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National Geographic : 1987 Jun
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Plain and simple, a woman's comb is charming in its unfussiness. Streamlined forms were important be cause many Eskimo imple ments were handled under conditions in which hands could not be exposed for fear offrostbite. After study by archaeologists, the recovered artifacts were turned over to the Barrow community. The Utqiagvik bodies were also returned, and the remains buried. A minister conducted services. Last year, a mukluk-shod foot was spotted protruding from the bluff, two hundred yards from the Utqiagvik site. But before investigation could proceed, a severe storm washed the grave out to sea. As usual, the Arctic had final say. Once the autopsies were completed, the bodies of the two women and the bones of the children were returned to Barrow for proper burial. As we gradually excavated the house further, we uncovered new clues to the tragedy that had occurred there five centuries before. The level of destruction-and its direction, from seaward was such that only an ivu could have caused it. As we dug deeper into the structure, we found vertical timbers smashed, sidewall boards canted landward, and one entire wall knocked from its sill. The ivu is referred to in Inupiat oral traditions and in the logs of early whalers in the Arctic. The phenomenon still threatens man today, including his offshore oil rigs. Excavation of the house taught us a good deal about everyday Inupiat life five centuries ago. Both the variety and location of tools and artifacts discovered in the dwelling revealed that these Inupiat families were well orga nized and highly adapted to their hunting life. We found their tools and weapons arranged in kits ac cording to function and season. Winter hunting equipment such as snow goggles, ice picks, and harpoons was stored in the tunnel, often in skin bags, keeping it dry and therefore free of frost for ready use. Inside the house space was at a premium. Along the entrance tunnel small storage alcoves con tained items that were less fre quently used, such as summer equipment, extra fishing nets, and skin bags to hold seal oil. In the adjacent kitchen we found items of constant use such as cooking equipment and food-storage con tainers-all necessities for winter housekeeping. W E FINISHED our excavation in the summer of 1983, though the recovered material will be studied for years. As we boarded the plane at Barrow for home, I felt satis fied with the work we had done, shedding new light on a distant and fascinating chapter in Alaska's past. I glanced out the window and saw mail being loaded aboard, then instantly realized we had miscalculated. The boxes con tained copies of our precious field notes, which we had painstak ingly made and then earlier put in the mail for home, so they would survive if our plane went down. I felt a sudden kinship with the Inupiat family that had gone to sleep that fateful stormy night some 500 years ago. Like us they believed that they had done all they could and trusted that what had been successful in the past would continue to be so-yet knowing it was not always to be. e1 National Geographic,June 1987 836
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