66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



from a surface 12 to 15 inches below the present ground level, to a 

 depth of about 4 feet. The total thickness of the deposits here is 

 about 58 inches. Although the pit is shallow and indistinct in outline, 

 it seems to be about 50 feet square, the same size as House Pit 1. 

 Unfortunately, no trace of timbers was found, although the edge of 

 Mound D was cut off in a straight line as if it had been piled up 

 against the wall of the house. If a house had been built in the pit, 

 it was considerably deeper than any others discovered. Although a 

 number of fire-cracked rocks were found in House Pit 7, there were 

 no concentrated strata of black rocky midden or of shell. The 

 absence of shell and the consequent acidity of the soil undoubtedly 

 explain why no objects of bone or of wood were found in the house 

 pit. That House Pit 7 is the oldest discovered at Old Town is sug- 

 gested by the large trees growing in it and on Mound C. 



As in the case of House Pit 1, no artifacts were found on the floor 

 of the pit, suggesting that the house had been kept clean. We have 

 already commented on the relatively neat housekeeping habits of the 

 Thngit at villages as opposed to forts and campsites, and on the 

 contrast between house pits and trash mounds (de Laguna, 1953, 

 pp. 54 f.). The only artifacts found in House Pit 7 came from the fill. 

 Fill of House Pit 7, below 34 inches: 



Unfinished planing adz blade, pi. 6, h 



3 adz fragments (806, 807, 819) 



8 hammerstones (752, 798, 799, 801, 820, 846 to 848) 



Hammerstone-abrader (800) 



Quartz strike-a-light (835) 



Abrading stone (845) 



3 pieces of worked greenstone (805, 804, 808) 



5 chert chips (729, 803, 837, 838, 843) 



Fragment of worked slate (842) 



Amulet (?) of crystalline rock (802) 

 Fill of House Pit 7, above 24 inches: 



Small planing adz (769) 



Adz fragment (711) 



3 small woodworking tools (765, 767, 810) 



2 hammerstones (751, 753) 

 Whetstone (809) 



3 slate arrowheads, fig. 14, g (and 767, 768) 

 Copper pin or tang, pi. 14, / 



Sawed slate (811) 



Worked greenstone (720) 



Worked slate pebble (728) 



13 chert chips (721, 727, 782 to 786, 788 to 793) 



RECENT HOUSES 

 Sixty to seventy-five years ago the natives along the Gulf Coast of 

 Alaska were living in old-style rectangular plank houses with gable 

 roofs. Our Yakutat informants did not agree on details, probably 



