Gifts from the Ancestors highlights the unique and compelling archaeological art over past millennia from the Bering Strait region. The objects included on this website served as tools used for hunting, play, ritual, and domestic activities.  They also reveal in their fine modeling and incised decoration a passion for embellishment.  Contemporary Yup’ik people, whose lifeways and beliefs share many similarities with those of the ancient peoples of Bering Strait, explain this penchant for “dressing” artifacts in beautiful design and decoration as an outgrowth of their belief that all objects, natural or man-made, had personhood and possessed a sentient spirit or yua and therefore deserved respect as individual beings.  Ancient ivories embody cultural knowledge and continue to inspire Native artists today.