Okvik

Eskimo site of the Thule tradition of the Punuk Islands in the Bering Sea. It dates to c 300 BC and has artifacts of the art style which developed through the succeeding Old Bering Sea and Punuk phases of the Northern Maritime subtradition. The earliest and finest statuettes of which there is knowledge are assigned to the Okvik culture; Okvik art is concerned primarily with the representation of the human figure, differing in that respect from the contemporary or slightly later Old Bering Sea culture, where the main interest is animals, such as reindeer, elks, bears, and seals. There were also decorated ivory tools such as harpoons and extensive use of polished slate and organic artifacts.

An early manifestation of the Thule tradition, dating to the early Christian era and named after a site on the Punuk Islands in the Bering Sea. It is characterized by a high art style and by the extensive use of polished slate and organic artefacts, as is the culture with which it is frequently linked, Old Bering Sea. Recent radiocarbon evidence would indicate that the two were coeval; there is, however, sufficient stylistic difference between the art styles of these near neighbours to call such a proposition into question.