Prehistoric clay disks found in northwestern Alaska

Reuters ^ | September 9, 2011 | Yereth Rosen

[decimon]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Four decorated clay disks have been discovered at a prehistoric site in Alaska, apparently the first artifacts of their type discovered in the state, the University of Alaska Museum of the North said.

The disks were found during a summer expedition in Noatak National Preserve, at a site where archeologists have for decades been studying lakefront pit dwellings that date back 1,000 years, officials at the Fairbanks museum said.

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Such prehistoric rock art is extremely rare in interior and northern Alaska, though common in the southwestern part of the United States and other regions, museum and Park Service officials said.

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[decimon]

North to Alaska ping.

[maine-iac7]

It is irksome to read stories like this that do not provide a photo! Asinine.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I bet they were playing a prehistoric version of Disk Wars like you see in the movie Tron! LOL!

[wolfpat]

Prehistoric Disks?

[maine-iac7]

Took some digging - but I finally found a photo

Looks like some kind of wieght - maybe for fishing nets/

[GreenLanternCorps]

Archaeologists theorize they were used to domesticate wolves...

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Wow! Were the disks made by the Inuits of the Behring Moors (I.B.M.) area.

[Jack Hydrazine]

A pre-historic discus!

[Winstons Julia]

PULL!

[decimon]

Thanks for the pic.

If the disks are like others in the southwestern US then I wouldn’t guess they are fishing weights. Seems like a lot of work to make one of those for a fishing weight. OTOH, they could be fishing weights for all I know.

[blueunicorn6]

They should look for traces of Moo Goo Gai Pan on these plates.

[eyedigress]

[dog breath]

Fishing would be a good bet or maybe a gaming disk of some sort. Perhaps used something like dice or perhaps the game of marbles. Who knows, the folks have gone to the other side who made it and left no instruction book. Many Indian tribes loved to gamble, actually the current ownership of casinos by some tribes seem slightly humorous in that light.

[null and void]

Don’t be silly, it’s clearly an Inuit calendar disc. After careful study, I can read the last day...
.
.
.
.
12/21/2012!

[varon]

Probably Russian Frisbees. After all, they are famous about claiming to have invented everything else ;-)

[Red_Devil 232]

Did they find a shotgun near by?

[quintr]

later

[Revolting cat!]

78RPM

[Tea Party Hobbit]

If it weren't for the location and the fact that only two have holes, I'd say spindle whorls. Some spindle whorls were made in that shape, and many (most?) of the old ones were decorated.

In fact, when I did some Google searches, another article about this find came up, with a reader comment suggesting they were spindle whorls.

And that article has more pics of the excavation, for the picture-lovers:
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2011/alaskan-archaeologists-find-ancient-artefacts

Here are pictures of all sorts of spindle whorls, ancient and modern:
Google Images "spindle whorls"

And here are some drop spindles, for the non-fiber arts people among us, so you can see what the entire spindle looks like and how it is used:
Google Images "drop spindle"

Apparently whorls are also used with the type of drills used to start fires, though I don't know the details and have no idea if such tools were used in northern Alaska.