A bronze buckle carbon dated to 600 CE was found in Alaska last August in the shores of Seward Peninsula. This is the first time such level of advanced tools are unearthed in the region.

The bronze-age artifact unearthed was found in a 1000-year old Inupiat house, making the belt older than the house itself. The house is located at Cape Espenberg by an archeological team from the University of Colorado. The buckle itself is two inches by one inch with a rectangular beveled ring connected to a broken concave ring. The whole item was made from a mold that most likely came from East Asia. The buckle itself was dated itself by radiocarbon C.E. 600

The age of the artifact and the age of the house it was unearthed in can suggest that it was passed down through the ages and might have been in the same family for generations.

The seven-member team from the University of Colorado that discovered the item was led by John Hoffecker, a research associate and archeologist. The excavation is part of the study on how ancient Alaskans dealt with climate change, more specifically the Northern Hemispheric heat wave called the Medieval Warm Period.

The member that found the item, Jeremy Foin, noticed the object when sifting through three feet of sediment in the entryway into the house.

"The shape of the object immediately caught my eye," said Foin, who spotted the soil-covered artifact in an archaeological sifting screen.

"After I saw that it clearly had been cast in a mold, my first thought was disbelief, quickly followed by the realization that I had found something of potentially great significance."

According to the report from the University of Colorado, the Cape Espenberg beach ridges were deposited with sediments of sands over the ages and the dwellings were dug up from the dunes and held up by driftwood and whale bones. The team was studying the timing and content of the beach ridges as well as the peat and pond sediments to reconstruct the environment the ancient people lived in and study how they dealt with the Medieval Warm Period.

There are other prehistoric artifacts from Asia that were found in Alaska and the Yukon territory. The items suggest that there were trade between the Pacific Rim People long before Russia and Europe stepped into the region in the late 18th century. The Inupiat Eskimos were believed to have occupied Cape Espenberg from C.E.1000 up to mid-1800's according to Hoffecker. The area has yielded various artifacts such as sealing harpoons, fishing spears and lures, a copper needle, slate knives, antler arrow heads, ceramics and toy bows and harpoons.

The bronze artifact is currently under study by H. Kory Cooper, prehistoric metallurgical expert and Purdue University Assistant Professor. The video news story released by the University of Colorado can be seen below.