Molecular and Isotopic Analysis Indicates Variable Uses for Early Pottery from Northwest Alaska

Summary

This is an abstract from the "American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ceramic technology was adopted approximately 2,800 and 2,500 years ago in Alaska, coinciding with a transition toward an economy increasingly focused on marine resource use. Despite expectations for marine resource use in early northern pottery, an initial pilot study found strong evidence for freshwater aquatic and/or mixed terrestrial/aquatic resource processing in a small sample of early sherds. The current study investigated this trend in greater depth using lipid and isotope analysis to detect the past uses of more than 120 early pottery sherds from coastal and interior/riverine contexts in northwestern Alaska. The dominant character of the residue was compared to results from isotope mixing models and the osteofaunal record to assess cooking practices with regard to patterns of resource use. Results indicate that pottery was used to cook or render oil from primarily marine and freshwater/brackish resources, however caribou processing appears to have been more common in pottery than previously recognized and anadromous fish were less represented than expected, possibly because they tended to be cooked in different ways.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40463.0