Ancient bronze artifact from East Asia unearthed at Alaska archaeology site

University of Colorado at Boulder ^ | November 14, 2011

[decimon]

Artifact resembles small, broken buckle, could have been horse ornament

A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska, a small, buckle-like object found in an ancient Eskimo dwelling and which likely originated in East Asia.

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.

Both sections of the artifact are beveled on one side and concave on the other side, indicating it was manufactured in a mold, said Hoffecker, a fellow at CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. 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."

[decimon]

Caption: A National Science Foundation-funded excavation led by the University of Colorado Boulder to look at human response to climate change on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska some 1,000 years ago has yielded a bronze artifact resembling a buckle that was found inside an ancient house dug into the side of a sand-covered beach ridge once occupied by Inupiat Eskimos. The object is the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska and appears to have originated in East Asia.

Credit: Jeremy Foin, University of California, Davis

Usage Restrictions: None

[decimon]

Over wrought ping.

[blueunicorn6]

You mean the indians came from China???? Hard to make moo goo gai pan out of bison.

[nothingnew]

May be of interest to you both.

FMCDH(BITS)

[Thane_Banquo]

There are remarkable finds relating to the wide extent of global trade in the ancient and medieval eras. For instance, one viking archaeological site had a jade carved Buddha.

[GOP Poet]

Cool.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

600 A.D. is “prehistoric”? Maybe at that “house”.

[DManA]

to look at human response to climate change

Sigh, guess you gotta do what you gotta do to get a grant.

[blasater1960]

Book of Mormon “oops” ping.

[HarleyWoodrowMantz]

We have always been at war with Eastasia!

[Wuli]

Some early, prehistoric, human migrants to the Americas (particularly the further north you look) DID most likely come from East Asia - and no that does not particularly mean China.

It more likely means the northern coast of East Asia, along the Korean peninsula and what is now the eastern sea coast of North Korea, and north along the eastern sea coast of Siberia/Kamchatka, as well as along the northern Japanese Islands.

These migrants from East Asia were most likely sea coast fishermen (and their families) and they followed the sea coast and the northern Pacific sea currents as they hopped their way across the northern Pacific, Island to Island, and most likely at a time when the Bearing sea was both lower (more islands) and warmer (less ice).

One does not have to be an archeologists or an anthropologist to see the “Asian” influences in the physical attributes of peoples like the Eskimos.

[Boogieman]

That doesn’t surprise me too much. The Vikings controlled the amber trade, and the Amber Road was pretty much an extension of the Silk Road, so I can see how a rare piece like that might wind its way up there occasionally.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. Whoops, better ping this one as well, it is the older of the two. Bronze artifact found on Alaska's Seward Peninsula To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[rdl6989]

Bump!!!

[ThanhPhero]

And the copper in the early bronze seems to have come from Lake Superior’s shore.

[bert]

Balderdash. The man is delusional and fabricating a history from thin air.

[worst-case scenario]

“Prehistoric” in this sense would mean “dating to a time before the written history of the area” or “before recorded history.” That is, of course, the actual definition of the word “prehistoric.”

[SunkenCiv]

• Evidence of Pre-Columbus Trade Found in Alaska House
• Asian Metal Found in Alaska Reveals Trade Centuries Before European Contact