I36 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



both the Old Bering Sea and the Punuk cultures, so that by strati- 

 graphic excavation their relationship might be determined definitely. 



In 1928 and again in 1929 the Northland stopped for a day at Gam- 

 bell (Sevuokok) at the northwestern end of St. Lawrence Island and 

 I had an opportunity to examine several deserted village sites in the 

 immediate vicinity. From the nature of the artifacts that had been 

 excavated from them — some collected for me by Paul Silook, an Es- 

 kimo at Gambell, and some shown to me by Mr. Otto Win. Geist, who 

 had been collecting for the Alaska Agricultural College — it was plain 

 that these villages were of different ages. Only one of them had yielded 

 artifacts bearing the Old Bering Sea ornamentation, and this was also 

 the site which from its position in relation to former beach lines 

 appeared to be the most ancient. Here then, at Gambell, was a series 

 of old sites which gave promise of yielding the precise information 

 needed as to the cultural changes that had taken place on St. Lawrence 

 Island in prehistoric times, and it was accordingly selected as a place 

 for investigation. 



Situated at the northwestern extremity of St. Lawrence Island, 

 the Eskimo village of Gambell is only 40 miles from the Siberian coast 

 which on any clear day is plainly visible. The 200 inhabitants live dur- 

 ing the winter in domed skin-covered houses with inner skin sleeping 

 room such as are also used by their Eskimo kinsmen in Siberia and 

 by the coast dwelling Chukchee ; the smaller skin structures formerly 

 used as summer dwellings have been almost entirely replaced by neat 

 lumber houses, outward evidence of the prosperity that has lately come 

 to these Eskimo, principally from furs. 



The present houses are built at the far end of a flat gravel spit 

 which extends westward for three-quarters of a mile from the base 

 of the low Gambell Mountain. From the to]) of this mountain one has 

 a clear view of the old beach lines, which, extending east and west 

 on the gravel spit below, show the manner in which the spit has been 

 built up. At the base of the mountain is the old village of Miyowagha- 

 meet, enclosed within the first and second (the earliest) beach lines, 

 and at the present time three-fourths, and half of a mile distant from 

 the sea. Since all maritime Eskimo villages are built close to the 

 sea it is only reasonable to assume that when Miyowaghameet was 

 occupied the sea was much nearer and that the greater part of the 

 present gravel spit has been built up subsequently. 



Some 200 yards to the northward is a smaller village site, Ievog- 

 hiyogameet, its grass covered midden rising like a small island from 

 the flat gravel plain. This village is separated from Miyowaghameet 

 by four old beach lines, while to the northward six more beach lines 



