AN ICE KING’S TOMB

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1928, Page 1

AN ICE KING’S TOMB

STONE-AGE MUMMIES. NEW YORK, July 10. Aluinmies from the Stone Age have been found by the Stoll-AlcCracken ’ Expedition sent to the Aleutian Islands, south-west of Alaska, by the American Museum of Natural History. When tile expedition 'set out last April under tho leadership of Air ITitifokl Al'eOrair-iaeir, the Arctic, explorer, it was proposed to search the islands for mummies older than those in the Great Pyramids of Egypt. The Aleutian Islands are regarded as stepping stones by which human beings crossed from their Asiatic homos to America.

In a message to the New York Times Air McCracken to-day tells the fascinating story of a new discovery. On the summit of an almost inaccessible island the explorers found an Arctic tomb containing the bodies of three adults and one child, all perfectly preserved. with clothing, hunting weapons and domestic articles such as may he found in any ancient tombs of early

civilised man. Six hundred miles from the nearest timbered: country, and hundreds of feet above sea level, a vault of drift lopes held together by bone nails was discovered lined with otter skins and woven grass fabric. The tomb was divided into two sections—one holding the body of a person of high rank, and the other two bodies of persons of humbler rank and that of a child. KING IN OTTER COaT.

The Ice King, if such lie was, wore a tanned otter coat above a shirt of bird skins. The garments were elaborately decorated. A shroud of skins of animals covered the body, the whole being encased in a layer of sea-lion intestine sewn with the sinew of some

game animal. Other bodies were less elaborately dressed and buried, and the theory is that they were male and female servants. with possibly a favourite child. They were, it is surmised, put to death to help the Ice King on has journey through the spirit world.

While Mr McCracken believes that the culture revealed is undoubtedly that of the Stone Age he finds no contact with ancient White races. The practical inaccessibility of the site no doubt preserved tlie tomb from desecrn_ tion. Probably it was a refuge from enemies. ESKIMOS OP INDIANS, Dr Clark Wissler, Curator of Anthropology of the American Museum, said to-day that the bodies might l>e those of Stone Age Eskimos. Should the bodies be proved to be those of Indians, the discovery would bo even more interesting. Scientists believe that the Indians came before the Eskimos because they are found distributed throughout the American Continent. while the Eskimos are only at the gateway.

Dr Wissler added that should it turn out that the bodies had been properly embalmed it would be the first case known outside tlie land of the Nile. The bodies will l>o brought to the American Museum in New York.