THE ESKIMO ARCHEOLOGY OF GREENLAND ^ 



By De. THERKE2. MATHIASSEN 



National Museum, Copenhagen 



[With 3 plates] 



Archeology in the Arctic has a charm of its own. The surround- 

 ings are unusual : The scenery is magnificent, with high, snow-clad 

 mountains and deep fiords; the sea is filled with icebergs or drift 

 ice — the sun shines day and night; seals, whales, caribou, bears, sea 

 fowl, and fish are abundant; and the people are the small dark- 

 haired, brown-skinned, broad-faced Eskimos, the kindest and most 

 helpful people in the whole world. 



The work is hard, for the ground is frozen a few inches below the 

 surface; the sun must thaw the earth, and the layers must be ex- 

 amined and removed, to expose a new frozen stratum to the rays of 

 the sun. This frozen soil, however, is an advantage for everything is 

 well preserved for centuries, as in an ice cellar. 



In my attempt to elucidate the history of the Eskimos and the 

 archeology of Greenland I shall give some account of work with 

 Eskimo excavations, for two summers in the Canadian Arctic (as a 

 member of Knud Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition) and seven 

 in Greenland, a long series of adventurous and interesting years. 



If the district chosen for excavation is still inhabited it is an easy 

 matter to obtain information as to likely sites, for one has only to 

 ask the Greenlanders. They know their country; on their hunting 

 trips they travel all over it, and they use their eyes well, noticing 

 everything unusual in the terrain; and they are, of course, well 

 acquainted with the remains of their forefathers. A Greenlander in 

 Angmagssalik, on the east coast, drew for me a very accurate map of 

 the entire district and indicated on that map more than 100 ruined 

 villages. But that is of course exceptional. Usually one must take 

 a Greenland pilot on a motorboat — or woman's boat — and ask him 

 to point out the ruins of the district, and he will do it very well. 

 If the country is uninhabited, the problem is much more difficult. 

 But there are many things which may serve as a guide : Certain posi- 



1 Reprinted by permission, with change of title, from Antiquity, vol. 9, no. 34, June 

 1935. 



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