256  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
chronology  can  be  applied  successfully  to  Arctic  driftwood.  Physio- 
graphic changes  have  evidently  occurred  since  the  time  of  the  Old 
Bering  Sea  and  Punuk  cultures :  there  has  been  an  extensive  building 
up  of  the  gravel  foreland  at  Gambell  as  one  shore  line  after  another 
was  deposited  by  the  action  of  sea  ice  and  storm  waves ;  while  at  the 
opposite  end  of  the  Island,  and  especially  on  Punuk  Island,  there 
has  been  a  considerable  subsidence  of  the  shore  line  or  encroachment 
of  the  sea  so  that  the  earliest  houses  of  the  Punuk  period,  at  the  base 
of  the  midden,  now  lie  6  feet  below  the  present  beach  over  which 
storm  waves  extend  several  times  each  summer.  However,  little  is 
known  as  to  the  rate  of  occurrence  of  shore-line  changes  of  this 
nature  in  northern  latitudes,  so  that  they  throw  no  light  upon  the  ages 
of  the  sites.  For  the  present,  therefore,  we  must  be  content  with  a 
relative  chronology ;  whatever  deductions  may  be  made  as  to  the  age 
of  the  Old  Bering  Sea  culture  must  be  based  on  comparative  analysis 
of  its  elements. 
In  the  following  pages  we  shall  trace  the  distribution  of  the  more 
important  elements  of  the  Old  Bering  Sea  and  Punuk  cultures  in  an 
attempt  to  determine  the  relationships  of  these  prehistoric  phases  of 
western  Eskimo  culture  to  that  of  other  Eskimo  groups,  ancient  and 
modern,  and  of  neighboring  aboriginal  peoples  and  cultures  in  America 
and  Asia.  With  regard  to  many  of  the  elements,  our  task  is  facilitated 
by  the  recent  comprehensive  studies  of  Mathiassen  and  Birket-Smith, 
which  treat  fully  of  the  distribution  of  the  individual  elements  of  the 
Thule  and  Caribou  Eskimo  cultures.  It  will  be  unnecessary  therefore 
to  give  an  exhaustive  account  of  the  distribution  of  many  of  the 
simpler  common  Eskimo  elements  that  are  found  in  the  Old  Bering 
Sea  and  Punuk  cultures.  We  will  be  concerned  mainly  in  analysing 
those  elements  which  are  especially  characteristic  of  the  two  cultures 
and  in  noting  the  particular  forms  in  which  the  more  widespread  ele- 
ments are  here  exhibited. 
COMPARATIVE  ANALYSIS 
Houses 
One  of  the  most  important  aspects  of  Arctic  ethnology  is  the  prob- 
lem of  the  origin  of  the  various  forms  of  Eskimo  dwellings,  their 
relationships  one  to  another  and  to  those  of  aboriginal  peoples  in 
other  parts  of  America  and  Asia.  The  question  has  been  discussed 
by  a  number  of  writers,  and  various  theories  have  been  advanced, 
none  of  which,  however,  has  provided  a  satisfactory  explanation  of 
the  conditions  known  to  exist.    That  a  certain  amount  of  confusion 
