Читать книгу Anthropological Survey in Alaska - Aleš Hrdlička - Страница 18

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Close to 10 a. m. arrive at the Bonasila site. Not much—just a low bank of the big river, not over 4 feet high in front, and a higher rank grass-covered flat with a little stream on the left and a hill on the right. But the flat is full of fossae of old barabras (pit and tunnel dwellings), all wood on surface gone; and there is a cemetery to the right and behind, on a slope.

Examine beach and banks minutely until 12. Modest lunch—two sandwiches, a bit of cake and tea—and then begin to examine the shore again. Soon after arrival finding bones of animals, some partly fossilized; beaver, deer, caribou, bear, fox, dog, etc., all species still living in Alaska, as found later, though no more in the immediate neighborhood.

Mosquitoes and gnats bad—use lot of oil. Begin soon to find remarkably primitive looking stone tools, knockers, scrapers, etc. Crawl through washed-down trees and brush. Many stones on the beach show signs of chipping or use. Very crude—a protolithic industry; but a few pieces better and showing polished edge. Also plenty of fragments of pottery, not seldom decorated (indented). Make quite a collection. And then, to cap it, find parts of human skeleton, doubtless washed out from the bank. Much missing, but a good bit recovered, and that bit is very striking. (See p. 156.) Also a cut bone (clean cut, as if by a sharp knife) in situ in the mud of the bank, and a little birch-bark basket still filled with mud from the bank, with later a larger basket of same nature in situ; could save but a piece. Conditions puzzling. Was there an older site under one more recent?

2 p. m. About 2 p. m. go to the cemetery. About a dozen burials recognizable. A pest of mosquitoes and gnats—Lawrence soon bleeds over face and neck, while I keep them off only by frequent smearing. He soon has to smear, too. Open five graves—placed above ground, wooden (split and no nails) boxes covered with earth and sod. Skeletons all in contracted position, head to the east and lying on right side. Some in poor condition. Three women, one man, one child. Gnats swarm in the moss and the graves, and with the smears, here and there a trickle of blood, the killed pests and the dust, we soon look lovely. But there is enough of interest. With each burial appears something—with the man two large blue Russian beads; first woman—a pottery lamp (or dish), iron knife; with the second two fire sticks, stone objects (sharpeners), partly decayed clay dish; with the third, a Russian bead and a birch-bark snuffbox; with the child a "killed" (?) glass bottle of old form and an iron flask; in the grave of an infant (bones gone) a Russian bead. A grave of a child—bones burned.

6.15 p. m. Rest must be left. Lawrence may be enabled to do some work in the fall. Leave 6.15; carry quite a lot—in sacks, gasoline cans, lard cans. Wonder how I shall be able to send things from Holy Cross, and what next. Cool, sky overcast whole day.