A Unique Specimen of Pressure-Flaked Pyrite from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska

• Published in: American Antiquity
• Main Authors: Norman, Potosky, Romayne L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1947
• Subjects: Museology; Archeology; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); History; Arctic; Lawrence Island; eskimo*; St Lawrence Island; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/275693; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600017054

Attention is invited to a unique flaked pyrite object from the ancient village of Miyowaghameet, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. While specimens of unworked pyrite and certain pyrite-studded artifacts1 have been found at this and other Arctic sites, the specimen illustrated (Fig. 40) is, to the best of our knowledge, the only object of pressure-flaked iron pyrite reported from St. Lawrence Island and possibly from the Arctic coastal sites. Miyowaghameet lies in a gravelly plain at the foot of Cape Chibukak, approximately one mile east of the Eskimo village of Gambell. Collins gives the average diameter for the site as one hundred yards; however the long axis runs roughly NE/SW, and the specimen herein described, while located within the eastern half of the midden, was found approximately sixty-five yards from the eastern edge.