PREFACE
The intention of this work is to communicate the archaeological results of my participation in the Fifth Thule Expedition, the Danish expedition to Arctic North America, in the years 1921–23. That this work has been compiled is thus first and foremost due to the one who entrusted it to me, the leader of the Expedition, Dr. Knud Rasmussen, and the Committee of the Expedition through its chairman, M. Ib Nyeboe, C. E.; it is to them that I must first of all address my thanks. Furthermore, I owe a special debt of gratitude to two others: my university teacher in geography, the late Professor, Dr. H. P. Steensby, who taught me scientific method and awoke in me an interest for the Eskimo problems; next, Inspector Thomas Thomsen who, as the ethnographic member of the Expedition committee and also as leader of the Ethnographic Department of the National Museum, has been of help to me in every way. I must also express my thanks to the Ministry of Education and the Carlsberg Fund for support in treating the material and towards its publication, the Rask-Ørsted Fund for defraying the cost of translation, the University and in particular the custodian of Professor Löffler's Foundation, Professor, Dr. M. Vahl, for travelling aid, the directors of the museums in Stockholm, Helsingfors and Berlin, the British Museum, the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa, for kind assistance. Finally, I must thank all who have in some way or other given contributions towards this work: my comrades on the Expedition, Peter Freuchen, Kaj Birket-Smith and Helge Bangsted, who have each supplied me with information; Professor Carl Jacobsen, who has examined earthenware shards; Civil Engineer G. Wiese, who has examined meteoric iron; M. A. Degerbøl, M. A. and R. Hørring, M. A., who have classified animal bones; Miss K. Callisen, M. A., who has classified mineral samples; Fr. J. Mathiesen, M. A., who has classified wood samples; Dr. D. Jenness, Ottawa, who has helped me with information and photographs; Professor, Dr. Franz Boas, New York, who has lent me drawings of
