46 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



tendency and the reasons previously given for considering the Bering 

 Sea culture as more ancient than the Thule culture, appear to me to 

 be quite sufficient to show that the point raised by Mathiassen, namely, 

 that the simple shape of the Thule heads is an indication of their 

 being older, is on the contrary another indication of their being later. 



The attempt to place the Thule culture as earlier than that repre- 

 sented at Birnirk or any other ancient Alaskan site meets with the 

 difficulty that certain characteristic features of the Thule culture are 

 found in Alaska only as late developments or accretions. Typical 

 Thule harpoon heads were found in abundance on Punuk and St. 

 Lawrence Islands, but accompanying these were other types not 

 known from the Thule culture, such as those with multiple barbs and 

 real side blades which, according to stratigraphic evidence, appear to 

 be the oldest of all. This seems to be the general situation in the 

 vicinity of Bering Strait. Wherever sizable collections have been 

 made, the harpoon heads appear in numerous forms, including the 

 various Thule types, the closed socket highly ornamented heads, 

 and those with multiple barbs and side blades, but never, unless at a 

 fairly recent site, are there found harpoon heads with drilled holes for 

 lashing, bone pegs through the upper end, and simple Y figures or 

 hachured decoration about the line hole, such as belong to the Thule 

 culture. According to the available evidence, therefore, the Thule 

 culture of the East appears to have been derived from the ancient 

 Bering Sea culture after the latter had become firmly established on 

 the Islands and mainland of Alaska and Siberia about Bering Strait, 

 to the eastward as far as Point Barrow, and to the westward possibly 

 to the Kolyma. The possibility is recognized, however, that certain 

 later features in Alaska may have been the result of a westward or 

 return migration or of less direct Thule contact subsequent to the 

 original eastward movement of the Thule culture. 



In the foregoing review we have examined the art of the ancient 

 Bering Sea culture, the features that distinguish it from the later 

 Punuk phase on St. Lawrence Island, and its relation to that of the 

 present Alaskan Eskimo and the extinct Thule culture of the East. 

 Since it seems clearly to have antedated the Thule culture, the oldest 

 of which we have definite knowledge in the eastern regions, it may be 

 said to represent the oldest known stage of Eskimo culture. It is far 

 from being a primitive culture, however. It is, on the contrary, the 

 most highly developed culture especially in art, that has appeared in 

 the Arctic or sub-Arctic regions ; and its discovery, instead of clari- 

 fying the problem of the origin of Eskimo culture as a whole, has 



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