460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



and provides the first clear evidence (mainly burins) of early Old 

 World stone techniques associated with early American cultures. It 

 is too early to speak of the age of the Denbigh Flint Complex vis-a-vis 

 Folsom and Yuma. On the one hand, the presence of burins suggests 

 priority for the Alaskan site. However, we cannot ignore the possi- 

 bility that Folsom and Yuma may have preceded the Denbigh Com- 

 plex and that the few blades of those types found at Denbigh sites 

 were vestiges from an earlier period. The reported occurrence of 

 Yuma-type blades in frozen muck of Pleistocene age near Fairbanks 

 (Rainey, 1939) lends support to this supposition. Whatever the 

 relationship may be, the fact that Folsom and Yuma are associated 

 with an Arctic culture characterized by Paleolithic-Mesolithic types 

 of implements suggests that part at least of the story of Early Man 

 in America may eventually be unfolded in Arctic Alaska, the original 

 point of entry. The more recent finds near Anaktuvuk Pass extend 

 the range of the Denbigh Flint Complex and are of particular impor- 

 tance as showing the probable route these early people followed into 

 the heart of the American Continent. 



Though the Denbigh Flint Complex is older than anything known 

 from Alaska, with the possible exception of sporadic finds from the 

 frozen muck that have turned up in the course of mining operations 

 (Rainey, 1939), present indications do not point to any very great 

 antiquity, at least for the Anaktuvuk and University campus sites. 

 At both of these places the flint implements are found in or immedi- 

 ately below the surface sod. As the Anaktuvuk region was glaciated, 

 the sites there could have been established only after the last ice reces- 

 sion, but whether soon after or much later there is no indication at 

 present. The Cape Denbigh site may of course be older than these 

 inland sites, and perhaps considerably older than the one on the Uni- 

 versity campus. However, unless there is geological evidence to the 

 contrary, there is no reason to suppose that it was particularly ancient. 

 The presence of Paleolithic-Mesolithic burins and other implements 

 is hardly decisive in this regard. The Denbigh people may only have 

 been perpetuating a Paleolithic tradition in the use of these imple- 

 ments long after it had faded away in the Old World, just as much 

 later the Ipiutak Eskimos continued to use side-bladed projectiles of 

 Mesolithic-Neolithic form several thousand years after they had 

 passed out of use in Eurasia. 



The Old World affinities of the Denbigh Flint Complex cannot yet 

 be localized. Its numerous types of Paleolithic-Mesolithic burins 

 suggest a relationship with the European Mesolithic, while lamellar 

 flaking connects it with central and northern Asia. The crucial area 

 is northeastern Siberia. Our knowledge of the pre-Eskimo archeology 

 of this region is very meager, but it seems safe to predict that sites 

 comparable in age and lithic content to Cape Denbigh will eventually 



