NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND COLLINS  349 
Ornamentation  on  the  pottery  from  the  Old  Bering  Sea  and  Punuk 
sites  at  Gambell  was  meager,  being  restricted  to  indentations,  corruga- 
tions, and  other  surface  irregularities  produced  by  the  application  of 
a  paddle  with  a  roughened  or  carved  surface.  Sherds  thus  marked  were 
found  at  the  Hillside  site,  Miyowagh,  and  levoghiyoq ;  however,  they 
were  decidedly  in  the  minority,  most  of  the  sherds  showing  no  decora- 
tion of  any  kind.  The  most  interesting  exception  was  the  single  large 
sherd  bearing  a  check-stamp  design  picked  up  on  the  surface  of  the 
Miyowagh  midden  (text  fig.  17).  Pottery  decorated  in  this  manner 
has  thus  far  been  reported  in  the  Eskimo  area  only  from  Norton  Sound 
and  Nunivak  Island  (Collins,  1928).  A  fragment  of  check-stamped 
pottery  from  a  Neolithic  kitchen  midden  in  Japan  is  illustrated  by 
Kishinouye,  plate  24,  figure  85  ;  it  occurs  also  in  southeastern  Asia, 
having  been  described  from  Siam,  Perak,  and  Annam  (Sarasin,  1933, 
fig.  23  a;  Goloubew,  1930,  pi.  24).  Its  principal  center,  however,  seems 
to  have  been  southeastern  China,  to  judge  from  the  finds  on  Lamma 
Island,  near  Hong  Kong  (Finn.  1932,  1935).  From  this  site  Finn 
has  excavated  quantities  of  check-stamped  pottery  which  he  dates  as 
500-200  B.C.  The  peculiarly  Chinese  character  of  this  pottery  is 
shown  by  the  accompanying  scroll-like  designs  which  are  stamped  on 
the  same  vessels.  These  are  various  forms  of  the  decorative  motive 
so  characteristic  of  the  earliest  Chinese  dynastic  art,  that  of  the  Shang 
period,  and  which  Finn  very  appropriately  calls  the  "  Double-F " 
design. 
It  is  of  interest  to  observe  that  the  check-stamp  pattern,  though 
essentially  a  ceramic  decoration  may  be  applied  at  times  even  to  bronze. 
An  example  is  afforded  by  a  bronze  mirror  in  the  possession  of  Dr. 
E.  W.  Kirk,  of  Washington,  D.  C.  This  mirror  is  reported  to  have 
been  excavated  from  a  tomb  in  Manchuria  and  probably  dates  from 
the  T'ang  dynasty  (618-906  A.  D.)  or  possibly  somewhat  later.  The 
entire  inner  surface,  except  for  a  scrolled  border  design  and  two  large 
dragons,  is  covered  with  very  small  indented  squares  forming  a  uni- 
form check-stamp  background,  the  squares  having  been  stamped  on 
the  original  mold  from  which  the  mirror  was  cast. 
On  the  whole  it  seems  that  the  technique  of  stamping  in  the  decora- 
tion of  pottery  vessels  was  widely  practiced  in  eastern  Asia;  a  plain 
gridded  or  checkered  design  might,  therefore,  have  appeared  inde- 
pendently at  a  number  of  localities.  Whether,  with  regard  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  Asiatic  examples  mentioned,  this  was  the  case,  or 
whether  there  was  a  closer  connection,  it  is  perhaps  too  early  to  say. 
If  similar  ware  should  later  be  found  in  northeastern  Siberia  a  genetic 
relationship  might  well  be  claimed.  Ajiother,  and  more  distant  parallel 
