I’ve been fascinated by archaeology since childhood, so getting the opportunity to explore a largely undisturbed site like the settlement at Eskimo Bay was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

With about 45 of us clustered around her (the kayakers arrived a bit later, in a sort of second wave), Carol pointed out the house remains. She coached us to look at the ground and walk gently around the settlement —  never-before-seen artifacts weather out of the ground every season, and it would be easy to crush one before it was even recognized.

She talked a bit about what life was like for the inhabitants, and pointed out features that made the site an ideal village location: a nearby stream, the flat shore good for landing kayaks, and the sheltered nooks and crannies that the people used as work shelters and lookouts.

snow knife

Carol points out a snow knife that has begun weathering out of the ground. Some of the knife is still embedded in the ground, so she covers it with a few flat stones between visits to protect it.

After a bit of searching, Carol found a couple of flat rocks that she remembered from her last visit to the site a couple years ago, and carefully moved them aside to reveal a bone implement — a “knife” used to harvest packed snow to be melted into water. We clustered around, oohed and aahed, and took photos.

snow knife closeup

The snow knife is fashioned from the jawbone of a musk ox. I associated snow knives with igloos, but Carol explained this knife was used to harvest snow or ice to be melted into water.

Meanwhile one of the other guides, Gary, retrieved a cache of bone artifacts that have been gathered over time and set them out on a lichen-covered boulder for us to admire.

worked bone with lens cap

This site is particularly rich in worked bone artifacts. In the past the artifacts have been added to a cached collection as they were found, and the collection is displayed for visitors.

delicate ends

I find the way the ends of these delicate pieces were worked intriguing. Are these tools, ornaments, game pieces, amulets…?

practice piece

Here’s a bit of bone I found with holes drilled through. Ancient Inupiak did not have metal knives or saws. A line of drill holes would perforate bone or shell so they could snap it into pieces. Maybe this was a practice piece?