14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



territory of Alaska. With all its relative richness and undoubted 

 superiority over the present Eskimo art there can be no doubt that the 

 old art was the direct forerunner of the modern. At first glance there 

 may appear to be little resemblance between the artistic and flowing 

 ornamentation of the old Bering Sea culture and the familiar and 

 much simpler designs employed by the modern Eskimo. But there are 

 sufficient links to bridge the gap. 



It would be possible, I believe, to trace the development of the old 

 Bering Sea art into the modern if we had no more than the objects 

 shown on plates i to 8, and those described by Jenness, Mathiassen, 

 and Hrdlicka. The transition would be somewhat sudden, it is true, 

 and some of the designs might appear to be but little related. Fortu- 

 nately, however, we now have additional data that throw light on a 

 secondary stage of art development within the old Bering Sea culture. 

 This new evidence makes it appear that the old Bering Sea art did not 

 come to a sudden end, to be succeeded immediately by that of the 

 modern Alaskan Eskimo, but that, on St. Lawrence Island at least, it 

 entered upon a period of transition during which the designs became 

 simpler, definitely foreshadowing the later Alaskan Eskimo art. 

 Some of this material will be described in the following pages, and the 

 conditions under which it was found, on Punuk and St. Lawrence 

 Islands, will be briefly outlined. 



THE PUNUK ISLAND AND CAPE KIALEGAK VILLAGE SITES 



The three small Punuk Islands lie four miles ofif the southeast end 

 of St Lawrence Island. The largest island, on which the old village 

 site is located, is slightly less than a half mile long and only a few 

 hundred yards across at its widest point. The greater part of the island 

 is covered with the usual tundra vegetation and is relatively flat, except 

 for two rocky hillocks that rise suddenly from the southern side. To 

 the west the island narrows and the tundra is replaced by a low sandy 

 area covered with coarse grass. At the beginning of this sandy stretch, 

 which is also the narrowest part of the island, is located the ex- 

 tensive kitchen midden which marks the site of the old village. 



The last houses to be occupied were sunk into the top of the midden. 

 They consisted of square excavations in which had been erected 

 frameworks of whale bones and driftwood logs ; there are 14 house 

 pits besides numerous underground caches on the midden. The nar- 

 row tunnel-like entrances to the houses faced the sea, sometimes to 

 the north, sometimes to the south. Of the logs which formed part of 

 the framework scarcely any remain on the surface, but whale ribs and 

 jaw bones are more plentiful. 



