An Archaeobotanical Analysis of the Upward Sun River Site, Central Alaska

Summary

Vegetation and plant resources can impact forager mobility and subsistence strategies. However, misconceptions about the preservation of organics in subarctic archaeological contexts and underestimations of the importance of plant resources to foraging societies limit paleoethnobotanical research in high-latitude environments. This research addresses these issues with analyses of archaeobotanical remains found in hearth features from multiple components (approximately 13,300 through 8,000 cal BP) at the Upward Sun River site in the Tanana River Basin, central Alaska. Final results from macrobotanical and charcoal identification suggest the presence of several key taxa on the landscape while the site was occupied, including birch, willow, Populus sp., and bearberry. This research contributes to our understanding of plant resource use among foraging populations and broadens our understanding of human-environment interaction in subarctic regions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

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