BERING SEA ARCHEOLOGY COLLINS 467 



both sides of Bering Strait, seem more likely to have been the cen- 

 tral link or filter through which cultural and even physical elements 

 passed from one continent to the other. It should be noted that the 

 theory that the Eskimos were late comers into the Bering Strait 

 region took into consideration only the modern groups. However, as 

 we have seen, tlie material culture of the modern Eskimos of north- 

 ern Alaska appears to have been profoundly influenced by a late 

 return migration of Thule peoples from the eastward, and it would 

 be entirely reasonable to suppose that other aspects of their culture 

 had been affected in a like manner. This late wave of eastern cul- 

 ture may therefore be the explanation of the " intrusive " appear- 

 ance of the Alaskan Eskimo. According to this view, the observed 

 cultural resemblances between northeastern Asiatics and Northwest 

 Coast Indians could be explained as the result of contacts established 

 at an earlier period, when the Old Bering Sea culture was flourish- 

 ing on St. Lawrence Island, the Diomedes, and the adjacent coasts 

 of Siberia and Alaska. 



Additional excavation will be necessary to reveal the age of the 

 Old Bering Sea culture. Physiographic changes have occurred 

 since that period, but unfortunately these cannot be interpreted in 

 terms of years. Sites of Punuk age at tlie eastern end of St. Lawrence 

 Island now lie as much as G feet below the present beach, indicating 

 a sinking of the shore-line or an encroachment of the sea. At the 

 western end of the island the opposite condition exists, for the oldest 

 site at Gambell seems to have been established before the formation 

 of the present extensive gravel spit and lake. It should be recog- 

 nized, however, that changes in shore-line topography in the Arctic 

 carry no certain implication of antiquity, since it is known that such 

 changes may be effected with considerable rapidity through the action 

 of sea ice and ocean currents. 



The origin of the Old Bering Sea culture is a problem requiring 

 excavations not only around Bering Strait, where it reached its 

 highest development, but also in northeastern Siberia, where it 

 may have existed in an earlier form. The ultimate roots of this 

 old Eskimo culture may lie still farther westward. The oldest phase 

 of tlie Old Bering Sea culture has yielded a few examples of geo- 

 metric art and carving in the round which resemble the upper Paleo- 

 lithic art of Europe. These may or may not be significant. Of more 

 importance, perhaps, is the fact that some of the oldest known Eskimo 

 harpoon heads — those of the Old Bering Sea and Birnirk cultures — 

 are equipped with small stone side blades, a technique which was 

 also connnon in northern Europe during the Maglemosian period. 

 It should be noted also that certain Iron Age objects from Scandi- 



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