Clearing the Fog: Contributions to Central Aleutian Island Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Celebrating Anna Kerttula's Contributions to Northern Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological survey and excavation on Adak Island, Aleutian archipelago, Alaska were funded by NSF through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The chance NSF and Anna Kerttula took on a small project in a remote location with a small crew had an unexpected and significant effect on the understanding of pre-Russian occupation and on the crew. While some upland sites were previously recorded, the reports were not considered credible by many archaeologists. This research demonstrated that these sites were numerous and occupied between 4000 years and the protohistoric period. Populations were much higher during the Neoglacial than previously supposed. The excavated house is similar to Arctic Small Tool tradition houses in the Eastern Aleutian Islands leading to a new proposal to determine if ASTt extends into a strictly maritime environment. The undergraduates and graduate students contributed to the project through their MA theses and one initiated PhD studies on an Aleutian project.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Celebrating Anna Kerttula's Contributions to Northern Research

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23804