News Section | Evolution
First ancient bronze relic discovered in Alaska points to Asian link
The first prehistoric bronze artifact, which likely originated in East Asia, has been discovered in Alaska at an ancient Eskimo dwelling, researchers say.
A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder have asserted that the prehistoric artifact, made from a cast ever found in Alaska, resembles a belt buckle and may have been used as part of a harness or horse ornament prior to its arrival in Alaska.
“The artifact consists of two parts — a rectangular bar, connected to an apparently broken circular ring,” said CU-Boulder Research Associate John Hoffecker, who is leading the excavation project.
The object, about 2 inches by 1 inch and less than 1 inch thick, was found in August by a team excavating a roughly 1,000-year-old house that had been dug into the side of a beach ridge by early Inupiat Eskimos at Cape Espenberg on the Seward Peninsula, which lies within the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
According to Hoffecke, both sections of the artifact are bevelled on one side and concave on the other side, indicating it was manufactured in a mold.
A small piece of leather found wrapped around the rectangular bar by the research team yielded a radiocarbon date of roughly A.D. 600, which does not necessarily indicate the age of the object, he said.
“I was totally astonished,” said Hoffecker.
“The object appears to be older than the house we were excavating by at least a few hundred years.”
While the researchers speculated the Inupiat Eskimos could have used the artifact as a clasp for human clothing or perhaps as part of a shaman’s regalia, its function on both continents still remains a puzzle.
Since bronze metallurgy from Alaska is unknown, the artifact likely was produced in East Asia and reflects long-distance trade from production centers in either Korea, China, Manchuria or southern Siberia, according to Hoffecker’s CU-Boulder colleague Owen Mason.
Hoffecker said that it conceivably could have been traded from the steppe region of southern Siberia, where people began casting bronze several thousand years ago.
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