SMITHSONIAN SCIENTIST IN EX
CAVATION WORK, FINDS
CULTURE SITE
The earliest Indians and Eskimos
doubtless originally entered Amer
ica from Asia, crossing over Ber
ing Strait from northeastern Si
eria, Henry B. Collins, Jr. Assist
antCurator of Ethnology, Smith,
sonian Institution, stated orally
recently in telling of the discovery
of ancient Eskimo remains in Al
aska, dating back to remote ages.
Excavations are being carried on
this Summer by James A. Ford
and Moreau B. Chambers, who j
are following up recent Smithson
ion researches into the origin and
spread of the Eskimo.
Mr. Chambers is now engaged in
excavations at St. Lawrence Island,
just below Bering Strait, where he
is continuing investigations that
have been carried on with con
stant accretions of scientific in
formation for four years past.
Mr. Ford is on the schooner “Pat
terson,” following the retreating ice
pack up the Arctic coast to Point
3arrow where he will conduct ex
cavations during the summer.
Mr Collins returned recently from
Alaska where he has conducted
anthropological researches for the
past four summers. “Our work,”
he said, “extended to the Bering
Sea and Arctic coast as far north
as Point Hope, but the most in
tensive excavations were made on
St. Lawrence Island, 40 miles from
the Siberian coast.
“Bering Strait, the narrow and
shallow body of water which se
parates Asia from America, is
only 55 miles across, and even this
distance is broken by the two
Diomede Islands, which are in- j
habited by Eskimos.
“Standing on the American side,
either at Cape Prince of Wales or
on St. Lawrence Island, it is pos_
sible to see clearly, as I have j
from day to day, the outlines of :
the Asiatic shoreline.
“There is no doubt that both j
the Indians and the Eskimo came j
immediately from that part of [
Asia just across Bering Strait. '
They probably in those early days ■
did not realize that they were
coming to a new continent. To j
i.nem the opposite shoreline was
only another piece of land and
easy of access across a narrow
body of water.
“In 1926 Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the
Smithsonian Institution and Mr.
Diamond Jenness of the National
Museum of Canada discovered evi
dences of a highly developed an
cient Eskimo culture underlying
that of the present-day Eskimo,
This, the most ancient thus far
found in the Arctic regions is
called the Old Bering Sea Cul
ture.
“I have followed up these dis
coveries by three seasons of exca
vations and last summer was for
tunate in finding a pure site of
this ancient culture in addition
to other abandoned villages which
together have afforded a basis for
a chronology of Eskimo cultural
development.
“On St. Lawrence Island we
found five extinct villages within
a radius of three-quarters of a
mile. These villages had been suc
cessivey abandoned in the dir
ection of the shoreline, which for
many years has been slowly re
ceding as the ice has pushed sand
and gravel up to form new beach
lines. The Eskimo are a sea people,
depending their livelihood on seal,
walrus, and whales, and always
build their villages close to the
water.
These five ancient villages, now
some distance from the sea, af
forded a clear chronological record
of many changes that have come
about in Eskimo culture during
the many centuries that the island
has been inhabited. In these vil
lages we dug until we came to
the oldest evidences of human oc
cupancy. After getting to the bot
tom of these we continued the j
search, up on the hillside, almost
by accident found hidden by rocks,!
moss and sod, a buried village
which had dated so far back that
the living Eskimos had never
suspected its existence, although
they dwell within three-quarters
of a mile of the site and the trail
to the top of the bluff leads dir
ectly over it. The village had been
completey absorbed and in ap
pearance was a normal part of
the hillside.
“The discovery of this old bur
J ied village was a most welcome
jone for it turned out to be a pure
| site of the old Bering Sea cul
ture, every decorated object found
1 there being in that style of art.
'Previously all we had known of
this elusive old Bering Sea cul_
ture was a comparatively small
number of decorated objects
found deep in middens of Es
kimo villages and covered over
iwith material of a later age. This
| St. Lawrence site, however, had
been both established and aban
doned within the period of the old
Bering Sea culture.
| “Strangely enough, old Bering
Sea material shows a higher type
i of workmanship and artistic abil
I ity than does that dating from
later periods. Eskimo cultural his
tory, as far as it can be traced
at present, is seen therefore to
have been pushed still farther
back into the past. Objects from
the oldest sites include such things
as harpoon heads, adz and knife
handles, scrapers and ceremonial
objects, mostly of walrus ivory!
and often bearing curvilinear and
flowing designs of remarkable
grace and beauty.
“While these objects have been
| carved from fresh white walrus
ivory centuries of burial in the
frozen ground has turned their
color to a rich chocolate brown
or almost black. Those that have
lain in the ground and the ice
for the longest period are the
darkest in color while those of
lesser age are not so deeply pat
inated.
“It is known that the old Ber
ing Sea culture extended in north
(Please turn to Page Three)
I /
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tra, every Tues
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