NELSON] 



RUINS AT CAPE WANKAREM 



265 



passageway leading into them, the entire structure having been partly 

 underground. 



The Eskimo of East cape, Siberia, said that there were many old 

 village sites along the coast in that vicinity. These houses had stone 

 foundations, many of which are still in place. There is a large ruined 

 village of this kind near the one still occupied on the cape. 



On the extreme point of Cape Wankarem, and at its greatest eleva 

 tion, just above the present camp of the reindeer Chukchi, a series of 

 three sites of old Eskimo villages were found. The accompanying 

 sketch map of the cape shows the relative sites of these villages, and 

 also indicates another fact which may give a slight clew to the age of 

 one of them. 



O 



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FIG. 92 Sites of ancient villages at Cape Wankarem, Siberia. 



Number 1 is the site of a village which at present contains the ruins 

 of three houses: other houses have evidently been washed away by the 

 encroachment of the sea. These three houses are of mound shape, with 

 a pit or depression in the middle, and a trench-like depression lead 

 ing out from each of them toward the sea shows the position of the 

 entrance passage. Numerous ribs and jawbones of whales lie scattered 

 about, and the decaying end of a whale s jawbone, projecting through 

 the top of one of the mounds, shows the material used in framing them. 



Number 2 represents a series of five similar house sites, facing the 

 dotted area on the sketch map; and at number 3 is indicated still 

 another series of ten house sites like the preceding, all unquestionably 

 of Eskimo origin. 



Number 4 is the site of the present Chukchi camp, consisting of skin 

 lodges, as we found it at the time of our visit. No recent whale bones 



