Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-28
SCIENTIST BRINGS
BACK RARE TRACES
OF ANCIENT ARCT|CS
Skeletons and Carvings Are
Found in Buried Village
Near Coast of Siberia.
LED BY ESKIMO BOYS
FIND OF HARPO0N HEAD
Henry B. Collins, Jr., at National
Museum, Adds to Ethnologi-
cal Collections.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


An ancient village, the earliest hui
man habitation thus far discovered
along the route by which men first en-
Summer by Henry B. Collins, jr., as
sistant curator of ethnology at the Ma
tional Museum.
1t was like croSS-section of CEN
turtles packed away in q refrigerator,
Collins says. The first trace of this
village site on the northwestern tip of
ST. Lawrence Island, about 40 miles
from the Siberian coast, was a deco
rated harpoon head picked UP by an
Eskimo child playing on the hillside,
who thus shares credit for one of the
most significant archaeological finds Of
the year.
Skeletons Are Brought Here.
Mr.. Collins returned to Washington
this week, bringing q collection of art
objects from the old village which rep
resent one of the highest reaches Of
primitive genius in the New World and
are suggestive in lines and quality Of
workmanship with some Of the art Of
ancient Greece. He also brought back
two skeletons and one detached skull,
which are the only anthropologic ma
tertal in existence by which to study
these very old immigrants.
Collins emphasizes that the discovery
represents not only the Oldest site along
the supposed migration route, but that
the ancient inhabitants probably were
by no means contemporaries Of the &C.
tual first corners from Asia, who may
have crossed thousands of years before
and become the ancestors Of the Indian
peoples whose culture reached its apex
in Central America. This village Is dis
a. -
been comparatively late conner.
Shows Culture Cross Section.
The special significance of the VII
lage, Collins points out, Is that it makes
possible Q complete cross-section Of
this mysterious Arctic culture, presum-
ably imported from the Siberian MAIN
land. It Is the lowest Of i've village
sites which succeeded one another. The
archeologist and one companion, James
A. Ford, worked all Summer near the
present village Of 200 Eskimos.
It Is certain, he points out, that the
ancient people, like the modern island
erS, lived of sea foods, and conse-
Quently built their homes as near the
shore line as possible. But during the
centuries the sea has receded, leaving
wider and wider beach. With each
recession the village has moved up.
ot4SOC0o4CAA
which help to give relative dating to
the old sites. Extending back from the
present village were three formerly oc-
cupied sites, known to the natives with
the tongue-twisting names Of Miyowa-
ghameet, Ievoghiyo and Seklo-
waghayaget.
Ornate Carvings Found.
Collins sunk pits IL feet square at
each Of these sites and recovered O va
riety Of artifacts, showing a steady de-
terioration In art as they become later
in time. The Eskimo assured him that
these were the only sites occupied by
the vanished people. When the child
discovered the harpoon head, they still
insisted that they could not have been
walking over dead mems bones so long
without knowing about 1t. Collins re-
fused to date the village, beyond saying
that "it Is certainly more than q thou
sand years old"
The ancient people, he found, had q
fine sense Of form and detail. Among
the articles recovered were ivory BAN
ner stones" carved to represent the
whales tail, which probably were mag
ical symbols used by whale hunters.
One of the choicest articles Is a deli
cate f1gurine Of mouse SO skillfully
carved that when viewed from another
angle it appears to represent a myth
ical monster. On the whole, he found
the art of the ancient village was a
trif1e simpler, although not less skill
full, than that Of the next stage, recov-
cred from the site of Miyowaghameet.
Here begins stage of extreme ornate
ness and conscious artistry, which APP
parently was q step upward, but ac-
tually was the beginning Of the decline.
Collins brought back several thousand
articles dug from the four village sites
and which constitute a. hitherto unre-
corded page in human history.
Preserved by Freezing.
The old village was completely COW
cred with moss, sod and fallen rocks,
and the site blended so perfectly into
the beach hillside that there was no
reason to suspect its existence. The
houses of the ancient period we're found
to be small semi-subterranean Struc-
lures, square in outline, with stone
floors and walls of small driftwood tim
of timber covered with sod. The houses
have steadily grown larger, although
the fundamental type has not changed.
Hitherto, there have been discovered
only traces of the ancient Bering Sea
art, Collins points out, and its origin
remains one of the mysteries of archie
ology, which probably can be solved
only by researches in the original home
of the Eskimo. All the excavating must
be done In frozen soil, which is taken
out inch by inch as it slowly thawS in
the sun. But, says Collins, the frozen
condition not only has preserved the
remains themselves, but has kept van
dals away from them through the long