[2] An artist early on, in 1931, he was selected by Knud Rasmussen to head the Sixth Thule Expedition to Greenland which changed the course of his life.
As an archaeologist, he researched Eskimo archaeology in the Julianehaab district,[4] Disko Bay, and Inglefield Land.
In 1931, he did work in the Lindenows Fjord area of southern Greenland, excavating 25 houses and unearthing 2,000 artifacts.
[5] In the 1930s, he was the first to identify the Ruin Island Phase of the Thule culture in northwest Greenland.
[3] As a linguist, Holtved participated in the study of Eskimo–Aleut phonetic notation with William Thalbitzer and Knut Bergsland.