Grave Finds. 



ALTHOUGH a considerable amount of material was brought home 

 . by the Danmark Expedition illustrative of the life and doings 

 of the aborigines in the now deserted districts of North-east Greenland, 

 it gives but scanty information regarding their relation to the dead. 

 Altogether only twelve graves were found, distributed among seven 

 localities. They were built, as usual, above ground and of stone; as 

 elsewhere in Greenland they were not uniformly orientated; this 

 depended on local conditions. In one case (grave 321) the skeleton 

 appeared to have been lying in an extended position; otherwise, 

 wherever it was possible to make observations, the body was 

 placed in the position most common in Eskimo graves, namely Avith 

 the knees tightly drawn up. 



Two of the graves ^ were not investigated nor measured ; the 

 style of building of the others has been described elsewhere^; there- 

 fore, in the following pages only those will be considered which 

 contained objects or which were distinguished by some special 

 feature. 



East shore of Stormbugt. ' 

 Near the settlement in this locality four graves were found. One 

 of them (grave 321) occurred separately on a rocky knoll. ^ It was 

 the only grave in which the body appeared to have been fully 

 extended, and accordingly the space was longer than usual, viz. 1.75 

 metres. Unfortunately the roofing had sunk somewhat, and formed 

 an opening through which animals had gained admission and caused 

 some disturbance in the position of the different parts of the skeleton. 

 The extended position is not common in Greenland graves, but has 

 nevertheless now and then been observed in West Greenland.' 



The objects were few in number, but were of some interest as 

 regards the elucidation of some previous finds. They consisted 

 of eight pierced teeth of fox, a slender pendant of bone, and 



1 Nos. 695 and 71-1. - Thostrup, pp.203, 267—68, 280, 3Ü6, 325, 327, 330 and 334. 

 ^ With regard to place-names, the orthography of the charts drawn up by the 

 expedition, and of Thostuup's work, has been adhered to. For the signification 

 cf. Thostrup p. 190. * Thostrup, p. 267. '= K. I. V. Steenstrup I, pag. 23. 



