Fragile, Organic Artifacts from Alpine Ice in the Athapaskan Homeland, Southern Yukon, Canada

Summary

Since the late 1990’s, a significant collection of fragile, organic artifacts has been collected from melting alpine ice patches in southern Yukon, Canada. The ice patch study area is in the Athapaskan homeland, and was an area strongly impacted by the White River Ash event, ca. 1200 yBP, which possibly triggered southward migrations of some Athapaskan speakers. This paper will present an overview of the Yukon ice patch project and will include a description of organic hunting artifacts providing new insights into the design of traditional Athapaskan technologies that are relevant to the discussion of Apachean origins. We will focus on the construction of Athapaskan bows, arrows and an ice patch moccasin.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Implications of the Promontory, Dismal River, and Franktown Archaeological Records for Apachean Prehistory

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16081