|
|
Present day Alaska has been continuously inhabited for nearly 10,000 years. Beginning in the first millenium BC, several waves of migrant peoples from what is now Siberia introduced a distinctly maritime life-way, almost entirely dependent upon sea mammal hunting. This Northern Maritime, or Thule Tradition, includes the Old Bering Sea, the Punuk, and Western Thule cultures. The earliest artifacts of the Thule Tradition from the Old Bering Sea culture (subsequently termed OBS) were first identified by Diamond Jenness in 1926 on Little Diomede Island (Giddings, 1967:151-3). Over the next two decades other OBS sites on St. Lawrence and the Punuk Islands were discovered and excavated by Otto W. Geist, Henry B. Collins, and Froelich G. Rainey. OBS art styles have been separated into Okvik or OBS I, and OBS II and III. On very scanty archaeological evidence, Collins and Rainey suggested that OBS I, II, and III were chronologically sequential as well as artistically distinct. Recent excavations, however, indicate that these three cultures coexisted in the region, beginning in Siberia early in the first millenium BC and continuing, at least on St. Lawrence Island, through the end of the first millenium AD. OBS I, II, and III are presented here sequentially, however, the reader should note that regional Carbon 14 dates vary for OBS I from 300 BC - 700 AD and OBS II and III from 200 BC - 800 AD or later (Dumond, 1984:108 -9; Bandi, 1993:49-50). The dates given here are approximations, subject to adjustment as new evidence emerges from the archaeological record. The peoples of the Thule Tradition developed the complex harpoon, the throwing board, sea-worthy skin boats, and in the Western Thule Period, dogsled transportation. Their ability to live in permanent dwellings and to hunt sea mammals along the ice packs or upon the open sea were advantages that helped these people to flourish and dominate the maritime arctic for most of the ensuing two millennia (Dumond, 1984:77). The objects presented here derive from this tradition and are carved primarily from the trophy material of the arctic hunter, walrus tusks. They worked this hard and brittle substance into sculptural objects of high artistic quality, hunting implements, and tools for survival in a hostile environment. The aesthetic achievements of these ancient innovators have never been surpassed.
|
