NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND COLLINS  305 
some  knowledge  of  it  had  also  penetrated  still  farther  north  and  that 
before  many  centuries  had  passed  it  would  have  been  in  the  possession 
of  the  tribes  of  northeastern  Siberia.  In  this  way  iron  in  small 
quantities  might  possibly  have  reached  Bering  Strait  and  St.  Lawrence 
Island  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago. 
Ornaments  and  Toys 
It  is  somewhat  surprising  that  the  Old  Bering  Sea  Eskimos,  who 
felt  impelled  to  decorate  even  their  most  commonplace  implements, 
seem  to  have  cared  so  little  for  personal  adornment.  Labrets  and  ear 
ornaments,  worn  so  extensively  by  the  modern  Alaskan  Eskimos, 
seem  to  have  been  entirely  unknown.  If  we  may  judge  from  the 
Gambell  finds,  brow  bands  and  buttons  were  about  the  only  objects 
of  personal  adornment  used  during  the  Old  Bering  Sea  period. 
In  the  Punuk  stage  we  find  a  number  of  ivory  pendants — apparently 
ear  ornaments  (pi.  82,  figs.  1-12)  and  ivory  links  for  attachment  to 
the  handles  of  knives,  drums,  etc.  (pi.  82,  figs.  29-34).  Both  the 
ear  pendants  and  the  link  ornaments  are  very  similar  to  those  of 
the  Thule  culture  (Mathiassen,  1927,  vol.  i,  pi.  30).  Drop  pendants 
are  seldom  used  by  the  modern  Alaskan  Eskimos,  but  they  are  com- 
mon in  Greenland  and  the  Central  regions,  both  in  archeological  and 
modern  collections  (Mathiassen,  1927,  vol.  2,  p.  116;  1930  b,  pi.  18, 
figs.  3-6;  1934,  pi.  7,  figs.  13-15).  They  are  likewise  characteristic  of 
the  Kachemak  Bay  culture  of  Cook  Inlet  (de  Laguna  1934,  pi.  50). 
Link  ornaments  have  a  wide  distribution  in  the  Old  World.  In  the 
Iron  Age  of  Europe  a  great  variety  of  such  ornaments  are  found 
(e.  g.,  Hoernes,  1898,  esp.  pi.  13,  figs,  i,  8).  They  likewise  occur  in 
Mongolia  as  appendages  to  bronze  objects  of  Scytho-Siberian  style 
(Anderson,  1933,  pi.  2,  figs,  i,  2),  and  in  southeastern  Asia,  in  post 
Han  times,  as  attachments  to  bronze  buckles  (Goloubew,  1930,  pi. 
14,  fig.  13).  It  is  probably  from  the  latter  source  that  the  link  orna- 
ments of  the  modern  New  Guinea  natives  have  been  derived  (e.  g., 
the  link  pendants  on  lime  spatulas — Edge-Partington  and  Heape 
Album,  1892,  pi.  260,  figs.  2,  3).  The  prevalence  of  these  ornaments 
in  the  Iron  and  Bronze  Ages  of  Europe  and  Asia  would  seem  to  point 
to  a  Eurasian  origin  for  the  various  forms  of  link  and  pendant  orna- 
ments so  characteristic  of  the  Punuk,  Thule,  and  modern  phases  of 
Eskimo  culture. 
Although  the  Old  Bering  Sea  Eskimos  used  ivory  extensively  for 
other  purposes,  the  children's  toys  were  mostly  made  of  wood,  bark, 
or  baleen.   The  small  ivory  birds,  dogs,  foxes,  bears,  etc.,  which  are 
