Through personal visits, wherever possible, and through information
from all available sources, an effort was made to locate and learn
the character of as many of the old sites as could be traced. In this
endeavor I was aided by many whose services are hereby gratefully
acknowledged. Especial thanks are due to Captain Cochran with the
officers and men of the _Bear_, particularly Boatswain H. Berg; to
the Lomen brothers and their esteemed father, at Nome; to Father B.
La Fortune and the Reverend Baldwin at Nome; to Mr. Sylvester Chance,
superintendent of the northwestern district, Bureau of Education; to
Mr. Charles D. Brower, trader at Barrow; to Mr. Jim Allen, trader at
Wainwright; and to Dr. E. P. Walker, head of the Biological Survey of
Alaska. The list to follow, supplemented by maps, will give in brief
the name, location, and description of the remains.
The old sites occur, (1) in the form of refuse heaps; (2) as late
village sites, smaller or larger areas of ground covered with mostly
circular elevations and depressions, with occasionally the wooden
remains of igloos or kashims, or only partly ruined dwellings; such
remains are the most common; (3) as old village sites in the form of
a long irregular ridge mound or of more or less separate heaps; (4)
as heaps or "mounds" of individual structures. And as "passed" sites,
covered completely by sand or silt and unknown until uncovered through
the washing away by the sea or rivers of some of the deposits.
In addition there are the remains of burial grounds which are
occasionally marked by small low mounds or hummocks produced by decayed
burials that have been more or less assimilated by the tundra. Stony
beaches with chips, implements, etc., such as are found off old sites
on the Yukon, have not been seen in the region now dealt with in any
instance.
The ruined dwellings and communal houses throughout this region,
with a few minor exceptions, were of one general type. They were
circular, yurta-shaped, semisubterranean structures, with a more or
less subterranean tunnel approach, built of hewn driftwood and earth.
These dwellings, when the wood decays and the dome falls in, leave
characteristic saucer-and-handle-like depressions. But where such
dwellings were close, and especially where they were heaped up or
superimposed on older ones, the remains, together with the refuse, may
form an irregular elevated ridge or a large irregular mound.
On the Diomede Islands the dwellings are built of stone, and ruins of
stone houses have been reported to me from inland of the westernmost
parts of the Seward Peninsula. Stone dwellings were also known on
Norton Sound.
Some of the ridges and heaps, as at Shishmaref, Point Hope, one of
the Punuk Islands, etc., are large and may be up to 15 feet and over
in depth, but mostly the remains are of moderate to small size. The
latter sometimes could easily be confounded with natural formations.
The older remains may superficially be indistinguishable even to an
experienced observer; and if there is anything still more ancient, it
lies somewhere in the old sands and beaches where, except through some
fortunate accident, it can not be discovered. Except for their surface,
the remains are generally frozen hard, and no excavation is possible
except through gradual exposure and the melting of layer after layer by
the warmth of the sun or a melting of the ground with water or by some
other artificial means.
Some at least of these ruins are rich archeologically. They greatly
exceed in this respect a large majority of village ruins and mounds
in the interior of the continent. This appears from their gradual
excavation by the natives at Barrow, Point Hope, St. Lawrence Island,
and elsewhere. The natives have now for many years been selling
thousands of articles thus obtained to traders, teachers, and crews of
visiting vessels. A regular and growing trade detrimental to archeology
is now being carried on in "fossil ivory," which generally consists of
pieces showing human workmanship and occasionally includes specimens of
rare beauty and importance.
The archeological contents of such old sites as that near Savonga on
the St. Lawrence Island, or those at Wales, Point Hope, Barrow, etc.,
are varied, and in instances exceedingly interesting. They comprise
a large variety of objects of stone, ivory, bone, and wood, while in
the more superficial layers are also found occasionally glass beads or
objects of metal. Some ruins, such as those at Point Hope and Kotzebue,
are very rich in stone objects; others, as those at the St. Lawrence
Island, are rich in articles of ivory and bone. Pottery is generally
scarce. Articles of stone comprise mainly points, knives, adzes, and
lamps; those of wood, goggles and masks; of bone, various parts of
sleds, a large assortment of snow and meat picks, and scrapers; of
ivory, barbed points, harpoons, and lance heads, and a large variety
of tools, fetishes, and ceremonial objects; of clay, a few dishes and
pots for culinary purposes. Traces of objects made of whalebone or even
birch bark may also appear.
The stones used were mainly slate and flint, but there may also be
met with quartz, quartzite, and especially the Kobuk "jade." The
workmanship is as a rule good to excellent. The arrow points show a
number of interesting, not yet fully known, types, the long blade with
parallel sides predominating. The stone lamps and rare dishes also need
further study. The knives all approach the Asiatic semilunar variety.
The bones and wooden objects and the pottery from this region are
fairly well covered by the writings of Ray, Murdoch, Nelson, Rau,
Thomas, and others; the masks need further study.
The most interesting archeological specimens from the region of the
western Eskimo, however, are some of those in "fossil ivory," the term
being applied to walrus ivory that through long lying in 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, harpoon heads, figures, needle cases, etc.,
which are of the finest workmanship and which both in form and design
differ from the prevailing Eskimo types. They are examples of high
aboriginal art; and their engraved decorative lines are not geometrical
but beautifully curvilinear. (Fig. 12.) The accompanying illustrations
of specimens I succeeded in obtaining from different sources will show
the nature of this art. (Pls. 19-26.) Isolated specimens of this nature
have been secured before by Nelson, Neuman, Sverdrup, Stefánsson, and
others. Jenness in 1926 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.[57]
[Illustration: FIGURE 12.--Conventionalized design from fossil ivory
specimen shown in Plate 19]
The large fossil ivory figure (20.3 cm. maximum length, pl. 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 ridge. 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-beveled faces in
wooden figures from northeast Asia, in wooden Eskimo masks from the
Yukon, and in wooden ceremonial figures from Panama. The latter are
shown herewith. (Pl. 27.) The whole presents evidently a nice problem
for the archeologist and student of culture.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 19