Notes on a Collection of Ancient Eskimo Skulls
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8050806 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James A Brierley (corresponding author), J Brierley, F G Parsons |
| Year | 1906 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Pages | 104-104 |
| Publication date | 1906-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-5295 • E-ISSN: 2397-2564 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1193248 |
| OpenAlex | W2796813142 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
belonging to " Deu Kongelige Gisalandske Handel " of Copenhagen.On August 9th we made Cape Farewell, and early on the morning of Saturday, August 12th, arrived at Godthaab, the capital of South Greenland.There I was not fortunate enough to obtain any skulls, though, had I arrived a few weeks earlier, I could have obtained a good number, as the old graveyard had only lately been dug up and the remains there transferred to the present site.However, since Godthaab has been the site of a Danish colony for nearly 300 years and the Eskimo there are of a very impure type, I could not have been certaiui that the skulls I might have procured were not Danish, or at any rate half-breeds.From Godthaab I lproceeded north to Holstensborg.A couple of miles from that place there are the remains of an old Eskimo settlement, uninhabited since 1857, in which year a pestilence of smallpox annihilated the inhabitants.From tombs near that site I obtained seven specimens.The tombs are situated on a hill on King Frederick VII.Island in Holstensborg Fiord.From Holstensborg we sailed to Egedesminde, where I found plenty of remains, but, owing to the damp situation of the tombs, they were quite worthless as specimens.On August 18th we arrived at the colony of Christianshaab.There I visited the site of the former Eskimo settlement.whence the inhabitants removed to the present Christianshaab on the founding of the colony by the Danes in 1734 A.D. There I found five skulls (Nos.8-12).Some distance out in Disco Bay, on the rocky island of Rybeholm, I came across an isolated Eskimo grave, from which I took one skull (No. 13).From Christianshaab I proceeded to Umanak.The colony there is of recent date, anld there are no old Eskimo tombs in the immediate neighbourhood.However, I made one of an expedition proceeding up Umanak Fiord to the settlement of Ikerasak.On our journey up the fiord we stopped for rest and to make a meal at the uninhabited island of Storoer, where quite by chance I found skull No. 14 in a grave which had contained two corpses.The other skull was in a crumbling state.At Ikerasak, which is, and always has been, inhabited only by Eskimos, I found the last three specimenis in my collection from graves which date from before the time of the conversion of the Greenlanders to Christianity.To save myself as far as possible from taking skulls of Europeans in mistake for Eskimo, I always on arrival at a colony consulted the Danish Governor, who, with the aid of the colony's records and archives, gave mre all the information he This content downloaded from 195.34.78
Genealogy · Geography · Sociology · Anthropology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology
| Citations per year | 0.03 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1922 - 1981 (60) |
| Highly cited | No |