The Carpenter Quarry Site: A Unique Salvage Excavation Strategy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology of Alaska, the Gateway to the Americas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Carpenter Quarry site is an early multicomponent site discovered in the interior of Alaska in 2021. The site overlooks the Tanana River and Shaw Creek Flats, an area rich in significant sites, including Broken Mammoth, Mead, Holzman, and Swan Point. The site, located on top of a bluff with the Middle Tanana Dene place name Naayaa’ee’ (“he looks across”) (Mishler 1986:121), was the overburden on an active rock quarry. A test unit provided artifacts and fauna associated with a ca. 10,500 cal BP hearth feature. Once the potential importance of the site was discovered, the owner generously allowed our crew six weeks to excavate in early summer 2022 before most of the remaining site would be destroyed. As expected, much of the site was unexcavated at the end of six weeks. With the help of the landowner and his heavy equipment, the remaining sediment was moved off site in blocks by culture levels for later archaeological recovery. This salvage excavation method may be useful in other archaeological contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of Alaska, the Gateway to the Americas   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36950.0