398 ^VJSTNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



tions are preferably chosen for habitations — low islands and points — 

 where conditions for building houses are favorable and where there 

 is good hunting. The vegetation often gives hints : The grass is more 

 luxuriant on formerly inhabited spots, where the ground has for ages 

 been fertilized by organic refuse. Not only grass, but also flowers, 

 often of wonderfully bright colors, may cover the old ruins and thus 

 reveal their existence. Green spots on the coast nearly always mean 

 an old house or camping ground; the older the village is, however, 

 the less luxuriant is the vegetation ; and the oldest remains have the 

 same poor vegetation as the surroundings and cannot be discovered 

 in this way. 



Many places must be visited, to find the one best suited for ex- 

 cavation; in 1934, in Julianehaab district, I visited more than 140 

 old villages. Most of the places are quite small habitations, with 

 one or two houses ; most of them date only from the seventeenth or 

 eighteenth century. What we require for our purpose is a site with 

 houses which have been inhabited throughout a long period; then 

 there will be found a large midden in front of the houses, and such 

 a midden is the best finding place for specimens. 



When such a site is found we set up our camp, our party usually 

 being two white people, three or four Greenlanders, and a Green- 

 land girl to do the housekeeping. The village is surveyed, mapped, 

 and photographed; the turf of some of the houses and midden areas 

 is removed to expose the black culture-earth to the sun. Now the 

 excavation goes slowly forward ; each day 1 or 2 inches are thawed 

 and can be excavated and removed; the specimens found are dried, 

 prepared, labeled, and packed. The uncovered stone constructions — 

 houses, tent rings, meat caches, graves — are measured, drawn, and 

 photographed. The stone graves often contain rich finds of grave 

 goods. 



The conditions for excavations are quite different in north and 

 in south Greenland. In the north the ground is permanently frozen 

 from about 1 foot below the surface, and thawing proceeds very 

 slowly. The excavation takes a very long time; but, on the other 

 hand, things are here usually well preserved. In the south there 

 is no frozen ground in the summer, and even in the winter frost 

 and thaw alternates. Excavation can proceed quickly, as in south- 

 ern countries; but things are poorly preserved: All wooden and 

 baleen implements have decayed, and often the bone specimens too, 

 so that only a few stone objects are left as a reward for the hard 

 work of the excavator. 



Many other troubles have to be faced: in the north large frozen 

 stones and whale bones, and the water from the melting ice; in the 

 south willow and grass roots and often stormy and rainy weather. 



