306  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
SO  common  on  St.  Lawrence  Island  today,  were  entirely  lacking  in 
the  Old  Bering  Sea  and  Punuk  periods.  The  few  animal  carvings 
of  Old  Bering  Sea  age  give  the  impression  of  having  been  ornaments 
rather  than  toys ;  the  slotted  bases  of  the  two  small  ivory  birds  (pi.  13, 
figs.  4,  6)  and  the  slots  in  the  feet  of  the  polar  bear  (pi.  13,  fig.  3) 
from  the  Hillside  site  show  clearly  that  these  had  been  attached  to 
some  flat  surface.  The  Amassalik  Eskimos  often  attach  small  figures 
of  birds  and  mammals  to  their  wooden  eye  shades,  boxes,  and  other 
objects,  and  a  similar  practice  is  sometimes  observed  in  Alaska.  In 
the  Old  World  we  find  bird  figures  used  in  somewhat  the  same  way, 
and  it  may  be  that -there  is  some  relationship  between  these  and  the 
bird  ornaments  of  the  Old  Bering  Sea  period :  compare,  for  instance, 
the  small  birds  sometimes  attached  to  the  covers  of  Chinese  bronzes — 
ceremonial  vessels  of  the  Chou  dynasty ;  similar  small  birds  perched 
on  the  backs  and  the  breasts  of  larger  birds  mounted  on  wheels — bird 
chariots — of  the  Han  and  the  later  dynasties  in  China  (Laufer,  1906, 
figs.  19,  20,  24;  Seligman,  1928,  pi.  20,  figs,  i,  2)  ;  on  Sarmatian 
standard  tops  of  bronze  (Rostovtzeff,  1929,  pi.  12,  fig.  4),  and  on 
various  other  kinds  of  objects  from  the  Iron  Age  of  central  Europe 
(Hoernes,  1898,  pi.  8,  figs.  12,  13;  pi.  9,  figs,  i,  6,  7). 
The  small  ivory  bird  figures,  used  as  toys  or  as  "  dice  "  in  children's 
games  (pi.  83,  figs.  7-11)  seem  to  be  confined  to  the  Eskimo.  They 
were  found  in  large  numbers  at  the  Thule  culture  sites  in  the  Hudson 
Bay  region ;  they  occur  in  both  archeological  and  modern  collections 
from  Greenland  and  are  used  by  the  modern  Eskimos  in  Baffin  Land 
and  Labrador.  In  the  west  they  are  known  only  from  the  vicinity  of 
Bering  Strait,  at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  St.  Lawrence  Island,  and 
East  Cape  and  Plover  Bay  in  northeastern  Siberia  (Mathiassen,  1927, 
vol.  2,  pp.  1 1 7-1 18).  Although  they  are  exceedingly  common  on  St. 
Lawrence  Island  today,  they  must  have  been  introduced  only  in  recent 
years,  as  they  were  not  found  at  the  four  oldest  sites  but  only  at  the 
old  section  of  Gambell  and  one  of  the  recent  house  ruins.  Their  age 
at  Bering  Strait  is  not  known ;  at  Barrow  they  do  not  occur  at  all, 
either  in  modern  times  or  at  the  old  sites.  As  the  writer  has  pointed  out 
previously  (1929,  p.  44)  the  absence  of  these  ivory  bird  figures  at 
the  older  Alaskan  sites  and  their  presence  among  the  modern  Eskimos 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  they  were  among  those  elements  of  cul- 
ture brought  to  northern  Alaska  by  a  late  return  migration  of  Thule 
Eskimos  from  the  eastward. 
Harpoon  Heads 
The  collection  of  harpoon  heads  from  Gambell  was  sufficiently 
large  to  enable  us  to  trace,  step  by  step,  an  unbroken  line  of  develop- 
