The Old Bering Sea Civilization is an archaeological culture centered around the Bering Strait region, with a distinct, delicate circular and dotted aesthetic style. All of its cultural circles are less than 1 km from the sea. The cultural time range is from 400 BC to possibly as late as 500 AD. In 1928, canadian archaeologist Diamond Jenness originally named the culture the "Bering Sea Culture". Its ornately decorated utensils are almost all sea ivory products, some of which are bright and full of color, and the pulp is moist and antique. These ornaments were used on a very wide range of objects, many of which were found in tombs, some of which amounted to dozens of items. Old Bering Sea art is cherished and sought after by art collectors in New York and Paris, but the commodification of artifacts has also contributed to the extensive looting and destruction of archaeological sites. Sites containing artifacts from the Old Bering Sea are usually large earthen cemeteries with hundreds of graves, usually supported by the jaws of bowhead whales, paved with planks, hewn from driftwood. Some archaeologists cannot infer the existence of hierarchical groups, but they clearly include powerful whaling ship leaders and shamans, some of whom are women. The old Bering Sea culture is also considered the earliest symbol of the Thule culture.
