Evening star., 1932-03-06
OLD LIFE IS FOUND
ON KODIAK ISLAND
Evidence of Ancient Culture
Discovered Through New
Excavations.

Evidence of a culture which may be
O direct relative of the marvellous
civilization of the Mayas, Incas and
Aztecs has been found in artifacts ex-
cavated from an ancient village site
on Kodiak Island, just south of the
Alaska Peninsula, 1t is announced by
DR.. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical
anthropology of the Smithsonian 1nstt-
tuition.
DR.. Hrdlicka is engaged in an inten-
Sive study of material which he Sc
cured from Kodiak Island excavations
last Summer, after his discovery OF
hitherto unsuspected population cen
ter which may be one Of the Oldest yet
uncovered in the New World. Some OF
the art objects contain elements
strikingly suggestive of those which
were developed in Central America and
Yucatan. Thus far. it has been pos
sible barely to scratch the surface OF
the Kodiak Island culture.
The probability, DR.. Hrdlicka said, Is
that the original migrants Of Mongoloid
stock from Siberia brought across
Behring Strait to the coast of Alaska
cultures highly developed in some lines.
They pushed their way southwark,
across the narrow Alaska Peninsula,
to Kodiak Island, and thence to the
coast Of what is now British Columbia.
Then they pressed southwark into
Mexico and Central America During
She later part of this process divergent
hands may have gone eastward, be-
coming the ancestors of the great body
of North American Indians.
Many Village Sites.
During this great migration. which
lasted for several thousand years, some
of the culture elements brought origin
ally from Asia detertorated as the In
dianS adjusted themselves to the new
environments. When they arrived in an
environment favorable for cultural de-
velopment, however, they were able to
revive and improve upon these old ele-
ments.
Kadiak Island apparently was a
thickly populated center in the distant
past. There are many buried village
sites. The largest he has encountered,
DR.. Hrdlicka says, covers more than 40
acres. 1t appears to have been the
metropolis of this Arctic culture. No
excavations yet have been attempted on
this site.
There are no means, DR.. Hrdlicka
said, Of dating the remains without
further excavations. It only can be
stated positively that they show no
traces of Russian influence, and hence
the large villages must have been dead"
before the first white men sighted the
coast Of Alaska. The Smithsonian an
thropolog6t obtained his material from
buried village site containing about
2 acres. Over this site the remains Of
Subterranean dwellings and their ac-
cumulationS Of kitchen refuse range
from 4 to over IS feet in depth.
Origin Believed Ancient.
According to all indications" says
DR. Hrdlicka, "this is one of the Oldest
sites yet discovered in the Far North.
Not trace of white man, wood re-
duced to streaks of formleSS brown rot,
and the considerable filling in of the
dwelling depressions, with subsequent
burisls in these by later natives, all point
to tlte conclusion that the site is pre-
historic, and that its occupation ex-
tended for relatively long time back
ward. The deposits show several strata
and may be the result Of repeated occu-
patton
This culture presents considerable
age and individuality, yet it shows re-
lations on the one hand to that of the
Eskimo and on the other to that of
the Northwest Coast. The skeletal re-
mains appear to resemble those of the
Eastern Aleut, but also show other in
teresting characteristics. The remains
show numerous and unmistakable signs
of long-continued cannibalism."
The Kodiak Island culture, DR..
Hrdlicka said, undoubtedly dourished
along the road by which the first