PREFACE 
The  present  paper  is  a  report  of  excavations  conducted  for  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  at  old  Eskimo  sites  at  Gambell,  St.  Lawrence 
Island,  Alaska,  during  the  summers  of  1930  and  193 1.  The  1930 
investigations  were  conducted  by  the  writer,  assisted  by  James  A. 
Ford;  those  of  1931  were  carried  on  by  Moreau  B.  Chambers.  The 
results  of  the  writer's  previous  investigations  on  St.  Lawrence  Island 
in  1928  and  1929  are  also  utilized  to  a  limited  extent.  The  first  section 
of  the  paper  describes  the  excavations  and  the  materials  found ;  the 
second,  or  comparative  section,  treats  of  the  distribution  of  the  ele- 
ments and  the  archeological  problems  involved. 
This  paper,  in  essentially  its  present  form,  was  completed  in  the 
fall  of  1935,  and  under  the  title  "Archeological  Investigations  on  St. 
Lawrence  Island,  Alaska,  and  their  bearing  on  the  problem  of  the 
origin  of  Eskimo  Culture  "  was  submitted  to  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Sciences  and  Letters  of  Denmark  in  response  to  a  prize  competition 
announced  in  March  1934  on  the  subject  "  Ouelles  sent  les  origines 
de  la  plus  ancienne  civilisation  des  Esquimaux?"  In  February  1936 
it  was  awarded  the  gold  medal  of  the  Academy,  the  judgment  of  the 
committee  appearing  in  the  official  organ  of  the  Academy,  Oversigt 
over  det  Kongelige  Danske  Videnskabernes  Selskabs  Virksomhed,  Juni 
1935-Maj  1936,  pages  160-164,  and  in  French  on  pages  320-322, 
Since  then  the  paper  has  been  expanded  somewhat,  a  number  of  illus- 
trations have  been  added,  and  numerous  changes,  principally  of  a 
minor  character,  have  been  made  in  the  text. 
I  wish  to  record  here  my  obligation  to  James  A.  Ford,  to  whom  in 
no  small  measure  is  due  the  successful  outcome  of  the  1930  investiga- 
tions ;  to  Moreau  B.  Chambers  who  carried  on  so  well  the  work  that 
we  had  begun ;  and  to  our  loyal  and  intelligent  Eskimo  helpers,  Paul 
Silook,  Philip  Maskin,  and  Moses  Soonogoruk.  I  wish  also  to  express 
my  gratitude  to  Capt.  E.  D.  Jones,  Commander  of  the  U.  S.  Coast 
Guard  Cutter  Northland,  for  transportation  to  and  from  St.  Lawrence 
Island  both  years ;  and  finally  to  Dr.  Ales  Hrdlicka  who  was  responsi- 
ble for  first  directing  my  interests  to  the  Alaskan  field. 
The  arduous  task  of  identifying  the  thousands  of  bird  bones  from 
the  excavations  has  been  performed  by  Dr.  Herbert  Friedmann.  The 
mammal  bones  have  been  identified  by  Dr.  Remington  Kellogg ;  the 
