Mapping Thermal Features at Quartz Lake, Alaska

Summary

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

Few archaeological sites from the late Holocene Dene/Athabascan tradition have been extensively studied, leaving researchers with many questions about everyday practices. Specifically, the function and spatial distribution of thermal features has yet to be extensively evaluated. Despite the ubiquity of cooking in daily life and cooking features in the archaeological record of North America, many experts have identified a gap in archaeological research on cooking. Using the spatial distribution of fire-cracked rock (FCR) recovered from the Klein and Bachner Sites on the shore of Quartz Lake, Alaska and ethnographic/traditional knowledge from local descendent communities, we examine the positioning of thermal features within multicomponent sites and describe cultural uses of rock at these sites. Comparing traditional knowledge and archaeological data allows for a wholistic understanding of past use of thermally-altered rock and how these practices may connect with the late Holocene cultural transition in the region. This research can be compared to other sites in Central Alaska to add to what little is known about cooking practices and what life may have been like at Dene/Athabascan tradition late Holocene occupations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36782.0