BOULDER, COLORADO—Bronze and obsidian artifacts discovered in a dwelling at Alaska’s Rising Whale site bolster the idea that there had been a trading relationship between the New World and East Asia 1,000 years ago. One of the bronze artifacts, which may have been used as a buckle or fastener, still has a piece of leather attached to it. Preliminary radiocarbon dates indicate that it was made around A.D. 600. The second bronze artifact may have been used as a whistle. Bronze had not yet been developed in Alaska, so the items may have been obtained through trade. “We’re seeing the interactions, indirect as they are, with these so-called ‘high civilizations’ of China, Korea, or Yakutia,” Owen Mason of the University of Colorado told Live Science. The obsidian from the house originated in Russia’s Anadyr River Valley. Scholars think that the people who lived at the Rising Whale site may have been members of the “Birnirk” culture, a group of people who lived on both sides of the Bering Strait. To read more about archaeology in the region, see "Ice Age Infant Burial Discovered in Central Alaska."
