46  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
of  incised  lines  and  the  space  between  these  is  covered  by  long  slant- 
ing spurs. 
Plate  13,  figure  8,  is  a  fat  scrai>er  found  in  house  no.  i.  It  has 
vertical  sides,  sharp  edges,  and  blunt  ends.  The  ornamentation,  al- 
though in  some  respects  similar  to  that  on  figure  7,  is  far  removed 
from  typical  Old  Bering  Sea.  One's  first  impression  is  of  a  "  scratchy  " 
decoration,  with  lines  applied  almost  at  random.  In  reality,  the  decora- 
tive scheme  is  well  organized  and  balanced,  although  the  execution 
is  somewhat  free.  The  elements  employed  are  pairs  of  straight  or 
slightly  curving  lines ;  short  detached  lines  in  rows ;  very  long  sharp 
spurs,  usually  of  two  lines ;  closely  spaced  long  single  spurs  attached 
fringelike  to  curving  lines ;  and,  on  the  sides,  bands  of  four  to  six 
very  short  cross  lines  between  two  long  parallel  lines.  At  the  center 
of  each  side,  on  the  lower  edge,  is  an  arrangement  of  straight,  con- 
verging lines  like  that  shown  on  the  borders  of  plate  13,  figure  7. 
The  three  objects  last  described,  together  with  the  four  shown  in 
plate  12,  figures  11-14,  are  decorated  in  a  style  very  different  from 
the  typical  Old  Bering  Sea,  as  we  shall  see  presently.  Although  the 
ornamentation  is  comparatively  simple,  it  is  by  no  means  unorganized. 
On  the  contrary,  the  elements  are  combined  into  rather  eft'ective  pat- 
terns, considering  that  the  artists  restricted  themselves  almost  en- 
tirely to  straight  or  slightly  curving  lines.  They  knew  the  use  of 
the  nucleated  and  concentric  circle  and  of  other  Old  Bering  Sea  ele- 
ments such  as  the  spurred  line,  the  double  line  and  the  broken  hne, 
but  the  full  possibilities  of  these  elements  had  not  been  realized ;  they 
had  not  been  selected  out  and  made  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  elaborate 
and  complex  designs  such  as  characterized  a  later  stage  of  Old  Bering 
Sea  art.  On  the  contrary,  this  simpler  style  was  distinctly  linear ;  and 
circles,  when  present,  were  of  incidental  importance  as  compared  with 
a  profuse  decoration  consisting  of  long  radiating  lines,  shorter  de- 
tached lines,  and  single  or  double  lines  to  which  were  attached  very 
long,  sharp  spurs.  For  convenience  of  reference  more  than  in  recog- 
nition of  an  established  chronological  position,  I  have  called  this 
simpler  style  of  art  "  Old  Bering  Sea  style  i  ".  Its  principal  motives 
are  illustrated  in  text  figure  6.  That  the  specimens  decorated  in  tliis 
style  are  actually  older  than  the  bulk  of  the  material  from  the  Hillside 
site  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  most  of  them  were  found  beneath 
the  floor  stones  of  the  two  houses.  But  they  are  so  few  in  number 
that  it  would  be  well  to  have  more  examples,  and  if  possible,  from 
other  localities,  before  definitely  assuming  its  ancestral  relationship 
to  the  more  highly  developed  Old  Bering  Sea  art,  even  though  on  styl- 
istic  grounds   such  a   relationship   would    appear  probable.    In  this 
