"Until the results of Doctor Hrdlička's Alaskan reconnaissance were
first made known to science it had been generally assumed that Alaskan
and Canadian subboreal regions were archeologically barren. It had been
currently accepted that only as one approached the great river valleys
of the Skeena, the Fraser, and the Columbia could anthropological
exploration be conducted to advantage. One might expect to uncover
cemeteries and ancient village sites only there where a dense and
sedentary population had long been established. Through the discovery
of ancient village sites and centers of population in the lower and
middle Yukon River Valley, Doctor Hrdlička has extended the northern
archeological horizon into the sub-Arctic.
"Of the many sites examined, the old village site at Bonasila, 18 miles
below the confluence of the Anvik and Yukon Rivers, yielded the most
interesting data. Crudely flaked implements of trap rock with cutting
edges showing evidence of chipping and grinding were uncovered. These
implements are unique among Alaskan artifacts and have no relationship
with known types of Eskimo or Indian stonework. In the shaping technic
employed by their aboriginal makers; in form, and in type; and,
generally, in their undeveloped character, the stone artifacts from
Bonasila and other ancient archeological sites on the middle Yukon may
be classified as primitive neolithic.
"The stone implements uncovered at Bonasila are so crudely fashioned
and are apparently of such an improvised nature as to suggest an
extreme conservatism in culture development, or perhaps a degeneration,
due largely to lack of better materials. Due to the lack of basalt,
jadeite, or other hard stone in the valley of the lower middle Yukon,
recourse was had to sandstone and trap rock by the primitive makers of
stone axes and celts.
"Crude pottery vessels and potsherds were discovered associated with
the objects of stone. This ware incorporates elementary decorative
designs distinct from the known historic Eskimo or Indian types of
pottery decoration. There can be no intimation that this ware is
archaic or that it belongs to any archaic culture offshoot from farther
south. It therefore becomes a question of some unknown earlier Asiatic
culture connection that manifested itself in crude forms of flaked and
ground stone implements and in unique pottery forms. It is uncertain
that the ancient fossil ivory culture of northwest Alaska, of which
Doctor Hrdlička has brought in some excellent examples, is in any
manner associated with the primitive neolithic stone and pottery forms
uncovered at Bonasila. It is established, however, beyond a doubt that
both cultures and types of artifacts are Asiatic in origin and have
little or no connection with the culture of the western Eskimo.
"The Eskimos of the lower Yukon Valley made extensive use of slate and
of jadeite in the production of their polished knives and celts. Slate
knives and polished celts of jadeite are characteristic of Eskimoan
culture throughout the whole of its extent in Alaska. Each of these
materials as well as the finished products shaped from them were
subjects of native barter. Eskimos often undertook long journeys for
their procurement. It is therefore noteworthy that no single object
fashioned from slate or jadeite and but few points of fossilized ivory
were recovered at any of the sites characterized by the primitive stone
culture and pottery of the Bonasila type.
"The most characteristic finds at Bonasila are the crudely flaked
implements of stone, some of which show incipient chipping and
grinding. The coarse type of pottery is unlike that of the modern
Eskimo in tempering, firing, and decorative design.
"The stone culture of the site, although rich in forms, is deficient
in technical development and is scarcely worthy of being classed
as neolithic. There were found in numbers the following types of
artifacts: Circular, discoidal stone pebbles with rim fractures due to
use; river wash pebbles of irregular form used as improvised scrapers
and hammerstones; basaltic, discoidal hammerstones with abraded edges
and pitted at the center; large flake saws of trachyte (trap rock)
triangular in section but provided with sharply fractured cutting
edges; slender flaked fragments of trap rock tapered to the form of
wedges with intentionally worked end sections and cutting edges;
crudely flaked stone knives with evidence of secondary chipping at
cutting edges; other knives of thin slabs of trap rock with flaked
and bilaterally ground beveled cutting edges; oblong axes of flaked
sandstone with hafting notches struck off at the edges midway from the
base; abrading tools of sandstone; celts of sandstone with ground and
beveled working edge and notched for hafting as an ax; stone scrapers
with ground and beveled cutting edges; fragmentary perforators of
stone; re-chipped, flaked knives shaped by grinding; roughly worked,
multiple-grooved hammers or mauls; and many stone objects unformed and
unworked but classified generally as hammerstones.