Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-07
VAN VAL|N FINDS
VILLAGE UNDER ICE
Penn Expert Unearths Prehis-
toric Town in Northland
With Eighty Bodies
BIG SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY

With hundreds of skulls, scores Of
implements and pieces of clothing which
belonged to prehistoric inhabitants Of
the Arctic regions, DR.. A. p. Van
Vain, field expert Of the University Of
Pennsylvania, has arrived. in Seattle,
after two years IN Arctic regions. and
is on his way across the continent to
this city.
Doctor Van Valin discovered a village
Of eighty persons buried under three
feet of ice and earth near Barrow,
farthest north point of civilization in
Alaska. 1t is believed that he brought
with him bodies OF some of them pre-
served for thousands of years by the ice.
II am not privileged to discuss my
find at length" said Doctor Van Valin,
when interviewed in Seattle. II am
bound by the University to remain 81
lent upon the details of the discovery,
but l am free to say that / believe l
have made new contribution to the
scientific knowledge Of the north"
Though he would not venture to state
the age of the skulls and implements
he brought with him from the buried
frozen village he unearthed, he believes
that they are thousands of years old.
Not in the oldest folk lore of the E,ski-
mos is there any mention of such a vii
lage. and traces of other villages and
towns built upon the site of the buried
la, h1yh I'm
The fact that the village was only
buried under three feet of ice and earth
means nothing, according to Doctor
Van Valin.
Accumulation in that country is
Slow" he said, "and it would require
hundreds of years for even few feet
of ground and ice to build itself. The
only way / can fix the age of the bodies
found at this time is to say that l
found glacier beneath the village that
leads me to believe that the people
lived after the glacial period. Work of
excavation was slow and there were
only few months that the ground was
sufficiently thawed to permit digging.
The clothing I found is not like that
worn by Eskimos today. and is of
the most part of bear skin
Mr.. Van Ain, though declining to
commit himself. indicated that the
bodies he found had dark hair, disprov-
ing some claims that former aborigines
Of the North were blonds.
Firm in his belief that the people
lived in the remote past, DIR. Van
Ain will be unable to state with much
positiveness approximately how old the
bodies are until he brings his material
here and until crania measurements
and other Investigations have been made
by scientists at the University.
"All can say is that these men lived
years and years ago and I think thous-
ands of years ago he said.
DR.. Van Ain believes his collection
is unique and that it will give i'm
portant knowledge of life in the north
centuries farther back than it has ever
gone. What catastrophe snuffed out
the lives of the village he doesn't know
for the bodies bear no signs of strife
nor of being crushed under glacial ice.
All were intact, as were their homes
when he found them.
"In point of fact, | do not know
what to think" he said, 'Pestilence is
rare in those regions. IL caught in the
ice the bodies would he crushed and
they are in good condition"