BERING SEA ARCHEOLOGY COLLINS 455 



until some 20 years later. It was not until 1920, in fact, that atten- 

 tion was directed to archeological remains in northern Alaska. In 

 that year Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the Smithsonian Institution, on an 

 anthropological survey of the Alaskan coast, obtained a number of 

 harpoon heads and other objects of " fossil " walrus ivory which had 

 been excavated from old Eskimo sites on St. Lawrence Island and at 

 Bering Strait — objects which differed both in form and ornamen- 

 tation from those used by the modern Eskimo.^ In the same year 

 Dr. Diamond Jenness, of the National Museum of Canada, undertook 

 the first systematic investigation of prehistoric Eskimo sites in 

 northern Alaska, excavating at Cape Prince of Wales and the nearby 

 Little Diomede Island in Bering Strait.* Here Jenness obtained 

 additional artifacts bearing the same rich ornamentation — a style 

 of art that he regarded as characteristic of a prehistoric phase of 

 Eskimo culture which he designated the Bering Sea culture.^ 

 The objects decorated in the Bering Sea style were of walrus 

 ivory, which through many years of burial in the frozen ground 

 had taken on a discoloration ranging in hue from a soft rich cream 

 to a dark brown or almost black. The designs themselves consisted 

 principally of curving and flowing lines, circles, and ellipses, 

 and were much more graceful and elaborate than those employed by 

 the modern Eskimo. The chronological position of this old art 

 style and its validity as representing a distinct phase of Eskimo cul- 

 ture, as postulated by Jenness and Hrdlicka, has been fully borne 

 out by subsequent Smithsonian investigations on St. Lawrence 

 Island conducted by the writer in 1928, 1929, and 1930, and by M. B. 

 Chambers in 1931.° 



ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND 



St. Lawrence Island lies 150 miles south of Bering Strait and is 

 the largest island in Bering Sea, with a length of 100 miles and an 

 average width of 20 miles. Its western extremity is only 40 miles 

 from the Siberian mainland, its eastern end 100 miles from Alaska. 

 The island is of volcanic origin, with a rugged mountainous interior 

 and a dreary coast line of low-lying tundra or steej), dark-colored 



' IlrdliOkn, A., Anthropological Work In Alaska, Explorations and Fleld-Work of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in 192G, Smithsonian Pul:)l. No. 2'.)V2, pp. i:!7-158, 1927; Anthro- 

 pological Survey in Alaska, 4Gtli Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., pp. 173-176, 3G2-:<(j;!, I!):i0. 



<.Iennes.i, D., ArcheoloKical Investigations in Kerinj; Strait, Nat. Mus. Canada, Hull. 

 50 (Ann. Rep. for 1920), pp. 71-81, 1928; Ethnological Problems of Arctic America, 

 Amer. Geogr. Soc. Special ruhl. No. 7. pp. 1G7-17."), 1928. 



B Here called the Old Bering Sea culture to distinguish it from a later transitional 

 phase. 



"Collins, II. B., Jr., Ancient Culture of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, Explorations and 

 Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1930, Smithsonian I'ubl. no. 3111, pp. 135- 

 144, 1931 ; Prehistoric Eskimo Culture on St. Lawrence Island, Geogr. Rev., vol. 22. 

 pp. 107-119, 1932. 



