Innovation, Intensification, and "Maritimeness" 4,500 Years Ago at Chignik, Alaska

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On the south side of the central Alaska Peninsula, close to culture-history's boundary between "Eskimo" and "Aleut," lies Chignik. Most archaeological investigations and explanations in the broader region have emphasized the overwhelming importance of resources derived from the sea. But at Chignik, evidence of a divergent facet of maritime adaptation has been identified, one physically oriented away from the coast and focused on salmon. Recently, large, stratified cultural deposits were incidentally uncovered within the Village of Chignik Lake during infrastructure improvements. These deposits sat below well-known volcanic tephra, yielded diagnostic projectile points and tools, and produced charcoal samples for which AMS dates were generated. These data prove substantial human occupation at Chignik much earlier than previously-confirmed for the region, one that occurred nearly 5,000 years ago and shared some characteristics with the Arctic Small Tool Tradition. This paper explores culture-history, maritime adaptation, and salmon intensification to discuss human adaptation as technological innovation at Chignik, in the broader context of regional Holocene climate models.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26039