ARCHEOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ALASKA — SOLECKI 481 



Louis Giddings, Jr., at Cape Denbigh on Norton Sound, which is so 

 close to the Asiatic Continent, indicate that these particular artifacts 

 are not very likely to have been American monopolies. Giddings 

 (19-19), in excavating a stratified site on the north Bering Sea coast, 

 uncovered a highlj^ significant assemblage of flint artifacts at the 

 bottom of a stratified deposit. These artifacts were found in a layer 

 separated from overlying later cultural remains by a layer of sterile, 

 sandy clay. Subsequently, more recent finds of Giddings - revealed 

 the presence of burins — the first ever reported from anywhere in the 

 New World — associated with fragmentary Folson and Yumalike pro- 

 jectile points. The chipping on the flints is finely executed. These 

 finds represent a totally new complex of artifact associations in the 

 prehistory of America and furnish a stepping stone in Ancient Man's 

 trail from Asia to America. 



Knowing that the United States Geological Survey intended making 

 fiu'ther explorations and surveys on the drainages bordering the area 

 where the Folsom point was found, it seemed probable that if an 

 archeologist were sent along on such an expedition, more evidence 

 of Early Man might be recovered. Accordingly, after cooperation 

 was effected between representatives of interested Government agen- 

 cies, including Dr. Frank H. H. Eoberts, Jr., of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology, Dr. John C. Keed, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, and Dr. M. C. Shelesnyak, formerly of the Office of Naval 

 Research, I was attached to a party of field geologists who were to 

 examine that region during the summer of 1949. 



The work of this group, party No. 6, led by Robert M. Chapman, 

 was coordinated in a comprehensive program of systematic explor- 

 ation and fact-finding research of the Geological Survey (Reed, 1949, 

 p. 178). The area assigned to this party was in the Kukpowruk and 

 Kokolik River drainages, adjacent to the Utukok River, near which 

 the Folsom artifact was recovered (fig. 1). These drainages are on 

 the western border of the area set aside by the United States Govern- 

 ment as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4. 



The members of party No. 6,^ with whom the writer traveled, helped 

 immeasurably with the reconnaissance, showing a keen interest in 

 the archeology. 



The archeological reconnaissance was paced at the same rate at 

 which the geological survey of the area was conducted, which, for the 

 shortness of the field season of about 3i/4 months, was necessarily a 

 rapid one. Operating from base camps set up along the river, the 

 writer tried to reach a maximum number of points within a range of 

 a day's walking distance. 



* Reported at the forty-eighth annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New York 

 November 17, 1949. 



• Robert M. Chapman, Edward G. Sable, Dale Hauck, Gordon Herreid, and Paul Shannon. 



