Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984 - 49

and less refined engraved line decoration. Collins'
illuminating study of the Eskimo cultures, together
with the findings of other archaeologists, revealed
that it was not only the artistically carved objects in
human and animal form that flagged the transformations from one prehistoric culture to another.
Implements such as detachable harpoon heads,
knife handles and winged objects served as benchmarks of their own for each single culture period.
One of the prime motivations among most prehistorians is the search for origins, a search indexed
by the finding of successively earlier sites. In the
late 1920s to mid-1930s, which Louis Giddings aptly
termed a period of "widening horizons," the Punuk |
stage was gradually recognized as an intermediate
period of Eskimo culture. Punuk bone and ivory
objects were engraved with more mechanical and
elemental designs than those of the Old Bering
Sea style, and at the same time Punuk foreshadowed

the art of the modern Eskimo. It remained for
Otto Geist to uncover proof of yet another distinctive cultural phase, subsequently known as Okvik.
The discovery of Okvik, like so much in archaeology, bore an element of chance. Geist, alone among
white investigators of St. Lawrence history, enjoyed a special acceptance among the islanders by
his choice of living through several winters with
Eskimo families. Living as a participant villager
rather than guest observer, Geist had the advantage
of gaining firsthand knowledge of a rich source
of "fossil" ivory discovered on the outermost Punuk
islet by Eskimo ivory diggers. The artifacts cut
from the dense walrus ivory are "fossilized" only in
the sense that after long contact with organic
soil deposits the creamy whiteness darkens into soft

deep colors that enhance the objects' appeal to
collectors. Geist had noticed on the harpoon heads
and other items brought back to Savoonga curious
and unfamiliar designs which he thought "seemed
to represent a somewhat different culture from those
found on St. Lawrence Island, probably due to
specialization."
Alarmed by the volume of ivory being brought
from the Punuk site and sold to ships' crews or
exported through local cooperative stores, Geist concluded his 1934 field work at Kookoolik and with
a small crew began a short salvage excavation at the
Punuk site in August and September of that year.
The art and artifacts they found there, together with
other pieces purchased from the
ivory-carving trade, attracted a
great deal of attention not only

because the material represented an early phase
of the marine-oriented Eskimo culture, but also because of its aesthetic quality, particularly that
of the Okvik sculptural art.
Archaeology is a game of inches, intellectually
and operationally. Understanding mound fill stratification on St. Lawrence Island, however, was
particularly slow and tedious because of the Arctic
soil conditions. Excavators have described in vivid
terms the difficulties of controlled digging in the
shallow upper zone of permanently frozen ground
where slow natural thawing often produces a morass
of driftwood, bones and blubber-soaked black
earth. In 1931, the east or main midden of Kookoolik
had become the target during the brief summer
excavation season. There, a 30-foot- wide test cut was
1984 49
January/February

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984