Due to the impossibility of digging sufficiently deep into the frozen
ground the western Eskimo buried their dead near or on the surface or
among rocks. Occasionally they utilized also, it seems, old dwellings
for this purpose, and in more recent times at least the surface
burials, wherever there was driftwood, would be protected by heavy
rough-hewn planks put together in the form of boxes or by driftwood.
They bear close fundamental resemblance to those of the Yukon. On the
Nunivak Island occur graves made of rough stone slabs piled up without
much order. (Pl. 31, _a_, _b_.)
Throughout the region the burials were located near the village, but
the distance varied according to local conditions and habits. In some
of the Eskimo villages of the lower Yukon, as at Old Hamilton, some
burials were close to the houses of the living. In the Bering and
Arctic regions the burial grounds, though sometimes of necessity not
far from the houses, as at the Little Diomede, in other places, as at
Point Hope and Barrow, were at a distance extending to beyond a mile
and a half from the village.
As a rule the wood of burials older than about 80 years was found fully
decayed with the bones secondarily buried. Of earlier burials there is
generally no trace on the surface, but on excavation skeletal remains
are found at various depths below the surface. These characteristic
self-burials, or rather tundra burials, may prove of much importance
to anthropology in the future. As outlined before (see Narrative, pp.
77, 79) the process is a decay of the wood; the sagging down of the
bones, covered more or less by the decayed material; an encroachment of
moss or other vegetation on the little mound thus produced; and gradual
accumulation through wind or water carried materials of more covering
over the bones, until the mound disappears and the remains, generally
still in good condition, are buried as if intentionally inhumed.
The Eskimo everywhere were found to be exceedingly sensible about the
older, and even recent, skeletal remains, and assisted readily in their
collection, as well as in excavation, offering thus the best possible
conditions for anthropological and archeological work in these regions.
The notes, charts, and a detailed list of the sites and villages
follow. In numerous cases it was found impossible to say whether a site
was completely "dead" or still occasionally partly occupied, so that
distinctive markings had to be abandoned.