174 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA 



[ETH. ANN. 46 



the ground has assumed more or less of a pearly yellow, variegated, 

 sepia-brown or black color. These objects are known as yet very 

 imperfectly. They are scarce at and especially north of Point Hope, 

 and again along the west coast south of Norton Sound. Their center 

 of frequency comprises seemingly the St. Lawrence Island, some 

 parts of the Asiatic coast, the Diomedes, and parts of the Seward 

 Peninsula. But they occur at least up to Point Hope, while west 

 of Bering Strait they are said to appear as far as the river Kolyma. 

 Some of the objects in fossilized ivory show the well-known Eskimo 

 art, with geometrical design. But besides these there occur here and 



there beautiful specimens, har- 

 poon heads, figures, needle cases, 

 etc., which are of the finest work- 

 manship and which both in form 

 and design differ from the pre- 

 vailing Eskimo types. They are 

 examples of high aboriginal art; 

 and their engraved decorative 

 lines are not geometrical but 

 beautifully curvilinear. (Fig. 

 12.) The accompanying illustra- 

 tions of specimens I succeeded in 

 obtaining from different sources 

 will show the nature of this art. 

 (Pis. 19-26.) Isolated specimens 

 of this nature have been secured 

 before by Nelson, Neuman, Sver- 

 drup, Stefansson, and others. 

 Jenness in 192G dug out a few 

 from the old sites at Wales. 

 There are several in the Museum 

 of the American Indian in New York. But the largest and best 

 collection of these remarkable articles is now that of the United 

 States National Museum. 360 



The large fossil ivory figure (20.3 cm. maximum length, pi. 26) 

 collected by Mr. Carl Lomen and now in the National Museum is of 

 special interest. It comes from the Asiatic side. It is a handsomely 

 made piece, belonging in all probability to the high fossil ivory 

 culture. Its peculiarity is the bi-bevel face, a face made by two 

 planes rising to a median rklge. It is so far a unique specimen of 

 its kind. But with the aid of Mr. H. W. Krieger, curator. of 

 ethnology, United States National Museum, we found similar bi- 



Figure 12. — Conventionalized design from 

 fossil ivory specimen shown in Plate 1!) 



XM MacCurdy described the first specimen of this kind in 1921 as "An Example of Eskimo 

 Art," in Amer. Anthrop., vol. 23, No. 3. pp. 384-385. See also Collins (H. B., jr.), Prehis- 

 toric Art of the Alaskan Eskimo, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 81, No. 14, 52 pp., Washington, 

 1929. 



