This is one of the metal artifacts found by archaeologists at a house site on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. This unassuming bit of metal is part of the first evidence of trade between the Thule, ancestors of today’s Inuit, and Asia. The house where the metal artifacts were found is between 700 and 900 years old, constructed centuries before sustained trade with Europeans or Russians. The Thule did not smelt their own metals. And X-ray fluorescence shows that the artifacts, including a buckle and a bead, had been smelted. The material resembles metals made in Asia at the time, so archaeologists are theorizing that the Thule traded long-distance, via boat, long before Europeans or Russians made the trip.
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