302  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
Sea  (Collins,  1929,  pp.  14,  38-39).  This  interpretation  was  questioned 
by  de  Laguna  (1932-33,  p.  79),  who  felt  that  "rather  than  regard 
Punuk  art  as  a  purely  autonomous  growth  on  Alaskan  soil  out  of  the 
Old  Bering  Sea  culture  art,  ....  I  am  inclined  to  see  in  it  strong 
Siberian  influences." 
The  compass-made  circle  of  the  Punuk  which  I  had  regarded  as 
having  been  derived  from  the  freehand  circle  of  the  Old  Bering  Sea 
culture,  was  thought  by  de  Laguna  to  be  related  to  the  dot-and-circle 
which  had  a  wide  distribution  in  Europe  during  the  Bronze  and  Iron 
Ages,  and  which  is  frequently  employed  by  the  modern  tribes  of 
northern  Eurasia: 
From  the  appearance  of  the  dot-and-circle  at  the  beginning  of  the  Bronze 
Age  in  Scandinavia,  ....  we  can  trace  a  continuous  distribution  across 
northern  Europe  and  Siberia,  to  the  Aleut  and  the  Eskimo.  The  dot-and-circle, 
curiously  enough,  does  not  appear  in  the  East  Finmark  find,  described  by 
Solberg,  though  it  was  a  popular  design  all  over  Europe  in  the  Iron  Age  and 
among  the  modern  Lapps.  However,  it  does  occur  in  the  bowl  of  an  archaeo- 
logical spoon  from  Norwegian  Lapland.  The  evidence,  I  suggest,  points  to  a 
Siberian  and  ultimately  to  a  Eurasian  Bronze  Age  origin  of  the  Eskimo  dot- 
and-circle.  This  motif  came  to  Alaska  during  the  Punuk  culture  stage,  along 
with  metal  in  small  amounts,  the  technique  of  applying  dots  to  lines  and  of 
filling  the  incisions  of  the  design  with  paint, — all  elements  of  Siberian  art. 
[de  Laguna,  1932-33.  P-  82.] 
It  might  be  argued  that  the  excavations  at  Gambell  have  now  demon- 
strated the  close  relationship  between  Old  Bering  Sea  and  Punuk  art. 
Although  the  evidence  for  continuous  local  change  is  not  as  complete 
for  art  as  it  is  for  harpoon  heads  or  the  winged  ivory  objects,  it  is 
clear  that  there  was  a  period — the  early  Punuk — when  the  technique 
of  engraving  the  lines  and  the  manner  of  their  arrangement  were 
typical  of  neither  the  Old  Bering  Sea  nor  the  Punuk,  but  of  something 
intermediate  between  the  two.  There  was  evidently  a  definite  break- 
ing down  of  Old  Bering  Sea  art  on  St.  Lawrence  Island  and  a  blending 
of  some  of  its  elements  into  the  early  Punuk.  But  while  we  may  recog- 
nize that  changes  of  this  nature  did  occur  locally,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  de  Laguna  is  entirely  correct  in  contending  that  the  more  devel- 
oped form  of  Punuk  art,  including  the  nucleated  compass-made  circle, 
has  distinct  Siberian  affinities.  The  relationship  between  the  Old 
Bering  Sea  and  Punuk  circles  is  probably  as  stated  by  de  Laguna 
(1932-33,  p.  83)  : 
However,  there  has  been  some  connection  with  the  art  of  the  Old  Bering 
Sea  culture.  It  is  because  the  free-hand  concentric  circles  and  ovals  were 
used  so  much  in  the  older  period  that  the  mechanical  dot-and-circle,  coming 
from  Siberia,  was  adopted  so  readily  by  the  Punuk  Eskimo.    The  neatness  and 
