| | | Another example of early contact...
Asian Metal Found in Alaska Reveals Trade Centuries Before European Contact
westerndigs.org
Among the artifacts are a fishing lure with eyes made of iron (top), a copper fish hook (bottom right), a belt buckle (bottom, second from right) and a needle (bottom). (Photo courtesy Cooper et al., JAS. May not be used without permission.)
A bronze buckle and a cylindrical metal bead found in Alaska are the first hard evidence of trade between Asia and the indigenous peoples of the North American Arctic, centuries before contact with Europeans, archaeologists say.
An analysis of the artifacts has shown that they were smelted in East Asia out of lead, copper, and tin, before finding their way to an indigenous village some 700 years ago.
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Analysis of the buckle and the bead conducted at Cooper’s lab using X-ray fluorescence showed that both were made from a heavily leaded alloy like that smelted in Asia at the time.
“We believe these smelted alloys were made somewhere in Eurasia and traded to Siberia and then traded across the Bering Strait to ancestral Inuits people,” Cooper said.
While the metals themselves can’t be dated, the buckle was attached to a leather strap that yielded a radiocarbon date of 500 to 800 years — within the same age range as the house where they were found, although researchers point out that the bronze pieces may well be older than the house. [See the latest discoveries made in the region: “Ice Age Fire Pits in Alaska Reveal Earliest Evidence of Salmon Cooking“]
“The belt buckle also is considered an industrial product and is an unprecedented find for this time,” Cooper said.
“It resembles a buckle used as part of a horse harness that would have been used in north-central China during the first six centuries before the Common Era.” |
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