142 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



and included a few examples typical of the Thule culture, an extinct 

 Eskimo culture which formerly centered about Hudson's Bay. 



At Seklowaghayaget we found again only the Punuk art. The 

 harpoon heads from the lower levels of the midden were of the type 

 found at Ievoghiyogameet but the simplification that had been in proc- 

 ess at that place had here gone still further, for those found in the 

 upper levels of the Seklowaghayaget midden were mainly of two types, 

 one, evidently local, a small flat undecorated head with open shaft 

 socket which in cross section approaches a triangular shape, and the 

 other a small open socket head of Thule type without end blade. 



As Seklowaghayaget became abandoned, houses were built near by, 

 immediately to the south of the present village, and these and the mid- 

 dens about them represent the latest of the five abandoned sites in the 

 vicinity of Gambell. The two types of harpoon heads last mentioned 

 had continued in use but the local type w r ith almost triangular socket 

 underwent a series of rather rapid changes and emerged as the thick, 

 iron-bladed, closed-socketed form of the present time. The refuse 

 about these latest ruins yielded a few examples of Punuk art, but more 

 of the modern. Glass beads and iron were also found as well as a 

 number of modern types of implements that had not appeared at the 

 older sites. 



In addition to the stratigraphic excavations made in the middens, 

 ten house-pits were dug, one or more at each of the old sites. The 

 houses of the Old Bering Sea period, heretofore unknown, were found 

 to be small semi-subterranean structures, square in outline, with stone 

 floors and walls of small driftwood timbers laid horizontally. There 

 was a narrow entrance passage at a slightly lower level, with stone 

 floor and walls and flat wooden roof. 



The earlier houses of the Punuk period were of exactly the same 

 type but of larger dimensions. At one place in the Miyowaghameet 

 midden, evidence of direct superposition was found: the corner of 

 one of these larger houses, in which only Punuk art was found, had 

 been built over the fallen wall of a smaller house from which came 

 decorated pieces only of the Old Bering Sea type. In the later part 

 of the Punuk period, house walls were made of stones and bones, 

 principally whale vertebrae and walrus skulls. There was also an 

 enlargement of, and sometimes an annex to the entrance passage, for 

 use as a store room or for cooking. Wooden floors and walls of small 

 upright timbers were found only in the latest house ruins. 



The excavations at Gambell have thus revealed in considerable detail 

 the long succession of cultural changes that came about in past cen- 

 turies as one village after another was established and then abandoned. 



