Dennis Stanford: The Alaska Years and Beyond

Summary

Dennis Stanford was first introduced to Alaskan archaeology in 1966 as a field assistant to Robert L Humphrey during an archaeological survey in the Utukok River valley in the western Brooks Range. At the urging of John M. ("Jack") Campbell he began work near Point Barrow in 1968 to investigate controversial questions about the origins of Thule culture. Following brief investigations at the Utkiavik site, he focused his excavations south of Barrow at Walakpa, where he discovered more than 20 stratigraphic levels documenting the transition from Birnirk to Thule cultures. His analysis led him to conclude that the transition from Birnirk to Thule was correlated to climate change and possibly an over-reliance on seal hunting. His subsequent research interest in Alaska have focused the relationships between eastern Beringia and the first colonization of the Americas. In 1989-90 he served as Visiting Distinguished Professor, at the Alaskan Quaternary Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks where he taught Paleoindian archaeology and mentored students. His long engagement in Alaskan research has significantly influenced his contributions to the study of bone taphonomy, late Pleistocene paleoecology, and the first colonization of the Americas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20088