Count Eigil KnuthBorn 8 Aug 1903; died 12 Mar 1996 at age 92.Danish explorer, archaeologist, sculptor and author whose extensive research in Greenland unearthed traces of previously unknown ancient North American Eskimo or Inuit cultures, dating back more than 5,000 years. He made the first of more than thirty expeditions in 1932 to take part in the Danish National Museum's excavations of 1,000-year-old Viking settlement ruins in west Greenland. The climax of Knuth's career was the discovery in three four-man summer treks from 1987 to 1989 of the ruins of 520 crude circular dwellings along the coast of the Ile de France off northeast Greenland, which cast new light on primitive Arctic civilisation. Active throughout his life, he made his only expedition only a year before his death. |
