Three unmarked graves, their age and inhabitants unknown, were found by a group of Inuit hunters near Baker Lake in Canada's northern region of Nunavut, it is reported Monday.

Buried carefully under precisely stacked rocks is a weathered old wooden chest sealed with a rusty padlock, its contents just as mysterious.

A team of Canadian archaeologists has decided to solve the mystery this summer. "We really do not know what is in this box," said Doug Stenton, Nunavut's head archaeologist who will lead the expedition.

The site was discovered last summer by a group of Inuit hunters who were fishing and hunting by the north channel of Baker Lake. When nasty weather forced the group to hunker down for a few days,one of the men found the graves and the buried chest amidst evidence of an old campsite.

In the 1700s, the inlet was explored as a possible route to China. During the next century, it was sailed by whalers. There are no records of expeditions being lost in the area, said Stenton,but that does not mean the site is not the remains of one.

Stenton suggests the site dates to sometime during the last few hundred years, since European contact and exploration.

Sourcve: Xinhua