NO. 14 PREHISTORIC ART OF ALASKAN ESKIMO — COLLINS 37 



brown but the ornamentation shows no direct relation with the old Ber- 

 ing Sea art with the exception of the spurs bordering the curving Hnes. 

 The decoration is also of neither the Punuk nor the modern type. It 

 may be that it represents an intermediate stage of art on the Diomedes 

 between the old curvilinear and the modern. On the other hand it may 

 be largely the result of individual fancy and have little or no signifi- 

 cance as an art type. Its shape, however, is of more importance, and 

 along with the older object shown on plate 5, might be taken to indi- 

 cate a closer connection in early times between the art of Bering Strait 

 and Southwest Alaska, or even, as was suggested before, to point to 

 a possible ancient connection between the Bering Strait region and the 

 Northwest Pacific Coast. I would again stress, however, that these 

 few specimens are wholly inadequate from either the standpoint of 

 numbers or of closeness of form and design, to afford more than a 

 suggestion that future archeological investigatiotis may reveal more 

 dependable evidences of such a possible contact. If no such evidence 

 should be forthcoming the realistic and symbolic art of Southwest 

 Alaska could no doubt be safely regarded as the result of compara- 

 tively late Indian influence that furnished life motives around and 

 within which these Eskimos continued to employ the geometric ele- 

 ments they possessed in common with the Alaskan Eskimo to the 

 northward. 



Comparison of the decorative art of the Punuk period with that of 

 the modern Alaskan Eskimo reveals numerous striking similarities as 

 well as certain important differences. On plates 18 and 19 are shown 

 examples in which individual designs have been carried over without 

 change. However, these designs are differently applied on the modern 

 objects. The decorative elements are usually detached, or, if con- 

 nected, are repetitive. The decorated objects of the Punuk period, 

 on the other hand, are generally marked by a certain continuity of 

 design. This may be observed on practically all of the typical Punuk 

 examples, whether as on plate 12, where the lines and dots are some- 

 what sparingly applied, or on plate 13, where the lines and spurs cover 

 all of the available surface. 



The three principal elements in Eskimo art : the spurred line, the 

 Y figure, and circle and dot are seen to have been present, though 

 usually in different form, in either or both the curvilinear stage of the 

 old Bering Sea culture and the succeeding Punuk stage. The spurred 

 line is a common feature to both stages ; the Y figure does not appear 

 in the earlier curvilinear art but in the more angular art of the Punuk 

 period it is a common design although it differs from the modern 

 pronged or Y figure in being larger and in being connected with a unit 



