The Lithic Landscape of the Nenana Valley: Investigating Land-Use and Toolstone Procurement Activities in Interior Alaska

Summary

Investigating prehistoric landscape use is significant in answering questions about the adaptive strategies and behaviors of prehistoric Beringians. How can we define the lithic landscape? How did humans provision themselves in eastern Beringia, and how did these provisioning behaviors change through time? Toolstone procurement and selection behaviors influence toolkits, mobility, and settlement strategies; therefore, they are important in explaining prehistoric behavioral adaptation and the complexities of landscape use. We can begin to explore toolstone procurement in the Nenana Valley of central Alaska through geochemical sourcing studies. Portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) is a useful geochemical tool for characterizing non-obsidian volcanic materials (basalts, dacites and andesites). In an effort to define the lithic landscape in the Nenana Valley and explore hunter-gatherer land-use strategies, this paper presents results of a raw material survey conducted during the 2015-2017 field seasons aimed at mapping the distribution of knappable volcanic materials in the valley. It then compares results of geochemical (pXRF) analyses of artifacts from several Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites with both primary (outcrop) and secondary (alluvium) sources within the valley to understand and explore how local materials were utilized by prehistoric Alaskans in Eastern Beringia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21058