The Greenland Mummies

Eileen Goltz is Public Documents Librarian at Laurentian University.

In 1475 six women and two children, one an infant of six months, were
buried in traditional Inuit fashion at Qilakitsoq, on the west coast of
Greenland, 450 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Dry air and low
ground temperatures combined to preserve the bodies, clothing, and grave
goods until their discovery in 1972. The graves then became the focus of
intensive investigation and analysis by Danish and Greenlandic scholars,
and ultimately the subject of this book.

The Greenland Mummies, first published in Danish and Greenlandic in
1985 and now translated into English, is an important addition to the
field of archaeological literature. The book has been written in a
scholarly, sometimes technical manner by Danish and Greenlandic
contributors. It is, however, clearly comprehensible to readers who have
no archaeological background. The list of contributors, most of whom are
academics, is lengthy and impressive.

The editors have successfully woven the seven chapters, each written by
a team of experts, into a comprehensive whole. The result reads like a
crafted book rather than a collection of writings. It provides insight
into the life and culture of 15th-century Greenland, and is a testament
to a successful archaeological investigation. The chapters move smoothly
from an explanation of the time period during which the burials occurred
to the discovery of the graves, a description of their contents, and a
discussion of the relationship between that manner of interment and
others of the same period. Succeeding chapters focus on various aspects
of the burials—tattooing, clothing, links to living conditions—and
how they resembled those of earlier, contemporary, and later times.
Throughout the book, the writers present the methods of analysis used,
the results obtained, and the probable conclusions reached. An appendix
surveys the clothing found in the graves. The book is replete with
illustrations, many of which are in color. Few pages are without at
least one photograph, map, drawing, x-ray, or microscopic section. An
attractive, readable, and interesting book.