Geological Hazards, Climate Change, and Human Resilience in the Islands of the Four Mountains of Alaska: Preliminary Archaeological Findings

Summary

Archaeologists with the NSF-funded research project "Geological Hazards, Climate Change, and Human Resilience in the Islands of the Four Mountains" conducted their first season of fieldwork on Chuginadak and Carlisle Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, in 2014. Preliminary results identified multiple component village sites. These include the Ulyagan site on Carlisle, with a Russian period and one or more prehistoric period occupation. Large, rectangular houses and metal artifacts represent the Russian occupation. Lithic artifacts recovered from below the Russian occupation represent the prehistoric component in possibly two or more cultural lenses, and include bullet shaped style points similar to those found at the Margaret Bay site on Unalaska, Alaska. The U.S. BIA previously dated the lower components at this site to 3200±70 radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP), 1940± RCYBP, and 1690±70 RCYBP (Cooper 1991). Archaeologists also identified prehistoric occupations at three sites (Blue Cove, Black Peak, and Applegate Cove) on nearby Chuginadak Island. Confirmation of the ages of these occupations is awaiting radiocarbon results, and further excavations will occur in 2015.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Current Problems in Arctic Research

Keywords

Spatial Coverage