494 W. Thalbitzer 



stone implements. Part of these specimens are now found in the 

 Greenland Administration's collection, the remainder belong to the 

 Petersen collection in our National Museum. 



These stone objects figured for the first time in this paper 

 entirely corroborate our previous suspicion as to the existence of a 

 fully developed stone age in this part of East Greenland. Among 

 the specially interesting forms not known previously from Ammas- 

 salik are two celts for adzes (figs. 208 a and b), the small arrow 

 points (fig. 210), the so-called whale harpoon head (fig. 209), which 

 however has more probably been the blade of a large double-edged 

 knife, and other stone objects supposed with more or less probab- 

 ility to be knife-blades, creasers and various characteristic forms of 

 small scrapers (figs. 205 c, 206, 211). On the other hand, no borer 

 point of stone is found in these East Greenland collections. 



Regarding the material I shall only refer in general to the in- 

 formation given by O. Solberg in his interesting book on the stone 

 artifacts of the Greenlanders, in which he points out that the mat- 

 erial has been of great importance for the origin of new^ variations 

 in the form. He mentions chalcedon, agate and jasper and different 

 varieties of slate (ammak of the Greenlanders) as the most used 

 minerals, whereas flint seems to be completely wanting^). Besides 

 these stones there is the soapstone or steatite {iikkasissaq) used for 

 pots and lamps. It is found at several places in East Greenland, 

 e. g. a little south of the Ammassalik district on Ole Rømer's Island (?) 

 and near Umanak^). According to Holm the people from Ammas- 

 salik went southwards to Inigsalik and Pikiutdlek in order to obtain 

 pot-stone (p. 26 of this volume). 



In West Greenland soapstone is found at various places e. g. in the 

 district of Godthaab (Baal's Revier). Dalager has a noteworthy I'emark on 

 the soapstone working at this place in the 18th centurj^: "In former times 

 certain families in the Revier had their living from quarrying and working 

 soapstone for pots and lamps which they traded over both to the north and 

 to the south."«) 



Knives and weapon points, celts and scrapers. — Though it 

 is difficult in many cases to keep the stone-blades of these imple- 



M Solberg (1907) pp, 22—24 and 74-77. 



-) Graah (1832) p. 107. Nordenskiöld (1885) pp. 397 and 478. No true stone-quarry 

 is mentioned here, but in Nares (1878) p. 189, on the other hand, Feilden speaks 

 of a stone-quarry found on tlie west side of Robeson Channel in Grants Land 

 near the northernmost limit of Iiuman beings: "A few miles soutii of Caj)e 

 Beechy we found more circles of tent stones and near at hand a small lieap of 

 rock-crystals and ilakes siiowed wliere the artificers in stone had been making 

 arrow or harpoon heads." 



3) Dalager (17.')2) p. 20 (16). 



