Cultural and Ecological Relationships between the Unangax̂ and Seabirds on Sanak Island, AK

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Seabirds were, and continue to be, an important resource for the Unangax̂ living in the Aleutian Archipelago, AK. In addition to food, birds were used as raw material for everyday and ceremonial clothing, tools, and objects. They also play an important role in Unangan ontologies, appearing in transformative processes. Sanak Island, the easternmost island in the Aleutian chain, offers a unique opportunity to study the cultural and ecological relationship between the Unangan and seabirds, as archaeological excavations have yielded over 17,000 bird bones that span ~4,000 years of occupation on the island. We examine how temporal changes in environmental conditions may be impacting what seabirds were available to humans, where they could be found on the landscape, and if this influenced the use of birds as a resource in Unangax̂ communities. To do this, we combine zooarchaeological analyses with bulk stable isotope analysis of δ13C and δ15N of nine seabird taxa and compound-specific stable isotope analysis of amino acid (CISA-AA) of Phalacrocoracidae. These multiple datasets will be used to determine shifts in primary productivity, seabird diets, and seabird foraging location. This provides an ecological backdrop for further investigation of human/bird relationships that includes culturally driven, agency-based change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35732.0