SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I928 I47 



old village with a refuse pile of even greater proportions than the one 

 at Punuk. Iron, glass beads, closed-socket harpoon heads and other 

 late types of objects were fovuid on the surface and to a depth of 

 eight feet in the midden. Below that level iron was absent and the 

 old types of artifacts prevailed. A few hundred yards distant was a 

 smaller village site and midden which was entirely prehistoric. The 

 material from this site and from the lower part of the larger midden 

 was practically identical with that from the old village at Punuk. 

 After having lived at the older Kialegak site for a relatively short 

 period — judging from the comparatively small amount of refuse — the 

 inhal)itants had abandoned it and moved a short distance up the beach 

 to build the new homes which they occupied until probably 50 years 

 ago. The larger Kialegak site, with the recent material in the upper 

 levels of the midden King directly above the earlier forms, thus supple- 

 mented and afforded a basis of comparison with the Punuk site where 

 the proto-historic period ended rather abruptly at the old village and 

 was succeeded. ])erhaps after a considerable interval of time, by the 

 houses at the end of the island. 



The material from Punuk and Kialegak shows that there are three 

 stages through which the art of St. Lawrence Island may be traced. 

 The earliest ( i), found only on the northern and western parts of the 

 island, on deeply patinated objects, consists of scrolls, graceful straight 

 and curved lines, and circles and ellipses made free hand and often 

 surmounting low rounded protuberances; (2) the intermediate stage, 

 typical of Punuk and Cape Kialegak but found also at the northern 

 and western St. Lawrence sites, simpler in design, the lines being- 

 graceful but not so flowing, with circles made l)y compass or drill, 

 and with no protuberances; and finally (3) the well known modern 

 and simplified art found at all of the recent sites. 



The work on Punuk Island ended August 17 when the Northland 

 came for us. A stop was made at Gambell where I purchased speci- 

 mens and examined the old village site with Mr. Otto W. Geist, who 

 is excavating for the Alaska School of Mines. 



We were next put ashore at Caj^e Prince of Wales for the purpose 

 of investigating reported ancient sites on the Arctic coast between 

 Wales and Shishmareff'. In an Eskimo skin boat we sailed up the coast 

 and camped at Metlatavik, the first of these old villages, 22 miles 

 from Wales. Although many specimens were ol^tained, nothing of 

 any real anticjuity was found. The thickest accumulation of refuse 

 was three feet, throughout which iron occurred. The total absence 



