following be regarded as one, after being divided into types.

Types of the Specimens of the Malerualik Find.

Material. By far the greater part of the specimens are of antler (137 specimens) and caribou leg bone (38); 12 are of whalebone and 7 of other animal bones (bear, seal, bird). There are also 9 objects of stone (soapstone, slate and the like, quartz); one piece is earthenware and 7 of wood. Ivory, narwhal tusk and baleen were not found, nor flint or metal.

Harpoon heads. The find contains eight harpoon heads and fragments, all of antler;[1] four of them belong to Thule type 2, three to Thule type 3 and one is of the peculiar Cape Dorset harpoon heads. Pl. 82.1 (P 12. 140 b)[2] is an unusually large harpoon head of type 2, which in length greatly exceeds even the longest of this type from Naujan and Ponds Inlet. It consists as usual of a piece of the crust of a heavy antler, has two powerful opposed barbs, slanting spur and open shaft socket, which is closed by a still preserved lashing of sinew thread through two pairs of holes. Another harpoon head of this type is 17.2 cm long, has likewise opposed barbs, but slots for

  1. ↑ In the absence of any other description the following objects are of antler.
  2. ↑ Specimens from Malerualik (and the adjacent Kangerarfigssuaq) are marked P12.
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