hrdlicka] ARCHEOLOGY OF CENTRAL ALASKA 147 



is of coarse fragments of steatite, which is much more durable than 

 tempering materials such as blood, feathers, and ashes formerly em- 

 ployed by the primitive Eskimo potter. 



" The pottery from Bonasila is utilitarian and consists of shallow 

 spherical lamps, globose bowls, and cooking pots without feet or 

 bases. The ware is coarse, side walls and bottom varying from 1 to 

 2 cenitmeters in sectional thickness. This type of pottery is prac- 

 tically duplicated in shards recovered by Doctor Hrdlicka from what 

 is now Eskimo territory in the Yukon Valley near the Russian Mis- 

 sion. It is probable that further search would bring to light an ex- 

 tensive region yielding this type of ancient pottery of distinctive 

 design and unrelated either to Tinne or Eskimo ware. 



"Decorative attempts consist of bold incised parallel transverse 

 lines on the upper sector of the outer surface of the vessel. Deep 

 corrugations appear on the inside of the rim flare. Both corrugations 

 and incised line decorations were made with a paddle or wood 

 splinter shaped for the purpose. Some of the shards have deeply 

 incised punctations irregularly encircling the outer surface of the 

 vessel just below the rim extension. 



" Shallow spherical pottery lamps accompanied surface burials at 

 Bonasila. These lamps have a less durable tempering material than 

 the other pottery fragments recovered. The paste is porous and is 

 poorlj T fired. Decorative designs incised on the interior surface of 

 the lamps are reminiscent of typical Eskimo punctate designs as 

 traced on the inner circumference of rectilinear or curvilinear etch- 

 ings on ivory and bone. It is very probable that these pottery lamps 

 are of a later date and are of Eskimoan handicraft. 



THE ALASKAN GROOVED STONE AX 

 [PI. 10] 



" The grooved stone ax is a typical New World implement. Its dis- 

 tribution is limited to tribes of the eastern maize area, the Pueblo 

 tribes of the Southwest, the Athapascans, and the northern woodlands 

 tribes. Elsewhere in America grooved stone implements of any de- 

 scription are rare, although not unknown. The groove for the at- 

 tachment of cord or sinew binding is common also to the stone adze, 

 which is characteristic of Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest and 

 of the Eskimo of Arctic America. The distribution of the stone adze 

 is more intensive but is much less extensive than is that of the grooved 

 stone ax and appears to be an environmental form borrowed from 

 the Arctic tribes by the Indian of southeast Alaska and of British 

 Columbia. 



