ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN NORTHERN 



ALASKA 



By HENRY B. COLLINS, JR. 

 Assistant Curator, Division of Ethnology, U. S. National Museum 



In continuation of the Institution's program of investigation of 

 prehistoric Eskimo cultures, Messrs. James A. Ford and Moreau B. 

 Chambers were detailed to carry on archeological work in Alaska 

 during the past summer. Mr. Ford had spent the summer of 1930 in 

 Alaska, principally on St. Lawrence Island, with the writer. Attention 

 was directed again to St. Lawrence Island, just south of Bering 

 Strait, where the previous excavations had revealed abundant evidence 

 of the ancient and highly developed Old Bering Sea culture. In addi- 

 tion, the work was extended to Point Barrow on the Arctic coast, 

 which apparently marked the eastern limit of this culture. The St. 

 Lawrence investigations were conducted by Mr. Chambers, while Mr. 

 Ford proceeded to Point Barrow. 



As in previous years, transportation from Seattle was furnished 

 by the Coast Guard Cutter Northland, and especial thanks are due 

 to Capt. E. D. Jones for his usual interest and cooperation. While 

 waiting at Unalaska for the ice in the Bering Sea to break up there was 

 opportunity for excavating to some extent in the large kitchenmiddens 

 which mark the sites of two of the prehistoric Aleut villages on 

 Amaknak Island. The middens in this part of Alaska are large in 

 extent, and being unfrozen, are relatively easy to excavate ; but, for 

 the same reason, many objects of a perishable nature have not been 

 preserved as is the case in the permanently frozen Eskimo middens 

 farther north where material such as wood, hides, and baleen is held 

 in perpetual cold storage. 



A burial cave on a small island near Unalaska was also explored and 

 a collection of bones and artifacts dating from pre-Russian times was 

 obtained. The bodies apparently had been mummified and wrapped in 

 matting and other fabrics according to Aleut custom, for pieces of 

 dried Mesh and fragments of the wrappings were found. However, 

 the cave had been disturbed previously and the bones and other ma- 

 terials were scattered about in confusion. One of the most interest- 

 ing objects found with the burials was a unique type of stone labret, 

 having two projections representing the upper central incisor teeth. 



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