Shemya Island and the Question of Inland Sites

Part of the 611th Air Support Group Resources project

Author(s): Debra Corbett

Year: 2008

Summary

During the July 2002 excavation of sewer lines at Eareckson Air Station, two prehistoric midden deposits containing shell, bone, whalebone, stone and bone artifacts, and human remains were exposed. The Air Force Remote Sites archaeologist, Karlene Leeper, halted the work until archaeologists could determine whether the remains represented an in situ cultural deposit, or whether midden was transported as fill from elsewhere. Joined by Diane Hanson of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Leeper reevaluated the site July 16 through 23, 2002. In part to mitigate the damage from the sewer excavations, and to evaluate the potential for finding additional non-coastal archaeological sites, Leeper contracted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to conduct archaeological excavations at ATU-239. During fieldwork in 2005 project crew were shown the location of a second non-coastal site at the east end of the runway, ATU-613. Leeper contracted again with FWS to have this site investigated, as part of a larger study of non-coastal sites, in 2006. This report details that study.

Cite this Record

Shemya Island and the Question of Inland Sites. Debra Corbett. 2008 ( tDAR id: 459124) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8459124

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Aleutian

Material
Chipped Stone • Dating Sample • Fauna • Shell • Soil

Site Type
Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Midden

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Environment Research • Ethnohistoric Research • Historic Background Research • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
11th Air Force • 611th • 611th Civil Engineer Squadron • ADK-017 • ADK-018 • ADK-102 • ADK-104 • ADK-127 • ADK-181 • ADK-185 • AG-32 • AG-33 • ATU-003 ATU-021 • ATU-022 • ATU-023 • ATU-061 • ATU-063 • ATU-239 • ATU-613 • Bird Bone • Eareckson Air Station • FWS • Inland Sites • Non-coastal Sites • Pacific Air Forces • Prehistoric Aleuts • RAT-008 • RAT-020 • RAT-068 • Shell • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service • UMK-001 • UMK-046 • UMK-048 • UNI-044 • United States Air Force • UNL-326 • Upland Sites • XGI-008 • XGI-026 Show More

Geographic Keywords
Alaska (State / Territory) • Shemya Island

Temporal Keywords
Historic • Prehistoric

Spatial Coverage

min long: 170.344; min lat: 50.953 ; max long: 175.881; max lat: 54.258 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): 611th Air Support Group CRM Manager

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
FWS_et_al_0000.pdf 1.07mb Mar 25, 2021 2:26:29 PM Confidential

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Contact(s): 611th Air Support Group CRM Manager