2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



Little Diomede Island/ As a result of these investigations it was 

 shown that underlying the existing Eskimo culture of northern and 

 northwestern Alaska there had been an earlier and in general more 

 advanced culture which was marked especially by elaborately carved 

 and ornamented objects of old ivory. The ancient style of art re- 

 vealed by Hrdlicka and Jenness was distinct and new, although some 

 of the harpoon heads and foreshafts corresponded with the Thule 

 types of the east. 



In 1927 I conducted anthropological work in southwest and west 

 Alaska with Mr. T. Dale Stewart of the United States National 

 Museum, examining sections of the coast and islands from the Alaska 

 Peninsula northward to the mouth of the Yukon.* This work con- 

 sisted mainly of measuring the Eskimos and making collections of 

 skeletal and cultural material. Although many old graves, village sites, 

 and some few refuse piles were examined, no trace was found of the 

 newly discovered ancient culture above referred to, which seems ac- 

 cording to the present evidence not to have extended as a type south 

 of St. Lawrence Island. 



In 1928 I returned for a second season's work, and excavated on 

 St. Lawrence and the small nearby Punuk Island, and later at 

 Metlatavik on the Arctic coast just above Bering Strait.' This work 

 resulted in the collection of a large number of specimens that appear 

 to be of particular interest as showing successive stages of art de- 

 velopment in the newly revealed ancient Bering Sea culture. The 

 detailed description of all this material will necessarily be somewhat 

 delayed, but in order that the more important results may be made 

 available as soon as possible it seems desirable to present in advance 

 a brief description dealing with the art of St. Lawrence and Punuk 

 Islands, together with a description of such additional examples of 

 the old art from other Bering Sea and northern Alaskan sites as I 

 have been able to obtain or have photographed. 



^ Archeological Investigations in Bering Strait. Bull. 50, Ann. Rep. for 1926, 

 Nat. Mus. Canada, pp. 71-81, Ottawa, 1928. 



Ethnological Problems of Arctic America. Amer. Geogr. Soc, Special Publ. 

 No. 7, Problems of Polar Research, pp. 167-175, New York, 1928. 



* The Eskimo of Western Alaska, Explorations and Field-Work of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in 1927, pp. 149-156, 1928. 



^ The Ancient Eskimo Culture of Northwestern Alaska. Explorations and 

 Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1928, pp. 141-150, 1929. 



The expense of the expedition was borne by Mrs. Mary Vaux Walcott, the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, and the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. 



