The Contest between the Ipiutak, Old Bering Sea, and Birnirk Polities and the Origin of Whaling during the First Millennium A.D. along Bering Strait

Warfare, whaling, and participation in long distance trade intensified in the Bering Strait region 600–1000 A.D. The development of complex social organization involved the control of resource hot spots from coastal promontories and access to iron from distant East Asian centers. Stylistic similarities, recognized as early as the 1920's, provide the basis to recognize peer polity interaction. Despite >800 excavated burials from Point Hope, St....