North America - NW Coast/Alaska (Geographic Keyword)
176-200 (301 Records)
Clam gardens represent monumental coastal landscapes constructed by Northwest Coast hunter-gather-fisher peoples over the past 1000 years. The slow, laborious movement of boulders and cobbles to build up rock-walled intertidal terraces not only created new productive shellfish habitat for greater food security, but transformed social and political relations over peoples’ rights to lands, foreshore and access to shellfish at a regional scale. As large-scale community works, clam gardens must be...
The Moose Hill Site: The Dynamic Interplay of Climate Change, Marine Productivity, Volcanism, and Cultural Transitions on the Kvichak River, Bristol Bay, Alaska. (2015)
The Moose Hill Site is a multi-component settlement along the Kvichak River in Bristol Bay Alaska. The site consists of ~40 semi-subterranean structures with archaeological assemblages representative of the Arctic Small Tool, Norton, Thule, and Koniag traditions. This research focuses on a late Norton tradition occupation at 840 +/- 30 BP and presents a refinement of the complex transition between the regional Norton and the Thule traditions. The timing and method of culture change during this...
Morphological and Functional Analyses of Northern Archaic Side Notched Bifaces (2017)
The Northern Archaic tradition (6,000-1,500 years BP) represents one of the longest cultural continuities in central and northern Alaska, characterized through continuity in lithic technology, basic settlement, and subsistence patterns. However, this tradition does not have clearly defined characteristics and is commonly used to describe any site in central and northern Alaska with side notched bifaces present in the tool assemblage. Few studies have been performed on the morphological and...
Mount Rainier’s Oldest Artifact: Temporally and Geographically Contextualizing Early Microblade Technology (2017)
The temporal distribution of archaeological sites bearing differing microblade technologies in North America suggests that microblade technology spread from what is today central Alaska onto the Alaskan Panhandle and the British Columbia coast before extending across the continent’s western territory. By the end of the early Holocene, microblade technology had reached present-day Southern California. In 2007, excavations at the Buck Lake open-air site in Mount Rainier National Park revealed a...
Mountain Top to Ocean Floor: The Eco-cultural History of Hauyat (2017)
The Mountain Top to Ocean Floor Project is a collaborative undertaking by the Heiltsuk First Nation, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Victoria that seeks to document and explore the unique cultural and ecological history of Hauyat, a landscape in Heiltsuk traditional territory on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Over millennia, Hauyat has been transformed by a complex web of relationships among people, plants, animals and ecosystems. The rich and deep history of this place is...
A Multi-Method Approach to Prospecting Stranded Paleo-Coastal Sites on Quadra Island, BC (2017)
Despite increasing support for the first peopling of North America via a coastal route, only a limited number of postglacial (Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene) archaeological sites have been identified on the Northwest Coast. This research aims to identify high potential locations for evidence of the Early Period archaeological record (pre-10,000 cal BP) on Quadra Island, BC. Quadra Island has experienced dramatic sea level regression over the past 14,000 years following the Last Glacial Maximum....
Multigenerational, Multipurpose Landscapes and Seascapes in the Western Aleutian Islands (2017)
The landscape and seascape surrounding tiny Corvie Bay (400m wide) on southern Kiska Island in the western Aleutian Islands were occupied by the Qax̂un for 3,000 years. During their use of the area, they transformed the surrounding seas and lands from narrowly defined water tracks and lightly encamped places to deeply imbued, intensively inhabited, and probably owned sea and land spaces. This same pattern of imbuement, use, and ownership was reenacted throughout the western Aleutians over the...
Native Copper Innovation in the North (2017)
Native copper occurs in the Northwest Coast, western Subarctic, and Central Canadian Arctic and Subarctic. In all three regions there is archaeological evidence for its use by Hunter-Gatherers before the Contact Period. Since 2011, our project has been studying the innovation of native copper metallurgy in these three regions within a Behavioral Archaeology framework using data collected from: experimental archaeology, oral history, lead isotope analysis, research on museum collections using...
New approaches to the underwater archaeology of Hecate Strait, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (2017)
Archaeological investigation of the possible coastal route into the Americas has always been hindered by sea level changes, including the drowning of much of the Pleistocene coastal plain. While it is now understood that significant portions of the coastal plain were never drowned, it is also clear that some of the underwater terrestrial landscape is intact and has archaeological potential. New approaches to the survey and modelling of paleocoastlines may increase optimism of finding underwater...
New Archaeological Site Recording and Assessment Along the Southern Oregon Coast (2017)
As part of a newly established University of Oregon field school along the southern Oregon coast in cooperation with the Coquille Tribe and Oregon State Parks, we conducted a pedestrian survey of Bullard’s Beach State Park. During systematic survey across the southern portion of the park, we relocated known prehistoric sites, identified and mapped several new ones, and assessed site condition for each. Because the last major survey had taken place more than 20 years ago, this was an opportunity...
New Carbon-14 (14C) Dates on "Old" Cultural Components near Quartz Lake, Interior Alaska (2015)
As part of the Quartz Lake/Shaw Creek Flats research initiative, excavations took place in 2014 at the Cook, Keystone Dune and Klein sites in the middle Tanana Valley, interior Alaska. Although these sites were previously tested, continued excavation was vital to expand the 14C chronology and enhance understanding of prehistoric subarctic foraging behavior and paleoecology. At the Klein site, our goal was to gather more geochronological information on a component previously dated ~3700-5100 cal....
New Directions of THPOs: The Perspective from One Tribe. (2016)
Tribe’s perspective and understanding of practice, place and context is as unique and diverse as Tribes themselves. The roles of Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs) are equally diverse between Tribes but all have one consistent thread – they, like states, are charged with the identification, recordation, and protection of cultural resources. Tribes are integral to the ‘Section 106’ process and are often required to reacquaint individuals with the state and federal laws and procedures...
New Insights into Old (and New) Data: Lithic Technological Organization and Evolutionary Archaeology at the St. Mungo Site (DgRr-2), British Columbia, Canada (2017)
Results from excavations at the St. Mungo site by Len Ham and his team in the early 1980’s challenged previously held ideas about the Charles Culture (5000-3300 BP) in the Gulf of Georgia region. Previous research determined the Charles Culture was represented by egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies. Several lines of evidence were cited to support this idea, including both the absence of ground slate knives for intensive fish processing and storage technology which would have allowed people to...
New insights into the Quileute whalers of Washington State from ecology and archaeology (2017)
The Quileute people of Washington State are an ocean going people dependent on marine resources. They are skilled fishers and hunters, and like their neighbors to the north, the Makah and the Nuu-chah-nulth, they have a history of exploiting the once abundant marine resources in both coastal and offshore waters. While much is known of about the whaling activities of the Makah and the Nuu-chah-nulth, little is known about the whaling activities of the Quileute, especially 20-40 miles offshore. We...
New perspectives on Native American occupation of the Puget Lowlands of Washington during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition from the Bear Creek Site (45KI839). (2015)
The Bear Creek site (45KI839) in Redmond, Washington has yielded important information about Native American settlement, subsistence, and technology in the Puget Lowlands during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition. This poster presents new data on radiocarbon and optically-stimulated luminescence dating, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and lithic analysis conducted as part of the 2013 data recovery investigation. New dates contribute to an age model that places the initial archaeological...
New Radiocarbon Dates and Methods for Elucidating the Extent and Timing of use for Intertidal Fishing Features on the Northwest Coast (2017)
Acquiring accurate and precise dates for archaeological materials and features is fundamental for investigating human history on the Northwest Coast (NWC) of British Columbia, Canada. Remarkably few radiocarbon dates for intertidal features exist in the literature, and they are only associated with features that yield objects which can be directly dated, such as fish traps containing wooden stakes. Various numerical and relative dating techniques have been applied to other types of intertidal...
The North Coast Prehistory Project of the National Museum of Canada (2017)
The objective of the North Coast Prehistory Project was to investigate the development of Maritime adapted cultures in the Pacific Northwest and the role of exchange systems in the subsequent development of stratified societies including advanced systems of trade and warfare based on Northeast Asian prototypes. Excavations of the extensive shell middens of the Prince Rupert Harbor yielded evidence of elaborate militarism along with extensive inland trade. The project worked closely with the oral...
Nunalleq: Archaeologies of Climate Change and Community in Coastal Western Alaska (2017)
Northern sea ice levels are at an historical and millennial low, and nowhere are the effects of recent climate change more pronounced or destructive than in the Western Arctic, with the erosion and subsequent loss of coastal archaeological sites in this area being yet another casualty. Based in the community of Quinhagak, and at the well-preserved precontact Yup’ik site of Nunalleq, our project examines the complex relationship between past cultures and ecosystem change, and the interplay...
The Nutritional Value of Pacific Herring: an Ancient Cultural Keystone Species on the Northwest Coast of North America (2015)
Pacific herring play a special ecological role in North Pacific marine ecosystems by converting phytoplankton into energy consumable by a variety of animals, including humans. Northwest Coast peoples have been consuming herring since the early Holocene, and patterns of usage likely changed over time. Herring are available in different forms during different times of the year. This paper will evaluate the nutritional value of herring and seasonal herring products vis à vis other Northwest...
Ochre Quarrying as Placemaking in British Columbia (2017)
In coastal and interior British Columbia, ochre was a key component of local traditional knowledge among hunter-fisher-gatherer communities. Ochre pigment quarries are found in alpine, lowland, and alluvial geologic deposits, and each are uniquely storied locations that carry ideas about history, tradition, and place. The procurement, trade, and use of ochre from each of those locations is deliberate, and embedded within a complex set of ideas and decision-making. Provenance-based analysis of...
Of Power Poles, Fishing Poles and Post Holes: Developing a CRM Plan for an Electric Utility (2016)
Environmental regulations, spatial planning, and striving for consistency in managing cultural resources within the electric utility industry will be discussed using Portland General Electric’s (PGE) projects. Poster will address issues from the perspective of project development and prioritizing resources ranging from salmon to archaeological sites. Specifically, the issue of managing cultural resources in situations where FERC compliance or Section 106 is not the driving force is explored. PGE...
On the Ecodynamics of Fisheries at Tse-whit-zen (2017)
On the northern Pacific Coast of North America, fish play an extremely important role in conceptual models related to hunter-gatherer evolution and social dynamics of household production and resource control. Our ability to rigorously apply archaeo-fish remains to these models is limited by substantial data requirements including well-documented contexts, high-resolution chronology, control over complex site formation processes and taphonomy, as well as large sample sizes. The 2004 excavation...
On the Front Line: Collaborative Archaeology between CRM Archaeologists, Academics and First Nations Communities. (2015)
First Nation’s heritage concerns are at the forefront of many large-scale and controversial development projects across the province of British Columbia. How developers and Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Archaeologists choose to address these concerns can significantly impact working and political relationships. CRM archaeologists are on the front lines balancing and navigating complex, and sensitive socio-political heritage issues. Our small CRM company, Kleanza Consulting Ltd. (Kleanza),...
On the Role of Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) in Northwest Coast Fisheries: The View from the Tse-whit-zen Site (45CA523), Coastal Washington (2015)
Though the study of human-prey animal relationships in the Pacific Northwest has focused largely on salmonid species (family Salmonidae) and their hypothetical connections to ancient increases in social complexity, a growing body of research demonstrates that many more fishes than have been previously recognized played key roles in the diets and social systems of peoples past and present. The Tse-whit-zen fauna, with over 80,000 fish bone specimens identified by ongoing zooarchaeological...
Organic Residues from Durable Vessels in Prehistoric Southwest Alaska (2017)
Prehistoric people of coastal southwest Alaska used clay and stone vessel technologies for the past 3,000 years. Despite the challenges that the cold and humid subarctic climate posed to the procurement of clay and the drying and firing of pottery, people invested their valuable time and energy in the manufacture and maintenance of these durable vessels. Why? What role did container technologies play in the wider process of food procurement and processing? An increased focus on marine resources...