NO. 14 PREHISTORIC ART OF ALASKAN ESKIMO COLLINS 35 



Another workbag fastener, from Norton Sound, is shown in e, on 

 which the decoration is restricted to bands of parallel lines. Similar 

 designs were observed on specimens from the Punuk period shown on 

 plate 10, c-d, and figure 2. 



On plate 19 are illustrated additional objects from the modern 

 Alaskan Eskimo showing typical designs that occur also in the Punuk 

 stage. It is of considerable interest to note that in the modern material 

 from St. Lawrence Island there are very few decorated objects of any 

 kind, so that in order to find modern examples with which to compare 

 the old art of St. Lawrence we must turn to the Alaskan mainland. 

 This poverty of decoration on St. Lawrence is paralleled on the Asiatic 

 side of Bering Strait, where the Yuit, the Siberian kinsmen of the St. 

 Lawrence Islanders, also exhibit a striking deficiency in art. The 

 reduction of the modern St. Lawrence Island and Siberian Eskimo 

 to svich a low artistic level can perhaps be best explained as the result 

 of a relatively late Chukchee influence. The Eskimo of the Alaskan 

 mainland, practical!}^ free from such influence, have merely retained 

 a more abundant residuum of the highly developed ancestral art 

 common to the entire region. 



Plate 19, a, b, and c, are three objects from the modern St. Law- 

 rence Eskimo, collected by Dr. Moore. The first, a, is a broken wrist 

 guard with decoration similar to the one shown on plate 17, /, but 

 with the addition of pronged figures to the lines and spurs. The two 

 small bird figures, h and c, are simply ornamented with dots. 



In d and e are illustrated a workbag fastener and belt buckle from 

 the Kuskokwim region collected by Nelson, showing the well known 

 nucleated concentric circles which are directly comparable to the 

 compass-made circles of the Punuk period. It will also be observed 

 that the centers of the circles, as is so often the case, have wooden 

 insets. This is a feature that was also observed in the old curvilinear 

 art, but which was not present on any of the objects from Punuk or 

 Cape Kialegak. 



Plate 19, / and g, are two modern specimens from Norton and 

 Kotzebue Sounds, on which the spurs within the bands are so evenly 

 applied as to make the uncut space between them appear as a continu- 

 ous zig-zag. 



On plate 20 are illustrated six modern harpoon heads showing the 

 nature of ornamentation applied to these objects by the modern Alas- 

 kan Eskimo. By far the greater number of modern harpoon heads are 

 undecorated, in contrast to the old specimens which often bear elabo- 

 rate designs. 



The large whaling harpoon head of bone, a, is from Point Hope. 

 It bears a simple ornamentation of lines and spurs arranged about 



