NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND — COLLINS  287 
The  distribution  of  Punuk  art  is  very  much  the  same.  It  has  been 
found  on  St.  Lawrence  Island,  on  the  Siberian  side  of  Bering  Strait, 
at  the  Diomedes  and  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  at  Point  Hope,  and  at 
Point  Belcher,  60  miles  below  Barrow. 
When  comparing  Old  Bering  Sea  and  modern  Eskimo  art  we  are 
impressed  first  of  all  by  the  obvious  dissimilarity  between  the  two. 
The  elaborate  Old  Bering  Sea  designs  are  totally  foreign  to  later 
Eskimo  art,  but  upon  analysis  we  find  that  they  incorporate  some  of 
the  simple  elements  which  form  the  basis  of  the  modern  art.  They 
both  make  use  of  small  plugs  of  wood,  baleen,  or  ivory  at  the  centers 
of  circles ;  the  circles  themselves  are  differently  made,  those  of  the 
Old  Bering  Sea  period  being  always  made  free  hand  and  often  sur- 
mounting a  slight  elevation,  whereas  the  modern  circles,  like  those 
of  the  Punuk  stage,  are  flat  and  mechanically  inscribed  with  a  bit  or 
compasses.  The  idea  of  a  dot  or  nucleus  at  the  center  is  common  to 
all  three  stages.  Another  common  element  is  the  "  ladder  "  design, 
which,  however,  is  much  more  frequently  employed  in  Punuk  and 
modern  art  than  in  Old  Bering  Sea  art.  The  simple  spurred  line  is 
another  very  important  element  of  modern  Eskimo  art  that  goes  back 
to  the  Old  Bering  Sea  period,  but  we  find  a  different  condition  with 
regard  to  the  related  designs,  the  alternate  spur  and  the  zigzag,"  which 
are  such  favorite  devices  of  the  modern  Eskimos.  In  the  Punuk  stage 
the  alternate  spur  design  is  present  but  has  not  taken  on  the  stereo- 
typed appearance  of  the  modern  design,  and  the  zigzag  is  known  from 
only  a  single  Punuk  specimen  (pi.  67,  fig.  i).  The  alternate  spur 
is  as  yet  unknown  to  Old  Bering  Sea  art,  but  the  presence  of  a  single 
example  of  the  related  zigzag  (pi.  58,  fig.  12)  suggests  that  it  may 
have  been  employed  occasionally.  Finally,  there  are  a  few  Old  Bering 
Sea  pieces  on  which  red  pigment  was  rubbed  into  the  lines,  a  practice 
which  was  very  common  during  the  Punuk  and  modern  periods.  The 
remaining  basic  design  elements  employed  by  the  modern  Eskimos 
are  all  to  be  found  in  Punuk  art.  These  are  the  simple  Y  figure, 
detached  dots,  bands  of  straight  lines,  and  short  cross  or  connecting 
lines.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  modern  Eskimo  art  is  to  be  explained 
as  the  result  of  simplification  or  degeneration ;  that  from  the  rich 
reservoir  of  the  prehistoric  art  it  has  selected  and  retained  certain 
simple  motives,  which  through  repeated  use  during  a  long  period  of 
"  As  here  used,  the  term  "  alternate  spur  "  refers  to  the  design  formed  by  two 
parallel  lines  with  inward-pointing  alternating  spurs ;  it  is  sometimes  referred 
to  as  the  "  seal  tooth  "  or  "  fish  trap  "  design.  The  term  "  zigzag  "  refers  to 
the  negative  design  left  between  the  two  parallel  lines  when  the  alternating 
spurs  are  thickened  at  the  base  so  as  to  produce  triangles. 
