PREHISTORIC ESKIMO CULTURE OF ALASKA 



By henry B. COLLINS. JR. 



Assistant Curator, Di^'ision of Ethiiolocjy, l\ S. National Miiscmn 



P"or many years it has l)een the consensus of anthro]iological opin- 

 ion that I)ering Strait was the gateway throui^h which man first 

 entered America. It is rather surprising, therefore, that a region of 

 such theoretical im])ortance should not have heen actually investigated 

 until so late as 1926. While the archeological investigations of the 

 past four years have revealed no certain evidences of the original 

 migrants into America, they have jiroduced results of an unexpected 

 natiu'e that a])])ear to have a tundamental hearing on the question of 

 the origin and spread of the l^skimo. 



In June, 1929, I returned to Alaska for a third season of field-work 

 in which 1 was assisted hy Mr. G. Herman l->randt. I^xcavations were 

 carried on at St. Lawrence Island, Cape Denl)eigh. Imaruk Basin, 

 and Point Ho])e, and additional sites were examined in a reconnois- 

 sance of the coast from Norton Sound to Point ¥\o\)e in the Arctic. 

 The greater ]Kirt of the journey was made on the Coast Guard 

 Cutter Nortltlattd. and the results ohtained are due in large part to 

 the interest and willing cooj^eration of Captain E. D. Jones. 



In order to ohtain information on the physical type and material 

 culture of the early Norton Sound Eskimo, a week was spent exam- 

 ining old sites and collecting skeletal remains from this region. 

 No villages were found that in size or antiquity might he compared 

 with those on St. Lawrence Island or at other ]ilaces around Bering 

 Strait. 



On June 18 we were ]iut ashore at Cape Kialegak on the southeast 

 end of St. Lawrence Island, where we camped for a month and ex- 

 cavated at the old ahandoned village. The Cajie Kialegak village, which 

 I located in 1928, is 130 miles from the nearest h^skimo settlement and 

 is one of the largest ancient sites in Alaska. 



As at most St. Lawrence sites the original hf)uses here had heen 

 huilt just ahove the heach. As refuse accumulated al)OUt them they 

 were ahandoned and hecame filled in and later houses were huilt at a 

 higher level. The last houses, which were ahandoned in 1879, were 

 18 feet ahove the heach line, sunk into the top of the huge midden that 

 had accumulated during the centuries of occupancy. 



All of these kitchen middens are permanently frozen ; newdy ex- 

 posed surfaces thaw at the rate of from two to four inches a day so 



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