NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND COLLINS  381 
origin  of  Eskimo  culture.  On  the  contrary,  the  archeological  investiga- 
tions in  the  West  have  added  to  its  complexity.  At  the  same  time  they 
have  cleared  the  ground,  and,  in  revealing  the  oldest  stage  of  Eskimo 
culture  in  the  Bering  Strait  region,  have  provided  a  new  point  of  de- 
parture from  which  the  problem  may  be  approached. 
The  high  development  of  Eskimo  culture  around  Bering  Strait  in 
prehistoric  times  cannot  in  any  way  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  con- 
tact with  the  Northwest  Coast.  The  influences  from  this  direction 
that  have  been  so  often  remarked  ufxin  and  which  are  so  prominent  in 
modern  Alaskan  Eskimo  culture  seem  not  to  have  been  exerted  until 
relatively  recent  times.  Not  only  does  the  Old  Bering  Sea  culture 
reveal  no  trace  of  these  late  Indian  features,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
that  primary  Indian  elements  have  had  any  important  part  in  the 
formation  of  the  culture.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  significant  that 
some  of  the  most  important  and  fundamental  elements  of  the  Old 
Bering  Sea  culture — such  as  the  toggle  harpoon  head,  skin  boats  of 
the  umiak  or  kayak  type,  sledges  and  toboggans,  the  lamp,  and  rubbed 
slate  implements — are  widespread  Old  World  elements,  which  in 
America  are  found  only  among  the  Eskimo  or  in  areas  where  Eskimo 
influence  has  probably  extended.  Since  these  elements  could  hardly 
have  originated  in  America  they  must  have  been  introduced  from 
Asia.  It  follows,  therefore,  as  both  Mathiassen  and  Hatt  have  con- 
tended, that  the  ultimate  origin  of  Eskimo  culture  is  to  be  sought 
in  the  Old  World. 
\he  excavations  on  St.  Lawrence  Island,  which  have  made  it  pos- 
sible to  distinguish  between  certain  older  and  younger  elements  in 
Eskimo  culture,  seem  also  in  a  way  to  have  added  something  to  Hatt's 
concept  of  a  "  coast  "  and  an  "  inland  "  culture.  Hatt's  theory,  based 
originally  on  an  exhau'stive  study  of  clothing  types,  was  of  two  great 
culture  waves  or  strata  in  the  northern  parts  of  Eurasia  and  America. 
The  older  stratum — the  coast  culture — is  "  now  most  fully  represented 
and  highest  developed  in  the  culture  of  the  Eskimo  tribes  " ;  the  later 
stratum,  or  the  inland  culture  "  is  found  fullest  and  most  unmixed 
in  the  culture  of  the  Tungusians,  although  its  influence  is  felt  from 
Lapland  to  Labrador  "  (Hatt,  1916  b,  pp.  248-249).  The  inland  cul- 
ture is  characterized  particularly  by  the  moccasin  and  snowshoe,  the 
conical  lodge,  the  birch  bark  canoe,  the  cradle  board,  the  two-handed 
skin  scraper,  the  smoking  of  skins,  and  the  tanning  of  skins  by  the 
use  of  fat. 
Hatt's  hypothesis  later  received  support  from  Hallowell's  investiga- 
tion of  bear  ceremonialism  in  the  northern  hemisphere: 
