Prehistory and Climate Change in Southwest Alaska

Summary

Significant elements of the artifact assemblage, architectural features as well as recent DNA analysis of human hair recovered from the Nunalleq site (GDN-248), all support the idea of Thule cultural expansion onto the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska. Other evidence points to strong links with the Alutiiq (a dialect of Yup’ik) speaking peoples on the Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska Peninsula and Prince William Sound. There are clear similarities between late prehistoric Yup’ik and Alutiiq religious and ceremonial artifacts, game pieces, and hunting technologies. This paper compares two large and well-preserved late prehistoric assemblages: the Nunalleq site now being excavated near Quinhagak, south of the Kuskokwim River and the Karluk One site on Kodiak Island. Both are wet sites that have yielded more than 20,000 artifacts, many of rarely preserved wood and other organic materials and both were occupied during the Little Ice Age. Comparison of these sites reveals telling similarities and differences in the way coastal Yup’ik and Alutiiq peoples may have responded to climate change.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Human-Environment Interactions & Human Ecology in Western Arctic Prehistory

Keywords

Spatial Coverage