A RCTIC CIRCULA NO. I Notes on a trip in l6-foot ... - The Arctic Circle

VOL. ). V f[;. ?, THE A<strong>RCTIC</strong> <strong>CIRCULA</strong>R z8
which does not suggest Thule culture or post-contact Eskimos but
Dorset or pre-Dorset people, However, the sample in hand consists
of five soapstone fragments only. Two are of rather shallow, thinwalled
vessels with outsloping walls and rounded rim profile, which
were probably rnade by Dorset people. The tbird carne from a deeper,
thin-walIed vessel with an inwardly bevelled rim. The remaining two
came frorn vessels l0 to 13 mm. thick with flat bases, near vertical
walls, and rounded rim profiles, which might well be of Thule culture.
Thus the large Okiivik IV site very likely contains tJre rernains of
several occupations representing both the Dorset and Thule culhrres.
Okiivik Graves. DrAnglure recalled seeing some 5 undisturbed
and"uo@rave8ontheis1and.The1attercontainedmuch
human skeletal material but no wood, cloth, or metal. Since Cape
Prince of W ales lies a scant four miles to the northwest, I may quote
F. F . Payner s unanswered siren call to phyeical anthropologists, 'f The
graves of the Eskirno are found everywhere along the coast, some well
built over with stones while others only show where the body was laid
tbe bones being scattered in every direction. The favorite place of
burial is an island where the foxes and wolves cannot get at the bodies,
and near Cape Prince of W ales an island, about ten acres in area, was
seen literally covered with graves; and monurnents ten feet high were
erected here and there throughout it. These were evidently built for
service in comrroDp and like our beacon were covered witb scraps of
food'r (Payne, 1889, p. ZZ8l. As Okiivik far exceeds ten acres in area,
Payne presurnably described another island, nearby but smaller. The
three artifacts found in association with Okiivik graves carre frorn a
small cache placed outeide a surface grave rnade of large stones. The
latter bad a rectangular interior and a subrectangular exterior. The
artifacts were a thin flake of mica, a 6-cm. long scrap of bone with
tJrree drilled holes, and a scraper, L3. 7 -cnl. long, made from the
scapula of a caribou, Then and the grave form, suggest Thule or, less
likely, recent Ungava Eskirno culhrre.