The site consists of nearly 600 abandoned house depressions along four beach ridges that impart a linearity that was originally interpreted as purposeful design as roads or "avenues."

One Point Hope Ipiutak mask represents a human face with a gaping mouth and blowfly larvae issuing from its nostrils; a symbol pregnant with shamanistic meaning.

A variety of open work ivory carvings, engraved with iron burins, are renowned for their figurative representations that include polar bears, loons, seals, and (rarely) humans.

Two technological hallmarks of Ipiutak culture are its very finely crafted stone tools used in arrow points and its lack of ceramics.

The original excavators, Larsen and Rainey, linked the Ipiutak open work animal carving style with the distant and Scthyo-Siberian cultures of Ukraine, but little data support this supposition.