Nunalleq: Archaeologies of Climate Change and Community in Coastal Western Alaska

Summary

Northern sea ice levels are at an historical and millennial low, and nowhere are the effects of recent climate change more pronounced or destructive than in the Western Arctic, with the erosion and subsequent loss of coastal archaeological sites in this area being yet another casualty. Based in the community of Quinhagak, and at the well-preserved precontact Yup’ik site of Nunalleq, our project examines the complex relationship between past cultures and ecosystem change, and the interplay between modern climate change, archaeology and heritage. Organic and inorganic artefacts and bioarchaeological material from Nunalleq are now feeding diverse but complementary interdisciplinary studies of diet, population genetics, zooarchaeology, paleoentomology, climate change and culture history in the region. Using the processes, as well as the products of archaeological research, our community-based project is illuminating the impact of the Little Ice Age on precontact Yup’ik in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta; building sustainable frameworks for documenting local sites under threat; and providing new contexts for encountering and documenting the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Arctic and Subarctic Coasts: Current Research and Modern Challenges

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15381