science · 14 March 1967 · 57 years ago
death
Died 14 Mar 1967 at age 74 (born 5 Sep 1892).
Danish archaeologist and ethnographer laid the groundwork for the scientific study of arctic archaeology. His excavations (1921-23) of the Thule prehistoric Eskimo culture were the first scientific archaeological investigations in the Canadian Arctic. Mathiassen, as a member of the Danish Fifth Thule Expedition (1922), excavated ruins at Naujan (called Nauyat by local people), one of the most important sites of its time period. He uncovered and mapped a dozen sod house ruins, tent rings, graves, meat caches, kayak stands, and a refuse heap almost larger than the houses. His work defined the culture of the people who had lived in there. The Thule (pronounced Too-lee) people are ancestors of the modern Inuit.
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