Shaping identities through physical and cognitive landscape modifications in the Rat Islands, AK

Summary

Low mound groupings were defined during the multidisciplinary Rat Islands Research Project during the summer of 2014. These mounds are clustered in at least three areas on Kiska Island and Segula Island. Traditionally interpreted as "bird mounds" by non-Aleuts, these mounds were thought to be places where birds habitually sat over millennia. The hypothesis has been that subsequently enriched soils fostered exaggerated vegetation growth relative to the surrounding landscape. While various bird populations do in fact make use of these mounds, the test excavation of Mound 14 in KIS-051 produced lithic evidence supporting the notion that these mounds are human modifications of the landscape. Prehistoric Aleut populations had a complex notion of identity. One hypothesis for these mounds is that they represent a dynamic relationship between prehistoric Aleut group identity and the physical landscape. Geographic information systems have provided an avenue for a deeper understanding of the complexities behind Aleut social constructs on the physical landscape through spatial analysis.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage