North America - NW Coast/Alaska (Geographic Keyword)
201-225 (301 Records)
Human occupation of the 54 million acres of land managed by the National Park Service (NPS) has spanned millennia from early use of the ice-free corridors, later migrations and adaptation of tool kits to meet changing needs, and contact with explorers, fur traders, and others from distant lands. Research conducted each year along coasts, in and around mountainous terrain, small towns, and places in between aids efforts to inventory park land for archaeological resources, understand past human...
The Pentlatch Pebbles: Incised stones from an ancient K'omoks village site in Courtenay, British Columbia (2017)
Recent excavations at the K'omoks First Nation ancient village site at Pentlatch resulted in the discovery of 122 incised pebbles and small cobbles. Such artifacts are very rare in the Pacific Northwest, with only one other comparably large assemblage having been reported at Tse-whit-zen in Port Angeles, Washington. The incised stones from the Pentlatch site were found throughout the site area and from all stratigraphic contexts, spanning (at least) several hundreds of years of occupation;...
Perspectives on Ochre Provenance in British Columbia, Canada (2016)
Elemental characterization of ochre sources and artifacts from southern and central British Columbia has demonstrated the potential for, and the limitations of, ochre provenance studies in this region. Using a combination of neutron activation analysis (NAA) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF), comparative elemental analyses of ochre artifacts from archaeological sites and five geologic sources identified evidence of variability in ochre acquisition over space and time. While the majority of ochre...
Pipes and Smoking in Pre-Contact Pacific Northwest North America (2017)
Smoking has been practiced by native peoples throughout the inland Pacific Northwest—and especially along the Columbia and Fraser River systems—for several millennia. This is evinced by the presence of stone pipes and pipe fragments in sites across the region. This poster presents the spatial and chronological distribution of archaeological smoking pipes throughout the inland Pacific Northwest based on literature and database searches, with a particular focus on those collections held or...
A post-glacial relative sea level curve and paleoshoreline archaeological survey for the Prince Rupert Harbour, BC, Canada (2017)
We present a relative sea level (RSL) curve for the Prince Rupert Harbour area for the last 15,000 years that is based on nearly 150 radiocarbon-dated data points. RSL dropped from at least 50 m asl to several m below current sea level immediately after deglaciation, before rising again to 4-6 m asl during the early Holocene. By 6000 years ago RSL had approached its current position, though there have been some late Holocene fluctuations. We used this RSL history in conjunction with...
Pottery use in Alaskan prehistory: an organic residue analysis approach (2015)
Despite major environmental challenges, pottery was manufactured and used by Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimos in Alaska for millennia. To better understand why pottery was used by Alaskan hunter-gatherers, the authors have undertaken a number of site-based organic residue analyses that provide direct biomolecular and isotopic evidence for the contents of past pots. The ubiquitous presence of aquatic biomarkers, along with compound specific isotope data, show that pottery use at the sites was consistently...
Pragmatism at the Intersection of Indigeneity, Cultural Property, and Intangible Heritage (2016)
When descendant groups are denied direct and meaningful engagement in decision making, heritage management policies are ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Access to and control over one’s own heritage is a basic human right essential to identity, wellbeing and worldview. The historic separation of Indigenous peoples from their heritage not only results in considerable economic and cultural harms, but is a form of violence. Community-based heritage initiatives are capable of challenging...
Predicting and Assessing the Impact of Environmental Events on Seabirds at Tse-whit-zen Village (2017)
Seabird remains, especially murres, scoters, loons, grebes, shearwaters and gulls, are abundant in the Tse-whit-zen faunal assemblage. There is considerable biological research on the effects of climate change on seabirds, especially in light of recent climate trends; for example, responses of seabirds to increased sea surface temperatures associated with El Niño events are well documented. In contrast, there has been relatively little research on the effects of recent earthquakes on marine...
Prehistoric Foragers in the Central Alaska Range (2015)
Upland landscapes in the central Alaska Range play an important role in understanding prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement organization, subsistence activities, and lithic assemblage variability in interior Alaska. Previous research hypothesizes that late Pleistocene and early Holocene seasonal upland hunting conditioned lithic assemblages in the interior, and that seasonally available upland resources grew in importance through the middle and late Holocene, as interior foragers shifted to a...
Prehistoric Landscape Use in the Upper Susitna Basin (2017)
This paper presents the geomorphological and paleovegetation record of the upper Susitna River basin in the central Alaska Range, and discusses late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape and vegetation change and how this affected human use of this upland landscape. Geomorphological data suggest that the last significant glacial ice sheet covering the upper Susitna basin receded by 14,000-13,000 cal BP. Following deglaciation, there is evidence for high-energy aeolian activity spanning the late...
Preserving Cultural Landscapes beyond the Reservation Boundary (2016)
The Spokane Tribe of Indians Preservation Program conducts a range of projects within the Tribe’s ceded areas in northeast Washington State. The goal of this work is to increase tribal sovereignty and to help preserve intact portions of the Tribe’s traditional landscape and resource patches in order to secure long-term access for tribal members to a mosaic of traditional cultural sites beyond the reservation boundary. The program competes with private CRM firms for archaeology consultation...
Put A Bird On It! A Multi-Analytical Approach to Avian Analysis In Southwestern British Columbia (2017)
Zooarchaeological identifications provide important data related to subsistence changes and the exploitation of past environments. Previous faunal analyses at Shingle Point (DgRv-2), Dionisio Point (DgRv-3), and the Coon Bay/Perry Lagoon (DgRv-6) sites have indicated multiple occupations with important variation in archaeofaunal representation. These locales exhibit a variety of avian fauna, which are not frequently explored in detail within zooarchaeological analyses. We present new...
Questioning the Capitalist Lens: Anarchism as a Critical Theory for Assessing Sociopolitical Dynamics in the Past (2015)
Archaeologists can view the societies of the archaeological record through the lens of their contemporary experience. I will explore how archaeologists have viewed past societies in terms of their experience within states based in capitalism. Some identify "rational economic actors" primarily as pursuing individual gain, or others find "aggrandizers" as the active, entrepreneurial agents of change in past societies. These arguments propound the socioeconomic dynamics of capitalist societies...
Radiocarbon Dating Versus Luminescence Dating in the Pacific Northwest (2017)
In the Pacific Northwest of North America, the radiocarbon dating of charcoal has become the standard for assigning age to archaeological contexts. Other dating techniques are seldom used. Underused techniques like luminescence dating can apply when organic materials for radiocarbon dating are absent, unreliable or not associated with events of interest. In the Pacific Northwest, luminescence dating is beginning to be used for dating features containing fire-modified rock. By dating the last...
A radiocarbon test for significant demographic events in written and oral history. (2017)
We present the results of a simulation based test for the existence and significance of two known demographic event horizons. We extend the Shennan et al. (2013) summed probability distribution frequency method to provide a value of statistical significance for the period between two defined calendar dates. Case-study one extrapolates population data from the Western historical record relating to the catastrophic European Black Death and finds a consistent statistically significant drop in...
Raised Marine Predictive Model Advances Knowledge of Early Holocene Site Assemblages in Southern Southeast Alaska (2017)
In 2009, Carlson & Baichtal used the age and elevation of raised marine deposits left during the highest marine transgression to create a hypothetical early Holocene shoreline in the Alexander Archipelago of southern Southeast Alaska. Over the past seven years, archaeological surveys that employed this predictive model revealed over twenty new early Holocene sites. Our understanding of the Holocene island landscape has increased dramatically with the discovery of these sites in new geographical...
Re-Awakening a 2,000 Year Old Salish Sea Basketry Tradition and Sharing it Around the World: Master Salish Basketmaker and Wet Site Archaeologist Explore 100 Generations of Cultural Knowledge (2017)
Ed Carriere and I have been working with the U.W. Burke Museum to replicate 2,000 year old waterlogged archaeological basketry found in the early 1960s from along the Snoqualmie River near Seattle. Ed learned old style split cedar limb/root clam basket making from his Great Grandmother, Julia Jacobs, who raised him. Ed’s goal has always been to go back as many generations in his family to master their work. As a wet site archaeologist specializing in ancient basketry on the Northwest Coast, I...
Re-Awakening a 2,000 Year Old Salish Sea Basketry Tradition: Master Salish Basketmaker and Wet Site Archaeologist Explore 100 Generations of Cultural Knowledge (2016)
I often invited Ed Carriere, Suquamish Master Basketmaker and Elder, to help us recover 700 year old cedar bough pack baskets while excavating the Qwu?gwes wet/waterlogged site, Olympia, Washington. He is the last known Salish Sea weaver still making these cedar clam baskets. While preparing to analyze 2,000 year old Biderbost wet site pack baskets at the U.W. Burke Museum in Seattle, I called Ed and suggested he try to replicate these baskets, fully 100 generations back through his line of...
Re-imagining the colonial encounter through Gitxaała eyes (2017)
Archaeology on the north coast of British Columbia has focussed on three zones of attention: Namu, Haida Gwaii, and Prince Rupert Harbour. These loci have created a kind of orthodoxy that, while reasonable in certain aspects, has unduly shaped contemporary political interactions between First Nations and the state. This paper draws from an Indigenous intellectual framework (that has appropriated the tools and techniques of anthropological archaeology) to challenge and redefine the orthodox...
Reaching Out: Public Archaeology at Washington State University (2016)
Cougar Quest is an academic summer camp for students on the Washington State University campus and is designed to meet the educational and social needs of college-bound students entering grades 7-13. By attending three workshops of their choosing, students are immersed in a variety of fields and subjects that are taught by WSU professors and graduate students. This past summer, a workshop focused on archaeology was conducted by graduate students to show students the processes of archaeological...
Recent Applications of Micromorphology to Cultural Resources Management in the Pacific Northwest (2015)
Solving geoarchaeological questions in a cultural resources management (CRM) context can be difficult due to time and budget constraints. In the Pacific Northwest, however, recent projects have fortunately allowed for some micromorphological analyses. Paul Goldberg has championed micromorphology as a valuable geoarchaeological method over the past three decades. The micromorphological analysis of shell middens, peat deposits, and alluvial sediment in and around the Seattle, WA area has elevated...
Recent Discoveries in the Tanana Basin, Eastern Beringia (2015)
Recent developments in Western subarctic archaeology have transformed our perspectives on technological, subsistence, and land use strategies implemented during the Pleistocene - Holocene transition and into the later Holocene. This talk encompasses my intersite and intrasite investigations at Upward Sun River, Mead, and other sites in the middle Tanana River basin geared towards explanatory model construction and testing. Athabaskan ethnographic data provide robust frameworks to evaluate the...
Recent NLURA Research in Northern Alaska (2015)
Northern Land Use Research Alaska, LLC (NLURA) investigated 20 locations in northern Alaska during the last 5 years. Research included survey and excavation for oil and gas development projects, pipelines, roads, community infrastructure, mining, and transportation. This paper provides an overview of the work accomplished, highlighting significant discoveries made and contributions of CRM to our understanding of northern Alaska prehistory and history. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR...
Recognizing Artifact Transport from Debitage Assemblages: Examples from middle Holocene Sites in Alaska (2017)
When studying the technology of mobile foraging groups, tools and cores that pass through a site can be even more informative than those that end up deposited there. This is especially true in regions like interior Alaska, where cultural historical frameworks rely on the presence or absence of specific technologies or tool forms. A flake-attribute based debitage analysis combined with a minimum analytical nodule analysis can be integral for recognizing artifact transport. Examples from Archaic...
Reconstructing Settlement Histories using Simulations and Calibration of Radiocarbon Dates: An Example from a Plankhouse Village in Southwestern British Columbia, Canada (2015)
Documenting the formation, growth, and decline of individual settlements is critical to explaining the development of settled village life. Radiocarbon dating is often the best, and in our case only, chronometric tool for establishing these temporal dynamics. Here, we explore several approaches to reconstructing the temporality of settlement at the Dionisio Point site, a precontact plankhouse village in southwestern British Columbia. Two decades of research at this 1,500 year-old...