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SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
the  richness  and  diversity  of  this  old  northern  art.  These  objects, 
which  are  hsted  in  table  i  under  the  heading  "  Old  Bering  Sea  art, 
style  indeterminable  ",  will  be  considered  first. 
The  flat  ivory  object  shown  in  plate  15,  figure  i,  comes  from  cut  19, 
at  a  depth  of  79  inches.  The  tapering  ends,  now  broken,  were  originally 
perforated,  suggesting  that  the  object  was  worn  suspended  as  an  orna- 
ment of  some  kind.  Decoration  consists  of  pairs  of  curving  lines 
forming  bands  with  single  or  double  rows  of  dots  in  the  intervening 
spaces.  At  the  center  are  two  opposed  arcs  formed  in  the  same  manner, 
one  attached  to  the  upper  border,  one  to  the  lower.  There  is  also  a 
vertical  elliptical  figure,  rather  crudely  executed,  containing  at  the 
center  a  square  formed  of  dotted  lines.  Dotted  triangles,  some  in- 
complete, occupy  the  triangular  spaces  above  and  below,  and  appropri- 
ately shaped  dotted  figures  also  fill  in  the  ovoid  and  hourglass-shaped 
panels  to  the  right  and  left  respectively,  of  the  center.   This  particular 
Fig.  13. — Bone  comb  from  Kurile  Islands   (after  Baba,  I934)- 
combination  of  pairs  of  curving  lines  bordered  by  rows  of  dots  has 
not  been  observed  previously  in  Old  Bering  Sea  art,  although  the 
elements  themselves  are  common  enough.  A  rather  striking  parallel, 
considering  that  it  comes  from  beyond  the  Eskimo  territory,  is  pro- 
vided by  a  bone  comb  recently  described  from  the  Kurile  Islands, 
(Baba,  1934,  pi.  i,  fig.  3),  a  sketch  of  which  is  shown  in  text  figure  13. 
The  broken  adz  handle  shown  in  plate  17,  figure  3,  has  an  arrange- 
ment of  curving  bands  and  dotted  lines  very  similar  to  that  of  plate  15, 
figure  I.  This  specimen  was  purchased  from  an  Eskimo  who  had  dug 
it  up  at  Miyowagh.  The  framework  of  the  design  consists  of  con- 
verging rows  of  slightly  curving  parallel  lines.  The  center  line,  which 
is  deeply  incised,  is  flanked  on  either  side  by  a  more  lightly  incised 
line  and  a  row  of  closely  spaced  dots.  Several  small  round  pits  oc- 
cupy some  of  the  free  spaces,  and  on  the  upper  edge,  in  high  relief, 
is  a  realistically  carved  human  head.  The  combination  of  lines  and 
dots  is  characteristically  Old  Bering  Sea,  but  the  small  round  pits 
are  more  typical  of  the  early  Punuk  stage. 
