40 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



Of the 24 features listed above, the presence or absence of 19 among 

 the three culture stages can be clearly recognized. The groups into 

 which these are divided are as follows: from the old curvilinear 

 alone, 6 ; from the Punuk stage alone, i ; common to all three stages, 

 3 ; to the old curvilinear and Punuk stages, i ; to the Punuk and the 

 modern, 7 ; to the old curvilinear and the modern, i. 



The quantitative arrangement of such elements gives of course an 

 imperfect picture of actual resemblances and differences, due to the 

 varying value of the elements treated and the necessity of restricting 

 it to the detached, objective elements of the art style considered apart 

 from the total decorative scheme. There is also the difficulty that minor 

 changes and gradations, which are of importance in revealing the 

 interrelations of the several culture stages, cannot be adequately ex- 

 pressed. Nevertheless, it serves to emphasize the point brought out 

 previously, that the Punuk phase of the old Bering Sea culture, while 

 still characterized by the ancient types of implements and weapons, 

 shows in its decorative art a closer relation to the modern Eskimo than 

 to the preceding curvilinear stage of the old Bering Sea culture. On 

 St. Lawrence Island, at least, it represents a transitional stage between 

 the richer curvilinear art and the modern art of the western Eskimo. 

 Its possible distribution beyond St. Lawrence and the place it may 

 have had in the sequence of ancient Eskimo cultures elsewhere cannot 

 be determined until more information is available on northern Alaskan 

 sites. 



RELATION OF THE OLD BERING SEA CULTURE TO THE 



BIRNIRK CULTURE OF NORTHERN ALASKA AND THE 



THULE CULTURE OF CANADA AND GREENLAND 



One of the most important problems that arises in connection with 

 the ancient Bering Sea culture is to determine its range and relation- 

 ship to ancient Eskimo cultures elsewhere. 



According to the rather scanty evidence available, the ancient 

 Bering Sea culture appears to have extended from St. Lawrence 

 Island and the northeastern coast of Siberia eastward beyond Bering 

 Strait to Point Barrow, and typical harpoon heads have been found as 

 far west as the Kolyma River. For the Point Barrow region we have 

 Wissler's description of harpoons and darts collected by Stefansson in 

 191 2, and in addition the later Van Valin collection from the same 

 region. From Wissler's ^ paper and from Mathiassen's * references 



* Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIV, Pt. II, 1916. 

 = Indian Notes, Vol. 6, No. 7, P- 52. 



