de Laguna] ARCHEOLOGY, YAKUTAT BAY AREA, ALASKA 103 



ever, supported by the Yakutat and Kachemak Bay specimens. 

 Copper River Atna informants (1954) also reported copper "fish 

 knives." 



Although the two ulo handles from Old Town were plain, there is 

 no reason to doubt that the type with fingerhole, common at Yakutat 

 today, was also used in the past. Chugach ulos were identical with 

 those of Yakutat (Birket-Smith, 1953, p. 75), and Copper River 

 Eyak ulos were described as like those of the Chugach (Birket-Smith 

 and de Laguna, 1938, p. 74), so presumably also had the hole. The 

 Yukon Tena used both the plain and pierced types (de Laguna, 1947, 

 p. 126). The ulo handle with fingerhole is one of the characteristic 

 Eskimo forms, even though some of the Coast Salish ulos had a hole 

 for the thumb or finger cut through the slate blade below the handle 

 (Barnett, 1939, Trait 351, p. 281). 



ULO WITH LATERAL HANDLE 



A small semilunar knife of copper (pi. 14, h) has a tang at the side, 

 and comes from Old Town I. The blade is now (4,2) cm. long and 

 (3.5) cm. wide, but was probably once larger. The tang has been 

 wrapped with gi^ass, probably to make it fit into a handle. A hair, 

 as yet unidentified, was found adhering to the blade. 



The small knife is like some of the larger ulos with lateral handle 

 known from the Bristol Bay- Yukon Eskimo (de Laguna, 1947, 

 p. 186). A single slate blade may represent this form on Kodiak 

 (Heizer, 1956, pi. 40, a). 



ULO-SHAPED BARK SCRAPER OR KNIFE 



A Imife or scraper shaped like an ulo with rounded edge was found 

 at Diyaguna'Et (fig. 11, /). It is of commercial (?) sheet copper. 

 It is 10.5 cm. long and 4.5 cm. wide, and is unhafted, although a grip 

 has been formed by folding over the metal along the back. This 

 was identified by our informants as a type of knife or scraper called 

 "mussel shell," used especially for shaving ofl' the sweet inner bark of 

 the hemlock. The blade was cupped so that it would scoop, not cut. 

 The same implement was also said to be used to split spruce roots for 

 baskets and to scrape skins. Formerly such a knife was made of the 

 shell of the large California mussel. Modern specimens are made of 



Figure 10. — Copper knives. Drawn by Donald F. McGeein. a, Ulo with wooden handle 

 and copper blade, from between floor and wall of Storage House, Old Town II (No. 193); 

 b, blade for ulo, from Mound B, upper levels, Old Town III (No. 584); c, small knife blade, 

 from Mound B, upper levels, Old Town III (No. 606); d, small knife blade, from Surface 

 Pit 6, Mound B, upper levels. Old Town III (No. 84); f, ulo with wooden handle and cop- 

 per blade, from Mound B, upper levels, Old Town III (No. 273), restored. 



