298  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
terns  formed  by  these  elements  are  also  unique.  We  may,  how- 
ever, look  for  correspondences  in  the  elements  themselves.  The 
two  regions  of  highest  art  development  in  eastern  Asia  are  China  and 
the  lower  Amur  valley.  In  the  Amur  region  we  find  today  a  highly 
specialized  exuberant  art  style  based  on  the  use  of  continuous  wavy 
lines  and  spirals.  The  spirals  are  employed  in  a  great  variety  of 
forms,  usually  in  rich  conventional  representations  of  plant,  bird, 
and  fish  designs,  all  of  which  seem  far  removed  from  Old  Bering 
Sea  art.  We  will  likewise  search  in  vain  for  any  Old  Bering  Sea 
resemblances  in  Chinese  art  of  the  last  2,000  years,  from  the  Han 
dynasty  on.  However,  during  this  period  Chinese  art  has  undergone 
radical  changes,  so  that  it  is  in  many  respects  quite  a  different  art  from 
that  which  prevailed  in  the  Shang  (Yin)  and  Chou  dynasties  (1766- 
255  B.  C).  And  although  here  again  we  are  unable  to  point  to  any- 
thing resembling  Old  Bering  Sea  composition,  there  is  one  possibly 
significant  resemblance,  namely,  the  presence  of  the  elevated  circle  or 
ellipse  representing  an  eye.  In  Shang  and  Chou  art  the  eye  motive 
holds  a  most  important  place,  being  employed  in  conventional  repre- 
sentations of  the  ever  present  t'ao  t'ieh  head,  that  of  a  fabulous  mon- 
ster with  large  staring  eyes  and  prominent  ears  and  nose.  On  bronze 
vessels  the  eyes  are  usually  rounded  bosses,  but  on  some  of  the  ivory 
and  bone  carvings  they  are  formed  of  turquoise  inlays  " — recalling 
the  similar  use  of  inlays  of  baleen  and  wood  by  the  Old  Bering  Sea 
Eskimos.  These  elevated,  nucleated  eyes,  though  always  part  of  a 
recognizable  animal  design,  present  a  close  parallel  to  the  elevated 
"  eyes  "  of  later  Old  Bering  Sea  art,  much  closer  in  fact  than  that 
afiforded  by  the  flat  Northwest  Coast  eye.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
likewise  true  that  the  eyes  on  the  t'ao  t'ieh  heads,  particularly  when 
they  are  not  raised  above  the  surface,  are  very  similar  in  appearance 
to  the  Northwest  Coast  eyes.  The  similarity  in  this  case  lies  mainly 
in  the  triangular  appendages  which  both  the  Chinese  and  Northwest 
Coast  artists  placed  at  the  ends  of  the  eyes  in  order  to  produce  a  more 
realistic  appearance  ;  whereas  the  Old  Bering  Sea  artists,  though  clearly 
recognizing  the  zoomorphic  implication  of  paired  "  eyes  ",  usually 
shopped  short  of  portraying  an  actual  animal  design  by  this  means. 
The  eye  design  in  early  Chinese  art,  therefore,  finds  close  parallels 
in  both  early  Eskimo  and  Northwest  Coast  art.  On  the  whole,  it  would 
seem  not  improbable  that  the  "  eye  "  motives  in  the  three  regions  were 
"  The  exhibition  of  early  Chinese  bronzes.  Bull.  6,  Mus.  Far  Eastern  Antiqui- 
ties, pp.  81-136,  pis.  1-53,  Stockholm,  1934.  Introductory  text  unsigned,  descrip- 
tion of  plates  by  Dr.  Nils  Palmgren.  Reference  to  turquoise  inlay  on  p.  99, 
pi.  3,  figs.  6,  7. 
