430 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



north of Korea where, from references in Chinese literature, we know 

 that iron was in use as early as A. D. 262 (Collins, 1937, pp. 304-305). 

 We know that the Punuk was approximately contemporaneous with 

 the Canadian Thule culture and somewhat later than the Birnirk. 

 As yet there is no means of estimating the age of the Old Bering Sea 



<:rP 



OLD BB^NG S£A 



PUNU/< 



Figure 1. — Ivory winged objects and related forms of unknown use from St. 

 Lawrence Island and Arctic coast of Alaska. Upper row shows the Old Bering 

 Sea winged forms (both sides), the earliest, at extreme left, belonging to the 

 Okvik stage. In the succeeding Punuk stage the wings became smaller and 

 inclined sharply upward, resulting in trident and "turreted" forms on which 

 only a vestige of the outer wings remained, and finally a bottle-shaped form, 

 with no wings. All have a basal socket and a small pit at end of central 

 projection. Approx. 1: 7. (For description see Collins, 1937, pp. 197-201.) 



culture, but a considerable antiquity is indicated by the magnitude 

 of the deposits on St. Lawrence Island and by the long succession 

 of cultural changes leading up to the Punuk. In the absence of any 

 definite evidence, we may guess that the earliest Old Bering Sea re- 

 mains may date from around the beginning of the Christian Era.^ 

 The Old Bering Sea and Pimuk cultures are also found at Bering 



1 This paper was ■written before the results of radiocarbon dating had been announced. 

 The provisional dates here mentioned for Old Bering Sea and other prehistoric Eskimo 

 cultures and the relative chronological positions of these cultures are, with the exception 

 of Ipiutak, tJiose which I have given In earlier publications. The carbon-14 dates for 

 several prehistoric Eskimo cultures have now been released though not formally published 

 (Radiocarbon dates — September 1, 1950, by J. R. Arnold and W. F. Libby, Institute for 

 Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, 15 pp., offset). The age of Okvik, the earliest 

 stage of Old Bering Sea culture, is given as 2.258 years ±230. Giddings' middle layer at 

 Cape Denbigh, comprising types resembling Ipiutak, South Alaska, and Dorset, is 2,016 

 years ±250. Ipiutak itself is much younger than had been supposed, 912 years ±170 at 

 Point Hope and 973 ±170 at Deering. Laughlln's "Palae-Eskimo" stage at Dmnak Island 

 In the Aleutians, equivalent to HrdllCka's "Pre-Aleut," is dated at 3,018 years±230. 



