An Analysis of a Middle Holocene Faunal Assemblage from the Matcharak Peninsula Site in Alaska’s Brooks Range

Summary

The Matcharak Peninsula Site (AMR-196), located in the central Brooks Range of Arctic Alaska, contains a mid-Holocene archaeological assemblage dating between 4,000 and 7,500 calBP and assigned to the Northern Archaic tradition. Excavations between 2010 and 2014 yielded hundreds of identifiable faunal specimens preserved in permafrost, making it one of the largest and most well-preserved faunal assemblages found in a Northern Archaic context. The assemblage has great potential for elucidating high latitude hunter gatherer land use and subsistence strategies during the mid-Holocene. Northern Archaic technology persisted throughout Alaska and Yukon, Canada from approximately 6,000-2,000 years ago and is thought to reflect logistically-mobile people using multiple weapon systems to exploit a wide range of seasonally-available fauna. This is supported by the presence of multiple taxa, including caribou, Dall sheep, and fish along with bifacial and microcore technology in the Matcharak Peninsula assemblage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage