30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 8l 



as Gaml)ell and Kukuliak, are older, having passed successively 

 through the stage when the curvilinear art flourished, into that of the 

 Punuk type, and finally into the modern. Punuk Island and Cape 

 Kialegak, however, appear to have been settled either after or near the 

 close of the curvilinear period, the occupancy continuing until recent 

 years. This eastward movement would be in keeping with the reason- 

 able assumption that the first settlements of Siberian Eskimo on St. 

 Lawrence were made at the western end of the Island. 



By any chance, could the Punuk art have coexisted with the 

 curvilinear? In view of the distribution and considerations of tech- 

 nique this seems very unlikely. The presence of two contemporaneous 

 art styles as distinct as these are, one consisting of deftly incised free 

 hand circles, ellipses, curves and lines, and the other of cleanly cut, 

 straighter, and more rigid designs evidently produced with metal tools, 

 both, furthermore, purely decorative in character and both present 

 on the same types of artifacts, would be a most unusual situation and 

 one without parallel in Eskimo history. We must await stratigraphic 

 studies at the western sites where the two types are known to be 

 present before definitely settling the question of their chronological 

 positions. But even assuming the two styles to have coexisted on St. 

 Lawrence Island it would still be extremely difficult to account for the 

 presence of only the single type at Punuk and Cape Kialegak, since 

 according to all available evidence there has always been close inter- 

 communication between the different villages on the Island. This 

 exists today and that it existed formerly is indicated by the identity of 

 much of the archeological material from one end of the Island to the 

 other. It must certainly be regarded as significant that at Punuk 

 Island, the only St. Lawrence site where intensive and systematic 

 excavations have been made, there were found among the several 

 thousand specimens, including 141 decorated objects, only four ex- 

 amples of the old curvilinear art and those fragmentary and water- 

 worn ; while at Gambell and Kukuliak the random digging of the 

 Eskimos has brought to light a considerable number of objects deco- 

 rated in both styles. The evidence, therefore, though not yet as direct 

 and conclusive as might be desired, points plainly to the two art styles 

 as representing dififerent periods, with the curvilinear style as the 

 older. 



The question as to whether the Punuk style represents a purely 

 local development on St. Lawrence Island must for the present remain 

 unanswered. As to its being a firmly established type on St. Lawrence 

 there can be no doubt ; a greater number of specimens of the Punuk 

 type have been found there than of the cuvilinear. It is also significant 



