Applying Late Pleistocene Archaeological Discovery Models in Southern Alaska: Shorelines, Paleoenvironments, and Predictions from Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The origins of the First Americans have been debated by archaeologists for decades. As increasing evidence emerges supporting the Coastal Migration Theory, greater interest has been directed at the sparse and enigmatic Late Glacial archaeological record of the Northwest Coast. Recent discoveries have demonstrated that, contrary to long-held belief, the Northwest Coast does preserve Late Glacial cultural materials. The challenges to locating such materials, however, are immense given the rugged, dynamic terrain and thick coastal rainforest ecosystems of the region. To overcome these challenges, researchers have developed innovative techniques to create localized predictive models informed by paleoenvironmental proxies using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The success of these predictive models has led to calls for the adoption of similar processes, dubbed Late Pleistocene Archaeological Discovery Models, throughout the broader Northwest Coast. Here I present the results of my own efforts to reconstruct the paleoenvironment and ancient landscape of Hinchinbrook Island, southern Alaska and create my own predictive model to facilitate the discovery of a preserved and accessible Late Glacial archaeological record in Prince William Sound. I will further discuss the success and the modifications I found it necessary to make when applying the Late Pleistocene Archaeological Discovery Model in southern Alaska.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52614