The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session will discuss the archaeology of the southern Yukon-Alaska borderlands (SY-AB), defined as the region north and south of the Alaska Highway and east and west of the international border for about 100 km. It encompasses the highway corridor from the north end of Kluane Lake, Yukon, to the Tanacross, Alaska, regions, with the Wellesley Basin/Yukon-Tanana uplands to the north and the St. Elias–Wrangell Mountain range to the south. Sites such as Little John in Yukon and Linda’s Point and Nateɬ Na’ in Alaska date human occupations of the region to the Beringian Allerød (ca. 14 to 13 Kya). It is the area of origin for native copper and the crossroads of contact of the four major obsidian sources—Wiki Peak, Batza Tena, Hoodoo Mountain, and Edziza—for northwest America. The SY-AB also contains a continuous history of Holocene occupations and a rich record of Late Prehistoric and Postcontact Amerindian-European interaction. This symposium will highlight specific sites and topics of research in the SY-AB and cumulatively argue for increased attention to an often overlooked but fecund area for future archaeological research in eastern-most Beringia.

Other Keywords
arctic • Paleoindian and Paleoamerican • Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers • Lithic Analysis • Chronology • Geoarchaeology • Survey • Microblades • Use-Wear Analysis • Heritage Management

Geographic Keywords
Alberta (State / Territory) • Yukon Territory (State / Territory) • British Columbia (State / Territory) • Alaska (State / Territory) • Saskatchewan (State / Territory) • Manitoba (State / Territory) • Canada (Country) • Northwest Territories (State / Territory) • North America (Continent) • North America: Arctic and Subarctic

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • The Archaeology of Nataeł Na’ and Its Implications for Landscape and Resource Use by Pleistocene Peoples in the Yukon-Alaska Borderlands (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John White. Jeffrey Rasic. Mike Loso.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The multicomponent hunter-gatherer site Nataeł Na’ represents the first evidence of Pleistocene-aged human occupation in the Copper River basin. One occupation dates to the Allerød interstadial and another to the late Younger Dryas climate reversal. To date, the Allerød occupation has been identified only by a small assemblage of...

  • Archaeology of the Upper Yukon River Canyon Riparian Zone: Alaska and Yukon Territory (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Sattler. Christian Thomas. Angela Younie. Thomas Gillispie. Jeffry Rasic.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Upper Yukon River Canyon traverses the international border between Alaska and the Yukon Territory. We consolidate over 60 radiocarbon dates among numerous sites and develop a first-approximation model spanning the Chindadn to Dene Traditions in Eastern Beringia. The radiocarbon date series is ordered temporally in ten...

  • The Formation and Distribution of a Chindadn Component Tool Assemblage: Insights from Microwear Analysis (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jordan Handley. Norman Easton.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of an extensive use-wear analysis of the lithic assemblage recovered from the Chindadn component at the Little John site (KdVo-6). Within the context of Little John, this component dates from the Late Bølling Allerød Interstadial to the Younger Dryas (14,300-11,900 RCYBP). The study population...

  • Geoarchaeology at the Little John Site (KdVo-6), Yukon Territory, Canada (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Grooms.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Little John Site (KdVo-6), Yukon Territory, Canada, contains the presence of both Chindadn/Nenana and Denali artifacts in unique stratified contexts. The site contains loess/paleosol stratigraphic sequences spanning the past 14,000 years. Sediment and soil, XRD, INAA/ICP-MS, and thin section analysis have illuminated the...

  • Isotopic Evidence of Long-Term Aquatic Resource Use at Tanada Creek, Alaska (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Allyson Pease. Matthew Wooller.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Salmon are considered a critical subsistence resource in the Copper River basin, Alaska both currently and traditionally. Salmon migrations typically occur during a relatively short period in the summer, and provide a reliable, abundant influx of food. The duration of their presence in the basin and history of use are not well...

  • Obsidian Networks of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Rasic. Norman Easton. Christian Thomas. Robert Sattler.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological record of Eastern Beringia (Alaska and Yukon) plays an important role in understanding global human dispersals and settlement and is a proving ground for testing ideas about high-latitude hunter-gatherer land use, technology, and socioeconomic interaction. Obsidian provenance studies provide an excellent means...

  • Origin of Northwest Coast Microblade Tradition: Insights from Shuká Káa Cave (SKKC) (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only E. James Dixon. Craig M. Lee.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two hypotheses for the origins of the Northwest Coast Microblade tradition (NWCMt) predominate: (1) it derives from the first human dispersal to the NWC from interior eastern Beringia; (2) it results from westward movement to the coast from interior regions of British Columbia (BC), Canada. The oldest NWCMt radiocarbon date from...

  • Recent Archaeological Investigations of Wiki Peak and the Beaver Creek Drainage (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lee Reininghaus. Allyson Pease.

    This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The headwaters of Beaver Creek are located in the Nutzotin Mountains in northeastern Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Beaver Creek originates at Beaver Lake near the community of Chisana and flows east to the to the Alaska-Yukon border before heading north to join the White River. An important feature of the Beaver...