IDNO

P.86327.PAT

Description

Detail of the floor of an Inuit house ruin - probably Hut 1 at Isbjørn Harbour, Carey Islands, showing paved areas, whale bones, and the remains of stone walls.

Place

N America; Arctic; Greenland; Carey Islands; ?Isbjørneø [Isbjørn Island]; ?Isbjorn Harbour

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

9 - 12 August 1937

Collection Name

Paterson Collection

Source

Paterson, Erik T.

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Image: Same image mounted in James Wordie’s 1937 album with the number and caption:
“August 9 - 12”
423. “422 - 424. Umiak stand & excavated houses.”
See Related Documents File. [Jocelyne Dudding 9/3/2008]

Bibliographical Reference: J. M. Wordie; H. Carmichael; E. G. Dymond; T. C. Lethbridge, ‘An Expedition to North West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic in 1937’ in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5. (Nov., 1938), pp. 385-418.
Text on p. 392 and p. 394 includes:
“The ship meantime proceeded on August 9 to the Cary Islands to see if balloon flights were possible from this mid-water position”.
“We were not surprised therefore to find that there had been old Eskimo villages both on the south side of North West Island and at the ship anchorage at Isbjorn Island. At the former there were the remains of at least five huts, but they had been partly excavated by some previous visitor and only a few whale bones were present. It seems certain that this was the site visited by Markham in 1851, and the chance of making any study of these huts had gone. The anchorage site on the other hand had never been disturbed, and we found two umiak rests and five long houses, each accommodating several families. Whale bones were visible jutting through the turf of the longest house, and the turf was therefore stripped to expose a complete framework of rafters of whale bones. The house was three-roomed, two short walls projecting and acting as rests for the long whale-bone girders ; an interesting peculiarity was the symmetrical arrangement of whale scapulae. Measurements were made, but the bones were left untouched just as they were found and no excavations undertaken at this large hut, though digging was done at a smaller house alongside for comparative purposes”.
[JD 12/2/2007]

Biographical Information: Lethbridge, T. C., 1939. ‘Archaeological Data from the Canadian Arctic’ in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
Figure 3, p. 190, of “Hut 1, Isbjorn Harbour, Cary Islands” appears to be a similar scene as photograph P.86327.PAT.
Text on p. 191 includes:
“Roofing was standing to a greater or less degree in all the other huts, except No. 1, which was excavated. It was found that the debris of occupation here was very slight, although quite a number of objects were recovered.The construction differed from any other hut explored during the expedition. The main part was almost square with angular corners. The platform facing the door was largely composed of a slab of 4 feet 6 inches long propped up on two others which formed a locker, and the rest of it was in bad condition. ... The whale bones from the roof lay all over the floor, and a bertebra had been used as a stool or lamp-stand in the smaller room”.
[JD 14/3/2007]

P.86084.PAT to P.86583.PAT were found wrapped in the card now numbered C446/1/.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 20/12/2006]