Report on the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the field 

 researches, office work, and other operations of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1964, conducted in 

 accordance with the act of Congress of April 10, 1928, as amended 

 August 22, 1949, which directs the Bureau "to continue independently 

 or in cooperation anthropological researches among the American 

 Indians and the natives of lands under the jurisdiction or protection 

 of the United States and the excavation and preservation of archeo- 

 logic remains." 



SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 



Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., devoted most of the first quarter of 

 the fiscal year to office duties and to general supervision of the activities 

 of the Bureau and the River Basin Surveys. In mid-October he went 

 on extended sick leave and retired on June 5, 1964, after 37 years 10 

 months of service. During his absence from the office and the period 

 from his retirement to the end of the fiscal year. Dr. Henry B. Collins 

 assumed administrative responsibility for the Bureau as acting direc- 

 tor, and Dr. Robert L. Stephenson functioned in a similar capacity 

 for the River Basin Surveys. 



In Augaist, Dr. Henry B. Collins, anthropologist, made a trip to 

 L'Anse aux Meadows, northern Newfoundland, on behalf of the 

 National Geographic Society, to check the authenticity of an archeo- 

 logical site which its discoverer, Helge Ingstad, of Oslo, Norway, 

 believed to be of Norse origin. As a result of his examination of 

 the site. Dr. Collins was able to verify this conclusion. The ruins of 

 sod-walled houses excavated by Mr. Ingstad at L'Anse aux Meadows 

 are definitely not Indian or Eskimo, and there is nothing to indicate 

 that they were the work of later English, French, or Portuguese 

 fishermen. On the other hand, the house ruins and associated features 

 are closely similar to those found at Viking sites in Greenland and 

 Iceland. Thirteen radiocarbon dates, based on charcoal from the 

 house ruins, cluster around the year A.D. 1000. This is the period 

 of the Vinland voyages, when, according to the sagas, Leif Ericson, 

 Thorfinn Karlsefni, and other Norsemen sailed westward and dis- 

 covered the American mainland. 

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