Alutiiq Use of Birds during the Ocean Bay Period at Rice Ridge (49-KOD-363), Kodiak Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Rice Ridge (49-KOD-363) is a deeply stratified archaeological site on Kodiak Island, with well-preserved faunal remains dated to the Ocean Bay tradition (7600–4200 cal BP; Kopperl 2003, 2012). The site contained an extensive bird bone assemblage that has not been analyzed before now. Casperson (2012) studied bird bones from Mink Island (49-XMK-030), located off the nearby Alaska Peninsula, and found that birds played important roles in the lifeways of Ocean Bay groups, even though these people have been conventionally portrayed as primarily dependent on marine mammals and fish. With this contemporary assemblage from Rice Ridge, we show that birds, especially cormorants, ducks, murres, and geese, were vital to Alutiiq ancestors on Kodiak Island, and that the relative abundance of bird taxa changed over three occupations within the Ocean Bay period. Alutiiq ancestors consumed birds as food, but also processed quantities of birdskins for clothing that was crucial to their survival.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32834