Snow Goggles

The early cultures around the Bering Strait produced snow goggles, either of ivory or wood, as a defense against a painful and often serious condition commonly known as snow blindness, brought about by the harsh glare of the low-lying sun on sea and snow. The narrow openings would shade the wearer's eyes from overexposure to the rays of the sun, as well as affording some protection from wind, sleet or snow. Ivory goggles were often decorated with surface engraving in the prevailing style of the time, and thus are attributable to their cultural origin. Of the relatively few surviving examples of wooden goggles most are devoid of any substantial decoration, and thus datable only when recovered in a controlled archaeological context.