arctic (Other Keyword)
1-25 (170 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations in 2012 and 2016 at Iita, located along the North Water Polynya in NW Greenland, revealed unmixed stratified deposits extending from Late Dorset habitation over 1000 years ago through Thule-Inughuit occupation and Inughuit contact with Arctic explorers ca. 1850–1917. Iita is unique in that a large dovekie colony breeds in this area annually, thus...
A 2000-Year-Old Family: Interpreting Site Structure and Human Behaviors at the Swan Point Site, Interior Alaska (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper seeks to interpret the spatial patterning of the Swan Point Locus 2 site, interpreted to be a seasonal residential site. The site, located on a hill overlooking a small northern tributary of the Tanana River, consists of several features in excellent preservation. The assemblage suggests a pattern of features and artifacts consistent with a...
611th Air Support Group Resources
Project metadata for resources within the 611th Air Support Group cultural heritage resources collection.
Accountability in Arctic Archaeology: A Continuing Conversation for Change (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within Arctic archaeology, we are encouraged by community-led and partnership projects to continuously rethink our research practices. These projects have demonstrated that change is possible, it can be done successfully, and it leads to rich holistic narratives of past lifeways. However, more attention needs to be given to how current practices...
Alaskan Legacy Collections Outside Alaska: Challenges, Opportunities and Potential (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Alaskan "legacy collections" are housed at many American institutions outside of Alaska. These collections contain great potential for object-focused analysis, looking toward specific object classes, or even individual objects for in-depth review. This poster will present a summary of the locations of...
(Almost) Making it in the Margins: Medieval Norse Adaptation to the Arctic Fjord Environments (2018)
The medieval Norse settlements in Greenland formed the westernmost frontier of Scandinavia, and the Old World, between ca. AD 980-1450. A Norse society of perhaps only some 2500 farmer-hunters settled two subarctic niches: the Eastern Settlement in South Greenland with ca. 550 sites and the smaller Western Settlement 500 km north in the inner parts of the Nuuk fjord region and with only some 90 sites. For still not completely understood reasons, the latter was completely abandoned by AD...
Alutiiq Use of Birds during the Ocean Bay Period at Rice Ridge (49-KOD-363), Kodiak Island (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rice Ridge (49-KOD-363) is a deeply stratified archaeological site on Kodiak Island, with well-preserved faunal remains dated to the Ocean Bay tradition (7600–4200 cal BP; Kopperl 2003, 2012). The site contained an extensive bird bone assemblage that has not been analyzed before now. Casperson (2012) studied bird bones from Mink Island (49-XMK-030), located...
Anatomy of an Arctic Archaeobotanical Analysis: Insights about Ancestral Inuvialuit Plant Use at Agvik, Banks Island, NWT (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite extensive Inuit knowledge of and interest in plants, archaeobotanical studies are incredibly rare in the Arctic, representing a clear bias of archaeologists. The proliferation of community-engaged research in the north is helping to open an avenue to more archaeobotanical work. While fish and mammals certainly composed the bulk of the Inuit...
Ancient Alaskan Firewood Management Strategies and the Role of Selectivity: Preliminary Results (2018)
When historic Alaskans chose a settlement site, access to adequate fuel was as important as the availability of food and water. Despite its importance fuel use in the Arctic and Subarctic has received relatively little attention. Work currently underway aims to clarify the criteria used to select fuel in ancient Alaska by testing two hypotheses. The Efficiency Maximization hypothesis, derived from the prey choice model of human behavioral ecology, proposes that Alaskans ranked woody taxa...
Anna and the Sea: Reflections on Anna Kerttula's Influence on a Generation of North Pacific Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Celebrating Anna Kerttula's Contributions to Northern Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological research in Alaska and the broader North Pacific Rim has revealed a long and complex history of human occupation, dynamic human-environmental interactions, and – above all - underscores the relevance of archaeology to people living across the region today. These developments span the nearly two decades of Dr....
Archaeology and NAGPRA in Alaska: Examples of Intentional Excavation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Collections: Federal Archaeology and "New Discoveries" under NAGPRA" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Intentional excavation of human remains and associated items subject to NAGPRA occurs rarely. Such excavations are only permitted under particular circumstances and only with approval of lineal descendants (as appropriate) and affiliated tribes. In Alaska, National Park Service staff have facilitated...
Archaeology in the Bering Sea: Results from 25 Years of Periodic Archaeological Research on St. Matthew and Hall Islands, the Most Remote Area within Alaska (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. St. Matthew and Hall Islands are located in the Bering Sea, far from the Alaskan mainland. Located within the Bering Sea Wildlife Refuge, these uninhabited islands are visited by refuge biologists about once every five years for an approximate 8–10-day period, in order to conduct studies of island fowl and fauna. Since 1997, the Refuge has sponsored an...
The Archaeology of a Russian Period Alutiiq Work Camp on Kodiak Island, Alaska (2015)
The site of Mikt’sqaq Angayuk (KOD-014) on eastern Kodiak Island provides an intimate view of Native Alutiiq responses to the colonial labor regime imposed by 19th century Russians in Alaska. Recent excavation of KOD-014 through the Alutiiq Museum’s Community Archaeology Program revealed a well-preserved Alutiiq style sod house and associated faunal midden dating to the 1830s. The midden was rich in cod remains, and the artifacts comprised mostly colonially-introduced products including metal...
The archaeology of dogs at the precontact Yup’ik site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska (2017)
Historically and ethnographically dogs have played a prominent role in the lifeways and lifeworlds of many Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples, and are considered to be a vital aspect of adaptation to living in these regions, providing protection, fur and meat, as well as aiding hunting and transportation. Excavations at the precontact site of Nunalleq in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in coastal Western Alaska have uncovered a significant proportion of dog bones amongst the faunal assemblage. The presence...
Arctic Heterotopias: Qariyit as Queer Spaces In Precontact Inuit Communities (2018)
Gender and landscape have each proved to be such powerful archaeological tropes that thinking them together seems sure to yield interesting results. In the precontact Inuit world, gender and related dimensions of embodiment were key axes of spatial practice and place-based identification. Women’s and men’s activities were differently distributed across the landscape – in general, women occupying and managing domestic and near-community spaces, and men employing watercraft and dogs to operate...
Arctic Horizons: Forging Priorities for Arctic Social Sciences and NSF Funding (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Celebrating Anna Kerttula's Contributions to Northern Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Arctic Horizons – a multi-institution collaboration funded through NSF's Arctic Social Science program – brought together the Arctic social science research community to reassess goals, potentials, and needs affecting the diverse disciplinary and transdisciplinary currents of social science research in the circumpolar North...
Arctic Steam: HMS Pioneer and the Technology of the Search for Franklin (2016)
In mid-nineteenth century Britain, the dramatic disappearance of Sir John Franklin and his men led to a large-scale search conducted throughout the Arctic by sailing ships and steamers. The rescue expeditions, conducted over a twelve-year span, highlight the shift from reliance on sail to the prevalence of steam during this period. HMS Pioneer (formerly the merchant Eider), was built as a topsail schooner with oscillating steam engine, and later outfitted as part of an Arctic squadron. The...
#Arctic: Social Media and the Communication of Arctic Archaeological Knowledge (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Public outreach is an essential part of Arctic archaeology, and the range of platforms available for the dissemination of data has developed significantly over the last decade. To ensure ethical accountability to Indigenous communities, policy makers, and funding bodies, the relevance of archaeological research must be shared with the wider public....
Avvajja (Abverdjar) Revisited: Reconstructing Tuniit (Dorset Paleo-Inuit) and Recent-Historic Inuit Life at an Iconic Site in Northern Foxe Basin, Nunavut, Canada (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations in the early to mid-twentieth century at the multicomponent site Avvajja (Abverdjar) (NiHg-1), northern Foxe Basin, Nunavut, produced arguably some of the most iconic Tuniit (Late Dorset Paleo-Inuit) artifacts yet found in Inuit Nunangat (the traditional Inuit territories of Arctic Canada). Avvajja is also notable for being the site of the...
Beach Level Chronology and Paleodemography at Alarniq, Northern Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada (2018)
In this paper we discuss beach level chronology and settlement at Alarniq—the ‘type-site’ for Dorset culture history and one of the largest Dorset archaeological sites in the Eastern Arctic. The Dorset occupation at the site extends approximately 3 km along a succession of raised gravel beach ridges, ranging in elevation between 8 to 24 m asl, and is almost entirely comprised of semi-subterranean structures that would have been occupied during the cold season. The number of houses varies across...
Beyond a Record of Environmental Change: The Influence of Variability in Peat Composition on the Archaeological Record in Viking Age Iceland (2018)
Research suggests non-woody resources, such as peat, can serve as unique repositories of environmental change. This paper discusses how peat serves such a role, and sheds light on the how these processes affect the archaeological record, an aspect of environmental change that has been overlooked. During the colonization of Iceland in the 9th century AD, early Icelanders (Vikings) began to affect and be affected by local environments. Viking colonization led to rapid deforestation of woodland...
Beyond Binaries: Queering the Archaeological Record of the Western Canadian Arctic (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Queer theory is often equated with sexuality research in archaeology (Blackmore 2011), but a queering of the archaeological record actually allows us to challenge all aspects of (hetero)normativity in archaeological practice (Croucher 2005; Blackmore 2011). Queer is "whatever is at odds with the normal, legitimate and the dominant" (Halperin 1995:62), and it...
Birnirk and Thule Pottery: Analysis of Arctic Ceramics from Inuigniq (Cape Espenberg), Alaska (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We are conducting a multi-year (2009-2018), multi-disciplinary research project at Inuigniq (Cape Espenberg) to explore changing patterns of human occupation, culture change, and environmental conditions in Northwest Alaska. Our current focus is on the emergence of Birnirk archaeological culture ca. AD 1000, and the question of how Birnirk culture factored...
The Birnirk to Thule Transition as Viewed from Two Adjacent Houses at Cape Espenberg (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transformation of the Birnirk culture into the Thule culture remains central to the development of modern Inuit peoples across the Arctic. Nevertheless, its chronological definition remains imprecise and contentious despite a century of research since the discovery of the Birnirk site near Utqiagvik and the definition of the Thule culture in the...
The Birnirk/Thule Migrations: Pushed from an Overpopulated Bering Strait Dominated by Old Bering Sea Culture (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A climate-driven eastward push of Thule migrants remains axiomatic to many arctic archaeologists, associated with presumed warming weather of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), by tradition dated ca. AD 1000. Thule researchers implicated a rapid migration by rapacious “over-killing” seal-hunters and whalers entering unoccupied landscapes—increasingly...