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Comer's Midden is the find after which the Thule culture was named. The site was first excavated in 1916 by whaling Captain George Comer, ice master of the Crocker Land Expedition's relief team, and members of Knud Rasmussen's Second Danish Thule Expedition who were in the area charting the North Greenland coast.
The site shows signs of having been inhabited from the 14th to the 20th century although Holtved reports that the 17th and 18th centuries are poorly represented. It contains about 26 house ruins and several middens distributed over an area of about 120 m in width and stretching over 400 m inland with the midden Comer excavated located at its south end. The majority of the houses were more or less rounded, typically around 3m to 5m across and most likely residential. One house was rectangular 4.5m by 6m, with narrow platforms along two of the walls, was probably a 'qassi' or 'men's house' and was probably used as a workshop and for social gatherings.
Subsequent to the initial finds, additional artifacts pertain to the Dorset culture, as well as items of Norse origin. The vast majority of harpoon heads found are of the open socket type typical of the Thule culture.
References:The Gravensteen is a castle in Ghent originating from the Middle Ages. The name means 'castle of the counts' in Dutch. Arnulf I (918–965), Count of Flanders, was the first to fortify this place, building a medieval bastion on this high sand dune, naturally protected by the river Leie and its marshy banks. This bastion consisted of a central wooden building and several surrounding buildings, also in wood.
In the early 11th century, the wooden building was replaced by a stone residence, consisting of three large halls that made up three storeys, connected by a stone stairwell. The monumental stone staircase, the light openings, the fireplaces built into the walls and the latrines were signs of considerable luxury and comfort in those days. There was probably also a tower.