Bronze Buckle Shows Ancient Trade Between Eurasia and North America
(This is from 2016)
Scientists have long suspected that the ancient indigenous groups of Alaska traded with peoples of Eurasia, highlighted by oral histories and Asian-influenced design. But researchers lacked solid evidence, until now. A study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, documents the discovery of a metal bead and a belt buckle that date from between 1100 to 1300—a period of time when the Thule people, ancestors of the modern Inuit, inhabited the region.
This discovery shows that indigenous people in North America were likely interacting with the "Old World" from both sides of the continent, lead author of the study, H. Kory Cooper tells Smithsonian.com. On the east coast they traded with the Norse, while on the west coast they traded across the Bering Strait, he explains.
Archaeologists John Hoffecker and Owen Mason of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, found the objects while excavating six Thule houses on Cape Espenberg, a remote outpost on the Seward Peninsula jutting into the Bering Strait. Among the thousands of artifacts collected from the Thule dwellings were six metal objects including two bone fishing lures with metal eyes, a copper needle and a sheet copper fragment. But what intrigued researchers were two objects made of leaded bronze: a cylindrical bead that may have been used as part of a whistle or noisemaker and a buckle connected to a scrap of leather.
The pair took the artifacts to Cooper, who is an expert in Arctic and Subarctic metallurgy at Purdue University. He found that the bronze objects are an alloy of copper, tin and lead. The buckle, which is similar to those used in China as far back as 400 B.C., also appears to have been made using a mold.
While the Thule people did occasionally work with native copper and some iron, they did not use alloys or molds. So the presence of these seemingly ordinary objects suggests that they must have come from outside the region and suggest that Alaskan trade with Asia could have begun as early as the 1100s.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bronze-buckle-shows-trade-between-asia-and-north-america-180959378/
