Beringian Cultural Migrations and Archeological EvidenceHistoric Development and LifestylesPresent Conditions
Beringian Cultural Migrations and Archeological Evidence
Historic Development and Lifestyles
Present Conditions
The first people to cross the Bering land bridge, at a time and place we can only guess at, caused a revolution in the cultrual tapestry of the world. Who were these people? How and when did they travel? How did they survive in the harsh, late glacial climate? - These are all questions that are basic to the understanding of our own origins, and the key lies somewhere in Beringia. As one of the world's great, ancient crossroads and culture centers, Beringia is a critical focal point for research with global implications.
The problem of how people came to North America remains one of the most controversial, unsolved problems in archeology. Based on the interpretation of lingustic, genetic, dental, and archeological evidence, the earliest migrations have been summarized as occurring in three hypothetical waves (see the map of human migrations across the Bering land bridge).
The first migration, between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, included Paleo-Indians, ancestors of all South American and most North American Indians. They were hunters of big game, such as the now extinct mammoth and bison, and they used charactersitic fluted points. No analogous fluted-point artifacts have yet been found in northeastern Asia.
The second migratino occured about the same time as the first, but it took place along the southern coast of the Beringian land mass. These people were the ancestors of the Eskimo and Aleuts, whose material culture has been included in the Siberian-American Paleoarctic tradition. Components of the Ushki Lake sites in central Kamchatka, dated to 14,000 years ago, have analogous artifacts at maritime Alaska sites, such as Anangula in the Aleutian chain and Ground Hog Bay on the northwest coast.
The third migration is thought to have occurred around 12,000 years ago and possibly included the ancestors of the interior Alaska Indians and the Pacific Northwest coast Indians. These people were nomadic gatherers and caribou hunters who used a microblade technology; their abandoned camps are scattered across eastern Siberia and interior Alaska.
The complex development of cultures on both sides of the Bering Strait is represented in the Beringian Cultural Sequence chart.
| SIBERIA | KAMCHATKA | <-------------- | Ushki Sites | ---------------- TAR'IA |
Similarities in technologies and artforms indicate the continued exchange of ideas and material culture. Around 3,500 years ago two atypical sites appeared on opposite sides of the strait (at Chertov Ovrag on Wrangel Island and at the Old Whaling site on Cape Krusenstern); these sites share analogous artifacts not known to any other sites.
During the last 2,000 years of prehistory the Bering Strait area was a flourishing culture center, characterized by stable, shared cultural development on both sides of the strait.
In the 18th century Russian and English explorers mapped the Bering Strait and the area to the north. Russian expansion during the 18th century did not affect the Eskimos of the region to any great extent, nor did the maritime exploration of Captain James Cook of Britain.
In the early 19th century the flow of European trade goods increased and influenced Eskimo material culture to some extent. Goods were bartered in very limited quantities by the natives of Chukotka, who traveled across the strait to annual fairs in Alaska.
The Russians did not establish colonies in the region, and as a result native contact with western people was quite limited until the great era of New England whaling commenced in the mid-19th century. Overall, the cultural impact ws injurious to the native population because of the effects of liquor abuse and disease, but it did increase mobility and economic opportunities for the Eskimos. Some natives shipped aboard whaling vessels, and others worked for white traders and fur dealers, who began to establish stores and onshore whaling stations near the end of the century. Increasingly, as missionaries moved into the area and schools were established, the Eskimo culture gradually adapted to the new influences, yet managed to maintain a traditional subsistence way of life.
The gold rush to the Seward Peninsula in 1898-99 accelerated change in Alaska. Prospectors spread out all over the region, and communities were established. Plans were made for an Alaskan-Siberian railroad that would have joined Asia and North America with a rail bridge or tunnel across the Bering Strait, but the project faltered.
Miners and traders in Nome also developed an interest in the Chukotskiy Peninsula. They were not successful in finding goldfields like those on the Seward Peninsula. During this period the Russian navy was deployed along the Bering Strait coast to prevent incursions and foreign claims to its natural resources. Russian searches for gold on the Chukotskiy Peninsula were unsuccessful in the early 20th century, and gold was not found until the late 1940s, although other minerals were discovered.
Gold dredging near Nome and an important lead/zinc mine north of Kotzebue are among the mineral developments that continue to influence the social and economic structure of the Seward Peninsula.
From the 1930s until the close of the 1980s, the development of Beringia has been characterized by the autonomous existence of the Chukotskiy Peninsula and Alaska, and these areas have developed quite differently. Family ties, trade, and cultural relations between the indigenous populations were interrupted on both sides. Only nature continued without change. Along the Chukotskiy and Seward peninsulas, the seasonal migrations of seals, whales, walruses, and waterfowl continued, as did the subsistence hunting of those resources by the people of Beringia.
However, even natural conditions are now undergoing change. Changes to the landscape can be seen on both the Chukotskiy and Seward peninsulas. The construction of roads and the use of tracked vehicles without consideration for the fragile nature of the tundra has, in places, left highly visible tracks across the land. In other areas, the effects of grazing reindeer are abvious. Many of these changes will have long-term effects on both the people and the land.
Today there is little industrial development in Chukotka, and very little tourism takes place. On the Seward Peninsula, development accelerated during World War II, when bases of operations were established to serve as transfer points for equipment being sent to the Soviet Union. Many nonnatives came to the area, a trend that has continued to the present with nearby oil and gas development and the extension of government services into most villages.
Tourism is increasing in northwest Alaska, and the improving relations between the Soviet Union and United States is bringing increased attention to the region.