ARCHEOLOGY OF GREENLAND— MATHIAS SEN 401 



Everything had been well preserved in this enormous frozen mid- 

 den — bones, bone and baleen implements, heaps of big unworked 

 baleens, wood, pieces of sealskin, feathers, eggshells, dog excrement, 

 human hair; and the whole was saturated with blubber. On calm 

 sunny days this old thawing midden sent forth a most unpleasant 

 odor. It is a common rule in the Arctic that where the smell is 

 worst, the best finds are to be got ; and this was the case at Inugsuk. 



About 6,000 worked specimens were taken from this midden during 

 the summer, and many of them were of gi-eat interest. Most of the 

 implements were of types well known from Naujan, Thule, and the 

 other sites of the Thule culture. Some of the harpoon heads had 

 the same open sockets ; we found the same kinds of arrowheads, bola 

 balls, sledge shoes, knife handles, drills, adzes, women's knives, lamps 

 (with wick ledge), cooking pots, baleen bowls, trinkets, and toys. 

 The baleen implements were very prominent — bows, sledge shoes, 

 snow beaters, weapon points, knives, cups, large pieces of platform 

 mats, tops, toys ; even a house door, a drying rack, and a drum frame 

 of baleen. The Inugsuk people too had been great whalers. 



The Inugsuk culture is not identical with the Thule culture ; some- 

 thing new had been added, which gives the find a younger stamp. 

 Most of the harpoon heads have a closed socket; some special west 

 Greenland types have appeared, some implements of silicious slate, 

 some ornamental bodkins, some antler spoons and coopered vessels. 

 And some of these new types seem to be influenced by a foreign cul- 

 ture — the culture of the medieval Norsemen who in the 5 centuries 

 from about 1000 to 1500 existed in south Greenland. These Norse- 

 men were familiar with the coopering technique, and they used spoons 

 of the same shape as those found at Inugsuk. But can these Norsemen 

 really have had any communication with the Inugsuk Eskimos, who 

 lived 500 to 600 miles farther north? 



We found, however, at Inugsuk more evidence of this connection — 

 a lump of church-bell metal, used as a hammer; a piece of woven 

 cloth, of the same kind as that found in the Norse churchyards in 

 south Greenland; a bone chessman, converted into a top; and two 

 wooden carvings, made by Eskimos, but representing Norsemen ; one 

 of them is a small doll, showing a Norseman in medieval dress, with 

 long coat and big, loose hood, the same dress as that which has been 

 found in the Norse churchyard of Herjolfsnes in south Greenland. 

 The Inugsuk people must actually have seen Norsemen. Now, for- 

 tunately, we know that there really were three Norsemen up here in 

 the latter part of the thirteenth century ; for on another island, close 

 to Inugsuk, there was found about 100 years ago a runic inscribed 

 stone, saying that "Erling Sigvattsson and Bjarne Tordsson and 

 Enride Oddsson erected this cairn on the Saturday before soccage 

 day." The language enables us to fix the date. 



