THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO COLLINS 461 



be found there, sites with both lamellar flaking and burins. Such, in- 

 deed, may be the Neolithic sites on the Lower Kolyma and Chukchee 

 Peninsula recently reported but not described by Okladnikov (Shim- 

 kin, 1949). However, as burins are not mentioned, these sites may 

 represent only a further, extreme northeastern extension of the north 

 Asiatic lamellar flake-polyhedral core complex described by Watanabe 

 (1948). 



The significance of the Cape Denbigh and Anaktuvuk finds in con- 

 nection with the Eskimo problem is not yet clear. They may, how- 

 ever, have important implications for Eskimo archeology. The Den- 

 bigh Flint Complex is, of course, very different from, and much older 

 than, what we usually think of as Eskimo. The simplest explanation 

 would be that this complex — an assemblage containing Yuma and 

 Folsom-like blades and Paleolithic-Mesolithic burins, and separated 

 from overlying Eskimo deposits by a sterile layer of clay — had no 

 connection with these later deposits. However, there are reasons for 

 suspecting that there was a connection: (1) It is somewhat difficult 

 to believe that its location directly beneath an Eskimo site was a mere 

 coincidence; (2) lamellar flaking, though absent at Ipiutak, is one of 

 the most characteristic features of the Dorset, a culture which on other 

 grounds appears to represent an older stage than Ipiutak or Old Bering 

 Sea. Polyhedral cores have not been reported at Dorset sites but this 

 may be accidental, for Solberg (1907, p. 39, fig. 14) describes one from 

 Disko Bay, Greenland, in a collection which contains many Dorset 

 types; (3) the Cape Denbigh and Anaktuvuk burins appear to be the 

 prototypes of similar implements found at Dorset sites which were 

 no doubt used as burins; (4) the presence of small, finely chipped side 

 blades indicates that the Cape Denbigh people used slotted bone points, 

 probably arrowheads, with inset blades along the sides, a form char- 

 acteristic of Ipiutak and the European Mesolithic; (5) one of the 

 Denbigh implements, an obovate blade "carefully retouched on both 

 convex faces and then ground to a strong bevel at the broad end" ( Gid- 

 dings, 1949, p. 89, fig. 2, e), seems to be essentially the same as the 

 characteristic Old Bering Sea implement with strongly bevelled ends 

 which the present writer described as "adz-like scrapers" (Collins, 

 1937, p. 152, fig. 16, pi. 42, figs. 12-14), and which Larsen and Rainey 

 (1948, p. 85, pi. 10, fig. 1) later found actually hafted as adz blades 

 at Ipiutak; (G) the Denbigh Flint Complex includes short, wide, thin 

 blades closely resembling those found hafted to sealing harpoon heads 

 at Ipiutak. Though the Ipiutak flint technique on the whole is differ- 

 ent, Giddings (1951) concludes that "it looks as though Ipiutak has 

 inherited these particular resemblances [the probable harpoon blades, 

 a form of flake knife or scraper, and occasional diagonal flaking] from 

 an earlier horizon represented by the Cape Denbigh finds"; (7) an- 

 other linkage may also be provided by Larsen's recent discovery in a 



