NO. 14 PREHISTORIC ART OF ALASKAN ESKIMO COLLINS IQ 



incised straight and slightly curving lines, single or in bands of from 

 two to four, with small spurs attached. Red ochre had been rubbed 

 into the incisions and some of it still remains in place. The object 

 shown in e differs only in minor details from the other. It came from 

 KukuHak, on the north side of St. Lawrence Island, and is owned by 

 Mr. C. L. Andrews of Seattle. 



These three specimens and the one on plate 6 seem to represent 

 three rather widely variant forms of the same object. All have a basal 

 socket, a central projection in the top of which is a shallow depression, 

 and two wings, the latter especially being extremely variable as to size, 

 shape, and position. My Eskimo workmen were unable to say defi- 

 nitely what had been the use of these objects, but one of them thought 

 they might have been ornaments for the war helmets formerly used 

 on St. Lawrence Island. However, I am more inclined to accept the 

 explanation given by Gordon for the specimens he described — that 

 they are charms used in ceremonies in connection with whale hunting. 

 As to which of these forms is the oldest, the evidence seems to favor 

 the type shown on plate 6. These bear the old Bering Sea curvilinear 

 patterns, while the others are ornamented after the Punuk style, 

 which, as will be shown later, appears without doubt to be more 

 recent, at least on St. Lawrence, than the curvilinear. A further indi- 

 cation that the type shown on plate 10, a-h, is fairly recent is the fact 

 that an unfinished specimen was found in the refuse from one of the 

 last houses to be occupied on Punuk Island. 



On plate 11 are illustrated a number of artifacts from Punuk and 

 St. Lawrence Island bearing decorations typical of the Punuk style of 

 art, with nucleated circles, straight or slightly curved lines, dots and 

 spurs. 



Plate II, a and b, are two broken harpoon heads of the open socket 

 type with slots for the lashing and with line hole parallel with the 

 blade slit. This is the form of harpoon head most common on Punuk 

 although a number of closed socket heads of a distinctive type, always 

 ornamented, were also found. The decoration on the two specimens 

 consists of lines extending from the barb toward the point, terminat- 

 ing in evenly inscribed nucleated circles, and similar lines, together 

 with smaller cross lines and spurs, around the central line hole. The 

 ornamentation of the upper portion, above the line hole, is the same on 

 both sides ; but on account of the open socket on the inner or under 

 side, the decoration beneath the hne hole is restricted almost entirely 

 to the outer side. 



The harpoon heads represented by d and e are of the same type as 

 the two preceding. In d the circles are smaller and there are more 



