The Archaeology of Nataeł Na’ and Its Implications for Landscape and Resource Use by Pleistocene Peoples in the Yukon-Alaska Borderlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The multicomponent hunter-gatherer site Nataeł Na’ represents the first evidence of Pleistocene-aged human occupation in the Copper River basin. One occupation dates to the Allerød interstadial and another to the late Younger Dryas climate reversal. To date, the Allerød occupation has been identified only by a small assemblage of lithic reduction debitage. The Younger Dryas occupation is represented by a more robust lithic assemblage recovered in association with a well-dated combustion feature. The limited nature of the excavation to date constrains the extent of interpretation that can be realistically applied to this assemblage, which has led us to employ a wide variety of analytical techniques during our investigation of the site. The location of Nataeł Na’ makes the site a prime candidate for regional and interregional comparison of the lithic technologies identified in the assemblage and the organization of those technologies. Viewing Nataeł Na’ from a landscape and even regional perspective has great potential to provide insight into the behavior and resource exploitation of the early inhabitants of the southern Yukon-Alaska borderlands. Our interpretations of the behaviors and technologies represented at Nataeł Na’ also raise interesting questions about the connection between this and adjacent regions during the Pleistocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39303.0