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Encyclopedia of Prehistory
Volume 2: Arctic and Subarctic
 Encyclopedia of Prehistory
General Editors: Peter N. Peregrine and Melvin Ember
Volume 1: Africa
Volume 2: Arctic and Subarctic
Volume 3: East Asia and Oceania
Volume 4: Europe
Volume 5: Middle America
Volume 6: North America
Volume 7: South America
Volume 8: South and Southwest Asia
Volume 9: Cumulative Index
Encyclopedia of Prehistory
Volume 2: Arctic and Subarctic

Edited by

Peter N. Peregrine
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin

and

Melvin Ember
Human Relations Area FileslYale University
New Haven, Connecticut

Published in conjunction with the Human Relations Area Files

at Yale University

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of prehistory/edited by Peter N. Peregrine and Melvin Ember

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. 2. Arctic and subarctic
ISBN 978-1-4684-7129-8 ISBN 978-1-4615-1191-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-1191-5
1. Prehistoric peoples-Encyclopedias. 2. Antiquities, Prehistoric-Encyclopedias.
GN710 .E53 2000
960'.1 '03-dc21 99-049489

ISBN 978-1-4684-7129-8

© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2001

http://www.wkap.nV

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved

A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanicaI, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the
Publisher.
 ADVISORY BOARD

STANLEY H. AMBROSE University of Illinois, Urbana

ROBERT E. ACKERMAN Washington State University
BETTINA ARNOLD University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
RICHARD E. BLANTON Purdue University
UMESH CHATTOPADHYAYA University of Allahabad
JAMES DENBOW University of Texas, Austin
D. BRUCE DICKSON Texas A&M University
TIMOTHY K. EARLE Northwestern University
GARY M. FEINMAN The Field Museum
ANTONIO GILMAN California State University, Northridge
JONATHAN HAAS The Field Museum
MARY HELMS University of North Carolina, Greensboro
WILLIAM F. KEEGAN Florida Museum of Natural History
LAWRENCE H. KEELEY University of Illinois, Chicago
JAIME LITVAK KING Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
PHILIP KOHL Wellesley College
ALEXANDER LESKOV German Archaeological Institute
WILLIAM D. LIPE Washington State University
JOYCE MARCUS University of Michigan
RONALD J. MASON Lawrence University
VINCENT PIGOTT University of Pennsylvania
THOMAS J. RILEY North Dakota State University
ANNA C. ROOSEVELT The Field Museum
JEREMY A. SABLOFF University of Pennsylvania
FRED SMITH Northern Illinois University
ANNE P. UNDERHILL The Field Museum
NIKOLAAS J. VAN DER MERWE Harvard University
RICHARD ZETTLER University of Pennsylvania

The Encyclopedia of Prehistory was prepared under the auspices and with the support of the
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University. The foremost international research
organization in the field of cultural anthropology, HRAF is a nonprofit consortium of 19
Sponsoring Member institutions and more than 400 active and inactive Associate Member
institutions in nearly 40 countries. The mission of HRAF is to provide information that
facilitates the cross-cultural study of human behavior, society, and culture. The HRAF
Collection of Ethnography, which has been building since 1949, contains nearly one million
pages of information, indexed according to more than 700 subject categories, on the cultures of
the world. An increasing portion of the Collection of Ethnography, which now covers more
than 365 cultures, is accessible electronically each year to member institutions. The HRAF
Collection of Archaeology, the first installment of which appeared in 1999, is accessible
electronically each year to those member institutions opting to receiving it. Each year the
Collection of Archaeology adds indexed full-text materials on a random sample of the major
traditions in the Encyclopedia of Prehistory. After a tradition has been included in the
Collection of Archaeology, HRAF plans to add materials on the complete archaeological
sequence relevant to the tradition.
Contribu tors

Robert E. Ackerman David Link

Department of Anthropology Archaeology and Ethnology Section
Washington State University Provincial Museum of Alberta
Pullman, Washington Edmonton, Alberta
United States Canada

Andrew Martindale
Donald Clark
Department of Anthropology
Nepean, Ontario
McMaster University
Canada
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada
Gary Coupland
Department of Anthropology Ronald J. Mason
University of Toronto Department of Anthropology
Toronto, Ontario Lawrence University
Canada Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
Don Dumond
Allen McCartney
Department of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
University of Oregon
University of Arkansas
Eugene, Oregon
Fayetteville, Arkansas
United States
United States

Ted Goebel Robert Park

Department of Anthropology Department of Anthropology
University of Nevada University of Waterloo
Las Vegas, Nevada Waterloo, Ontario
United States Canada

vii
viii Contributors

Peter N. Peregrine Douglas Veltre

Department of Anthropology Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University University of Alaska
Appleton, Wisconsin Anchorage, Alaska
United States United States

Vladimir Pitulko Andrzej Weber

Paleolithic Department Department of Anthropology
Russian Academy of Science University of Alberta
St. Petersburg Edmonton, Alberta
Russia Canada

Sergi Siobodin
Far East Division
Russian Academy of Sciences
Northeastern Interdisciplinary Science
Research Institute
Magadan
Russia
Preface
The Encyclopedia of Prehistory represents
an attempt to provide basic information
on all archaeologically known cultures,
covering the entire globe and the entire
prehistory of humankind. It is designed as
a tool to assist in doing comparative
research on the peoples of the past. Most
of the entries are written by the world's
foremost experts on the particular areas
and time periods.
The Encyclopedia is organized accord-
ing to major traditions. A major tradition
is defined as a group ofpopulations sharing
similar subsistence practices, technology,
and forms of sociopolitical organization,
which are spatially contiguous over a rela-
tively large area and which endure tempo-
rally for a relatively long period. Minimal
areal coverage for a major tradition can
be thought of as something like 100,000
square kilometers, while minimal tempo-
ral duration can be thought of as some-
thing like five centuries. Major traditions
are not quite like cultures in an ethnolog-
ical sense because, in addition to socio-
culturally defining characteristics, major
traditions generally have a more extended
temporal dimension. Major traditions are
also defined by a somewhat different set of
sociocultural characteristics than are eth-
nological cultures. Major traditions are
defined based on common subsistence
practices, sociopolitical organization, and
material industries, but language, ideology,
and kinship ties play little or no part in
their definition because they are virtually
unrecoverable from archaeological con-
texts. In contrast, language, ideology, and
kinship ties are central to defining ethno-
logical cultures.
There are three types of entries in the
Encyclopedia: the major tradition entry,
the regional subtradition entry, and the
site entry. Each contains different types of
information, and each is intended to be
used in a different way. The major tradi-
tion entry is a general summary of infor-
mation about a single major tradition; it
provides descriptive information about
the environment and culture of the people
whose lifeways comprised the tradition.
The major tradition entry lacks formal
references but provides a list of suggested
readings. Although the geographical and
temporal range of the major tradition
entry was stipulated for the authors, they
ix
x Preface

were given the freedom to define regional the topics for which information may be
subtraditions and sites on the basis of presented:
their own interpretations of the archaeo-
Absolute Time Period
logical record. Regional subtradition and
Relative Time Period
site entries, then, focus on archaeological
Location
areas and locales that are conventionally
Diagnostic Material Attributes
distinguished in the archaeological record
Regional Subtraditions
for a given major tradition. The regional
Important Sites
subtradition and site entries provide spe-
Environment
cific information on the unique archaeo-
Climate
logical record of a particular region or a
Topography
particular archaeological site and are fully
Geology
referenced.
Biota
Settlements
Settlement system
How to Use the Encyclopedia Community organization
of Prehistory Housing
Population, health, and disease
How you use the Encyclopedia will differ
Economy
depending on the type of research you are
Subsistence
doing. For most projects, you will want to
Wild foods
begin with the maps at the front of the
Domestic foods
volume. Each map shows the geographi-
Industrial arts
cal range of the major traditions in the
Utensils
volume at a given point in time. You may
Ornaments
consult these maps and find the name(s) of
Trade
major traditions in an area or time period
Division of labor
of interest. The major tradition entries are
Differential access or control of
organized alphabetically, with associated
resources
regional subtradition and site entries fol-
Sociopolitical Organization
lowing immediately after the major tradi-
Social organization
tion entry. It is important to note that
Political organization
although all major traditions have entries
Social control
in the Encyclopedia, not all major tradi-
Conflict
tions have regional subtradition or site
Religion and Expressive Culture
entries associated with them. As noted
Religious beliefs
above, in compiling the Encyclopedia, we
Religious practitioners
allowed the authors to decide whether
Ceremonies
there is enough information in the archae-
Arts
ological record to warrant distinguishing
Death and afterlife
regional subtraditions. Similarly, we al-
Suggested Readings
lowed authors to determine which (if any)
archaeological sites are important enough
to warrant individual entries. Preparing the Encyclopedia
If you have a particular topic of
of Prehistory
interest, you will want to scan the major
tradition entries and use the topical head- To develop the Encyclopedia, we first had
ings to determine which of the major to develop a comprehensive list of major
traditions have information on that par- traditions. To do this, we divided the
ticular topic. Not all major tradition world into eight regions: Africa, the Arctic
entries have information on all topics, and Subarctic, East Asia and Oceania,
but the following is a complete listing of Europe, Middle America, North America,

South America, and Southwest Asia. We
then consulted basic, summary literature
on the prehistory of each region and drew
up a preliminary catalogue of the major
traditions of the world. We sent this pre-
liminary catalogue to our advisory board
for comment and critique and revised the
catalogue according to their suggestions.
The revised catalogue was then sent to
the advisory board for a final review and
critique.
Once the complete list of major tradi-
tions was assembled, we invited recogni-
zed experts on the region and time period
of each major tradition to contribute en-
tries. Solicitations continued until we
found authors for virtually all the major
traditions. In extending these invitations,
we tried whenever possible to first invite
archaeologists from the region of the
major tradition. We are pleased that schol-
ars from more than 20 nations agreed to
contribute to the Encyclopedia. We invited
authors to comment on the definition of
their major tradition and made numerous
substantive changes based on their input.
We also invited authors to contribute
additional entries on important regional
subtraditions and sites for their major
traditions; many, although not all, did so.
We reviewed all completed entries, and, if
there were substantive questions or con-
cerns about a particular entry, we asked
appropriate members of the advisory
board for adjudication.
We have used a fairly light hand
in editing the entries that comprise the
Preface xi
Encyclopedia. Our reasons were twofold:
first, we wanted to maintain the authors'
individual styles, despite the outline we
required them to follow; second, inter-
preting the archaeological record is often
not as empirical and scientific as many of
us would like to believe. Experience with
and knowledge of local variation in the
archaeological record are often critical to
interpretation. Thus we thought it impor-
tant to allow the experts working in a
particular area to advance interpretations
of the archaeological record with which
they are comfortable. We never forced
authors to provide information on a topic
for which they thought there were no
data; nor did we remove statements that
seemed to stretch the available data. In
short, we have let the experts speak in
their own voices.
Acknowledgments
Many people helped in preparing the
Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Carol R. Em-
ber, Executive Director of the Human
Relations Area Files; Eliot Werner, Exec-
utive Editor for the Behavioral and Social
Sciences at Kluwer Academic/Plenum
Publishers; the copyeditor and Herman
Makler and the rest of the production
staff at Kluwer Academic/Plenum Pub-
lishers; and the members of our advisory
board. We thank all of them, and of
course the authors of the entries, for their
help in creating this unique work.
Contents

Aleutian 1 Early Northwest Coast 25

Allen McCartney and Douglas Veltre Peter N. Peregrine

SUBTRADITIONS: Central Aleutian, 4

Eastern Aleutian, 6 Western Aleutian, 7
Agattu, 9 Amaknak D, 9
SITES: Eastern Arctic Small Tool 27
Chaluka, 10 Chulka, 10 Robert Park
Korovinski, 11 Reese Bay, 12 Sandy
Beach Bay, 12 Independence I, 31
SUBTRADITIONS:
Pre-Dorset,34 Saqqaq,37

Amur Neolithic and Bronze SITES:Bettison Point, 39

Deltaterrasserne, 40 Kapuivik, 41
Age 14 Port Refuge, 42
Peter N. Peregrine Qeqertasussuk,43 Umingmak,44

Amur Paleolithic 16 Holocene Stone Age of

Peter N. Peregrine Northeastern Asia 46
Vladimir Pitulko
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and SUBTRADlTlONS: Bel'kachi, 49 Sumnagin,
Bronze Age 18 51 Syalakh, 52 Ymyyakhtakh, 54
David Link and Andrzej Weber SITES: Chertov Ovrag, 56 Zhokhov, 57

Dorset 23 Initial Shield Woodland 59

Peter N. Peregrine Ronald J. Mason

xiii
xiv Contents

Ballynacree, 65 Heron Bay, 65

SITES:
Norton 135
McKinstry Mound I, 66
Naomikong Point, 67 Don Dumond

Choris, 138 Ipiutak,

SUBTRADITIONS:
Kamchatka Mesolithic 69 139 Norton, 142
Sergi Slobodin SITES:Brooks River, 144 Cape
Krusenstern,145 Cape Nome, 146
Choris Peninsula, 147 Iyatatyet, 148
Kodiak 71 Onion Portage, 149 Point Hope, 150

Donald Clark
Ocean Bay 152
SUBTRADITION: Kachemak, 79
Donald Clark
Palugvik, 82
SITES:
Uyak,83 Yukon Island, 85 Inland Alaska Peninsula,
SUBTRADITIONS:
156 Kachemak Bay, 157 Ocean Bay I
and II, 158
Late Northwest Coast 87
SITES:Afognak Slate, 160 Hook Point,
Andrew R.C. Martindale 161 Pedro Bay, 161 Rice Ridge, 162
Sitkalidak Roadcut, 162 Takli, 163
SUBTRADITIONS:Central Northwest Coast,
94 Northern Northwest Coast, 98
Southern Northwest Coast, 101 Ozette, Old Itel'men 165
105 Point S1. George, 107
Sergi Slobodin

Late Tundra 111

Robert E. Ackerman
Paleo-Arctic 167
Peter N. Peregrine

Middle Northwest Coast 116

Proto-Athapaskan 169
Gary Coupland
Donald Clark
Central Northwest Coast,
SUBTRADITIONS:
120 Northern Northwest Coast, 122 SUBTRADITIONS: Talthelilei, 174 Yukon
Dene,175
SITES: Crescent Beach, 125 Paul Mason,
125
Shield Archaic 179
Northern Archaic 127 Peter N. Peregrine
Peter N. Peregrine
Siberian Early Upper
Northwest Microblade 129 Paleolithic 181
Ted Goebel
Donald Clark

SUBTRADITION: Little Arm Phase, 133 SITES: Kara-Bom, 183 Tolbaga, 184
 Contents xv

Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic Siberian Protohistoric 203

186 Peter N. Peregrine
Ted Goebel

Chernoozer'e, 188
SITES: Kokorevo, 189
Tarya Neolithic 205
Studenoe, 190 Sergi Slob odin

Siberian Middle Upper

Thule 208
Paleolithic 192
Robert E. Ackerman
Ted Goebel

SITE: Mal'ta, 195 Western Arctic Small

Tool 213
Siberian Mousterian 197 Don Dumond
Ted Goebel
SUBTRADITIONS: Denbigh Flint,
215 Southern Small Tool, 217
SITE: Okladnikov Cave, 199
SITES:Brooks River, 218 Cape
Krusenstern, 219 Iyatayetl, 220
Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Kuzitrin Lake, 221 Mosquito Lake, 222
Onion Portage, 222 Punyik Point, 223
Age 201
Ted Goebel and Peter N. Peregrine Index 225
Introduction
The Arctic and Subarctic form a common environ-
mental zone that crosses through a number of different
nations, each with individual histories of archaeological
method and practice. Indeed, the Cold War separated
the two major areas of Arctic and Subarctic re-
search-Canada and Siberia-from one another for
more than 40 years, and language differences perpetuate
that divide. At the same time, it is clear that both regions
underwent cultural evolution in relative isolation from
one another despite regular contact across the Bering
Sea. Thus is it reasonable to talk about two major
regions of the Arctic and Subarctic-the North Amer-
ican and North Asian-and to briefly discuss the
prehistory of these two regions as a way of giving context
to the more specific entries that follow in this volume.
North Asian Arctic
Humans first entered the North Asian Arctic during
the Middle Paleolithic era, roughly l30,000 years ago,
and are represented in the Encyclopedia of Prehistory by
the Siberian Mousterian tradition. These Neanderthal
hunters were replaced by anatomically modern humans
of the Siberian Upper Paleolithic sometime around
42,000 years ago. The peoples of the Siberian Early
Upper Paleolithic (42,000-28,000 B.P.), Siberian Middle
Upper Paleolithic (25,000-19,000 B.P.), and Siberian
Late Upper Paleolithic (17,000-11,000 B.P.) were all
nomadic big-game hunters adapted to the changing
environmental conditions of the late Pleistocene and
early Holocene. As the Holocene environment took hold
of the region, populations began to become more
sedentary and to focus on a wider range of resources
in their environment. Thus the peoples of the Siberian
Neolithic and Bronze Age (8000-2100 B.P.) significantly
broadened the range of animals hunted, developed
fishing techniques and technology, and began to exten-
sively collect plant foods of various kinds. They also
incorporated micro lithic technology and ceramics into
their tool kits and, later, metal. In the tundra of
northern Siberia the Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples
were ultimately replaced by nomadic reindeer herders of
the Siberian Protohistoric (2000-500 B.P.) tradition,
peoples who likely migrated north from the Lake Baikal
region some 2000 years ago.
While the Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples of
Siberia began diversifying subsistence, focused hunting
populations remained in the far northeast of Asia and
the far northwest of North America. These peoples of
the Paleo-Arctic (11,000-6000 B.P.) tradition used mi-
croblade technology to hunt large mammals in the arctic
regions of the retreating glacial ice sheets. They were
followed by peoples of the Holocene Stone Age (10,500-
3000 B.P.) tradition who became specialized hunters of
elk and reindeer and developed a micro lithic technology.
To the south, peoples of the Kamchatka Mesolithic
xvii
xviii Introduction
(8000--4000 B.P.) tradition also hunted large mammals,
but in addition drew significant resources from the sea
through fishing and hunting of sea mammals. This
combination of fishing and hunting continued in the
Tarya Neolithic (4000--2500 B.P.) and Old Itel'man
(2500--500 B.P.) traditions. The first ceramics in Kam-
chatka were made during the Tarya Neolithic tradition.
During the Old Itel'man tradition some large, semised-
entary communities were developed and the first metal
tools were introduced into the region.
North Asian Subarctic
In the Siberian subarctic, the emergence of Holocene
environments also saw populations broaden their sub-
sistence base and begin using plants and fish as
important resources. The region surrounding and north
of Lake Baikal saw peoples of the Cis-Baikal Neolithic
and Bronze Age (8000--3000 B.P.) develop an economy
based on hunting both large and small game and
spearing fish in the rivers and lakes of the region while
living in small, nomadic bands. Like neighboring
traditions from this same general time period, the Cis-
Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples employed a
micro lithic technology and also developed ceramics.
People living in the eastern Siberian subarctic,
particularly in the area between the Amur river and
the coast of the Tartar strait, developed a unique set of
adaptations to their rich environment. During the late
Pleistocene, the Amur Paleolithic (30,000--12,000 B.P.)
peoples lived, like their neighbors to the north, as
nomadic big-game hunters. Their descendants, the
peoples of the Amur Neolithic and Bronze Age
(12,000--1500 B.P.) tradition, established a broad-spec-
trum hunting-gathering-fishing economy based in large,
sedentary villages, particularly along the seacoast. They
may have begun to supplement their diet with domes-
ticated plants and animals around 4000 B.P., but the
evidence is not conclusive. They also developed ceramics
and, by the end of the tradition, incorporated metals
into their tool kit.
North American Arctic
Peoples of the Paleo-Arctic tradition first inhabited
the North American arctic sometime before 10,000 B.P.
They quickly spread eastward across the arctic, living as
nomadic hunters of arctic land and sea mammals. To
their south, the peoples of the Late Tundra (8000--
6000 B.P.) and Northern Archaic (6000--4500 B.P.) tradi-
tions developed an economy focused on exploiting the
large herds of caribou that ranged across the North
American tundra. The Late Tundra peoples used a
microlithic technology, while the Northern Archaic
peoples did not. They appear to have emphasized fishing
more than their predecessors as well.
In the high arctic the peoples of the Eastern Arctic
Small Tool (4000--2700 B.P.) and Western Arctic Small
Tool (4700--2500 B.P.) traditions, descendants of the
Paleo-Arctic peoples, continued a subsistence regime
focused on the nomadic hunting. Both developed unique
microlithic tool kits. Peoples of the Eastern Arctic Small
Tool tradition hunted both land and sea mammals,
while peoples of the Western Arctic Small Tool tradition
focused on inland resources, particularly salmon and
caribou.
The Western Arctic Small Tool tradition was
followed by the Norton (3000--1000 B.P.) tradition and
then the Thule (2100--100 B.P.) tradition, which is
associated with the direct ancestors of contemporary
Inuit peoples. The Norton peoples were the first in the
region to make ceramics, and appear to have made more
extensive use of ocean resources than their ancestors.
The Thule peoples continued this emphasis on hunting
both marine and terrestrial mammals. Peoples of all
three traditions appear to have aggregated into large
seasonal villages and then dispersed into smaller family
groups during the course of a year. Social and political
organization for all three appears to be based on
individual families.
The Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition was fol-
lowed by the Dorset (2800--700 B.P.) tradition. Peoples
of the Dorset tradition lived in small, nomadic groups
subsisting on arctic land and marine mammals, employ-
ing a uniquely elegant microlithic technology. The peo-
ples of the Dorset tradition were displaced by people of
the Thule tradition beginning about 1000 B.P.
Along the coast and among the islands of what is
today the Gulf of Alaska, two unique traditions
developed following the Paleo-Arctic tradition-Ocean
Bay (8000--4000 B.P.) and Kodiak (4000--700 B.P.). Peo-
ples of both traditions were strongly oriented to the sea
and subsisted primarily on marine mammals and fish,
and lived in sedentary coastal villages. Peoples of the
Ocean Bay tradition employed microlithic technology,
while peoples of the Kodiak tradition developed tog-
gling harpoons and an extensive slate industry. In what
is today the Aleutian islands, a similarly unique tradi-
tion developed-the Aleutian (5500--250 B.P.) tradi-
tion. Like the Ocean Bay and Kodiak peoples, people
of the Aleutian tradition focused subsistence on the
sea. They lived in sedentary coastal villages and
employed a distinctive chipped and ground stone tool
kit.

North American Subarctic
In the western subarctic, the Northwest Microblade
(7000-2000 B.P.) tradition begins the sequence of cul-
tural evolution. Peoples of the Northwest Microblade
tradition practiced what appears to be a broad-spectrum
regime of hunting, fishing, and gathering, using micro-
lithic technology. They lived in small and apparently
nomadic groups. These people were followed by the
peoples of the Proto-Athapaskan (2000-150 B.P.) tradi-
tion, peoples whose broad-spectrum hunting-fishing-
gathering lifeways, which included seasonal communal
gatherings, survived into the historic period.
In the eastern subarctic, peoples of the Shield Ar-
chaic (6000-3000 B.P.) tradition developed a broad-
spectrum hunting and gathering lifeway, with a focus
on caribou and fish. They lived in small nomadic
groups, and were the first to exploit the region's rich
copper deposits for tools. They were followed by peoples
of the Initial Shield Woodland (2160-600 B.P.) tradition,
who emphasized a broad-spectrum subsistence strategy
similar to the Shield Archaic peoples, but also manu-
factured ceramics.
Finally, along the coast of the Bering Sea the peoples
of Early Northwest Coast (9500-5500 B.P.) tradition
developed an economy based on the exploitation of sea
mammals and fish. The Early Northwest Coast tradition
developed into the Middle Northwest Coast (5500-
1500 B.P.) tradition, characterized by the emergence of
sedentary villages along the coast. By 1500 B.P. the Late
Northwest Coast (1500-200 B.P.) tradition had devel-
oped, which is associated with the historic peoples of the
Northwest Coast. These peoples lived in a large seden-
tary villages composed of numerous multifamily houses
and headed by powerful chiefs.
Summary
The Arctic and Subarctic were colonized by big
game hunters of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene,
and many aspects of their cultures appear to have
continued throughout prehistory. Hunting-fishing-gath-
ering economies dominated the region in prehistory, and
life in small, nomadic or seminomadic groups was
typical. With this in mind it is interesting that coastal
populations on both sides of the northern Pacific Ocean
developed sedentary and apparently more socially and
politically complex cultures than other groups in the
region. A major factor may have been their heavy
reliance on marine resources, an emphasis which
allowed a degree of sedentism that was not possible
elsewhere in the region. While it is true that over time
Introduction xix
inland populations in both North America and northern
Asia tended to become more efficient at exploiting a
broad range of plant and animal resources, allowing
them to remain sedentary at least seasonally, inland
populations never achieved the range of material culture
or sociopolitical complexity found among peoples on
both coastlines. Finally, the populations of the high
arctic developed sophisticated adaptations to the harsh
environment very early in prehistory, adaptations that
have in many ways continued to today. These include a
focus on caribou or reindeer (ultimately domesticated in
northern Asia) and marine mammals, and a sociopolit-
ical organization that combines a highly nomadic
lifestyle with seasonal communal gatherings.
A Word about the Entries
While the above summary may suggest a uniform
knowledge of the archaeological record across the entire
Arctic and Subarctic, nothing could be farther from the
truth. Some traditions have been the focus of intensive
research, while others have gained the interest of only a
few scholars. For example, we seem to know consider-
ably more about the very early prehistory of Siberia
(Siberian Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic traditions)
than we do about the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
Similarly, while there has been intensive research on
coastal populations in the North American arctic,
comparatively little research has been done on inland
groups. The reasons for this variation are often difficult
to ascertain, but have to do with accessibility, the
personal interests of the researchers, and larger ques-
tions being asked by the community of archaeologists,
in addition to legislated historic preservation interests.
This summary may also make it appear that the
prehistory of the Arctic and Subarctic can be easily cut
up into discrete chunks. It cannot. As we discuss in the
Preface to this volume, the units we designed to organize
the Encyclopedia of Prehistory-major archaeological
traditions-are to some extent arbitrary, and they are
most certainly meaningless in the context of the lives of
the prehistoric peoples themselves. They are devices of
our creation, in the present day, to make possible the
comparative analysis of the peoples of the past. Thus,
when I say, for example, that the Western Arctic Small
Tool tradition was followed by the Norton tradition, it
should not be taken to imply that the break between the
two is clear and discrete, or that all people changed in
exactly the same ways at precisely the same time. Nor
should such a statement imply that there was a
population replacement between the two traditions.
More important, such a statement should not be taken
xx Introduction
to imply that the peoples of either tradition knew they
were living in any sort of unity with other people who
we, from our perspective today, suggest they shared a
common archaeological tradition.
Any undertaking this massive will face goals that
cannot be met. We had hoped to commission many of
the entries in this volume from scholars at Russian
institutions in order to give their work a wider audience
in the English-speaking world. While we were able to
forge agreements with a number of outstanding Russian
scholars, we found both differences in language and,
more important, differences in archaeological practice
(specifically, issues surrounding the control of particular
bodies of archaeological knowledge and how they are
presented) made such agreements impossible to reach
with some scholars. Thus, the volume is dominated by
scholars from the United States and Canada. This does
not imply that the information they provide is flawed or
inadequate, only that we did not achieve our goal of
offering Russian scholars the chance to describe the
prehistory of the regions in which they work.
We also failed to achieve complete participation
from those scholars who did agree to write entries
for the Encyclopedia of Prehistory. Conflicting sched-
ules, miscommunication, and unforeseen circumstances
forced a number of scholars to miss our deadlines or
withdraw from contributing. In those cases I produced
(often with generous assistance from other scholars and
members of the editorial board) what I call "minimalist"
entries which provide basic information on major
traditions and bibliographical source material for fur-
ther research. These entries, while checked and ap-
proved by regional experts, were not written by an
expert, and should, perhaps, be approached more
critically than other entries in the volume.
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Proto-Athapaskan

~Q

(1) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 1000 B.P.
 Siberian Protohistoric
~

Baikal Neolithic and Bronze

&;

(2) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 2000 B.P.
Norton

(3) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 3000 B.P.
~ Siberian Neolithic and Bronze

Baikal Neolithic and Bronze

&J

(4) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 4000 B.P.
Northern Archaic

Shield Archaic

\\ ~
(5) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 5000 B.P.
Northern Archaic

Shield Archaic

(6) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 6000 B.P.
 Paleo-Arctic

Late Tundra

(7) The North American Arctic showing major traditions at 8000 B.P.
 Siberian Protohistoric

<11°

,
(9) The Asian Arctic showing major traditions at 2000 B.P.
 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze
~

(10) The Asian Arctic showing major traditions at 4000 B.P.

r;/
~

Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic

(12) The Asian Arctic showing major traditions at 12,000 B.P.

 I
./
-
C
ta
'~
en
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ta
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Aleutian
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 6000-250 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD:Follows the Paleo-Arctic tradition;
precedes the historic period of the ethnographically
known Aleut culture.
LOCATION: The end of the Alaska peninsula from Port
Moller westward, the Shumagin islands, and the entire
Aleutian islands archipelago.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Diverse lithic and
bone tool industry. Stone tools are mostly unifacially
or bifacially retouched and include projectile points,
knives, scrapers, and adzes. Other stone tools include
pecked stone oil lamps, fishing sinkers, and ground
stone knives. Bone tools include wedges, unilaterally
and bilaterally barbed bone spear and harpoon points,
and bird-bone needles and awls.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Central Aleutian, Eastern
Aleutian, Western Aleutian.
IMPORTANT SITES: Agattu, Amaknak D, Chaluka,
Chulka, Korovinski, Reese Bay, Sandy Beach Bay.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The region has a subarctic maritime climate,
with average summer highs around 10 °C and average
winter lows around 0 DC. Low pressure centers follow
the Aleutian storm track from west to east along the
island chain every several days, resulting in nearly
continuous sky cover, high winds, and storms. Ocean
temperatures are cold throughout the year, but winter
sea ice is absent in the region.
Topography. There are over 70 islands in the 1600-km-
long Aleutian islands archipelago. Lying close only to
the Alaska mainland of the Alaska peninsula, these
islands are among the most isolated areas of human
habitation in the world. Land forms are quite varied
both in the Aleutian islands and on the Alaska penin-
sula. Volcanic peaks, some rising to nearly 3000 m,
dominate many islands and form a mountainous back-
bone of the Alaska peninsula, although there are also
extensive areas of low, rolling hills. Coastlines are often
highly convoluted, with rocky and rugged beaches and
high cliffs descending to the shoreline in many places.
Extensive intertidal bedrock strand fiats occur in places
around the coasts of some of the islands. Large lakes are
1
2 Aleutian
rare, but small ponds are common. Streams are usually
short and steep.
Geology. The Aleutian islands have been produced
through geologically recent volcanic activity and uplift
at the margin of the Pacific and North American
tectonic plates, where subduction occurs. At least 26
of the approximately 60 volcanoes in the region (part of
the Pacific ocean's "ring of fire") have been active in the
last 250 years. Seismic activity is common throughout
the area. In addition to predominant basalts and other
igneous rocks, some metamorphic and sedimentary
materials are also present, having been transported
and uplifted through plate tectonics.
Biota. The vegetation in the region is a subarctic
tundra, dominated by grasses, sedges, lichens, ferns,
and crowberries. Except for dwarf species of birch and
willow, trees are absent. Higher elevations have frequent
exposed bedrock, whereas coastal margins often exhibit
relatively lush grasses. Foxes are native to the eastern
portion of the Aleutian islands. Other land animals are
absent except for the Alaska peninsula and the first
island in the archipelago, Unimak island, where caribou,
bear, and other species common to mainland Alaska are
present. The waters surrounding the islands are rich in
marine mammals, fish, and pelagic birds, and the coastal
margins abound in invertebrates and many species of
waterfowl.
Settlements
Settlement System. Settlements were located exclusively
at or very close to the ocean coast. Areas having
relatively easy access to the sea were preferred, as were
places with good visibility in several directions. Al-
though only about 5 percent of the Aleutian islands
coastline is suitable for establishing settlements, the
great number of sites throughout the region testifies to
the ability of the ecosystem to support a large precontact
native population. Winter villages may have been
occupied year round by some community members,
but Aleuts also used seasonal subsistence camps at
strategic hunting and fishing locales. Settlements varied
greatly in size, from only one or two to dozens of
multifamily houses.
Community Organization. Aleut settlements were not
laid out with any particular plan. At most locales,
houses were all of one style, and there were no apparent
community houses or special work areas. At some
settlements, distinct adjacent burial areas (hillsides or
coastal caves) were maintained for the interment of
certain, probably high-ranking, individuals. The multi-
ple villages in a large bay may have reflected a sociopo-
litical hierarchy, with those settlements having access to
the greatest abundance of food resources being most
important.
Housing. Houses were semi subterranean, with walls and
roofs made of a framework of driftwood, stone, and
whale bone, over which a layer of sod was placed. Most
houses were single-room structures with no windows or
doors. Instead, entry and exit were accomplished by
using a notched pole ladder connecting the central floor
with a hole in the roof. Houses varied considerably in
size; the house depressions visible on the surface of
archaeological sites range from 3 by 4 m to 7 by 40 m in
size. Additionally, a few houses, termed longhouses, were
both longer and more complex than the rest, having
multiple side rooms attached through narrow passage-
ways to the main floor of the house. Some of these
longhouses cover a total area of 30 by 50 m.
Population, Health, and Disease. At historic contact
(A.D. 1741), the Aleut popUlation was likely 12,000-
15,000, although rapid postcontact population decline
and poor historical records make this number somewhat
uncertain. All islands having land suitable for settlement
exhibit evidence of village and camp sites. Compared
with some other circumpolar indigenous peoples, the
Aleut population was healthy and long lived, primarily
because of rich subsistence resources.
Economy
Subsistence. The Aleut subsistence economy was fo-
cused on the sea as the direct or indirect provider of
nearly all food and fabricational resources. Less than
5 percent of all food came from plants. Because many
collectible resources were available in the intertidal
zone along the beach, all members of an Aleut com-
munity-young and old alike--could procure signifi-
cant amounts of food. Men did all the open-sea hunting
and fishing, while women, children, and the elderly did
much of the collecting and assisted with shore-based
fishing. Hunting and fishing technology included the
use of skin-covered kayak-style boats, larger open skin
boats, spears and harpoons propelled with spear throw-
ers, fish leisters, fishhooks, specialized bird spears, and
other related items. Collecting technology included
digging sticks, woven grass baskets, and skin and gut
containers.

Wild Foods. Major categories of wild foods included
marine invertebrates (such as sea urchins, chitons,
limpets, and octopus), marine mammals (such as harbor
seals, sea lions, sea otters, and whales), fish (especially
cod, halibut, and salmon), birds (such as various ducks
and geese, puffins, cormorants, and murres), eggs
(particularly from seagulls, eider ducks, and murres),
and plants (such as various berries, edible roots, and
wild celery). Although some important foods were
seasonal (e.g., salmon, geese, fur seals, and eggs), many
other foods (including most marine mammals) were
available throughout the year.
Industrial Arts. The technology of the Aleutian tradi-
tion was based on stone and bone tools and the use of
driftwood and animal products. Basic stone and bone
working was apparently undertaken by most individu-
als. For the most part, raw materials were gathered
locally, including from the animals also consumed as
food, although a few noncritical manufacturing items,
such as amber and birch bark, were imported from other
areas of the region or from outside the region.
Utensils. Common utensils included chipped stone tools
(like hafted knives, scrapers, adzes, and projectile
points), pecked stone tools (like oil lamps and fishing
sinkers), and some ground stone tools (like knives).
Other common items included carved bone tools (like
whale bone splitting wedges, bilaterally and unilaterally
barbed harpoon and spear points, socket pieces, sewing
needles, awls for skin working, and fishhooks). Pottery
was absent in the Aleutian tradition, but carved stone
bowls were used. Grasses were woven into mats and a
wide variety of small and large collecting and storage
baskets.
Ornaments. Aleuts created various facial ornaments,
including ivory and bone pins worn through the nasal
septum, amber and lignite beads worn on the ears and as
pendants from the nasal septum, and stone and ivory
labrets worn through holes in the cheek beneath the
corners of the mouth. Facial decoration was also
achieved through tattooing, especially on the cheeks
and chin. Other objects of personal ornamentation
included sea mammal teeth grooved to be worn as
pendants.
Trade. All necessary resources for survival were avail-
able locally throughout the Aleutian islands. Neverthe-
less, some scarce natural resources were traded, their
possession probably indicative of relative high status
and wealth. These items included obsidian, a volcanic
Aleutian 3
glass known to have been obtained at only a few
locations in the region, and amber, also of limited
occurrence, as well as such exotic materials as bark, the
origin of which had to have been well outside the Aleut
area on the Alaskan mainland.
Division of Labor. There is no evidence for significant
specialization of labor in the Aleutian tradition. Most
division of labor appears to have been along age and
gender lines, with men undertaking most hunting and
manufacturing activities and women conducting most
household tasks, collecting activities, and weaving.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. Access to
resources varied according to settlement location, with
villages deeper in bays having fewer and/or less abun-
dant resources close to home. The extent to which
resources were actually controlled by any entity, how-
ever, is not well known.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Ethnohistoric evidence about the
early contact period indicates that Aleut culture was
ranked, with individuals of greatest wealth and kin
support having the highest rank. At the opposite end of
the spectrum were slaves, Aleuts and Eskimos acquired
through warfare. Extended family households were
likely the primary economic unit, and descent groups,
possibly based on matrilineal principles, linked house-
holds in and between villages, required exogamous
marriages, structured child-rearing practices, and for-
med the basis of wealth and prestige.
Political Organization. Leaders existed at several levels
in Aleut society. Day-to-day subsistence activities were
guided by influential household leaders, whereas those
less frequent activities that required the coordinated
efforts of an entire community were overseen by a
village-wide leader or leaders. On rare occasions, influ-
ential men emerged to direct regional groups of villages.
The regional political alliances documented at Russian
contact have not yet been documented through archae-
ological means for earlier periods.
Social Control. In the absence of leaders with actual
power, social control was most likely achieved through
positive and negative social sanctions, the latter includ-
ing ridicule, banishment, and possibly death.
Conflict. In the Aleutian tradition, warfare, mostly in
the form of small-scale raids, took place both within
4 Aleutian
the Aleut regIOn as well as between Aleuts and their
Eskimo neighbors to the east on the Alaska peninsula
and Kodiak island. Some distinctive bilaterally barbed
bone projectile points may have been manufactured
primarily or exclusively for use in such warfare. Bows
and arrows were also used in warfare. Aleuts main-
tained special sites, often on offshore islets, at which
local populations sought refuge in times of enemy
attack.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Aleutian tradition religious beliefs
were animistic, with a belief in the existence of hu-
man, animal, and place spirits. Although all the various
modes of burial testified to a belief in a spiritual afterlife,
nowhere was this more clearly manifest than in those
burials placed in caves and rock overhangs; according to
early contact period sources, these mummies were
visited by hunters and others to benefit from the powers
that the remains still possessed. Likewise, because the
spirits of slain enemies were potentially dangerous,
bodies needed to be dismembered to render these powers
harmless. Carved stone and ivory human figurines,
thought by some archaeologists to represent spiritual
entities, may have played some part in conveying
religious beliefs.
Religious Practicioners. As reported from the early
contact period, part-time magical and religious spe-
cialists, shamans, are known to have foretold the fu-
ture, cured the sick, and brought good luck in raids
on enemies. Shamanism is not well represented in the
archaeological record of the Aleutian tradition, how-
ever.
Arts. Aleuts had rich and varied artIstIc traditions.
These included decorated utilitarian objects-such as
incised bone harpoon points, carved and painted bent-
wood visors, wooden bowls, and finely woven grass
baskets-and ceremonial items-such as carved and
painted wood masks. On all objects, decorative motifs
included circle-and-dot, spiral, and other geometric
forms as well as animal and other naturalistic represen-
tations.
Death and Afterlife. A variety of means of disposal of
deceased individuals supports the notion that rank was
an important aspect of Aleut life. At the most extra-
vagant, some men, women, and children were placed in
rock overhangs or caves, clothed and surrounded by
artifacts of everyday life. These individuals had their
internal organs removed and replaced by dried grass and
moss, and the relatively dry cave environments have
often preserved such mummies very well. Other individ-
uals were interred in wooden burial structures and small
mound burials close to their villages, and still others
were buried in simple pits in midden areas adjacent to
their houses.
Suggested Readings
Aigner, Jean S. (1966). "Bone Tools and Decorative Motifs from
Chaluka, Umnak Island." Arctic Anthropology 3 (2): 57-83.
Denniston, Glenda B. (1966). "Cultural Change at Chaluka, Umnak
Island: Stone Artifacts and Features." Arctic Anthropology 3 (2):
84-124.
Lantis, Margaret (1970). "The Aleut Social System, 1750 to 1810, from
Early Historical Sources." In Ethnohistory in Southwestern Alaska
and the Southern Yukon, ed. M. Lantis. Lexington: University of
Kentucky Press, 139-301.
Lantis, Margaret (1984). "Aleut." In Handbook of North American
Indians: Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 161-184.
Laughlin, William S. (1980). Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land
Bridge. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
McCartney, Allen P. (1984). "Prehistory of the Aleutian Region."
In Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic, ed. D. Damas.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 119-135.
Veniaminov, Ivan (1984). Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District.
Kingston: Limestone Press.
SUBTRADITIONS
Central Aleutian
TIME PERIOD: 4600-250 B.P.
LOCATION: The 800-km-Iong middle portion of the
Aleutian islands, including the Andreanof islands,
the Delarof islands, and the Rat islands groups. Includes
the major islands of, from east to west, Amlia, Atka,
Adak, Kanaga, Tanaga, Amchitka, and Kiska.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Although some stylistic
variation occurs, bone and lithic artifact types are
generally similar to those throughout the entire Aleutian
tradition region.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The climate in the Central Aleutian region is
dominated by the maritime environment of the North

Pacific ocean and Bering sea. As such, it is generally
mild, with relatively warm winters and cool summers.
Frequent storms result in almost constant sky cover and
substantial winds. Rough oceans surround the islands,
and, although cold, winter sea ice is absent. Individual
islands vary considerably in land forms, with low and
rolling terrain as well as rugged mountains throughout
the region (Gard 1977). Active volcanoes dominate the
topography of most islands, and earthquake activity is
frequent. Coastlines vary considerably, with many rocky
headlands and rugged beaches. Significant land fauna
are absent in the Central Aleutian region, but the sea
supports abundant marine mammals, fish, birds, and
invertebrates (Merritt and Fuller 1977).
Settlements
Central Aleutian settlements include both year-
round base villages and a range of seasonal resource-spe-
cific subsistence-procurement settlements (McCartney
1977, 1984). All sites are located along the coast at
areas of easy access to the sea. This is exemplified by
Amchitka island, the only island to have been com-
pletely surveyed archaeologically, where all of the 78
reported sites ring the coast of the island (Desau-
tels et al. 1971). An estimate of the precontact popula-
tion of the Central Aleutian region is 4000-5000
people (Laughlin 1972). Houses were one-room semi-
subterranean structures, generally built to be home to
a few related families. Unlike some of the houses of
the Eastern Aleutian region, in the Central Aleutians
houses were of simple oval or sub rectangular floor plan
and lacked side rooms or attached storage areas
(Cook et al. 1972; Veltre 1979; Veltre and McCartney
1988).
Economy
Because only a few resources were available on land,
the subsistence economy of the Central Aleutian region
was directed almost exclusively toward resources of the
sea and coastal margins. The most important categories
of food and fabricational items included marine mam-
mals (like harbor seals, sea otters, and sea lions), birds
(like murres, puffins, ducks, and geese), fish (like cod,
halibut, and salmon), and marine invertebrates (such as
sea urchin, mussel, octopus, and clam) (McCartney
1977; Veltre 1998). The task of hunting marine mam-
mals and birds at sea fell exclusively to men, who used
skin-covered kayak-style boats to get close enough to
harpoon and spear the various animals. Other resources,
Aleutian 5
however, could be procured by both men and women,
young and old (Laughlin 1980). Furthermore, many
food resources also served as important sources of fab-
ricational materials; for example, sea lion bones were
used to make harpoons, skins were used to cover boats,
intestines were used to fashion rain garments, and so on.
Land foods, including berries and edible plants, prob-
ably amounted to only about 5 percent of the total diet.
Other land resources included grass for weaving mats
and baskets and stone for manufacturing various flaked
tools.
Sociopolitical Organization
Like Aleuts elsewhere, it has been suggested that
those of the Central Aleutian islands were organized into
matrilineal descent groups (Lantis 1970). Aleut society
was ranked, with those at the top of the hierarchy having
greater wealth, a broad base of local family support,
better access to important subsistence resources, and
valued personal traits. At the opposite end of the
spectrum were slaves-war captives from other Aleut
or non-Aleut areas. Leadership was most important at
the household level, where issues of daily life were
decided on. Less frequently, leadership was exercised at a
community level when villagewide matters arose. Larger
political alliances incorporating a number of villages
likely existed, although the manner in which they
functioned is not clear. Aleuts of the Central Aleutian
region engaged in small-scale raiding against Aleuts to
both the east and the west.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious beliefs of Aleuts in the Central Aleutians
were animistic: the world, including humans, animals,
and places, was imbued with spiritual entities. The care
with which deceased relatives and friends were buried
attests to a belief in a spiritual afterlife. In some cases,
individuals of particularly potent spiritual power were
interred in special caves along the coast, and hunters
and warriors would visit them to gain strength or
information from the power they retained (Laughlin
1980).
References
Cook, John P., E. James Dixon Jr., and Charles E. Holmes (1972).
Archaeological Report, Site 49 Rat 32, Amchitka Island, Alaska. Las
Vegas: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
6 Aleutian
Desautels, Roger J., Albert J. McCurdy, James D. Flynn, and Robert
R. Ellis (1971). Archaeological Report, Amchitka Island, Alaska,
1969-1970. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
Gard, Leonard M., Jr. (1977). "Geologic history." In The Environment
of Amchitka Island, Alaska, ed. M. L. Merritt and R. G. Fuller.
Washington, D.C.: u.S. Department of Commerce, 13-34.
Lantis, Margaret (1970). "The Aleut Social System, 1750 to 1810, from
Early Historical Sources." In Ethnohistory in Southwestern Alaska
and the Southern Yukon, ed. M. Lantis. Lexington: University of
Kentucky Press, 139-301.
Laughlin, William S. (1972). "Ecology and Population Structure in the
Arctic." In The Structure of Human Population, ed. G. A. Harrison,
and A. J. Boyce. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 379-392.
Laughlin, William S. (1980). Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land
Bridge". New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
McCartney, Allen P. (1977). "Prehistoric Human Occupation of the
Rat Islands." In The Environment of Amchitka Island, Alaska, ed.
M. L. Merritt and R. G. Fuller. Springfield, VA: U.S. Department
of Commerce, 59-113.
McCartney, Allen P. (1984). "Prehistory of the Aleutian Region." In
Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic, ed. D. Damas.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 119-135.
Merritt, Melvin L., and R. Glen Fuller, eds. (1977). The Environment
of Amchitka Island, Alaska, Springfield, VA: U.S. Department of
Commerce.
Veltre, Douglas W. (1979). "Korovinski: The Ethnohistorical Archae-
ology of an Aleut and Russian Settlement on Atka Island, Alaska."
Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology, University of Connect-
icut, Storrs.
Veltre, Douglas W. (1998). "Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations in the
Western and Central Aleutian Islands, Alaska." Arctic Anthropology
35 (I): 223-233.
Veltre, Douglas W., and Allen P. McCartney (1988). "Aleut
House Forms: A Review of Archaeological and Ethnohistoric
Data." Paper presented at Alaska Anthropological Association,
Fairbanks.
Eastern Aleutian
TIME PERIOD: 5500-250 B.P.
LOCATION: The eastern portion of the Aleutian islands,
including the Fox and Krenitzin islands groups, the end
of the Alaskan peninsula from Port Moller westward,
and the Shumagin islands group south of the Alaska
peninsula. Includes the major islands of Unimak, Akun,
Akutan, Unalaska, and Umnak.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Although most bone
and lithic artifacts are similar to those throughout the
entire Aleutian tradition region, house forms in some
areas of the Eastern Aleutian subtradition are both
larger and more complex than any reported elsewhere in
the Aleutian tradition.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The climate in the Eastern Aleutian region is
determined largely by its maritime environment. Warm
winters and cool summers are the norm. Storms are
frequent, as are sky cover and strong winds. Waters of
the Bering sea and the Pacific ocean are cold and often
treacherous, but winter sea ice is found only occasion-
ally in the extreme eastern portion of the region. The
islands and mainland of the Eastern Aleutian area are
mostly volcanic in origin, with active volcanoes present
throughout the region. The land is mostly mountainous,
with rugged coastlines. On the Alaska peninsula and
Unimak island, mainland fauna, including caribou,
bear, and fox, are present. Except for fox and lemming,
the remaining islands are devoid of land fauna. Abun-
dant marine mammals, seabirds, waterfowl, ocean and
anadromous fish, and marine invertebrates are found
throughout the region.
Settlements
All the settlements of the Eastern Aleutian region
are found on or close to the ocean coasts. They include
both year-round base villages and a range of satellite
settlements for the procurement of seasonally available
subsistence resources (Aigner et al. 1976; McCartney
1984). Laughlin (1972) has estimated that the Eastern
Aleutian region was home to some 8000-10,000 Aleuts
at the time of Russian contact. One of the most
distinctive features of the Eastern Aleutian sub tradition
is that in some areas house forms are larger and more
complex than the oval or subrectangular houses of the
Central Aleutian or Western Aleutian regional subtra-
ditions. At the Reese bay site on Unalaska island, for
example, the two largest semisubterranean longhouses
known from the entire region have been reported
(McCartney et al. 1991). The central floor of the larger
Reese bay longhouse is 45 m long and 6 m wide; from
this floor, passageways through the wall lead to at least
10 side rooms situated along the length of the structure.
Such a longhouse may well have been home to 100 or
more people. Similarly complex houses, although smaller
and with a different floor plan, have been found at sites
on Unimak island and on the Alaska peninsula. It has
been suggested (Townsend 1980) that the Eastern
Aleutians region was experiencing incipient social strat-
ification in the late prehistoric period, and such elabo-
rate longhouses may reflect this increasing social
complexity.

Economy
Throughout most of the Eastern Aleutian region, the
bulk of Aleut food resources came directly or indirectly
from the sea. These resources included marine mammals
(like harbor seals, sea otters, and sea lions), birds (like
murres, puffins, ducks, and geese), fish (like cod, halibut,
and salmon), and marine invertebrates (like sea urchins,
mussels, octopus, and clams) (McCartney 1974). On the
easternmost island, Unimak, as well as on the Alaska
peninsula, additional fauna common to mainland Alaska
was available, including caribou and bear. Men did
almost all the ocean hunting for mammals and birds,
using kayak-style skin-covered boats and spears and
harpoons thrown with atlatls. Other procurement tech-
nology included fishhooks, pointed bone digging sticks,
and woven grass collecting baskets (Aigner 1966;
Denniston 1966). The multifamily household was the
most important unit of economic cooperation and
sharing.
Sociopolitical Organization
Lantis (1970) has suggested that Aleuts were orga-
nized into matrilineal descent groups that governed
marriage and living arrangements. Rank was also
important, with those of highest rank being individuals
and their families who had the greatest wealth, the best
access to subsistence resource areas, and the most local
kin support. At the lowest end of the scale were slaves,
who were war captives. As noted above, it has been
postulated (Townsend 1980) that the rank system of
the Eastern Aleutian region was evolving into one of
actual social stratification in the late prehistoric period.
This transition might have l?een the result of a relatively
large Aleut population intensifying its subsistence
economy.
Religion and Expressive Culture
As elsewhere in the Aleutian tradition region, Ale-
uts of the Eastern Aleutian region had an animistic
belief system. This held that the various human, ani-
mal, and physical entities in the world were imbued
with spirits and that successful life demanded placa-
tion of these spiritual forces (Laughlin 1980). Part-time
shamans mediated between the everyday world and
that of spirits, foretelling the future, bringing good luck
in hunting, or ensuring a successful raid on one's
enemies. These beliefs are difficult to document archae-
ologically, but certainly include the elaborate cave
burials of the Eastern Aleutian region, in which certain,
Aleutian 7
presumably high ranking, Aleut men, women, and
children were interred, dressed and accompanied by
hunting and other personal goods (Hrdlicka 1945). Such
mummies were thought to possess substantial spiritual
powers.
References
Aigner, Jean S. (1996). "Bone Tools and Decorative Motifs from
Chaluka, Umnak Island." Arctic Anthropology 3 (2): 57-83.
Aigner, Jean S., Bruce Fullem, Douglas Veltre, and Mary
Veltre (1976). "Preliminary Reports on Remains from Sandy
Beach Bay, a 4300--5600 B.P. Aleut Village." Arctic Anthropology
13 (2): 83-90.
Denniston, Glenda B. (1966). "Cultural Change at Chaluka, Umnak
Island: Stone Artifacts and Features." Arctic Anthropology 3 (2): 84-
124.
Hrdlicka, Ales (1945). The Aleutian and Commander islands and Their
Inhabitants. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Physio-
logy.
Laughlin, William S. (1972). "Ecology and Population Structure in the
Arctic." In The Structure of Human Population ed. G. A. Harrison,
and A. J. Boyce. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 379-392.
Laughlin, William S. (1980). Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land
Bridge. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
McCartney, Allen P. (1974). "Maritime Adaptations on the North
Pacific Rim." Arctic Anthropology II (supp!.): 153-162.
McCartney, Allen P. (1984). "Prehistory of the Aleutian Re-
gion." In Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic, ed. D.
Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
119-135.
McCartney, Allen P., Douglas W. Veltre, Lydia T. Black, and Jean S.
Aigner (1991). "Unalaska Archaeology and History Project: Report
of Operations." Unpublished manuscript, University of Alaska,
Fairbanks.
Townsend, Joan B. (1980). "Ranked Societies of the Alaskan Pacific
Rim." In Alaska Native Culture and History. Osaka, Japan:
National Museum of Ethnology, 123-156.
Western Aleutian
TIME PERIOD: 3500-250 B.P.
LOCATION: The Near islands groups of the Western
Aleutian islands. Includes the major islands of Attu,
Agattu, and Shemya.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Most types of bone
and lithic artifacts are shared with the other regional
subtraditions of the Aleutian tradition. Some bifacially
flaked stone knives and points of the Western Aleutian
subtradition, however, have distinctive denticulate edge
shaping.
8 Aleutian
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The climate in the Western Aleutian region is a mild
maritime one, with relatively warm winters and cool
summers. Frequent storms result in almost constant sky
cover and substantial winds. Rough Pacific ocean and
Bering sea waters surround the islands, and, although
cold, the sea does not freeze in winter. Portions of some
islands are low and rolling, but rough mountainous
terrain is characteristic of most of Attu island, the
largest in the region. Coastlines vary considerably, with
many rocky headlands and rugged beaches. Although
they originated from processes of plate tectonics, the
islands of the Western Aleutian region lack the volca-
noes that are characteristic of the rest of the Aleutian
islands region. Significant land fauna are absent in the
Western Aleutian region, but the sea supports abun-
dant marine mammals, fish, birds, and invertebrates.
A significant feature of this farthest west Aleutian
islands region is its extreme isolation: the only land areas
accessible to ancient peoples lie to the east in the Central
Aleutian islands region.
Settlements
It has been estimated (Laughlin 1972) that the
Western Aleutian region had a population of approx-
imately 1000-2000 people before Russian contact in
the mid-1700s. Western Aleutian settlements include
both year-round base villages and a range of resource-
specific, seasonal subsistence-procurement settlements
(Corbett 1991; Corbett et al. 1997). All sites are located
along the coast in areas of easy access to the sea. Houses
are semisubterranean and home to a small number of
related nuclear families.
Economy
Aleuts of the Western Aleutian region were mari-
time hunters and gatherers. The land offered as little as
5 percent of the food resources, primarily in the form
of berries and some edible wild roots. Other land
resources were fabricational items, especially stone,
from which various tools were flaked, and grass, which
was used for woven mats and baskets. The bulk of both
food and fabricational items came from the sea and the
coastal margins; these resources included marine mam-
mals (like harbor seals, sea otters, and sea lions), birds
(like murres, puffins, ducks, and geese), fish (like cod,
halibut, and salmon), and marine invertebrates (like sea
urchin, mussel, octopus, and clam) (McCartney 1974;
Veltre 1998). Implements for food procurement included
skin-covered, kayak-style boats, larger open skin-
covered boats, a wide variety of spears and harpoons
thrown with atlatls, bone fishhooks, pointed bone
digging sticks, and woven grass collecting baskets.
Flaked stone projectile points and knives often had
distinctive denticulate edge shaping (McCartney 1971,
1984; Spaulding 1962) not found elsewhere in sites of
the Aleutian tradition. The multifamily household was
the most important unit of economic cooperation and
sharing.
Sociopolitical Organization
Aleuts of the Western Aleutian region were possibly
organized into matrilineal descent groups (Lantis 1970).
In addition, rank was important, with individuals of
high rank likely including those with extensive local
family support, greater personal wealth, better access to
local resources, and valued personal accomplishments.
Slaves, who were war captives, were the lowest-ranking
group. Leadership most likely existed primarily at the
household level, where decisions of daily importance
were made, and secondarily at the community level,
where less frequently occurring matters of significance to
an entire village were decided on. Warfare, in the form
of small-scale raids, was occasionally waged between
people of the Western Aleutian region and those of the
Central Aleutian area.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Aleut religion was animistic: successful life involved
living in harmony with the various human, animal, and
place spirits with which the world was imbued (Laughlin
1980). Shamans, who were part-time practitioners,
helped to mediate between the everyday and spiritual
realms. Archaeological manifestations of this belief
system are few, but include human burials and spiritu-
ally based decorative motifs on carved and decorated
utilitarian and ceremonial objects.
References
Corbett, Debra G. (1991). "Aleut Settlement Patterns in the Western
Aleutian Islands, Alaska." Masters thesis, Department of Anthro-
pology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Corbett, Debra G., Christine Lefevre, and Douglas Siegel-Causey
(1997). "The Western Aleutians: Cultural Isolation and Environ-
mental Change." Human Ecology 25 (3): 459-479.
Lantis, Margaret (1970). "The Aleut Social System, 1750 to 1810, from
Early Historical Sources." In Ethnohistory in Southwestern Alaska

and the Southern Yukon, ed. M. Lantis. Lexington: University of
Kentucky Press, 139-301.
Laughlin, William S. (1972). "Ecology and Population Structure in the
Arctic." In The Structure of Human Populations, ed. G. A. Harrison
and A. J. Boyce. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 379-392.
Laughlin, William S. (1980). Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land
Bridge. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
McCartney, Allen P. (1971). "A Proposed Western Aleutian Phase in
the Near Islands, Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 8 (2): 92-142.
McCartney, Allen P. (1974). "Maritime Adaptations on the North
Pacific Rim." Arctic Anthropology II (suppl.): 153-162.
McCartney, Allen P. (1984). "Prehistory of the Aleutian Region." In
Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic, ed. D. Damas.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 119-135.
Spaulding, Albert C. (1962). Archaeological Investigations on Agattu,
Aleutian Islands. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Museum of
Anthropology.
Veltre, Douglas W. (1998). "Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations in the
Western and Central Aleutian Islands, Alaska." Arctic Anthropology
35 (1): 223-233.
SITES
Agattu
TIME PERIOD: 2700-1000 B.P.
LOCATION: Krugloi Point, northeastern Agattu island,
western Aleutian islands.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site consists of lower and upper parts on low
coastal terraces. Grass tundra covers this site and
surrounding area.
Physical Features
This midden site covers several acres and has an
uneven surface, which may include relict house features.
Depressions of approximately 1.5 m deep are found,
but no distinct house features were noted (Spaulding
1962). This site is near another large site described by
Hrdlicka (1945: 288ft) on McDonald cove, on Agattu's
east end.
Cultural Aspects
House elements and human skeletons were found in
the midden matrix. Artifact types are of the Aleutian
tradition, but some styles are unique to the Western
Aleutian 9
Aleutians. Flaked stone projectile points, knives, and
scrapers, ground adze blades, stone lamps, bone har-
poon heads, wedges, and bird-bone awls are some of the
tool types found (Spaulding 1962).
References
Hrdlicka, Ales (1945). The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their
Inhabitants. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Spaulding, Albert C. (1962). Archaeological Investigations on Agattu,
Aleutian Islands. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of
Anthropology, Anthropological Papers no. 18.
Amaknak D
TIME PERIOD: c. 2000-300 B.P.
LOCATION: Amaknak island, Unalaska bay, Eastern
Aleutian islands.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Amaknak D is a coastal site found in the saddle of
two low hills. Grass tundra covers the Amaknak island
landscape.
Physical Features
The site measures approximately 40 by 90 m in
area and is 5-6 m deep. It is a deep midden site, typi-
cal of the Aleutian tradition. The central part of the
site was bulldozed out to build a road during World
War II, and concrete building foundations and gun
emplacements were also built into the site during that
period. Extensive excavations into the site during and
after the war have seriously altered the site and its
stratigraphy.
Cultural Aspects
Site D is a designation given this site during World
War II by Lieutenant Commander Alvin Cahn, who
excavated this and a few other sites during the war
(McCartney 1967). It was referred to as Xatacxan by
Waldemar Jochelson (1925) in the early 1900s. Jochelson
reported whale bones in the site matrix, which served
as house-building elements. Cahn reported finding
10 Aleutian
several burials throughout the matrix. Artifacts are
typically flaked basalt tools (projectile points, knives,
scrapers), ground slate ulu blades, ground adze blades,
net or line sinkers, flat griddle stones, and a variety of
bone harpoon heads, socket pieces, and wedges (Bank
1953; lochelson 1925; McCartney 1967). This is one of
the most extensively sampled sites on Unalaska bay.
References
Bank, Theodore P., II (1953). "Culture Succession in the Aleutians."
American Antiquity 19 (I): 40-49.
Jochelson, Waldemar (1925). Archaeological Investigations in the
Aleutian Islands. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington Publication no. 367.
McCartney, Allen P. (1967). "An Analysis of the Bone Industry from
Amaknak Island, Alaska." M.A. thesis, Department of Anthro-
pology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Chaluka
TIME PERIOD: 4000 B.p.-present.
LOCATION: Nikolski bay, southwestern Umnak island,
eastern Aleutian islands.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Chaluka is a large and deep midden site (60 by
215 m) separating Nikolski bay from Umnak lake.
Modern houses are found atop the midden, as well as on
the surrounding beach ridges.
Physical Features
The modern beach, Umnak lake, and a small stream
draining the lake mark this large midden site (Hrdlicka
1945; Laughlin and Marsh 1951). The midden is
approximately 6 m deep, and although there are some
temporal disconformities in anyone part of the site
(Turner et al. 1974), not enough testing has taken place
to determine whether the entire site was ever abandoned
once it began. Aleuts could have moved from one part
of the site to another, without ever abandoning the site
for significant periods. This is one of the largest Aleutian
sites ever excavated. The midden consists primarily of
lenses of urchin spines, crushed shells, volcanic ash, and
sea mammal, fish, and bird bones. Burials are dug into
the midden deposits.
Cultural Aspects
Chaluka has served as the type site for Eastern
Aleutian prehistory for the past half century (Laughlin
1963; Laughlin and Marsh 1951). A combination of
salmon (spawning in the adjacent lake), invertebrates
from the intertidal zone, other marine fish, marine
mammals, seabirds, and kelp provided a stable subsis-
tence at this protected bay edge for millennia (Lippold
1966). Although sheltered from the North Pacific,
Chaluka is close enough to Samalga pass to benefit
from migratory species such as fur seals and whales
traveling through this pass. Chaluka would have been
the major prehistoric village on Nikolski bay and one of
the largest on Umnak island. Chaluka artifacts have
some stylistic similarities to other Eastern Aleutian sites
(Aigner 1966; Denniston 1966).
References
Aigner, Jean S. (1966). "Bone Tools and Decorative Motifs from
Chaluka, Umnak Island." Arctic Anthropology 3 (2): 57-83.
Denniston, Glenda B. (1966). "Cultural Change at Chaluka, Umnak
Island: Stone Artifacts and Features." Arctic Anthropology 3 (2):
84-124.
Hrdlicka, Ales (1945). "The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their
Inhabitants". Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Bio-
logy.
Laughlin, William S. (1963). "Eskimos and Aleuts: Their Origins and
Evolution." Science 142 (3593): 633--645.
Laughlin, William S., and Gordon H. Marsh (1951). "A New View of
the History of the Aleutians." Arctic anthropology 4 (2): 75-88.
Lippold, Lois K. (1966). "Chaluka: The Economic Base." Arctic
Anthropology 3 (2): 125-131.
Turner, Christy G., II, Jean S. Aigner, and Linda R. Richards (1974).
"Chaluka Stratigraphy, Umnak Island, Alaska." Arctic Anthropo-
logy 11 (supp!.): 125-142.
Chulka
TIME PERIOD: c. 1200-100 B.P.
LOCATION: Akun island, eastern Aleutian islands.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Coastal site covered with grass tundra.

Physical Features
This midden site measures approximately 110 by
175 m in area and 4 m deep. It faces Islelo pass on
Akun's western shore (Turner and Turner 1974).
Cultural Aspects
House floors and burials were found in the site's
midden matrix. Artifacts found at Chulka include those
typically discovered at Aleutian tradition sites, including
flaked basalt projectile points, knives, and scrapers,
ground slate ulu blades, ground adze blades, lamps,
grinding stones, griddle stones, and a large variety of
bone tools and weapons (harpoon heads, socket pieces,
fishhooks, and wedges; Holland 1982, 1992).
References
Holland, Kathryn M. (1982). "Chulka Bone Artifacts, Akun Island,
Alaska: Analysis and Description." M.A. thesis, Department of
Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.
Holland, Kathryn M. (1992). "Rethinking Aleutian Prehistory as
Viewed from a Lithic Database." Ph.D. diss., Department of
Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.
Turner, Christy G., II, and Jacqueline A. Turner (1974). "Progress
Report on Evolutionary Anthropological Study of Akun Strait
District, Eastern Aleutians, Alaska, 1970-71." Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska 16 (I): 27-57.
Korovinski
TIME PERIOD: 2000 B.P.--c. A.D. 1870.
LOCATION: On the north coast of Atka island, central
Aleutian islands, Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Korovinski is located on a spit separating Korovin
bay (on the Bering sea), to the south, from Korovin
lagoon, to the north (Veltre 1979). The site also includes
the adjacent hillside at the base of the spit. The entire
area is covered in lush grasses, wild celery, and other
plants characteristic of the subarctic tundra of the
Aleutian islands. The intertidal zone and waters around
the site are rich in a wide variety of marine mammal,
fish, and marine invertebrate resources, and the nearby
Aleutian 11
coastal cliffs support colonies of nesting birds. During
the occupation of the site, climate was much like
today's-cool and damp throughout the year, with
nearly constant wind and sky cover and frequent storms.
Physical Features
The Korovinski site covers an area of over
50,000 m2 . It extends fro~l>hore- to shore across the
base of the spit and along the edge of the bluff
overlooking the spit. A total of 122 features are visible
on the surface of the site; these include precontact house
depressions, precontact burial mounds, Russian period
building walls, Russian period garden areas, and other
features of unknown function.
Cultural Aspects
This site has both a prehistoric Aleut tradition
component and a postcontact Russian period and early
American period component. The prehistoric compo-
nent includes a deep (c. 3 m) midden deposit near the
center of the base of the spit and an area on the bluff
edge, which, although lacking midden, contains 33 pre-
contact house depressions and several small burial
mounds. All the prehistoric houses are oval shaped
and were each home to probably a small number of
related nuclear families. Prehistoric artifact types are
similar to those found throughout the Aleutian tradi-
tion; they include chipped stone knives, scrapers, and
projectile points; carved bone harpoons, spears, and
fishhooks; pecked stone oil lamps and fishing weights;
carved bone and ivory ornaments; and other items.
Faunal remains are also generally typical of Aleutian
tradition materials from throughout the Aleutian is-
lands. Taken together, these materials indicate that
Korovinski was a base village occupied for much or all
the year rather than a seasonal subsistence camp.
Korovinski was abandoned about 500 B.P. when a
nearby volcanic eruption deposited a thick blanket of
ash on the site. In the l820s, during the Russian period,
Korovinski was reoccupied-this time by both Aleuts
and Russians-and served as an administrative center of
the Russian-American Company. Artifacts from the
Russian component include glass trade beads, iron nails
and spikes, bottle and window glass, and other imported
materials. House and other structural remains from this
period are sharply rectangular and quite distinct from
the earlier precontact features. The site was abandoned
within a few years after Russia's 1867 sale of Alaska to
the United States.
12 Aleutian
Reference
Veltre, Douglas W. (1979). "Korovinski: The Ethnohistorical Archae-
ology of an Aleut and Russian Settlement on Atka Island, Alaska."
Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology, University of Connect-
icut, Storrs.
Reese Bay
TIME PERIOD: Midden site-l 25O-c. 300 B.P.; long-
houses--c. 300 B.P.-A.D. 1800.
LOCATION:Northern shore of Unalaska island, just west
of Unalaska bay, eastern Aleutian islands.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The Reese bay site (UNL-063) is located on a spit
separating McLees lake from the Bering sea. The spit
consists of parallel raised beaches, cut only by a small
stream at the western end, which drains McLees lake
(Black 1991; McCartney et al. 1991).
Physical Features
The site consists of at least two and possibly three
components: an older midden site located adjacent to
the stream (approx. 3.5 m deep), two large communal
longhouses, and a series of other surface houses located
near the present beach and lake edge, which might be
intermediate in age between the midden and longhouses.
The total size area is approximately 100 by 225 m,
covering all the area between the present beach on the
north and the lake edge on the south. The portions
excavated between 1986-1990 are the two communal
longhouses that date between c. 300-150 B.P. Approx-
imately 40% of the smaller longhouse (16 by 30 m) was
excavated, whereas the larger longhouse (25 by 52 m)
was only tested. Both longhouses display early Russian
period trade goods (metal, small glass beads, rings, a
coin), and the site is known ethnohistorically to be the
village of Tachiqalax visited by such early Russian
explorers as Glotov, Korovin, and Solov'ev in c. A.D.
1760-1765. Both longhouses conform closely to the
illustrations in one of the most famous European
depictions of native North American houses, John
Webber's 1778 interior and exterior drawings of an
Unalaskan barabara (Webber was an artist on Capt.
James Cook's third and last voyage around the world;
Hrdlicka 1945; Joppien and Smith 1988; Veniaminov
1984). The longhouses, made of driftwood superstruc-
tures and entered by notched log ladders placed through
the ceiling smoke holes, held large numbers of Aleuts
who were organized in ranked societies during the late
prehistoric and early contact periods.
Cultural Aspects
The Reese bay longhouses are similar to those found
at about a dozen other Unalaska coastal sites. Late
prehistoric longhouses are also known from other
eastern Aleutian islands. The Reese bay houses are the
only thoroughly excavated ones. Although the exact age
of longhouses during the late prehistoric period is
uncertain, these longhouses are thought to date to ap-
proximately 100 or more years before Russian contact in
c. 1760. A combination of locally produced and exotic
trade materials is found mixed throughout the two
longhouses, suggesting that trade goods were directly
introduced via small Russian trade vessels sailed into the
Aleutians by promyshlenniks (fur hunters and trappers).
The protected harbor provided by Unalaska bay just to
the east of Reese bay became the main administrative
center during the Russian period. Once the Reese bay
site was abandoned in the early 19th century, the stream
and spit continued to be an important red salmon
fishing locale.
References
Black, Lydia T. (1991). "Unalaska Archaeology and History Project."
National Geographic Society Research and Exploration 7 (4): 490-
492.
Hrdlicka, Ales (1945). The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their
Inhabitants. Philadelphia: Wi star Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Joppien, Rudiger, and Bernard Smith (1988). The Art of Captain
Cook's Voyages. New Haven: Yale University Press.
McCartney, Allen P., Douglas W. Veltre, Lydia T. Black, and Jean S.
Aigner (1991). "Unalaska Archaeology and History Project: Report
of Operations." Unpublished manuscript, University of Alaska,
Fairbanks.
Veniaminov, Ivan (1984 [1840]). Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka
District, trans. Lydia T. Black and R. H. Geoghegan; ed. R. A.
Pierce. Kingston: Limestone Press.
Sandy Beach Bay
TIME PERIOD: 5500-4300 B.P.
LOCATION:On the Bering seacoast near the southwest
end of Umnak island, Eastern Aleutian islands, Alaska.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
At the time of its occupation, the Sandy Beach bay
site was located on the shore of a bay on the Bering sea.
The general environment at that time was probably
much the same as that of the present day. A cool
maritime climate, with frequent sky cover, winds, and
storms, prevailed. Food and fabricational resources
locally available to the site's inhabitants would have
included marine mammals, birds, eggs, marine inverte-
brates, ocean and anadromous fish, a few land plants,
stone, grass, and driftwood. A short distance inland
from the site, upstream along the drainages that led into
the bay, were small lakes that may have been spawn-
ing areas for salmon. Perhaps the cause of the site's
abandonment, the bay began to dry, owing to the accu-
mulation of sediments and/or uplift of the land from
isostatic rebound.
Physical Features
Little surface expression of cultural remains was
evident at the Sandy Beach bay site. Only very shallow
depressions suggested the presence of ancient and deeply
buried houses. Archaeological excavations made up
32 m 2 , but on the basis of subsurface probes and geo-
morphological evidence, it is estimated that the com-
plete site may cover an area as large as 2000 m2 .
Cultural Aspects
Remains of at least six oval-shaped houses were
revealed at a depth of 0.7-1.0 m in excavations at Sandy
Beach bay; each house measured approximately 3 by
5 m in size and, like more recent houses in the region,
Aleutian 13
was originally constructed in a semi subterranean fash-
ion. The floors of some of these houses were superim-
posed on one another, indicating rebuilding episodes in
the same location. Although bone was not preserved at
the site, some 2000 stone artifacts were recovered; these
included chipped and polished adzes, bifacially flaked
knives and projectile points, fishing weights, abraders,
and grinders for pigments. The wide diversity of tool
types at the site suggests that Sandy Beach bay was an
Aleut base village, rather than a specialized seasonal
subsistence camp. Furthermore, the particular charac-
teristics of the lithic technology represented at the site
permit links to be made to the earlier Anangula tra-
dition core and blade technology as well as to the better
known later periods of the Aleutian tradition, from
4000-250 B.P. (Aigner 1983; Aigner et al. 1976).
References
Aigner, Jean S. (1983). "Sandy Beach bay, Umnak Island, Alaska: A
Mid-Holocene Aleut Village Site on the Bering Sea." Unpublished
manuscript, Alaska Historical Commission, Anchoraqe.
Aigner, Jean S., Bruce Fullem, Douglas Veltre, and Mary Veltre
(1976). "Preliminary Reports on Remains from Sandy Beach Bay, a
4300-5600 B.P. Aleut Village." Arctic Anthropology 13 (2): 83-90.
ALLEN MCCARTNEY
Department of Anthropology
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
United States
DOUGLAS VELTRE
Department of Anthropology
University of Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
United States
 Amur Neolithic and Bronze Age
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 12,000-1500 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Amur Paleolithic,
precedes the historic period in the region.
LOCATION:The Amur river basin east to the coast of the
Okhotsk sea, northern Manchuria.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Flat-bottomed ceramic
vessels are characteristic of the Amur Neolithic. These
are decorated in a variety of styles, including stamping,
cord marking, and textile impressing. Incised horizontal
zigzag designs are characteristic during much of the pe-
riod. Well-made lanceolate projectile points with slightly
excurvate blade edges and a deep basal notch are also
diagnostic.
IMPORTANT SITES: Osinovka, Shilka Cave, Tetyukhe.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The climate of the Amur region was rather mild
during the whole of the Amur Neolithic Tradition.
Broadleaf forests dominated the landscape, and these
were cut by rivers thick with fish during periods of
14
spawnmg. The forests themselves maintained a wide
diversity of animals, particularly deer, fox, bear, boar, in
addition to a myriad of small animals and birds.
Settlements
The people of the Amur Neolithic lived in sedentary
villages of up to 20 or 30 households. Houses were
semisubterranean, dug roughly 0.5 m into the ground,
and square to rectangular in form. They had central
hearths and storage pits dug into the floors. Most were
large--more than 100 m2 in area, suggesting that an
extended family or lineage group lived in them.
Economy
Hunting, gathering, and fishing were the basis of
Amur Neolithic subsistence. The animals hunted in-
cluded deer, bear, and boar. In coastal areas, large
shell mounds demonstrate the importance of marine
resources to the Amur Neolithic peoples, whereas
inland, plentiful remains of fish and fishing equipment
suggest that marine life was important there, too. Some
scholars have argued that horticulture was developed in
the Amur region by the 2nd millennium B.C., but there is
little artifactual evidence and no preserved specimens of
domesticated plants to support this position. There is,
however, good evidence that pig, and perhaps dog, was

incorporated into the diet of the Amur Neolithic peoples
by the 2nd millennium B.C.
Stone tools were commonly based on lamellar blades
that were either used as is or shaped into projectile
points, knives, scrapers, and the like. Slate was also
chipped and ground to make knives and projectile
points. Antler and bone were used extensively for har-
poon heads, arrowheads, needles or awls, and handles
for stone blades. Flat-bottomed, grit-tempered pottery
was manufactured by coiling and shaping, using the
paddle-and-anvil method. This pottery was decorated
with textile impressions, stamping, and cord marking.
Incised horizontal zigzags are characteristic during
much of the Amur Neolithic.
Sociopolitical Organization
The size of dwellings and overall integration of
society in the Amur region suggest that a lineage-
based, probably matrilineal form of sociopolitical orga-
nization had emerged among the peoples of the Amur
Neolithic. Leadership was likely in the hands of lineage
elders.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Various personal ornaments were made by the
peoples of the Amur Neolithic. Many were made from
mother of pearl, particularly beads and pendants.
Pendants were also made of ivory and bone. The
peoples of the Amur Neolithic also pecked and painted
Amur Neolithic and Bronze Age 15
rock to produce petroglyphs representing "masks" (or
anthropomorphic beings), animals, birds, snakes, and
boats.
Suggested Readings
Ackerman, Robert E. (1982). "The Neolithic-Bronze Age Cultures of
Asia and the Norton Phase of Alaskan Prehistory." Arctic Anthro-
pology 19 (2): 11-38.
Andreyev, G. 1. (1964). "Certain Problems Relating to the Shell
Mound Culture." In The Archaeology and Geomorphology of
Northern Asia: Selected Works, ed. H. N. Michael. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 249-264.
Martynov, A. 1. (1991). The Ancient Art of Northern Asia. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1959). Ancient Populations of Siberia and its
Cultures. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard University.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1964). "The Shilka Cave: Remains of an Ancient
Culture of the Upper Amur River." In The Archaeology and
Geomorphology of Northern Asia: Selected Works, ed. H. N.
Michael. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 112-180.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1965). The Soviet Far East in Antiquity: An
Archaeological and Historical Study of the Maritime Region of the
U.S.S.R. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1990). "Inner Asia at the Dawn of History." In
Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, ed. D. Sinor. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 41-96.
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
 Amur Paleolithic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: c. 30,000-12,000 B.P. The begin-
ning date is an estimate. There are no good absolute
dates for the region, so that dating is done by stone tool
forms, geological context, and faunal association.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the East Asian Middle
Paleolithic tradition, precedes the Amur Neolithic
tradition.
LOCATION:The Amur river basin east to the coast of the
Okhotsk sea, Northern Manchuria.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Amur Paleolithic as-
semblages are defined primarily by being nonceramic.
There are some distinctive laurel-leaf-shaped projectile
points and knives associated with the Amur Paleolithic,
as well as crude pebble choppers and scrapers. There is
some use of Levallois-type disk cores and a few
examples of prismatic blade cores.
IMPORTANT SITES: Geographical Society Cave, Kumara
sites, Ustinovka.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The peoples of the Amur Paleolithic lived during the
height of the last glacial period in Northeastern Asia.
16
The Amur region during this period was covered by a
mix of conifer and broad leaf forests. A large variety
of plant and animal species shared this environment
with the Amur Paleolithic peoples. Large animals in-
cluded woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, cave
lion, cave hyena, brown bear, musk deer, and red deer.
Small animals included a diversity of rodents and
small mammals such as badgers and foxes. Birds such
as geese, ducks, ptarmigans, and snipes were also
present.
Settlements
Almost nothing is known about Amur Paleolithic
settlements. One house was found at the Ustinovka site.
It is described as semi subterranean and about 10 m 2 in
floor area, with a central hearth. It was likely roofed
with skins stretched over branch supports.
Economy
Faunal remains from the Geographic Society Cave
suggest the Amur Paleolithic peoples were hunters of
large game such as bison, mammoth, and red deer.
These animals were apparently hunted with well-made,
leaf-shaped projectile points. They were butchered with
much cruder tools, some being simple pebbles with a
rough bifacial edge or, more likely, the flakes removed
 Amur Paleolithic 17

from these pebbles; others being more sophisticated Okladnikov, A. P. (1990). "Inner Asia at the Dawn of History." In
tools based on disk cores and blades. Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, ed. D. Sinor. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 41~96.
Powers, William R. (1973). "Paleolithic Man in Northeast Asia."
Arctic Anthropology 10 (2): I ~ I 06.
Suggested Readings
Derevianko, Anatolii P. (1990). Paleolithic of North Asia and the PETER N. PEREGRINE
Problem of Ancient Migrations. Novosibirsk: Academy of Sciences Department of Anthropology
of the USSR.
Michael, Henry N. (1984). "Absolute Chronologies of Late Pleistocene Lawrence University
and Early Holocene Cultures of Northeast Asia." Arctic Anthro- Appleton, Wisconsin
pology 21 (2): 1~68. United States
 Cis-Baikal Neolithic
and Bronze Age
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 8000-3000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Siberian Late Upper
Paleolithic tradition, precedes the historic period.
LOCATION: Southern Siberia, west of Lake Baikal and
east of the Sayan mountains, including the upper
Angara, Lena, and Kirenga river drainages. Area
approximately 150,000 km 2 .
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Lithic blade industry,
including microblade technology. Burins, perforators,
and drills. Small flaked stone projectile points in various
forms. Ground slate fishhook shanks, shaft straighten-
ers, adzes, knives, and ornaments (the last three also of
nephrite). Bone/antler leister prongs, harpoon heads,
and ornaments. Small, thick-walled, decorated ceramic
vessels of various shapes. Inhumation cemeteries, some
with evidence of cremation. In the later part of the
period, addition of copper alloy fishhooks, needles,
knives, and ornaments.
18
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. Paleoclimate data are sparse. Traditional
models of Siberian climate history employ the Blytt-
Sernander system, which applies to the Cis-Baikal only
at the most general level, if at all. Recent research
suggests that the part of the period to about 5000 B.P.
bore resemblance to modern conditions, with a slight
gradual warming trend throughout. Evidence exists for
increasing aridity across the region beginning in the first
half of the 5th millennium B.P. Today, the Cis-Baikal is
characterized by long, cold, snowy winters (mean
January temperature -26 QC) and short, warm, dry
summers (mean July temperature 20 QC). Lake Baikal,
ice free from June to December and holding some
23,000 km 3 of water, plays a considerable role in
the formation of southern Siberia's weather patterns.
Discontinuous permafrost between 15 and 250 m thick
is present in much of the region, with only the upper few
meters in the corresponding areas undergoing an annual

freeze-thaw cycle. There is considerable microclimate
variation across the Cis-Baikal, depending primarily on
altitude and proximity to major watercourses and the
lake. Of particular interest in regard to human habita-
tion is the relatively warm, arid, permafrost-free Little
sea and Ol'khon island region approximately halfway
up Lake Baikal's west coast.
Topography. Lake Baikal, with its nearly 400 tributaries
and one outlet (the Angara river), dominates the region.
This 25-million-year-old rift reservoir contains 20% of
the world's fresh surface water. It is approximately
650 km long, 30--80 km wide, and up to 1.6 km deep.
The northern half of the lake's west coast features
mountains up to about 2000 m above lake level. Farther
south along the west coast, the terrain is much less
mountainous but still very rugged. The topography of
the rest of the Cis-Baikal consists chiefly of morainal
hills and small mountain ranges, with some flat fertile
areas along major watercourses. Like the Angara, the
Lena river carries Cis-Baikal waters north to the Arctic
ocean, but the Lena begins in the mountains west of the
lake and is not connected with it.
Biota. Boreal forest (taiga) has covered most of the Cis-
Baikal during the Holocene. Various conifers and birch
predominate today. Southernmost areas are character-
ized by a forest-steppe transition zone that has fluctu-
ated slightly northward or southward over the millennia.
Pines and larches are common in the warmer Little sea
and Ol'khon island region. The numerous tributaries of
Lake Baikal and of the Angara and Lena rivers produce
extensive riparian habitats that have been intensively
used by humans. The lake itself, the world's largest
volumetrically, is very rich in biomass throughout the
year. Cis-Baikal terrestrial animal species that have
undoubtedly been important for hunter-gatherer eco-
nomic systems throughout prehistory, and remains of
which are often found in archaeological sites, include
red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus),
musk deer (Moschus moschiferus), and moose (Alces
alces). Several lake and river fish species constituted
regularly exploited aquatic resources. The Baikal seal
(Phoca sihirica) was also a food source, but at most of
secondary importance.
Settlements
Settlement System. A mobile hunter-gatherer habita-
tion system prevailed throughout the Neolithic and
Bronze Ages. (In Siberia, the term Neolithic is accepted
by convention to indicate the introduction of pottery,
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age 19
not as elsewhere the advent of settlements, horticulture,
and animal husbandry.) Stratified habitation sites with
stone-lined hearths and much aquatic and terrestrial
faunal material are known along major watercourses
and on the Baikal coast, obviously in proximity to
plentiful resources. No evidence for structures, includ-
ing hide dwellings, has been discovered. The lack of
evidence for human activities in the forest hinterlands
probably at least in part reflects the concentration of
archaeological fieldwork near waterways and Lake
Baikal.
Population, Health, and Disease. The period is char-
acterized by two hunter-gatherer populations separated
by a gap with little or no evidence for human habitation,
which takes up most of the 7th millennium B.P. The first
group, called Kitoi, occupied the Cis-Baikal from
the Late Mesolithic (first evidence about 8800 B.P.) to
the end of the Early Neolithic (6900 B.P.). The Late
Neolithic and Bronze Age Serovo-Glazkovo (SG) peo-
ple (6200--3000 B.P.), who differed from the Kitoi cranio-
metrically, appeared in the Cis-Baikal after the gap,
which for the sake of nomenclatural convenience
constitutes the Middle Neolithic. According to studies
of well-preserved skeletal material from several ceme-
teries on Lake Baikal and the upper Angara and Lena,
both Kitoi and SG populations enjoyed basically good
community health. There is little evidence for chronic or
endemic disease processes in either group. Frequencies
of enamel hypoplasia in adult remains indicate that
young Kitoi children may have suffered more frequent
bouts of nutritional stress than their SG counterparts,
but this stress was insufficient to kill them. Adults in
both groups displayed considerable joint degeneration,
brought about by a strenuous lifestyle typical of many
hunter-gatherer societies. Evidence for skeletal trauma
resulting from interpersonal violence was present in
only a few percent of either population. Neither group
displayed palaeopathological evidence for higher or
lower status individuals.
Demographic dynamics, however, appear to have
differed more greatly between Kitoi and SG. Several
lines of palaeodemographic evidence indicate that SG
society was growing while the Kitoi population may
have been suffering stagnation or decline. According to
current working hypotheses, SG men and women lived
longer, probably less physically strenuous lives. SG
women were present in relatively larger numbers and
may have been nutritionally more advantaged than
Kitoi women. Thus, the SG population probably gave
birth to more children. Furthermore, SG weaning age
may have been low and birth spacing short. In Kitoi
20 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age
society, children were rarer. Relatively fewer and
possibly less healthy females may have given birth less
often, and weaning age may have been higher and birth
spacing longer than among the SG.
Economy
Subsistence. Cis-Baikal inhabitants retained a mobile
hunter-gatherer subsistence strategy throughout the
Neolithic and Bronze Ages. There is no evidence for
domestication of plants or animals, except for dogs. The
exact nature of any seasonal movements, and how they
may have differed before and after the 7th millen-
nium B.P. hiatus, is only now being investigated. It is
likely that any "round" would have consisted at least
partly of extended stays in certain localities to exploit
seasonally abundant foods. Both the Kitoi and SG
populations are represented by habitation sites or strata
in multicomponent sites and by inhumation cemeteries
of various sizes along major watercourses and on Lake
Baikal. It is not known during what part of the year
graves may have been constructed, but one would
assume that hard ground caused by severe winter frost
would be a limiting factor across the Cis-Baikal. An
exception is the Little sea and Ol'khon island region,
where dry, sandy sediments prevail and brittle rock slab
outcroppings, available year round, served in SG grave
architecture. Artifactual evidence for mode of subsis-
tence in the form of lithic and bone/antler tools suggests
that both the Kitoi and the SG hunted large and small
game and fished with spears, hooks, and nets in lakes
and rivers. The relative importance of terrestrial game
versus fish, or the relative proficiency of Kitoi and SG
people in particular methods of hunting and fishing, is
not known. It appears, however, that the Kitoi may
have been overall more dependent on fishing than the
SG. Stable isotope analyses of human and modern and
archaeological animal bone shed complementary light
on the issue. It appears that regional variation in diet,
defined by the natural distribution of resources in
the Cis-Baikal, may have been greater than temporal
variation across the entire Neolithic and Bronze Age
period. Modern zooarchaeological studies, still lacking
for terrestrial mammal and ichthyological remains,
show that spring seal hunting on lake ice played a
secondary role in the food procurement strategies of
both Kitoi and SG. The relative importance of plant
gathering is not apparent in the archaeological record of
either group. According to the most current subsistence
hypotheses, which take artifactual, stable isotope, and
faunal evidence into consideration, the Kitoi were
characterized by relatively small annual ranges and
diets emphasizing fish even in areas where it does
not appear to have been the most readily available
resource. SG people traveled more across the Cis-Baikal
and variably exploited more diverse subsistence oppor-
tunities, including fish and terrestrial and aquatic
mammals.
Utensils. Ceramic, lithic, and bone/antler artifactual
evidence has been obtained primarily from Kitoi and
SG graves and only secondarily from habitation sites.
It is therefore important to remember that much of the
material record as we see it may be the result of ritual
filters. The records from the two site types do not
disagree, however. Of these three categories of artifacts,
pottery has received the most attention in research.
The earliest, Late Mesolithic stage of Kitoi is by
definition aceramic. Beginning around 8000 B.P., oval
and miter-shaped vessels with net or cord impressions
are found frequently in habitation sites, but only rarely
in graves. Incised geometric motifs are also known.
After the 7th millennium B.P. hiatus, the SG people
made formally and stylistically more varied types of
ceramic vessels. This pottery appears in both habitation
and mortuary sites.
Cis-Baikal lithic and bone/antler remains still await
study with modern analytical techniques. In brief, the
stone tool industry throughout the Neolithic and Bronze
Ages featured blades, points, and other tools made
primarily of probably local cryptocrystalline sedimen-
tary rock, especially cherts. Burins, composite blade
tools, perforators, drills, and conical, prismatic, and
wedge-shaped microblade cores all show clear simila-
rities to Mesolithic and late Upper Palaeolithic tool kits.
The Kitoi period saw the introduction of a few varieties
of small projectile points, including tanged and asym-
metrical with concave base. It is not clear whether these
tools are dart points or arrowheads, for direct bow
and arrow evidence is lacking. By the end of Kitoi
times, microblade cores had gradually become more
amorphous, and wedge-shaped cores had disappeared
entirely. The use of grinding and polishing in the
manufacture of slate fishhook shanks, adzes, knives,
and shaft straighteners had increased. Bone or antler
leister prongs, harpoon heads, and blade hafts are
occasionally preserved in Kitoi sites. The SG lithic and
bone/antler tool kit did not differ substantially from the
Kitoi, except for the later addition of copper alloy
fishhooks, awls, needles and cases, and knives. A variety
of indisputable arrowheads was employed, including
triangular-, leaf-, and lozenge-shaped points, and
we have remains of wooden composite bows. Some
Kitoi-like points were also used. SG sexual division of

labor is indicated by the presence of hunting tools
(knives and projectile points) and fishing gear (harpoon
heads and fishhooks) with interred males and domestic
items (needles, needle cases, scrapers, and adzes) with
females. Such a clear dichotomy is lacking in Kitoi
graves, although there is usually a greater diversity of
functional grave goods with Kitoi males.
Ornaments. Only mortuary sites have produced indis-
putable ornaments, so that it is not clear whether these
items were viewed strictly as grave goods or whether they
also adorned the living. Kitoi and SG graves have
produced green and white polished nephrite disks up to
10 cm in diameter. Polished nephrite and slate adzes and
knives may have been both functional and ornamen-
tal. The same ambiguity exists in the case of polished
slate representations of fish, which may have served as
lures or solely as ornaments. The presence of colourful
nephrite, available west of the Cis-Baikal in the Sayan
mountains, points to possible trade or travel networks.
Shell and antler beads and pendants made from perfo-
rated bear and red deer canines and boar tusks have
also been recovered from Kitoi and SG mortuary sites.
Later in SG times, copper alloy rings and bracelets
appeared. Kitoi and SG ceramic vessel decoration was
also a form of ornamentation, perhaps personalized.
Finally, the presence of red ocher in many Kitoi graves
suggests that this substance may have also been used for
ornamentation among the living. Red ocher is rare in
SG sites.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Traditional models of Cis-Baikal
culture history, developed in the first half of the 20th
century, included descriptions of social and political
dynamics in a framework of unilineal cultural evolution.
With the reassessment of these models brought about by
radiocarbon dating and the abandonment of inflexible
theoretical apriorisms, these descriptions of life in the
Neolithic and Bronze Ages are no longer tenable. There
is currently no equally comprehensive model available
to replace them, however. Recent palaeopathological
and palaeo demographic analyses of human skeletal
remains have begun to shed some light on the issue. In
regard to the Kitoi, any social differentiation was not of
a nature that resulted in substantial, long-term health
problems for an identifiable stratum. There are also
no signs of particularly advantaged or disadvantaged
individuals. This does not mean that stratification or
preferential treatment of individuals did not exist, for a
particular threshold in malnutrition and disease dura-
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age 21
tion and intensity must be crossed before signs in bone
appear. There is some demographic and dental evidence
for Kitoi sexual differentiation to the detriment of
females. In SG society, osteological evidence for societal
elaboration is also lacking. Again, any differentiation
was not of a type or not strong enough to result in
different levels of physiological insult that leave signs
in bone. Furthermore, among the SG, there were no
identifiable sex-specific deleterious processes operating.
These hypotheses need to be tested on other Kitoi and
SG biological data sets and with other categories of
archaeological information before a new robust model
of social organization can be constructed.
Conflict. Definite evidence for conflict in Kitoi and
SG societies is restricted to the very few individuals
whose skeletal remains feature embedded projectile
points. Signs of life-threatening trauma such as skull
fractures are apparent on some other individuals, but
interpersonal violence is only one of several possible
explanations for the injuries. An intriguing sign of
possible conflict is the occasional lack of skulls in Kitoi
and SG graves. It is of course also possible that heads
were removed after death or during the course of
grave looting, not an unknown phenomenon in the
Cis-Baikal. Finally, it is plausible that the population
growth and annual range expansion hypothesized for
the SG period would have resulted in a sociopolitical
configuration characterized by strife between groups
competing for natural resources.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. There is no direct evidence for the
nature of Kitoi or SG religion. Belief in an afterlife is
indicated by the presence of grave goods, including
tools, ornaments, and animal bones, and possibly by
the use of red ocher. Polished and occasionally decora-
ted slate fish likenesses may point to some religious
significance for this animal, but these artifacts could
be amerely ornaments or lures. The meaning of tooth,
bone, and stone pendants is similarly ambiguous. No
Kitoi or SG cemetery contains a grave assemblage rich
or uncommon enough to indicate clearly that we
are dealing with the burial of a specialized religious
practitioner. The mortuary site of Khuzhir, however,
consisting of a small group of both Kitoi and SG graves
located on the spectacularly scenic Shaman's cape on
Ol'khon island, may have been a burial ground for
privileged individuals. This hypothesis is suggested by
the site's remote location on an island that could not
have sustained a population, the relative diversity and
22 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age

richness of the grave assemblages, and ethnographic Results of the Analysis of Canine Sections." Journal of Archaeo-
evidence for ritual activities at Shaman's cape. logical Science 20: 629-644.
Weber, A. W., D. W. Link, O. I. Goriunova, and A. K. Konopatskii
(1998). "Patterns of Prehistoric Procurement of Seal at Lake Baikal:
A Zooarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Past Foraging
Suggested Readings Economies in Siberia." Journal ofArchaeological Science 25: 215-227.
Katzenberg, M. A., and A. W. Weber (1999). "Stable Isotope Ecology
and Palaeodiet in the Lake Baikal Region of Siberia." Journal of
DAVID LINK
Archaeological Science 26: 651-659.
Link, D. W. (in press). "Boreal Forest Hunter-Gatherer Demography Provincial Museum of Alberta
and Health during the Middle Holocene of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia." Edmonton, Alberta
Arctic Anthropology 36 (1). Canada
Weber, A. (1994). "Social Evolution among Neolithic and Early
Bronze Age Foragers in the Lake Baikal Region: New Light on Old
Models." Arctic Anthropology 31 (2): 1-15. ANDRZEJ WEBER
Weber, A. (1995). "The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of the Lake Department of Anthropology
Baikal Region: A Review of Recent Research." Journal of World
Prehistory 9: 99-165.
University of Alberta
Weber, A., O. I. Goriunova, and A. K. Konopatskii (1993). "Pre- Edmonton, Alberta
historic Seal hunting on Lake Baikal: Methodology and Preliminary Canada
Dorset
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 2800-700 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows and partially overlaps the
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition, replaced by the
Thule tradition in most places by 1000 B.P.
LOCATION: The eastern Arctic of North America and
Greenland.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Microblades and tools
made from them; slate knives; side-notched chipped
stone knives and lance heads; unique non toggling
harpoons with caribou tibia fore shafts and socketed
heads; barbed fish spear points; stone bowls and lamps;
distinctive small sculptures depicting humans and ani-
mals. An interesting diagnostic feature is the lack of
drilled holes-all holes on Dorset artifacts are made by
linear incision.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Dorset peoples lived in an Arctic climate, with
long, cold winters and short, cool summers. The length
of daily sunlight varies seasonally, ranging from total
absence in the depth of winter to 24 hours of sun in the
height of summer. The topography of the Eastern Arctic
varies from mountains to flat plains. Numerous islands
between mainland Canada and Greenland were impor-
tant living, traveling, and hunting spots for the Dorset
peoples. Coastal areas of these islands were generally
rugged, with deep, narrow fjords and high, rocky cliffs
fronting the sea. However, the coast, like sunlight,
varied seasonally. In the depths of winter, sea ice ex-
tended out from summer coastlines for miles, sometimes
creating frozen passages between distant islands. For
human inhabitants of this region, a vital part of the
landscape during the winter is created by the frozen sea
ice. Vegetation in the region is extremely sparse,
consisting primarily of mossess, lichens, and some
grasses. Only a few land animals are supported in the
region, the most important being the caribou and musk
ox. The sea, on the other hand, supported a vast array of
mammals and birds, the most important being seal,
walrus, polar bear, and whale.
Settlements
Most Dorset settlements are located along coast-
lines, often in protected coves or inlets. Communities are
small, consisting of one to perhaps a dozen households,
with each household containing a single nuclear or
extended family. Houses themselves are varied, but tend
to be small-on the order of 30 m2 in floor area.
23
24 Dorset
Common forms include small circles of stone, which
probably formed the base of a tent-like structure,
rectangular structures with a central "pavement" of
stones, and larger, semi subterranean structures that
may have been similar to ethnographically known sod
houses. Late in the tradition, large rectangular struc-
tures were present, but it is unclear whether these were
dwellings or simply sheltered work areas or meeting
places.
Economy
The Dorset peoples were hunters and fishers.
Primary game animals were caribou, musk ox, seal,
walrus, and to a lesser extent, whale and polar bear.
These were hunted with spear or lance apparently
without the assistance of spear throwers. Fish of
various kinds were taken in weirs and by using spears.
In addition to fish and big game, smaller game, such
as rabbit and fox, and a variety of birds were taken,
probably in traps and nets. Plant foods formed only
a small part of the diet. The Dorset peoples ate a small
number of seasonal fruits in addition to leaves, flow-
ers, and seaweed. The stomach contents of caribou
and perhaps other land animals may also have been
eaten.
Dorset technology was simple but elegant. Micro-
blades and antler, wood, or bone handles used to hold
them formed the basic tool kit. Microblades were used
to arm harpoon and lance heads, as carving tools, for
hide working, and for cutting. Small triangular and
notched knives were also used as cutting tools, as well
as to arm lances. Slate was used extensively for cutting
and hide working, and a large slate tool kit is present on
most Dorset sites. Bone, antler, and ivory were also
used extensively for handles, harpoon heads and fore-
shafts, barbed spear points, awls, and needles, among
other tools. Needles are interesting in the Dorset tool
kit because their threading holes were not drilled, but
were made by small linear cuts. Indeed, no evidence of
drills or their use is found in the Dorset tool kit. Stone
bowls were used as oil lamps for light and heating and
perhaps for cooking and for storing foods as well. Parts
of wood-framed sledges, which must have been pulled
by humans as dogs are scarce on Dorset sites, have been
recovered, as have the remains of small, wood-framed
kayaks.
Sociopolitical Organization
Although there is no clear archaeological evidence,
analogy to contemporary Arctic hunters and other
nomadic peoples suggests the Dorset peoples were
egalitarian and acephalous.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Dorset art is among the most exqUIsIte in all the
prehistoric Arctic. Small carvings depicting humans or
animals are common. These tiny sculptures display a
remarkable eye for detail and a refined ability to create
realistic images of the natural world. In addition to these
naturalistic sculptures, more abstract and complex carv-
ings are also found. One common form is a "wand",
which combines several individual animal or human
representations into a large, abstract composite. Myth-
ical animals or creatures combining the features of
several animals (including humans) are also commonly
found. The purpose or meaning of these is unclear,
although they have been interpreted as reflecting sha-
manistic beliefs and rituals.
Suggested Readings
Linname, U. (1975). The Dorset Culture: A Comparative Study in
Newfoundland and the Arctic. Technical Papers, no. 1. St. John's:
Newfoundland Museum.
Maxwell, M. S. (1976). Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo
Problems. Memoirs, no. 31. Washington, D.C.: Society for Amer-
ican Archaeology.
Maxwell, M. S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
McGhee, R. (1990). Canadian Arctic Prehistory. Hull: Canadian
Museum of Civilization.
McGhee, R. (1996). Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Schledermann, P. (1990). Crossroads to Greenland: 3000 Years of
Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic. Calgary: Arctic Institute of
North America.
Taylor, W. E. (1968). The Arnapik and Tyara Sites: An Archaeological
Study of Dorset Culture Origins. Memoirs, no. 22. Washington,
D.C.: Society for American Archaeology.
Taylor, W. E., and G. Swinton (1967). "The Silent Echoes: Prehistoric
Canadian Eskimo Art." The Beaver 298: 32--47.
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
Early Northwest Coast
Pebble Tool Tradition

ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 9500-5500 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Late Paleo-Indian
tradition in the region, precedes the Middle Northwest
Coast tradition.
LOCATION: The northwest coast of North America from
Alaska to Oregon.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Crude chopping tools
made from fist-sized pebbles and associated with leaf-
shaped projectile points.
IMPORTANT SITES: Bear Cove, Glenrose Cannery, Mil-
liken, Namu.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The postglacial environment of the Northwest Coast
became much like it is today during the Early Northwest
Coast tradition. Large mountain ranges covered with
dense boreal forests rise rapidly out of the sea. The coast
is narrow and dissected by rivers, bays, and islands.
Winters are long but are moderated by the Japanese
current, which brings warmer water and air into the
region. Summers are mild. Marine mammals, including
seal, dolphin, and whale, are plentiful, as are saltwater
and anadromous fish.
Settlements
Early Northwest Coast settlements are found in a
variety of locations, from exposed coastal beaches to
major inland rivers such as the Columbia and Frasier. In
all cases, settlements appear to be proximate to primary
subsistence resources; that is, marine mammals and
anadromous fish. Few features and no examples of
Early Northwest Coast houses have been found.
Economy
The Early Northwest Coast peoples based their
economy on the sea. Marine mammals provided the
bulk of the diet for most. For others, fish, both salt
water and anadromous, were essential. These differences
may have been seasonal. In the autumn, Early North-
west Coast peoples may have moved to inland rivers
to take advantage of ripening fruits (such as cherries)
and spawning salmon, then moved back to the coast
following the salmon runs to hunt marine mammals.
Early Northwest Coast peoples also hunted deer and elk
in the dense mountain forests and collected a variety of
plant foods from them as well.

25
26 Early Northwest Coast

The tools used by the Early Northwest Coast
peoples are not well known, as only flaked stone tools
have survived well, and these are not suitable for most of
the hunting and fishing activities that the Early North-
west Coast peoples took part in. A few bone harpoon
points and atlatl hooks have been found, meager rep-
resentatives of what was likely an extensive bone tool
industry. Nets would have been essential for fishing,
and boats would have been used for both fishing and
hunting sea mammals. Neither have survived.
Carlson, Roy (1990). "Cultural Antecedents." In Handbook of North
American Indians, Vol. 7: Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 60-{i9.
Carlson, Roy, and Luke Dalla Bona, eds. (1996). Early Human
Occupation in British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British
Columbia Press.
Fladmark, Knut (1990). Prehistory of British Columbia. Ottawa:
National Museum of Man.
Matson, R. G. (1976). The Glenrose Cannery Site. Mercury Series 52.
Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
Matson, R. G., and G. Coupland (1995). Prehistory of the Northwest
Coast. San Deigo: Academic Press.

Suggested Readings
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Borden Charles (1975). Origins and Development of Early Northwest Department of Anthropology
Coast Culture to about 3000 B.C. Mercury Series 45. Ottawa:
National Museum of Man.
Lawrence University
Carlson, Catherine (1979). "The Early Component at Bear Cove." Appleton, Wisconsin
Canadian Journal of Archaeology 3: 177-194. United States
Eastern Arctic Small Tool
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 4000-2700 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Represents the earliest human
occupation of the region; precedes Dorset.
LOCATION: The Canadian Arctic mainland and the Arctic
archipelago, and Greenland.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Tent rings, including
midpassage structures; spalled burins and microblades;
both tang-based, barbed, non toggling harpoon heads
and open-socketed toggling harpoon heads; triangular
and bipointed end blades for harpoons and arrows.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Independence I, Pre-Dorset,
Saqqaq.
IMPORTANT SITES: Bettison Point, Deltaterrasserne, Kap-
uivik, Port Refuge, Qeqertasussuk, Umingmak.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The entire region occupied by the Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition exhibits an Arctic climate,
characterized by long winters and pronounced seasonal
differences in the amount of solar radiation. The degree
of winter cold varies regionally, but summers are
relatively cool. The initial movement of Arctic Small
Tool peoples from Alaska into Arctic Canada and
Greenland around 4200 B.P. took place during a long
episode when climatic conditions were warmer than at
present. However, the Arctic Small Tool occupation of
these regions coincided with a gradual cooling trend that
produced conditions colder than at present by the time
the tradition ended.
Topography. The topography of the enormous region
encompassed by the Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradi-
tion is extremely diverse, varying from high mountain
ranges along the eastern margin of the Canadian Arctic
and in many parts of Greenland, all the way to low flat
plains elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic and in the
northernmost parts of Greenland. The coastal regions,
where the most intensive and extensive human occupa-
tions took place, include both rocky coasts incised by
deep narrow fjords in some regions and wide gravel
beaches with very low relief in others. Isostatic adjust-
ments since the end of the last glaciation have gradually
raised many former beaches well above today's coast-
line, forming distinct fossil beach ridges in many areas,
which have sometimes proved useful in determining the
age of associated sites. Conversely, in some areas like the
east coast of Baffin island, isostatic changes have
submerged beaches dating to Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition times. For human inhabitants of this region,
27
28 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
a vital part of the landscape during the winter is created
by the frozen sea ice. In the islands of the Canadian
Arctic archipelago, the sea freezes in almost unbroken
expanses, except for local patches of permanently or
semipermanently open water (polynyas), kept that way
by fast currents. On the coasts facing the open ocean, a
solid strip of land-fast ice that may be several kilometers
wide forms during the winter.
Geology. The bedrock geology of Greenland and the
eastern portion of the Canadian Arctic consists of
Precambrian granites, gneisses, and schists. The central
and western portions of the Canadian Arctic are char-
acterized by various sedimentary formations, especially
limestones, sandstones, and shales. Important resources
available in widely scattered portions of this landscape
include chert, quartz, quartzite, slate, and soapstone.
Almost the entire region occupied by the Eastern Arctic
Small Tool tradition is characterized by tundra-per-
manently frozen ground with only a thin active layer
that thaws each summer. Soil development is slow, and
soil cover is thin to nonexistent in many areas. As a
general rule, the greater degree of soil development and
the associated thicker plant cover in the southern
portions of the region make Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition sites there more difficult to locate than those in
the much more barren High Arctic.
Biota. The entire region lies north of the tree line (the
northernmost limit of continuous forest) so that the only
"trees" are miniature species like Arctic willow, which
grows prostrate to the ground. However, driftwood
brought into the Arctic ocean by major rivers is
available in small quantities in many areas. Other
tundra vegetation includes mosses, lichens, and sedge
grasses. The most important land mammal species
include caribou and musk ox, but Arctic fox and Arctic
hare are also available. Sea mammal species include
ringed, harp, and bearded seals, walrus, polar bears, and
narwhal and beluga whales. Ringed seals can be espe-
cially important because they are available year round;
the other sea mammal species are migratory to varying
degrees and therefore less available or unavailable during
the winter. Migratory birds such as ducks and geese are
available in the summer. Polynyas can be important
because they attract birds and sea mammals early in the
spring, before the sea ice elsewhere breaks up.
Settlements
Settlement System. The Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition peoples were Arctic foragers. In some areas,
there is evidence that they followed an annual round
that saw them camping and hunting in the interior
during the summer and autumn and spending the
remainder of the year near the coast and, probably,
out on the sea ice. The lack of refuse at some sites
indicates that they did not stay there more than a few
days. Elsewhere, there is evidence that some groups may
have spent most or all of the year in one locality, moving
seasonally from one campsite to another only to take
advantage of local topographic differences. In the
extreme northern portions of the Eastern Arctic Small
Tool tradition territory, where the sun does not rise
above the horizon for 4! months during midwinter,
producing a 2! -month period when the darkness is
complete except for moonlight, a period of almost
hibernation is envisaged by some archaeologists, with
those Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition groups
remaining inactive and living off stored food until the
return of the sun. Evidence of relatively large amounts
of food having been stored near some winter campsites
is consistent with this scenario.
Community Organization. Sites range in size from just I
or 2 structures to well over 20, although assessing the
contemporaneity of individual structures in sites is
difficult or impossible. At a few sites, the remains of
tents are arranged in a linear fashion along a beach ridge
in groups of from 5 to 20 houses, whereas at other sites
the structures appear to cluster together. These varia-
tions may reflect differences in community organization
or simply accommodations to local topography.
Housing. The principal dwellings used by the EAST
people appear to have consisted of skin tents supported
by a framework of driftwood poles. The remains of
individual tents often exhibit a circular or oval ring of
gravel or of small boulders, used to hold down the skirts
of the tent. However, some structures lack any evidence
of an encircling rock or gravel ring. These have been
interpreted as winter sites, where snow blocks or banked
snow held down the skirts of the tent and provided
somewhat better insulation from the wind and cold than
could be afforded by skins alone. With few exceptions,
these tents appear to have been single-family dwellings,
based on size and the arrangement of interior features.
In each structure, there may be a well-defined box
hearth constructed of flat stones or simply a nondescript
cluster of rocks containing small quantities of charred
material. Cooking, heating, and thawing ice for drinking
water would have been accomplished by burning drift-
wood, willow twigs, or blubber in the hearths in these
structures. Some Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition

groups also used small, round soapstone lamps for these
purposes. The most distinctive architectural style of the
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition is the midpassage
dwelling, found most commonly in earlier and more
northerly sites. A paired line of vertical flat slabs ap-
proximately 50 cm apart bisects the structure, dividing it
into two separate sleeping and working spaces. The
midpassage itself (sometimes also referred to as an
"axial feature") would have at its center a square hearth
made of more flat slabs, creating two flanking compart-
ments on either side. These may have been used to store
implements, fuel, and thawing meat. At some sites, it
appears that activities in midpassage structures were
segregated according to gender, with more artifacts
associated with hunting on the right side of the midpas-
sage and more artifacts associated with sewing on the
left side.
Population, Health, and Disease. Based on ethnographic
analogy and the clustering of dwelling structures at sites,
local hunting bands probably consisted of from three to
five families, or perhaps 15-20 people for parts of the
year, separating into individual families at other times.
The entire population was undoubtedly very small, and
it is likely that local groups sometimes died off entirely
owing to starvation resulting from crises like a late
freeze-up of the sea ice or failure of the caribou
migration. The bones of a premature infant from Devon
island and four adult bones from midden deposits at one
site in Greenland are the only human remains known
from Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition sites, so that
little more can be said about Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition demography or biological affinities.
Economy
Subsistence. The Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition
peoples were Arctic foragers, subsisting entirely off wild
game. The environment provides very few edible plant
foods so that almost their entire diet would have come
from the hunting of animals. On the basis of faunal
analysis and on ethnographic analogy with contempo-
rary Inuit populations in the same region, we can
suppose that most groups took advantage of both land
and sea mammals to meet their food and material
requirements. Sea mammals provide blubber, which is
useful for both food and fuel. The skins of caribou
provide the warmest clothing. The cold climate permit-
ted accumulated food surpluses to be stored for long
periods in rock caches for future consumption, except
over the summer. Based on ethnographic analogy with
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 29
contemporary Inuit populations in the same region, it is
likely that hunting was predominantly a male task.
However, given the small size of most groups, women
undoubtedly often took part in some hunting activities
such as driving game. The presence of dog bones in
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition sites suggests that
dogs were probably used in a range of hunting activities
such as locating seal breathing holes on the sea ice or
signs of musk oxen in the winter twilight or distracting
polar bears while the hunter approached to within
range. There is no evidence for dog traction, however,
so the Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition peoples
undoubtedly did not have the great winter mobility
that dogsleds provided to historic Inuit populations.
A very few finds indicate that the Eastern Arctic
Small Tool tradition peoples possessed kayaklike boats.
However, in at least one region it has been observed that
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition sites are concen-
trated in areas where sea ice would have formed
relatively early in the autumn and broken up relatively
late in the summer, which contrasts with the site
distribution of later cultures that are known to have
relied heavily on hunting from boats. This may indicate
that hunting sea mammals through their breathing holes
or at the floe edge was more important than hunting
from boats.
Wild Foods. Based on faunal analyses, the most
important mammal species exploited by the Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition peoples were musk oxen,
caribou, ringed seals, and harp seals, while the most
important bird species included geese, ducks, and gulls.
There is also evidence that fish could be an important
resource. The bones of Arctic fox, Arctic hare, and polar
bear are also found in faunal assemblages. Musk oxen
were particularly important to some Eastern Arctic
Small Tool tradition groups, at least in part because of
their behavior. The defense strategy that musk oxen
employ against their only natural predator, Arctic
wolves, is to form a stationary defensive circle, facing
outward. This strategy is particularly vulnerable to
hunters equipped with projectile weapons, and it ap-
pears that considerable numbers could be killed.
Industrial Arts. The technology used by the Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition peoples was based on a
limited range of materials and techniques: flaked stone,
ground stone, bone, antler, ivory, skin, and driftwood.
Studies investigating lithic sources are only beginning,
but presumably much of the stone used by each group
was acquired locally. However, some Eastern Arctic
Small Tool tradition groups appear to have valued
highly colored or distinctive stone for manufacturing
30 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
lithic tools so that aesthetics may have been a criterion
in the choice of material. Problems of preservation at
many Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition sites means
that the nonlithic component of their technology has
been studied much less thoroughly than the implements
manufactured out of stone.
Utensils. One of the most distinctive and common flaked
stone implements is the spalled burin, used as a chisel or
scraper to manufacture items of bone, antler, ivory, or
wood. Burin spalls, the tiny long flakes removed when
creating or resharpening burins, appear also sometimes
to have been used as tools. Other flaked stone tools
associated with manufacturing or maintenance in-
clude gravers, microblades, side scrapers, end scrapers,
stemmed and lanceolate knives, stone adzes, and drills.
When preservation is good, the bone or wooden handles
for these items are found as well, along with other
manufacturing implements made of organic materials,
including numerous delicate bone needles with drilled
eyes. The hunting technology of the Eastern Arctic Small
Tool tradition included harpoons and lances that could
be used for hunting sea mammals from the edge of the
land-fast ice or ringed seals through their breathing
holes. Harpoon heads are an important artifact type for
studying stylistic changes in Arctic cultures. Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition specimens include both
toggling and, unlike all later cultures in this region,
non toggling examples. Lances and bows and arrows
were used for hunting land mammals; birds were also
hunted with blunt arrows and with bird spears. The
flaked stone items associated with these hunting imple-
ments include stemmed, bipointed, and lanceolate end
blades for arrows, triangular harpoon end blades, and
side blades for insetting into the sides of harpoon heads
and perhaps arrow foreshafts.
Ornaments. The poor preservation of organic artifacts
at most Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition sites means
that we know little about ornaments and ornamenta-
tion. A very few organic items have been found incised
with geometric designs or depictions of birds and
caribou. An extraordinary carved human face from this
period depicts tattooing very similar to that known from
Inuit in the Historic period.
Trade. General uniformity in some styles in each of the
subtraditions of the Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition
suggests that regular contacts took place between local
groups, but there is little evidence of trade. There is no
evidence that the Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition
had more than very sporadic contacts with peoples to
the south, so that inter societal trade undoubtedly was
not important. The one exception may have taken place
in Northern Labrador, where it is argued that Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition peoples acquired a partic-
ular type of toggling harpoon from the Maritime
Archaic people there, who in turn acquired bow and
arrow technology.
Division of Labor. On the basis of ethnographic analogy
with contemporary Inuit populations in the same re-
gion, hunting was probably predominantly a male task.
However, given the small size of most groups, undoubt-
edly women often took part in some hunting activities
such as driving game. At some sites, there is a suggestion
of activities in midpassage structures being segregated
according to gender, with more artifacts associated with
hunting on the right side of the midpassage and more
artifacts associated with sewing (needles, burin spalls,
and microblades) on the left side.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. The social organization of the
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition peoples would have
been based on small, flexible egalitarian bands linked by
ties of kinship or partnerships, as seen in Historic Inuit
groups. The nuclear family would have been the most
important unit, but undoubtedly a number of families
would normally have closely cooperated during some or
much of the year. However, there is some disagreement
among researchers about the extent to which distinctive
local regional groups may have existed, analogous to the
"-miut" groups known from the Historic Inuit. The
alternative would see individual bands as being highly
mobile over long distances, thus producing the stylistic
homogeneity that is observed over vast regions in each
of the subtraditions of the Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition.
Political Organization. Leadership can be expected to
have been exercised intermittently and unobtrusively by
individuals possessing recognized abilities or charisma,
in the context of organizing cooperative activities such
as caribou hunts. Otherwise, Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition peoples were undoubtedly egalitarian.
Social Control. Based entirely on ethnographic analogy
with Historic Inuit populations, socially disruptive
behavior may have been dealt with through ridicule,
forms of ostracism (itself a devastating rebuke in such
small societies based on sharing), or assassination.

Religion and Expressive Culture
Arts. The paucity of organic artifacts limits our knowl-
edge about Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition artistic
expression, but a very few organic items have been
found incised with geometric designs or depictions of
birds and caribou. A carved human maskette depicts
tattooing very similar to that known from Inuit in the
Historic period. These findings suggest that the distinc-
tive carving style of the Dorset tradition, which devel-
oped directly out of the Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition, had its antecedents in the earlier culture.
Another example of Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition
aesthetic expression may be reflected in the fact that
some groups appear to have valued highly colored or
distinctive chert over other kinds of flakable stone.
Death and Afterlife. The bones of a premature infant
from Devon island and four adult bones from a midden
deposit at a site in Greenland are the only human
remains known from Eastern Arctic Small tool tradi-
tion sites, so that practically nothing is known about
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition attitudes and
practices about death.
Suggested Readings
Bielawski, Ellen (1988). "Paleoeskimo Variability: The Early Arctic
Small-Tool Tradition in the Central Canadian Arctic." American
Antiquity 53 (I): 52-74.
Fitzhugh, William W. (1984). "Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland."
In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed.
D. Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 528-
539.
Gronnow, Bjarne, ed. (1996). Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1:
The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New Perspectives in
Greenlandic Archaeology. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center.
Helmer, James W. (1986). "A Face from the Past: An Early Pre-Dorset
Ivory Maskette from Devon Island, N.W.T." Etudes/Inuit/Studies
10 (1-2): 179-202.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1984). "Pre-Dorset and Dorset Prehistory of
Canada." In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed.
D. Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 359-
368.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
Maxwell, Moreau S. ed. (1976). Memoirs of the Society for American
Archaeology, No. 31: Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Prob-
lems. Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology.
McGhee, Robert (1979). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury
Series Paper No. 92: The Paleoeskimo Occupations at Port Refuge,
High Arctic Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
McGhee, Robert (1996). Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver:
UBC Press.
Morrison, David A., and Jean-Luc Pilon, eds. (1994). Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series Paper No. 149: Threads of Arctic
Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor, Jr. Hull:
Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 31
Ramsden, Peter, and Maribeth Murray (1995). "Identifying Season-
ality in Pre-Dorset Structures in Back Bay, Prince of Wales Island,
NWT." Arctic Anthropology 32 (2): 106--117.
Schledermann, Peter (1990). Komatik Series, No.2: Crossroads to
Greenland: 3000 Years of Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic.
Calgary: Arctic Institute of North America.
SUBTRADITIONS
Independence I
TIME PERIOD: 4000-3600 B.P.
LOCATION: Pearyland (northern Greenland) and the
Canadian High Arctic islands (Ellesmere, Devon, Corn-
wallis, and Bathurst).
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Midpassage structures
relatively common; lamps absent; fine edge serration on
lithics; grinding rare; tanged, nontoggling harpoon
heads; stemmed, bipointed, and lanceolate arrowheads;
triangular and contracting stemmed end blades for
harpoons or lances; lithics larger than other Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition groups.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The region of the Independence I subtradition
exhibits an Arctic climate, characterized by long winters
and extreme seasonal differences in the amount of solar
radiation. In this region, the sun does not rise above the
horizon for between 2.5 and 4.5 months during mid-
winter, although there would be twilight for part of that
period (Knuth 1966-67: 194). This area can be classified
as a polar desert because of very low levels of precip-
itation (Maxwell 1981). The Independence I subtradi-
tion existed during a time that the climate, although
somewhat warmer than at present, was cooling
(McGhee 1996: 11 0-111). The topography of the region
is diverse, encompassing both high mountain ranges and
low flat plains. The coastal regions, where the most
intensive and extensive human occupations took place,
include both rocky coasts incised by deep narrow fjords
in some regions and wide gravel beaches with very low
relief in others. Isostatic adjustments since the end of the
last glaciation have gradually raised many former
beaches well above today's coastline, forming distinct
fossil beach terraces in many areas that have sometimes
proved useful in determining the age of associated sites.
The entire region is characterized by tundra. Soil
32 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
development is slow, and soil cover is thin to nonexistent
in many areas, making sites relatively easy to locate
through foot survey although loess deposits can obscure
sites (Sutherland 1996: 273). The tundra vegetation in-
cludes Arctic willows, mosses, lichens, and sedge grasses.
The most important land mammal species include
caribou and musk ox, but Arctic fox and Arctic hare
are also available. Available sea mammal species include
ringed, harp, and bearded seals, walrus, and polar bears.
Ringed seals are available year round; other sea mam-
mal species are unavailable during the winter. Migratory
birds such as ducks and geese are available in the
summer. For human inhabitants of this region, a vital
part of the topography during the winter is created by
the frozen sea ice, which forms an almost unbroken
expanse during the winter. Polynyas can be important
because they attract birds and sea mammals early in
the spring, before the sea ice elsewhere breaks up
(Schledermann 1980, 1990).
Settlements
The Independence I subtradition peoples were Arc-
tic foragers. In some areas, there is evidence that they
followed an annual round that saw them camping and
hunting in the interior during the summer and autumn
and spending the remainder of the year near the coast
and possibly out on the sea ice (Schledermann 1990:
318). Conversely, Knuth (1966--67: 210) saw groups in
Pearyland spending the summer at the coast and the
winter in the interior. The lack of refuse at some sites
indicates that people did not stay there more than a few
days (Helmer 1991: 303). Elsewhere, there is evidence
that some groups may have spent most or all of the year
in one locality, moving seasonally only to take advan-
tage of local topographic differences (Knuth 1966--67:
210). Because of the long winter night experienced
at these latitudes, a period of almost hibernation is
envisaged by some archaeologists, with those groups
remaining inactive and living off stored food until the
return of the sun (Knuth 1966--67: 194, 1967: 44;
Maxwell 1985: 62; McGhee 1996: 64-65). Evidence of
relatively large amounts of food having been stored near
some winter campsites is consistent with this scenario
(Knuth 1966--67: 197). At some sites, the remains of
tents are arranged in a linear fashion along a beach ridge
in groups of from 5 to 20 houses (McGhee 1979),
whereas at other sites the structures appear to cluster
together. These variations may reflect differences in
community organization or simply accommodations to
local topography (Bielawski 1988: 57; Mary-Rousseliere
1976: 55; Sutherland 1996: 276).
The dwellings used by the Independence I people
appear to have consisted of skin tents supported by a
framework of driftwood poles (Knuth 1966--67: 210-
211). With few exceptions, these tents appear to have
been single-family dwellings, based on size and the
arrangement of interior features (McGhee 1979: 55;
Wright 1995: 447). In each structure, there may be a
well-defined box hearth constructed of flat stones or
simply a nondescript cluster of rocks containing small
quantities of charred material. Cooking, heating, and
thawing ice for drinking water would have been
accomplished by burning willow twigs or blubber in
the hearths in these structures. Unlike the Saqqaq and
Pre-Dorset subtraditions, the Independence I appear
not to have used soapstone lamps for these purposes
(Schledermann 1990: 318). The most distinctive archi-
tectural style of Independence I is the midpassage
dwelling in which a paired line of vertical flat slabs
approximately 50 cm apart bisects the structure, divid-
ing it into two separate sleeping and working spaces.
The midpassage itself (sometimes also referred to as an
"axial feature") would have at its center a square hearth
made of more flat slabs, creating two flanking compart-
ments on either side. These may have been used to store
implements, fuel, and thawing meat (Maxwell 1985: 64).
At the Port Refuge site, it appears that activities in
midpassage structures were segregated according to
gender (McGhee 1979: 52-55). Most campsites contain
between one and three dwellings, indicating small co-
resident groups. Most sites larger than that appear to
have been occupied for brief periods only (McGhee
1996: 123; Schledermann 1990: 51). Therefore, local
hunting bands probably consisted of from three to five
families or perhaps 15-20 people for parts of the year,
separating into individual families at other times
(Maxwell 1985: 52). The entire population was undoubt-
edly very small (McGhee 1996: 123). Sutherland (1996:
284) has estimated that the entire Independence I pop-
ulation of Pearyland and Northern Ellesmere island was
around 300. It is therefore likely that local groups some-
times died off entirely because of starvation resulting
from crises like a late freeze-up of the sea ice or failure of
the caribou migration (McGhee 1996: 125-126). No
Independence I human remains have been found.
Economy
The Independence I subtradition peoples were Arc-
tic foragers, subsisting entirely off wild game. The
environment provides very few edible plant foods so
that almost their entire diet would have come from the
hunting of animals. The cold climate permitted accu-

mulated food surpluses to be stored for long periods in
rock caches for future consumption, except over the
summer. Based on ethnographic analogy with contem-
porary Inuit populations in the same region, it is likely
that hunting was predominantly a male task. However,
given the small size of most groups, women undoubtedly
often took part in some hunting activities such as
driving game. Dogs were probably used in a range of
hunting activities such as locating seal breathing holes on
the sea ice or signs of musk oxen in the winter twilight or
distracting polar bears while the hunter approached to
within range (McGhee 1996: 62). Sea mammal hunting
appears to have been carried out at seal breathing holes
or from the floe edge rather than from boats (McGhee
1979: 116-117; cf. Schledermann 1990: 50; Sutherland
1991: 141). Musk oxen appear to be the most impor-
tant mammal species exploited by the Independence I
peoples in Pearyland and interior northern Ellesmere
island (Knuth 1966-67, 1967; Schledermann 1990: 319;
Sutherland 1996: 274). Elsewhere, sea mammals, espe-
cially seals, predominate (McGhee 1979: 124). Other
mammals exploited include caribou, Arctic fox, Arctic
hare, and polar bear, while the most important bird
species include geese, ducks, and gulls. Fish could also
be an important resource (Knuth 1967).
The technology used by the Eastern Arctic Small
Tool tradition peoples was based on a limited range of
materials and techniques: flaked stone, ground stone,
bone, antler, ivory, skin, and driftwood (McGhee 1996:
60). Independence I groups appear to have valued highly
colored or distinctive stone for manufacturing lithic
tools so that aesthetics may have been a criterion in the
choice of material (McGhee 1979; Sutherland 1996:
275). One of the most distinctive and common flaked
stone implements is the spalled burin, used as a chisel or
scraper to manufacture items of bone, antler, ivory, or
wood. Burin spalls appear also to have been used as
tools. Other flaked stone tools associated with manu-
facturing or maintenance include microblades, concave
side scrapers, end scrapers, stemmed and lanceolate
knives, gravers, stone adzes, and drills (Bielawski 1988:
70; Helmer 1991: 305; Knuth 1967: 34; Maxwell 1985:
67; Schledermann 1990: 118). Independence I hunting
technology included harpoons and lances that could be
used for hunting sea mammals from the edge of the
land-fast ice or ringed seals through their breathing
holes. The tanged harpoon heads are non toggling
(Helmer 1991: 308; Maxwell 1984: 360; McGhee 1979).
Lances and bows and arrows were used for hunting land
mammals. The flaked stone items associated with these
hunting implements include stemmed, bipointed, and
lanceolate end blades for arrows, triangular harpoon
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 33
end blades, and side blades for insetting into the sides of
harpoon heads and perhaps arrow foreshafts (McGhee
1979; Schledermann 1990: 317).
Sociopolitical Organization
The social organization of the Independence I
people would have been based on small, flexible egal-
itarian bands linked by ties of kinship or partnerships.
The nuclear family would have been the most important
unit, but undoubtedly a number of families would
normally have cooperated during some or much of the
year (McGhee 1996: 122-125). However, there is some
disagreement among researchers about the extent to
which distinctive local regional groups may have existed,
or whether individual bands were highly mobile over
long distances, producing the technological homogene-
ity that is observed over the vast region (Helmer et al.
1996: 316; Sutherland 1996: 284). Assemblages more
reminiscent of Independence I rather than the geo-
graphically closer Pre-Dorset subtradition have been
found in Labrador (Tuck 1976: 98-99) and in the
lower Mackenzie river valley (Pilon 1994: 81), but this
presumably reflects the increasing variability now being
documented in the Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition
(Bielawski 1988; Helmer 1991; Schledermann 1990;
Sutherland 1996).
Religion and Expressive Culture
The paucity of organic artifacts from Independence I
sites precludes our learning about their belief systems.
However, the fact that they appear to have valued highly
colored or distinctive chert over other kinds of flak able
stone may reflect aesthetic expression (McGhee 1979;
Sutherland 1996: 275).
References
Bielawski, Ellen (1988). "Paleoeskimo Variability: The Early Arctic
Small-Tool Tradition in the Central Canadian Arctic." American
Antiquity 53 (1): 52-74.
Helmer, James W. (1991). "The Palaeo-Eskimo Prehistory of the
North Devon Lowlands." Arctic anthropology 44 (4): 301-317.
Helmer, James W., M. A. P. Renouf, and Patricia D. Sutherland
(1996). "Comments by the Canadian Guest Lecturers." In Danish
Polar Center Publication No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of
Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B
Gremnow, Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 309-318.
Knuth, Eigil (1966-67). "The Ruins of the Musk-ox Way." Folk
8-9: 191-219.
Knuth, Eigil (1967). Contributions du Centre d'Etudes Arctiques et
Finno-Scandinaves, No.5: Archaeology of the Musk-ox Way. Paris:
Centre d'Etudes Arctiques et Finno-Scandinaves.
34 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
Mary-Rousseliere, Guy (1976). "The Paleoeskimos in Northern
Baffinland." In Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology,
No. 31: Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Problems, ed. M. S.
Maxwell. Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology,
40--57.
Maxwell, J. B. (1981). "Climatic Regions of the Canadian Arctic
Islands." Arctic 34 (3): 225-240.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1984). "Pre-Dorset and Dorset Prehistory of
Canada." In Handbook of North American 1ndians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed.
D. Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 359-
368.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
McGhee, Robert (1979). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury
Series Paper No. 92: The Paleoeskimo Occupations at Port Refuge,
High Arctic Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
McGhee, Robert (1996). Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver:
UBC Press.
Pilon, Jean-Luc (1994). "The Inuvik Phase of the Arctic Small Tool
Tradition." In Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series
Paper No. 149: Threads of Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of
William E. Taylor, Jr., ed. D. A. Morrison, and J.-L. Pilon. Hull:
Canadian Museum of Civilization, 57-86.
Schledermann, Peter (1980). "Polynyas and Prehistoric Settlement
Patterns." Arctic 33 (2): 292-302.
Schledermann, Peter (1990). Komatik Series, No.2: Crossroads to
Greenland: 3000 Years of Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic.
Calgary: Arctic Institute of North America.
Sutherland, Patricia D. (1991). "Archaeological Site Distributions on
the South Coast of Devon Island, High Arctic Canada." In
Occasional Paper, No.1: NOGAP Archaeology Project: An Integrated
Archaeological Research and Management Approach, ed. J. Cinq-
Mars and J.-L. Pilon. Victoria: Canadian Archaeological Associa-
tion, 131-142.
Sutherland, Patricia D. (1996). "Continuity and Change in the Paleo-
Eskimo Prehistory of Northern Ellesmere Island." In Danish Polar
Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Green-
land-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow.
Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 271-294.
Tuck, James A. (1976). "Paleoeskimo Cultures of Northern Labra-
dor." In Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 31:
Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Problems, ed. M. S. Maxwell.
Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology, 89-102.
Wright, J. V. (1995). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series
Paper No. 152: A History of the Native People of Canada Vol. 1:
10,000--1000 B.C. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Pre-Dorset
TIME PERIOD: 3700-2700 B.P.
LOCATION: The Canadian Arctic mainland and the
Canadian Arctic archipelago, from Banks island in the
west to Central Labrador in the east, and from
Ellesmere island in the north, south to Churchill on
the west coast of Hudson bay and the Great Whale river
on the east coast.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Midpassage structures,
lamps rare; open-socketed toggling harpoon heads;
straight stemmed and triangular end blades; side blades;
edge serration absent on lithics, and grinding rare.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The vast region occupied by Pre-Dorset sub tradition
has an Arctic climate, characterized by long winters and
pronounced seasonal differences in the amount of solar
radiation. The degree of winter cold varies regionally,
but summers are relatively cool (Maxwell 1981). The
time spanned by Pre-Dorset saw the climate of the
region cool gradually from conditions that were some-
what warmer than at present (McGhee 1996: 110-111,
114). The topography of the region is extremely diverse,
varying from low flat plains to high mountain ranges
along the eastern margin of the Canadian Arctic. The
coastal regions, where the most intensive and extensive
human occupations took place, include both rocky
coasts incised by deep narrow fjords in some regions
and wide gravel beaches with very low relief in others.
Isostatic adjustments since the end of the last glaciation
have gradually raised many former beaches well above
today's coastline, forming distinct fossil beach ridges
in many areas which have sometimes proved useful in
determining the age of associated sites. Conversely, in
areas like the east coast of Baffin island, isostatic
changes have submerged beaches dating to Pre-Dorset
times (Maxwell 1985). During the winter, the sea ice
freezes completely between the Arctic islands; on the
coasts facing the open ocean, a strip of land-fast ice that
may be several kilometers wide forms during the winter.
The entire region is characterized by tundra. Soil devel-
opment is slow. As a general rule, the greater degree of
soil development and the associated thicker plant cover in
the southern portions of the region make Pre-Dorset sites
there more difficult to locate than those in the much more
barren High Arctic. The tundra vegetation includes
Arctic willows, mosses, lichens, and sedge grasses. The
most important land mammal species include caribou
and musk ox, but Arctic fox and Arctic hare are also
available. Available sea mammal species include ringed,
harp, and bearded seals, walrus, and polar bears. Ringed
seals can be especially important because they are
available year round; other sea mammal species are
migratory to varying degrees and therefore less available
or unavailable during the winter. Migratory birds such as
ducks and geese are available in the summer.

Settlements
The Pre-Dorset subtradition peoples were Arctic
foragers. In some areas, there is evidence that they
followed an annual round that saw them camping and
hunting in the interior during the summer and autumn
and spending the remainder of the year near the coast
and, probably, out on the sea ice (Maxwell 1985: 98;
Schledermann 1990: 318). However, some coastal sites
have been attributed to summer-autumn occupations
through tooth thin-sectioning (Helmer 1991: 309). Areas
near polynyas appear to have attracted occupations
(Schledermann 1980: 298, 1990). The lack of refuse at
some sites indicates that people did not stay there more
than a few days (Maxwell 1985: 98). Elsewhere, there is
evidence that some groups may have spent most or all of
the year in one locality, moving seasonally between
campsites only to take advantage of local topographic
differences (Ramsden and Murray 1995). Pre-Dorset
site structure varies from clustered (McGhee 1979) to
approximately linear (Schledermann 1978: 56). Most
campsites contain between one and three dwellings,
indicating small co-resident groups. Most sites larger
than that appear to have been occupied for brief periods
only (McGhee 1996: 123). Therefore, local hunting
bands probably consisted of from three to five families
or perhaps 15-20 people for parts of the year, separating
into individual families at other times (Maxwell 1985:
52). The entire population was undoubtedly very small
(McGhee 1996: 123).
Pre-Dorset dwellings include skin tents supported by
a framework of driftwood poles. The remains of
individual tents often exhibit a circular or oval ring of
gravel or of small boulders, used to hold down the skirts
of the tent. They range in size from over 4.5 m in
diameter to small ovals 2 m long and 1.5 m wide
(Bielawski 1988; Helmer 1991: 305; Maxwell 1984:
362). However, the majority appear to have been
single-family dwellings, based on size and the arrange-
ment of interior features (McGhee 1979: 55). In each
structure, there may be a hearth constructed of flat
stones or simply a nondescript cluster of rocks contain-
ing small quantities of charred material. Midpassages
are sometimes found, but are rare (Maxwell 1985: 97;
Schledermann 1990: 119, 323). Cooking, heating, and
thawing ice for drinking water would have been
accomplished by burning willow twigs or blubber in
the hearths in these structures. However, small, round
soapstone lamps have also been found at some sites
(Mary-Rousseliere 1976: 41; Maxwell 1984: 361). Some
Pre-Dorset structures lack an encircling rock or gravel
ring. These have been interpreted as winter sites,
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 35
contammg either snow houses or tents banked with
snow (Helmer 1991: 305; McGhee 1979; Ramsden and
Murray 1995; cf. Schledermann 1978: 48).
Economy
The Pre-Dorset were Arctic foragers, subsisting
entirely off wild game. The environment provides very
few edible plant foods so that almost their entire diet
would have come from the hunting of animals. Most
groups took advantage of both land mammals and sea
mammals to meet their food and material requirements.
Dogs were probably used in a range of hunting
activities, but there is no evidence for dog traction
(Maxwell 1984: 361; Meldgaard 1962). Where quantifi-
able, seals appear to have been the most important
component of the Pre-Dorset diet, although faunal
assemblages also contain migratory birds, fish, and
other mammals (Helmer 1991: 305, 309; Maxwell 1985;
McCartney and Helmer 1989; Ramsden and Murray
1995; Schledermann 1990: 119). Pre-Dorset technology
was based on a limited range of materials and tech-
niques: flaked stone, ground stone, bone, antler, ivory,
skin, and driftwood. Problems of preservation at most
Pre-Dorset sites mean that the nonlithic component of
their technology has been studied much less thoroughly
than the implements manufactured out of stone. One
of the most distinctive and common flaked stone
implements is the spalled burin, used as a chisel or
scraper to manufacture items of bone, antler, ivory, or
wood (Maxwell 1985: 91-94). Other flaked stone tools
associated with manufacturing or maintenance in-
clude gravers, microblades, side scrapers, end scrapers,
stemmed and lanceolate knives, stone adzes, and drills
(Bielawski 1988; Maxwell 1984: 361; Maxwell 1985).
Pre-Dorset hunting technology includes harpoons and
lances that could be used for hunting sea mammals from
the edge of the land-fast ice or ringed seals through their
breathing holes. Harpoon heads are of the toggling
variety, with open sockets (Helmer 1991: 309; Maxwell
1984: 361). Lances and bows and arrows were used for
hunting land mammals (Maxwell 1984: 361). The flaked
stone items associated with these hunting implements
include concave or square-based triangular end blades,
straight-stemmed end blades, and bifaces and bipointed
side blades (Helmer 1991: 309; Maxwell 1985: 68).
Sociopolitical Organization
The social organization of the Pre-Dorset people
would have been based on small, flexible egalitar-
ian bands linked by ties of kinship or partnerships.
36 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
The nuclear family would have been the most important
unit, but undoubtedly a number of families would
normally have cooperated during some or much of the
year (McGhee 1996: 122-125). However, there is some
disagreement among researchers about the extent to
which distinctive local regional groups may have existed
in the Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition or whether
individual bands were highly mobile over long distances,
producing the technological homogeneity that is ob-
served over the vast region (Helmer et al. 1996: 316;
Sutherland 1996: 284). There is no evidence that the
Pre-Dorset had more than sporadic contacts with
peoples to the south. However, in Northern Labrador,
it is argued that Pre-Dorset peoples acquired a partic-
ular type of toggling harpoon from the Maritime
Archaic people there, who in turn acquired bow and
arrow technology (Fagan 1995: 181; McGhee 1996: 102;
Tuck and Fitzhugh 1986: 162-163; Wright 1995: 411).
There is also evidence of contact to the west with the
Alaskan Choris or Norton cultures late in Pre-Dorset
times (Arnold 1981; LeBlanc 1994: 115-116).
Religion and Expressive Culture
The poor preservation of organic artifacts at most
Pre-Dorset sites means that we know little about
ornaments and ornamentation. A very few organic
items have been found incised with geometric designs or
depictions of birds and caribou (Maxwell 1985: 95-96;
Muller-Beck 1977; Schledermann 1990: 106). A carved
human maskette depicts tattooing very similar to that
known from Inuit in the Historic period (Helmer 1986).
These findings suggest that the distinctive carvings of the
Dorset tradition, which developed out of Pre-Dorset,
had their antecedents in the earlier culture. Thus, the
shamanic beliefs attributed to the Dorset on the basis of
their art (McGhee 1996: 155) presumably date to Pre-
Dorset times as well. The bones of a premature infant
from Devon island (Helmer and Kennedy 1986) are the
only human remains known from Pre-Dorset, so that
practically nothing is known about attitudes or practices
concerning death.
References
Arnold, Charles D. (1981). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury
Series Paper No. 107: The Lagoon Site (ObRI-3): Implications for
Paleoeskimo Interactions. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Bielawski, Ellen (1988). "Paleoeskimo Variability: The Early Arctic
Small-Tool Tradition in the Central Canadian Arctic." American
Antiquity 53 (I): 52-74.
Fagan, Brian M. (1995). Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a
Continent. London: Thames and Hudson.
Helmer, James W. (1986). "A Face from the Past: An Early Pre-Dorset
Ivory Maskette from Devon Island, N.W.T." Etudes/Inuit/Studies
10 (1-2): 179-202.
Helmer, James W. (1991). "The Palaeo-Eskimo Prehistory of the
North Devon Lowlands." Arctic 44 (4): 301-317.
Helmer, James W., and Brenda V. Kennedy (1986). "Early Palaeo-
Eskimo Skeletal Remains from North Devon Island, High Arctic
Canada." Canadian Journal of Archaeology 10: 107-122.
Helmer, James W., M. A. P. Renouf, and Patricia D. Sutherland
(1996). "Comments by the Canadian Guest Lecturers." In Danish
Polar Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of
Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology ed. B.
Gf0nnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 309-318.
LeBlanc, Raymond Joseph (1994). Archaeological Survey of Canada,
Mercury Series Paper No. 148: The Crane Site and the Palaeoeskimo
Period in the Western Canadian Arctic. Hull: Canadian Museum of
Civilization.
Mary-Rousseliere, Guy (1976). "The Paleoeskimos in Northern Baffin-
land." In Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 31:
Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Problems. ed. M. S. Maxwell.
Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology, 40-57.
Maxwell, J. B. (1981). "Climatic Regions of the Canadian Arctic
Islands." Arctic 34 (3): 225-240.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1984). "Pre-Dorset and Dorset Prehistory of
Canada." In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed.
D. Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 359-
368.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
McCartney, Peter H., and James W. Helmer (1989). "Marine and
Terrestrial Mammals in High Arctic Paleoeskimo Economy."
Archaeozoologia 3 (1/2): 143-160.
McGhee, Robert (1979). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury
Series Paper No. 92: The Paleoeskimo Occupations at Port Refuge,
High Arctic Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
McGhee, Robert (1996). Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver:
UBC Press.
Meldgaard, Jorgen (1962). "On the Formative Period of the Dorset
Culture." In Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper No.
11: Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate
Zones of North America, ed. J. M. Campbell. Montreal: Arctic
Institute of North America, 92-95.
Miiller-Beck, Hansjiirgen (1977). "Bone Tools from Umingmak I A
and I D." In Urgeschlichtlich Materialhefte, No.1: Excavations at
Umingmak on Banks Island, N. W.T., 1970 and 1973: Preliminary
Report, ed. H. Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fiir Urgeschichte der
Universitat Tiibingen, 58-71.
Ramsden, Peter, and Maribeth Murray (1995). "Identifying Season-
ality in Pre-Dorset Structures in Back Bay, Prince of Wales Island,
N.W.T." Arctic Anthropology 32 (2): 106-117.
Schledermann, Peter (1978). "Prehistoric Demographic Trends in the
Canadian High Arctic." Canadian Journal of Archaeology 2: 43-58.
Schledermann, Peter (1980). "Polynyas and Prehistoric Settlement
Patterns." Arctic 33 (2): 292-302.
Schledermann, Peter (1990). Komatik Series, No.2: Crossroads to
Greenland: 3000 Years of Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic.
Calgary: Arctic Institute of North America.
Sutherland, Patricia D. (1996). "Continuity and Change in the Paleo-
Eskimo Prehistory of Northern Ellesmere Island." In Danish Polar
Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Green-
land-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gf0n-
now. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 271-294.

Tuck, James A., and William W. Fitzhugh (1986). "Palaeo-Eskimo
Traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador: A Re-Appraisal." In
Reports in Archaeology, No.1: Palaeo-Eskimo Cultures in New-
foundland, Labrador and Ungava. St. John's: Memorial University of
Newfoundland, 161-167.
Wright, J. V. (1995). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series
Paper No. 152: A History of the Native People of Canada, Vol. 1:
10,000-1000 B.C. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Saqqaq (Sarqaq)
TIME PERIOD: 3900-2700 B.P.
LOCATION: West and Southeast Greenland; Saqqaq or
Saqqaq-influenced sites have also been identified in
Northwestern Ellesmere Island.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Midpassage structures
and lamps relatively common; both tang-based, barbed,
non toggling harpoon heads and open-socketed toggling
harpoon heads; burins exhibiting distal grinding; slender
triangular and bipointed arrowheads; a preference for
the use of killiaq rather than chert for flaked lithics.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The region occupied by the Saqqaq subtradition
exhibits an Arctic climate, characterized by long winters
and pronounced seasonal differences in the amount
of solar radiation. The degree of winter cold varies
regionally, but summers are relatively cool. The time
spanned by Saqqaq saw the climate of the region cool
gradually from conditions that were somewhat warmer
than at present (Freskild 1996). The bedrock geology of
Greenland consists of Precambrian granites, gneisses,
and schists. The center of Greenland is covered by a
massive permanent snowfield, fringed by nunatat, the
peaks of mountains rising above the glacial ice. The
coastal regions, where the most intensive and extensive
human occupations took place, are dominated by rocky
coasts incised by deep narrow fjords, although gravel
beaches with very low relief occur in some areas. Soil
development is slow, and soil cover is variable, although
inland areas tend to have greater soil development
(Kramer 1996b: 41). Complex isostatic adjustments
since the end of the last glaciation have raised beaches
dating to Saqqaq times (Kramer 1996b). For human
inhabitants of this region, a vital part of the topography
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 37
during the winter is created by the frozen sea ice. In
fjords, the sea freezes in almost unbroken expanses. On
the coasts facing the open ocean, a strip of land-fast ice
that may be several kilometers wide forms during the
winter. The tundra vegetation includes Arctic willows,
mosses, lichens, and sedge grasses. The most important
land mammal species include caribou and musk ox, but
Arctic fox and Arctic hare are also available. Available
sea mammal species include ringed, harp, and bearded
seals, walrus, whales, and polar bears. Ringed seals can
be especially important because they are available year
round; other sea mammal species are migratory to
varying degrees and therefore less available or unavail-
able during the winter. Migratory birds such as ducks
and geese are available in the summer.
Settlements
The Saqqaq subtradition peoples were Arctic forag-
ers. Saqqaq sites are found in both inner and outer fjord
areas, although outer fjord regions have been studied
more intensively (Kapel 1996: 119; Kramer 1996b: 41).
Sites situated on islands, headlands, and near the
mouths of fjords have been interpreted as both winter
and summer occupations, situated so as to take advan-
tage of sea mammals (Fitzhugh 1984: 536; Kramer
1996b: 43). Inland sites are seen as having been used
during the summer and autumn for caribou hunting and
fishing (Fitzhugh 1984: 536; Kapel1996; Kramer 1996b:
42-43; Meldgaard 1977; Mohl 1972; Schilling 1996).
Thus, the Saqqaq annual round is envisaged as some-
times camping and hunting at the head of fjords or
in the interior during the summer and autumn and
spending the remainder of the year at the outer coast.
Most campsites contain a small number of dwellings,
indicating small co-resident groups. Therefore, local
hunting bands probably consisted of from three to five
families or perhaps 15-20 people for parts of the year,
separating into individual families at other times. The
entire population was undoubtedly very small (McGhee
1996: 123). Saqqaq dwellings include skin tents sup-
ported by a framework of driftwood poles. The remains
of individual tents often exhibit a circular or oval ring of
gravel or small boulders, used to hold down the skirts of
the tent. Midpassages are not uncommon (Gf0nnow
1996: 20). Box hearths constructed of flat stones are
associated with and sometimes inside structures, often
accompanied by quantities of fire-cracked stones pre-
sumably used for boiling (Fitzhugh 1984: 536; Kramer
1996a: 75-76). Cooking, heating, and thawing ice for
drinking water were accomplished by burning driftwood
or blubber in the hearths in these structures. However,
38 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
small, round soapstone lamps have also been found at
some sites (Appelt and Pind 1996: 139-142; Larsen and
Meldgaard 1958). The differential distribution of debi-
tage classes has been used to argue that activities in
midpassage structures were segregated according to
gender (Jensen 1996: 157-158).
Economy
The Saqqaq were Arctic foragers, subsisting entirely
off wild game. The environment provides very few edible
plant foods so that almost the entire diet would have
come from the hunting of animals, although analysis of
coprolites at one site reveals that crowberries and
mountain sorrel had been consumed (Gmnnow 1996:
27). Dogs were probably used in a range of hunting
activities, but there is no evidence for dog traction
(Gotfredsen 1996: 104; M0hl 1986). Most groups took
advantage of both land mammals and sea mammals to
meet their food and material requirements. Faunal and
isotopic analyses have revealed that seals, caribou, and
birds were all extremely important in the Saqqaq diet,
although their relative importance varies between sites.
Other species include fish, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, and
polar bear. The remains of whales have also been found,
although it is unclear whether they were hunted or
simply scavenged (Gotfredsen 1996; Gmnnow 1996:
26-27; Koch et al. 1996; M0hl 1972).
Saqqaq technology was based on a limited range of
materials and techniques: flaked stone, ground stone,
bone, antler, ivory, skin, and driftwood. Instead of
chert, the Saqqaq preferred to use make their flaked
stone items from a silicified slate called killiaq, referred
to in older publications as angmaq or ammaaq (Elling
1996: 194; Fitzhugh 1984: 536; Kramer 1996b: 47). The
relative softness of this material in comparison to chert
has been used to explain the distinctively high frequency
of grinding observed on Saqqaq lithics (Elling 1996: 199;
Schledermann 1990: 326). One of the most distinctive
and common flaked stone implements is the spalled
burin, used as a chisel or scraper to manufacture items
of bone, antler, ivory, or wood. Saqqaq burins almost
invariably exhibit distal grinding (Appelt and Pind 1996:
136; Fitzhugh 1984: 536). Other flaked stone tool types
associated with manufacturing or maintenance include
side scrapers, end scrapers, microblades, stemmed and
lanceolate knives, stone adzes, and borers (Gmnnow
1996; Kramer 1996a; Larsen and Meldgaard 1958;
Meldgaard 1952). Saqqaq sea mammal hunting tech-
nology includes harpoons and lances. The harpoon
heads include tang-based, barbed, nontoggling speci-
mens as well as open-socketed toggling types. Distinc-
tive markings on harpoon heads have been identified as
ownership marks (Gmnnow 1996: 26). Fragments of
kayaklike watercraft indicate that sea mammal hunting
could have been conducted from boats as well as from
the ice (Gmnnow 1996: 26). Lances and bows and
arrows were used for hunting land mammals, especially
caribou, whereas bird spears were used to hunt birds
(Gmnnow 1996: 26-27). Knotted baleen fragments
may indicate the use of snares or nets (Gmnnow 1996:
28). The flaked stone items associated with these
hunting implements include slender triangular and bi-
pointed end blades, presumably to arm arrows, and
large lance end blades (Fitzhugh 1984: 537; Gmnnow
1994, 1996).
Sociopolitical Organization
The social organization of the Saqqaq people
would presumably have been based on small, flexible
egalitarian bands linked by ties of kinship or partner-
ship. The nuclear family would have been the most
important unit, but undoubtedly a number of families
would normally have cooperated during some or much
of the year (McGhee 1996: 122-125). The identification
of ownership marks on harpoon heads (Gmnnow 1996:
26) suggests that at least some sea mammal hunting
was done communally. There is some disagreement
among researchers about the extent to which distinctive
local regional groups may have existed in the Eastern
Arctic Small Tool tradition or whether individual
bands were highly mobile over long distances, produc-
ing the technological homogeneity that is observed
throughout the vast region occupied by sub traditions
like Saqqaq (Helmer et al. 1996: 316; Sutherland 1996:
284). There is no evidence that the Saqqaq had
contacts with non-Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition
peoples.
Religion and Expressive Culture
The poor preservation of organic artifacts at many
Saqqaq sites means that we know little about ornaments
and ornamentation. At sites where organic items have
survived, there is little evidence of ornamentation
(Gmnnow 1994: 232-233). Four adult bones from a
midden deposit are the only human remains known
from Saqqaq sites. Traces of red ocher found on one of
the bones may hint at mortuary ceremonialism, al-
though the context of the finds does not appear to
support this (Gmnnow 1994: 219, 233; Koch, et al.
1996: 36).

References
Appelt, Martin, and John Pind (1996). "Nunnguaq-A Saqqaq Site
from Godthiibsfjorden." In Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1:
The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New Perspectives in
Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Grl2mnow. Copenhagen: Danish
Polar Center, 129-142.
Elling, Henrik (1996). "The Independence I and Old Nuulliit Cultures
in Relation to the Saqqaq Culture." In Danish Polar Center
Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New
Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow. Copen-
hagen: Danish Polar Center, 191-198.
Fitzhugh, William W. (1984). "Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland."
In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed.
D. Damas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
528-539.
Freskild, Bent (1996). "Holocene Climatic Changes in Greenland." In
Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures
of Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed.
B. Gronnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 243-251.
Gotfredsen, Anne Birgitte (1996). "The Fauna from the Saqqaq Site of
Nipisat I, Sisimiut District, West Greenland: Preliminary Results."
In Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo
Cultures of Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology,
ed. B. Gronnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 97-110.
Gmnnow, Bjarne (1994). "Qeqertasussuk-The Archaeology of a
Frozen Saqqaq Site in Disko Bugt, West Greenland." In Archaeo-
logical Survey of Canada, Mercury Series Paper No. 149: Threads of
Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor, Jr., ed.
D. A. Morrison, and J.-L. Pilon. Hull: Canadian Museum of
Civilization, 197-238.
Gmnnow, Bjarne (1996). "The Saqqaq Tool Kit-Technological and
Chronological Evidence from Qeqertasussuk, Disko Bugt." In
Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures
of Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed.
B. Gmnnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 17-34.
Helmer, James W., M. A. P. Renouf, and Patricia D. Sutherland
(1996). "Comments by the Canadian Guest Lecturers." In Danish
Polar Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of
Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed.
B. Gmnnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 309-318.
Jensen, Jens Fog (1996). "Paleo-Eskimo Sites in Skjoldungen District,
South East Greenland." In Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1:
The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New Perspectives in
Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow. Copenhagen: Danish
Polar Center, 143-159.
Kapel, Hans (1996). "Angujaartorfik-A Paleo-Eskimo Caribou
Hunting Camp." In Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1: The
Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlan-
dic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar
Center, 119-128.
Koch, Anders, Bruno Fmlich, Niels Lynnerup, and Jens Peder Hart
Hansen (1996). "The Bones from Qeqertasussuk-The Earliest
Human Remains from Greenland." In Danish Polar Center Publi-
cation, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New
Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow. Copen-
hagen: Danish Polar Center, 35-37.
Kramer, Finn Erik (I 996a). "Akia and Nipisat I: Two Saqqaq Sites in
Sisimiut District, West Greenland." In Danish Polar Center Publi-
cation, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New
Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow. Copen-
hagen: Danish Polar Center, 65-96.
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 39
Kramer, Finn Erik (1996b). "The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures in Sisimiut
District, West Greenland: Aspects of Chronology." In Danish Polar
Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Green-
land-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmn-
now. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 39-63.
Larsen, Helge, and JJ1Jrgen Meldgaard (1958). "Paleo-Eskimo Cultures
in Disko Bugt, West Greenland." Meddelelser om Gronland 161 (2).
McGhee, Robert (1996). Ancient People of the Arctic. Vancouver:
UBC Press.
Meldgaard, Jorgen (1952). "A Paleo-Eskimo Culture in West Green-
land." American Antiquity 17 (3): 222-230.
Meldgaard, Jorgen (1977). "The Prehistoric Cultures in Greenland:
Discontinuities in a Marginal Area." In Continuity and Discontinuity
in the Inuit Culture of Greenland, ed. H. P. Kylstra. Groningen:
University of Groningen Arctic Centre, 19-52.
Mohl, Ulrik (1972). "Animal Bones from Itivnera, West Green-
land-A Reindeer Hunting Site of the Sarqaq Culture." Meddelelser
om Gronland 191 (6).
MJ1Jhl, Jeppe (1986). "Dog Remains from a Paleoeskimo Settlement in
West Greenland." Arctic Anthropology 32 (1-2): 81-89.
Schilling, Henrik (1996). "Paleo-Eskimo Utilization of West Green-
land Inland Areas." In Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1: The
Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlan-
die Archaeology, ed. B. Gmnnow. Copenhagen: Danish Polar
Center, 111-118.
Schledermann, Peter (1990). Komatik Series, No.2: Crossroads to
Greenland: 3000 Years of Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic.
Calgary: Arctic Institute of North America.
Sutherland, Patricia D. (1996). "Continuity and Change in the Paleo-
Eskimo Prehistory of Northern Ellesmere Island." In Danish Polar
Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Green-
land-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed. B. Gmn-
now. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 271-294.
SITES
Bettison Point
TIME PERIOD: 3600-3400 B.P.
LOCATION: Back Bay, Prince of Wales island, Northwest
Territories.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Situated at the northeast corner of Prince of Wales
island, Bettison Point is a low gravel promontory
extending from the north shore of Back bay. It is
relatively sheltered from both winds and currents and
overlooks both the bay itself and Peel sound, the waters
of which are generally frozen from November through
July (Ramsden and Murray 1995: 108).
40 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
Physical Features
The Pre-Dorset occupation at Bettison Point consists
of 13 components. Eight are situated on top of a gravel
ridge around a large pond at an elevation of between 21
and 24 m above sea level, while the remaining five are
located just a few hundred meters away on south-facing
beaches between 14 and 20 m in elevation. One of the
beach components contains 16 structures; all other
components contain from 1 to 7 structures. All the
excavated structures contained lithic artifacts; some also
contained organic artifacts and faunal bones. Despite
displaying considerable variability, 44 of the 45 dwelling
structures identified at Bettison Point could be assigned
to two types. The 32 Type 1 structures dominate the
beach components. Each structure consists only of a
cluster of small flat or irregular stones and moss, aver-
aging about 4.5 m2 in area. The 12 Type 2 structures,
which are found only in the ridge components, are well-
defined tent rings exhibiting internal features and aver-
aging about 21 m2 in area (Ramsden and Murray 1995).
Cultural Aspects
The Type 2 structures have been interpreted as warm
weather dwellings on the basis of three factors: The large
stones used to weigh down the tent would have been
exposed and available (i.e., not frozen into the ground);
migratory waterfowl remains are consistent with a warm
season occupation; and the windy ridge-top location
would be unappealing in winter but advantageous for
insect avoidance during the summer. Conversely, the
Type 1 structures are interpreted as winter dwellings.
Their lack of a stone-gravel perimeter ring suggests that
snow was the only construction material or was used to
anchor a skin tent. Their location in the lee of a steep
slope is considered ideal for snow structures (Ramsden
and Murray 1995; Savelle 1987), and the faunal assem-
blages lack summer species. Bettison Point thus appears
to have been used by a small hunting band throughout
much of the year, either continuously or intermittently.
Factors that may have led people to move between the
beach and ridge components may have included such
things as the accessibility of food, water, building
materials, prevailing winds, and insects. The number
of structures suggests a total occupation of a decade or
less (Ramsden and Murray 1995: 107).
References
Ramsden, Peter, and Maribeth Murray (1995). "Identifying Season-
ality in Pre-Dorset Structures in Back Bay, Prince of Wales Island,
N.W.T." Arctic Anthropology 32 (2): 106--117.
Savelle, James M. (1987). "Natural Formation Processes and Snow-
Based Sites: Examples from Arctic Canada." In BAR International
Series, No. 352: Natural Formation Processes in the Archaeological
Record, ed. D. T. Nash and M. D. Petraglia. Oxford: British
Archaeological Reports, 30-50.
Deltaterrasserne
TIME PERIOD: 4000-3700 B.P.
LOCATION: Near the head of J0rgen Bmnlund fjord,
Pearyland, Northern Greenland.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The landscape consists of barren gravel beach
terraces, raised because of isostatic rebound. Consider-
able quantities of driftwood are, however, available on
the beaches (Knuth 1967: 17). At this extreme northern
latitude, the sun does not rise above the horizon for
4! months during midwinter, producing a period of 2!
months of almost complete darkness (Knuth 1966-67:
194).
Physical Features
The Independence I ruins at Deltaterrasserne extend
over 800 m along beach terraces facing the fjord, at an
elevation of 14 m above sea level; more recent occupa-
tions are found on lower terraces (Knuth 1954: 370;
1967: 25). The Independence I component contains at
least 10 tent rings, of which 5 are midpassage structures.
Several of the other tent rings contain circular hearths
(Knuth 1954: 370-371). The site also contains 18 meat
caches (Knuth 1967: 28). Ruin 11 is a small midpassage
ruin encircled by a partial ring of rocks, completed by
a low gravel bank, with a large round meat cache
approximately 2 m away (Knuth 1966-67: 201, 1967:
50). The cache was found to contain 44 small pointed
sticks, which may have been for stretching skins or tent
pegs (Knuth 1966-67: 211).
Cultural Aspects
The most common artifacts found at Deltaterrass-
erne include microblades, burins, flint flakers, and bone
needles. The faunal remains from the site portray a

highly specialized adaptation. There are no seal or
caribou bones or antler; all the faunal remains derive
from musk ox, fish, and bird (Knuth 1967: 32a). The
proximity of the caches to dwelling structures has been
used to argue that Independence I people spent much or
all of the long period of midwinter darkness inactive,
subsisting off stored supplies (Knuth 1952: 24; 1966-67:
210; 1967: 50). Deltaterrasserne is one of a series of
multicomponent campsites that extend from the mouth
of J0rgen Bmnlund fjord, where it debouches into
Independence fjord, to the head of the fjord and inland
to Midsummer lake. Eigil Knuth (1967: 60-61) con-
cludes that the Independence I people in this region
moved seasonally between the mouth of the fjord and
the lake, spending the period from March to July at the
coast and the rest of the year inland.
References
Knuth, Eigil (1952). "An Outline of the Archaeology of Peary Land."
Arctic 5 (I): 17-33.
Knuth, Eigil (1954). "The Paleo-Eskimo Culture of Northeast Green-
land Elucidated by Three New Sites." American Antiquity 19 (4):
367-381.
Knuth, Eigil (1996-67). "The Ruins of the Musk-ox Way." Folk 8-9:
191-219.
Knuth, Eigil (1967). Contributions du Centre d'Etudes Arctiques et
Finno-Scandinaves, No.5: Archaeology of the Musk-ox Way. Paris:
Centre d'Etudes Arctiques et Finno-Scandinaves.
Kapuivik (lens Munk)
TIME PERIOD: 3700-2700 B.P.
LOCATION: Jens Munk island, off the coast of Baffin
island at the north end of Foxe basin, Northwest
Territories.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Today the most distinctive characteristic of Jens
Munk island is its long sequence of heavily weathered
limestone beach ridges, the result of approximately 50 m
of essentially continuous uplift over the past 4000 years.
The waters of F oxe basin are especially rich in sea
mammal resources, including walrus and bearded seal in
addition to smaller seals (Meldgaard 1960a: 67, 73;
1960b: 588).
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 41
Physical Features
The emerging beaches at Kapuivik were occupied
successively by people of the Pre-Dorset, Dorset, and
Thule traditions. Because each group of people tended
to camp near the shoreline, the Pre-Dorset finds are
today on the uppermost beach ridges, at elevations of
between 51-23 m, whereas the Dorset occupations took
place on later beach ridges, from 22-8 m above sea level.
The Pre-Dorset structures are characterized as round or
oval heavy tent rings with a central hearth (Meldgaard
1960a: 73).
Cultural Aspects
Unfortunately, only preliminary reports and sec-
ondhand sources provide most of our information
on this and the other Igloolik area sites (Alarnerk
and Kaleruserk) investigated by J0rgen Meldgaard in
the 1950s and 1960s (Maxwell 1985: 84). Nonetheless,
because Kapuivik was occupied essentially continuously
over millennia, and because the extreme degree of
isostatic uplift in this region has produced unusually
good horizontal stratigraphy, it provides important
information about Pre-Dorset technology, continuity,
and change over time and its relation with the succeed-
ing Dorset tradition. Pre-Dorset lithics from the site
include small burins, some of which are ground on the
sides, small symmetrical end blades for arrows, and
microblades. Organic artifacts include open-socketed
toggling harpoon heads, lance heads, flint flakers made
of a seal baculum, and ivory sewing needles with circular
cross-section, round eyes, and blunt head. There is little
evidence of technological change from the earliest Pre-
Dorset beaches to the latest, except for what the
excavator characterized as decreasing quality of work-
manship. In the very latest Pre-Dorset beaches, har-
poon styles change in ways that foreshadow Dorset
tradition types, nephrite enters use, and a maskette
similar to Dorset ones occurs. The site thus provides
evidence for and very useful data on the in situ
transition from Pre-Dorset into Dorset at the time
represented by the 22 and 23 m beach ridges, although
at first Meldgaard did not accept it as a cultural
continuum. Kapuivik is also one of the sites that gave
rise to the notion of a "core area" of Pre-Dorset and
Dorset development, in which there was continuity of
occupation and which influenced other areas through
diffusion of ideas or expansion of population (Maxwell
1976: 3, 1985: 59-60, 80-82, 84, 114; Meldgaard 1960a:
75, 1960b: 591, 1962: 93-94).
42 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
References
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1976). "Introduction." In Memoirs of the Society
for American Archaeology, No. 31: Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Pale-
oeskimo Problems, ed. M. S. Maxwell. Washington, D.C.: 1-5.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
Meldgaard, J0rgen (1960a). "Origin and Evolution of Eskimo Cultures
in the Eastern Arctic." Canadian Geographical Journal 60 (2): 64-75.
Meldgaard, J0rgen (I 960b). "Prehistoric Culture Sequences in the
Eastern Arctic as Elucidated By Stratified Sites at Igloolik." In Men
and Cultures-Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of
Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, ed. A. F. C. Wallace.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 588-595.
Meldgaard, J0rgen (1962). "On the Formative Period of the Dorset
Culture." In Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper No.
11: Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate
Zones of North America, ed. J. M. Campbell. Montreal: Arctic
Institute of North America, 92-95.
Port Refuge
TIME PERIOD: 4000-3500 B.P.
LOCATION: South coast of the Grinnell peninsula, Devon
island, Northwest Territories.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The Eastern Arctic Small Tool components are
situated on raised limestone gravel beach ridges that
surround the small sheltered bay from which the site
takes its name. The beaches contain tundra ponds but
are almost barren of vegetation. Because of isostatic
uplift, the sites are over 20 m above sea level today, but
it is assumed that at the time they were constructed they
were very near the shore. The ice in the bay would have
formed earlier in the autumn and lasted longer into the
summer than that outside the bay, making this a good
location for hunting sea mammals from or on the ice. A
po/ynya that forms in the ocean not far from Port
Refuge may have provided an important additional
inducement to occupation here (McGhee 1976: 15-16,
1979: 4-5).
Physical Features
The site contains three principal Eastern Arctic
Small Tool components, in addition to later Indepen-
dence II, Dorset, and Thule remains. The Upper
Beaches component at the southwest corner of the bay
and the Cold component at its head derive from the
Independence I subtradition, whereas the Gull Cliff
component, just east of Upper Beaches, is assigned
to the Pre-Dorset subtradition. The Cold component
extends along 220 m of beach and contains 31 structural
features and several midden scatters at an elevation of
between 22-26 m. The Upper Beaches component
contains 26 structural features extending over 700 m
of beaches, at an elevation of between 22-24 m. The
Pre-Dorset Gull Cliff component covers an area ap-
proximately 200 by 100 m, at an elevation of between
18-25 m. It contains 20 dwellings as well as 16 addi-
tional features and midden scatters (McGhee 1979: 10-
12, 56, 90). Surface collection and excavations at all
three components produced abundant lithics plus some
organic artifacts and faunal remains. The Independence
I components contained lightly built midpassage struc-
tures and box hearths, along with more nondescript
structures. The structures are arranged linearly in
groups of 5-20 houses. The Pre-Dorset structures
lack midpassages and are situated in clusters of 2-5
houses.
Cultural Aspects
Both winter and summer occupations at this loca-
tion are inferred (McGhee 1976: 16). Similar faunal
remains from both the Independence I and Pre-Dorset
components document the overwhelming importance of
ringed seals in subsistence. A careful analysis of the
lithics from the site reveals that some of the diversity
seen in lithic artifacts, especially burins, can be attrib-
uted to individual variation (McGhee 1980; cf. Helmer
and Robertson 1990). Analysis of the distribution of
finds at the Cold component indicates that activities in
midpassage structures were segregated according to
gender (McGhee 1979: 52-55). Most important, Port
Refuge is the single site that best exhibits a sharp
contrast between the Independence I and Pre-Dorset
subtraditions in settlement pattern, material culture, and
age. Given the difficulties associated with radiocarbon
dating Arctic sites (McGhee and Tuck 1976; Tuck and
McGhee 1983; cf. Arundale 1981), the separation in
elevation seen between the Independence I and Pre-
Dorset occupations here provides the best evidence for
the temporal priority of the former (perhaps on the
order of 300 years) and has been used to argue that
Independence I represents a migration of people into the
Canadian Arctic separate from that which produced
Pre-Dorset (Maxwell 1985: 74; McGhee 1979: 87).

References
Arundale, Wendy H. (1981). "Radiocarbon Dating in Eastern Arctic
Archaeology: A Flexible Approach." American Antiquity 46 (2):
244-271.
Helmer, James W, and Ian G. Robertson (1990). "A Quantitative
Shape Analysis of Early Palaeo-Eskimo Endblades from Northern
Devon Island." Canadian Journal of Archaeology 14: 107-122.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
McGhee, Robert (1976). "Paleoeskimo Occupations of Central and
High Arctic Canada." In Memoirs of the Society for American
Archaeology, No. 31: Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Prob-
lems, ed. M. S. Maxwell. Washington, D.C.: Society for American
Archaeology, 15-39.
McGhee, Robert (1979). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury
Series Paper No. 92: The Paleoeskimo Occupations at Port Refuge,
High Arctic Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
McGhee, Robert (1980). "Individual Stylistic Variability in Indepen-
dence I Stone Tool Assemblages from Port Refuge, N.W.T." Arctic
33 (3): 443-453.
McGhee, Robert, and James A. Tuck (1976). "Un-Dating the Canadian
Arctic." In Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 31:
Eastern Arctic Prehistory: Paleoeskimo Problems, ed. M. S. Maxwell.
Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology, 6-14.
Tuck, James A, and Robert McGhee (1983). "Sea Mammal Dates:
Science Or Science Fiction?" Quarterly Review of Archaeology 4 (2):
9-10.
Qeqertasussuk
TIME PERIOD: 3900-3100 B.P.
LOCATION: Qeqertasussuk island in the Sydostbugten
archipelago, at the south end of Disko Bugt, West
Greenland.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site is situated on a small saddle on the eastern
side of the island, overlooking both the archipelago to
the north and the narrow channel separating the island
from the mainland to the south. Migrating harp seals
and small whales are available spring and summer in the
waters of the archipelago. Caribou, fish, and birds are
available nearby on the mainland. The principal winter
resource is ringed seal (Gmnnow 1994, 1996).
Physical Features
Unlike other known Saqqaq sub tradition sites,
Qeqertasussuk is both a stratified single component site,
Eastern Arctic Small Tool 43
unmodified by later Dorset or Thule occupations, and a
site that exhibits excellent organic preservation owing to
permafrost. The raised beaches encompassed by the site
are densely vegetated, and the excavations revealed
complicated stratigraphy; five stratigraphically well-
defined components were identified in the three main
areas of excavation. The work carried out at the site
uncovered midden deposits, midpassage structures, and
box hearths. Like many Saqqaq sites, quantities of fire-
cracked rock were found. In total, approximately 25,000
artifacts and 100,000 faunal bones were recovered
(Gmnnow 1994, 1996).
Cultural Aspects
Analysis of the faunal remains reveals that the site
had been occupied during most seasons of the year and
that seals were the single most important food source,
although a wide range of mammal, bird, and fish species
was exploited. Despite the good stratigraphic control
over chronology, few changes could be observed over
the 800-year occupation of the site. One exception was a
continuous decrease over time in the width of burin
bases. Most important, Qeqertasussuk provides us with
an unparalleled glimpse of the organic material culture
only rarely preserved at Eastern Arctic Small Tool
tradition sites. Finds include numerous flaked stone
knives and burins still hafted in driftwood handles,
sometimes with baleen lashing preserved. Other lithics
that were found still in their hafts include end scrapers,
side scrapers, and microblades. Other normally perish-
able household items include trays, bowls, spoons, and
ladles. Numerous examples of hunting technology were
recovered, including approximately 50 harpoon heads
displaying ownership marks, lance foreshafts, harpoon,
lance, and bird spear shaft fragments, arrows, and even
possible snares made of baleen. Fragments of seal,
caribou, and bird skin and even the foot of a kamik
(boot) stocking were found. Four adult human bones
from a midden deposit are the only human remains
known from Saqqaq sites. Traces of red ocher found on
one of the bones may hint at mortuary ceremonialism
(Gmnnow 1994, 1996; Koch, et al. 1996).
References
Gnmnow, Bjarne (1994). "Qeqertasussuk-The Archaeology of a
Frozen Saqqaq Site in Disko Bugt, West Greenland." In Archaeo-
logical Survey of Canada, Mercury Series Paper No. 149: Threads of
Arctic Prehistory: Papers in Honour of William E. Taylor, Jr., ed.
D. A. Morrison and J.-L. Pilon. Hull: Canadian Museum of
Civilization, 197-238.
44 Eastern Arctic Small Tool
Gf0nnow, Bjarne (1996). "The Saqqaq Tool Kit-Technological and
Chronological Evidence from Qeqertasussuk, Disko Bugt." In
Danish Polar Center Publication, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures
of Greenland-New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology, ed.
B. Gnmnow, Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 17-34.
Koch, Anders, Bruno Ff0lich, Niels Lynnerup, and Jens Peder Hart
Hansen (1996). "The Bones from Qeqertasussuk-The Earliest
Human Remains from Greenland." In Danish Polar Center Publi-
cation, No.1: The Paleo-Eskimo Cultures of Greenland-New
Perspectives in Green/andic Archaeology, ed. B. Gf0nnow. Copen-
hagen: Danish Polar Center, 35-37.
Umingmak
TIME PERIOD: 3600-3300 B.P.
LOCATION: Northern interior of Banks island, Northwest
Territories.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
When occupied, the site probably Jay on a small rise
at the edge of Shoran lake, near a small creek draining
into the lake. Parts of the site are heavily vegetated,
whereas others are bare. Permafrost resulted in good
organic preservation, although the site was somewhat
disturbed in places because of ice wedges and cryotur-
bation (Hahn 1977; Muller-Beck 1977c; Taylor 1967).
Physical Features
Excavation in two areas in the large site revealed
evidence of three rock hearths, one partially encircled by
musk ox skulls and rocks, perhaps forming windbreaks,
plus a probable midden deposit (Hahn 1977; Muller-
Beck 1977c).
Cultural Aspects
Different areas at the site probably differ in age,
although the internal chronology of the site has not been
determined and some doubt has been expressed about
the available radiocarbon dates (Campen 1977; Maxwell
1985: 98-99; Muller-Beck 1977b: 5; Taylor 1967: 227).
The excavations at Umingmak produced a wide range of
lithic and bone artifacts. The assemblage includes some
of the few decorated bone objects known from Pre-
Dorset, including incised geometric designs and depic-
tions of birds and caribou (Campen 1977; Muller-Beck
1977a; Torke 1977). The name of the site, the Inuktitut
word for musk ox, is very appropriate. Over 80% of
the faunal remains derive from musk ox, with the rest
coming from caribou, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, birds, and
fish. The scale of the musk ox hunting at the site is
indicated by the fact that surface inspection revealed
73 musk ox skulls; more were found during excava-
tion. Based on musk ox ecology, it appears that both
whole herds and solitary animals were hunted. Inten-
sive processing of the carcasses is evident from butch-
ering marks and consistent breakage of all bones
containing marrow (MunzeJ 1988; Taylor 1967: 227;
v. Koenigswald 1977). Combining ethnographic analogy
with the nature of the structures and faunal remains, the
site is interpreted as a summer camp where supplies of
dried meat were prepared for winter (Muller-Beck
1977b: 3).
References
Campen, Ingo (1977). "Stone Artifacts from Umingmak I D." In
Urgeschlichtlich Materia/hefte, No.1: Excavations at Umingmak on
Banks Island, N. W.T., 1970 and 1973: Preliminary Report, ed. H.
Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fiir Urgeschichte der Universitat
Tiibingen, 47-52.
Hahn, Joachim (1977). "Excavation at Umingmak, Area I D." In
Urgeschlichtlich Materialhefte, No.1: Excavations at Umingmak on
Banks Island, N. W.T., 1970 and 1973: Preliminary Report, ed.
H. Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fiir Urgeschichte der Universitat
Tiibingen, 23-46.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
Miiller-Beck, Hansjiirgen (1977a). "Bone Tools from Umingmak I A
and I D." In Urgeschlichtlich Materia/hefte, No.1: Excavations at
Umingmak on Banks Is/and, N. W.T., 1970 and 1973: Preliminary
Report, ed. H. Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fiir Urgeschichte der
Universitat Tiibingen, 58-71.
Miiller-Beck, Hansjiirgen (l977b). "The Excavation at Umingmak,
Banks Island 1970 and 1973." In Urgeschlichtlich Materialhefte,
No.1: Excavations at Umingmak on Banks Is/and, N. W. T., 1970 and
1973: Preliminary Report, ed. H. Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fiir
Urgeschichte der Universitat Tiibingen, 1-6.
Miiller-Beck, Hansjiirgen (I 977c). "Preliminary Results from the
Excavation at Umingmak I A." In Urgeschlichtlich Materialhefte,
No.1: Excavations at Umingmak on Banks Island, N. W.T., 1970 and
1973: Preliminary Report, ed. H. Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fiir
Urgeschichte der Universitat Tiibingen, 7-22.
Miinzel, Susanne C. (1988). "Quantitative Analysis and Archaeolog-
ical Site Interpretation." Archaeozo%gia 2 (1.2): 93-110.
Taylor, William E., Jr. (1967). "Summary of Archaeological Field
Work on Banks and Victoria Islands, Arctic Canada, 1965." Arctic
Anthropology 4 (I): 221-243.
Torke, Wolfgang (1977). "The Stone Artifacts from Umingmak I A."
In Urgeschlichtlich Materialhefte, No.1: Excavations at Umingmak
on Banks Is/and, N. W.T., 1970 and 1973: Preliminary Report, ed. H.
Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fUr Urgeschichte der Universitat
Tiibingen, 47-52.
 Eastern Arctic Small Tool 45

v. Koenigswald, Wighart (1977). "The Faunal Material from Uming-

mak." In Urgeschlichtlich Materialhe/te, No.1: Excavations at
Umingmak on Banks Island, N. w.T., 1970 and 1973: Preliminary
Report, ed. H. Miiller-Beck. Tiibingen: Institut fUr Urgeschichte der
Universitat Tiibingen, 72-80.

ROBERT PARK
Department of Anthropology
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
 Holocene Stone Age
of Northeastern Asia
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 10,500-3000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Siberian Paleolithic
tradition and precedes the Siberian Protohistoric tradi-
tion.
LOCATION: Although this entry is supposed to be devoted
to Northeastern Asia, which includes the lands extend-
ing approximately from 120° W to 169° E and from 76°
to 60° N (that is, the territory of the Sakha [Yakutia]
Republic, Magadan Region, and Chukchee Autono-
mous District), I find that it makes sense to extend
the territory under consideration westward, that is, to
Taimyr peninsula. The reason for this can easily be
found in the peculiarities of the cultural development of
this area, which is the northern portion of Middle and
East Siberia. The local archaeological cultures have their
roots in the Yakutian cultural core, the strong cultural
influence extending both westward and eastward from
the territory recognized as the birthplace of the sequence
of Holocene cultural traditions that are the most
significant features of cultural evolution in this part of
the world.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRffiUTES: Very significant cul-
tural changes took place in northeast Asia around the
46
Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Two of the most
characteristic features of the local Paleolithic tradition
became extinct: the wedge-shaped core method of flint
knapping, which was replaced by the microprismatic
technique; and bifaces, which remained out of use for
the next several millennia, until Neolithic times. The
appearance of microprismatic technology is the most
important technological step. Microprismatic technology
is present, with frequent modifications, in all local
cultures of the Holocene Stone Age. The beginning of
Neolithic is marked by the reappearance of bifaces and
the appearance of ceramics.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. Climatic changes in the East Arctic around
the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary were rather impor-
tant for indigenous subsistence systems and cultural
evolution in the region. A regressive phase of the Polar
ocean (100-120 m drop), when the major part of the
Arctic shelf zone was drained is thought to be the main
factor affecting the natural development of this area.

Because of this phase, rigorous climatic conditions
of arid continental type appeared in the East Arctic.
Major Holocene paleoenvironmental changes that took
place in the region were determined by the temperature
and humidity trends, the development of thermo karst,
and the oceanic transgression submerging and erod-
ing the Great Pleistocene Arctic plain. Tundra-steppe
landscapes were completely replaced by tundra forma-
tions. Although the Holocene climate of the area was
not stable and some fluctuations are recognized, noth-
ing comparable to the terminal Pleistocene changes is
seen. The most significant Holocene climatic change is
the northern shift of tree vegetation. Macroremains of
tree plants aged 8000-9000 years ago were repeatedly
found far north of the modern treeline. A position of
the boreal treeline supposedly corresponds to the mod-
ern shoreline. Tree vegetation occurred on even the
Southern Arctic islands. Such conditions were probably
favorable for new migrations to polar areas. After
cooling took place at the end of the period, the natural
environment of the area became close to the modern
one.
Topography. Extensive glaciation never existed in the
area, although permafrost was extremely developed.
The initial occupation of these periglacial landscapes
evidently took place in the Terminal Pleistocene and
can be linked to migrations of mammoth hunters of
the Dyuktai culture, whose sites are known at least
to 71 0 N at the Berelekh site located near the Ber-
elekh "Mammoth Graveyard." The natural environ-
ment remained rather stable for a very long time. This
region had been transformed by a global Late Dryas
warming. The changes had the character of an ecolog-
ical catastrophe. The rise in humidity caused a greater
thickness of snow cover in winter and the development
of lake-swamp landscapes. This development was crit-
ical for both the animals of the mammoth fauna
complex, and the indigenous cultures of the region,
whose subsistence was based on mammoth hunting. In
this way, the terminal Pleistocene occupation in the
East Arctic was complicated by a sharp crisis in sub-
sistence economy.
Biota. Original open tundra-steppe landscape populated
by the animals of the mammoth fauna assemblage was
the most distinct feature of the East Arctic natural
environment up to the beginning of the Holocene. In the
Holocene, a more continental environment led to a
change in fauna and the introduction of elk, caribou,
and other tundra and boreal species.
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia 47
Settlements
Settlement System. Mesolithic sites are distinctly more
numerous than are those of the Paleolithic. This pattern
should be evidence of more intensive occupation (or of
the high mobility of inhabitants) of the Arctic in the
Early Holocene, but numbers of sites are not necessarily
good evidence of such intensification. The majority of
North Yakutian assemblages supposedly of Mesolithic
date are represented by surface finds collected here and
there, and there are both localities with very few findings
and sites where numerous artifacts have been gathered.
The latter often contain Neolithic ceramics of different
types and implements belonging to later periods of the
Stone Age.
Housing. Holocene Northeastern Asia was occupied
by "mobile continental hunters" who exploited rein-
deer populations in the tundra and elk in the taiga
zone, supplementing major activities by hunting other
animals and birds and by fishing. The early Holocene
sites are not large. Living structures are not found
except that from the Ust-Timpton site, Level 6, where
burnt larchwood logs of an elongated shelter were
excavated. The shelter was approximately 12 m 2 . An-
other possible structure of the same size is known from
the Tytyl I site in Western Chukotka. Small circular
(Bel'kachi, Tytyl IV) or elongated (Srednee Ozero II)
concentrations of artifacts with a fireplace in the central
part are known from many sites of different stages of
the Holocene Stone Age. They are not large and do not
exceed 8-12 m 2 . The sites where these concentrations
are known are found in both taiga and tundra zones,
which shows that there was not a strong difference in
the lifestyles of the inhabitants of these two zones. At
the same time, they may also have constructed base
camps with semi subterranean dwellings. This was sug-
gested by Khlobystin for Taimyr and possibly took
place in Zhokhov.
Economy
Subsistence. The drastic climatic changes at the end of
the Pleistocene resulted in the expansion of the tree
zone, which drove mammoths off to the subpolar terri-
tories; the development of a typical tundra association
completely supplanted the remains of the forest-tundra-
steppe vegetation. As a consequence, environments
involving the mammoth were disturbed, which greatly
affected human survival strategies. Most likely, these
changes influenced all important aspects of human
culture and behavior and are reflected in the lithic
48 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
technology, tool morphology, and typological diversity
of Holocene assemblages.
The subsistence economy of the Mesolithic popula-
tion that occupied Northeastern Asia from 10,500-
3000 B.P. was based on two major game species: elk in
the taiga zone and reindeer in the tundra. Faunal
remains show that other animals such as bear and sheep
(Ovis canadensis) constituted a part of hunting prey, as
well. Fishing and bird hunting also played some role in
the indigenous subsistence economies. The latter can be
recognized as two main variants of continental ad-
aptation, which were usual in the taiga and tundra
zones, respectively. Because of the high mobility of the
Mesolithic population, the region was completely occu-
pied as early as 8000 B.P. when people reached Zhokhov
island (76 0 N), which was the easternmost extremity of
the "New Siberian Peninsula" as it existed in the Early
Holocene. The hunting groups who visited the island
were of distinctly continental adaption, which is evident
from the analysis of the tool assemblage. At the same
time, the excavated fauna remains show very unusual
hunting specialization: Polar bears and reindeers ap-
peared to be taken in equal numbers, and polar bear
appears to have been the most important food source.
This is certainly not common for the early Holocene
sites even in the north but gives an impression of the
adaptation capabilities of the bearers of the Sumnagin
culture.
Although a few seal bones and a spear point of
walrus ivory were found at Zhokhov island as well,
the assemblage can in no way be understood as evidence
of early maritime adaptation in the Siberian Arctic. In a
general sense, it is much closer to some Paleolithic sub-
sistence strategies. Why people preferred to hunt such
dangerous animals remains unclear, but perhaps this
unexpected specialization was determined by unstable
reindeer hunting affected by the ecological crisis occur-
ring near the Holocene boundary or by seasonality.
Primitive fishing was based on the use of traps and
was known from Mesolithic times. The evolution of
fishing technology took several millennia. Net fishing is
known from the Late Neolithic, significantly improving
the adaptation capabilities of Neolithic people and
making their economy more flexible. It is likely that part
of the population hunted sea animals when visiting the
coastal tundra during seasonal migrations.
Industrial Arts. The tools of Holocene Northeastern
Asia are characterized by extremely "monotonous"
assemblages containing micro prismatic cylindrical cores
with one or two opposite striking platforms, abundant
microblades, flakes, chips, and so on. The implements
are made primarily from blades. The total blade content
can reach 90% in some assemblages, but most tools
made from blades (simple lateral burins, angle burins on
broken blades, borers, insets) are useless for diagnosis.
Other artifacts made from blades, such as "knives"
(blades with continuously retouched edges), points, end
scrapers, and notched tools, are not numerous. A small
proportion of Sumnagin implements is made from waste
flakes. There are two main features of this culture: the
absence of any bifaces and projectile points on the one
hand, and the presence of so-called worked pebbles
constituting no more than 5% of the total collection on
the other. In other words, this series of microblade
industries is defined as a cultural tradition because of
general ideas of the chronology and general similarity of
the materials.
Sociopolitical Organization
There are no direct data that describe features of the
sociopolitical organization characteristic of the northern
cultures in the Holocene Stone Age. The population was
probably organized as territorial bands. Many research-
ers use anthropological data about the northern peoples
of Eurasia when speaking of the possible social organi-
zation of the Neolithic hunters of the north. These ideas
are appropriate because ecology, environment, and sub-
sistence remained more or less constant for thousands
of years. Direct evidence of social stratification is found
for the Ymyaktakh (Late Neolithic) cultural tradition
from the excavations of the Rodinka grave, where the
burial of a young woman (20-25 years old) yielded
numerous "rich" artifacts including personal orna-
ments, armor plates, engraved objects, and sculptures.
All these features suggest an elite social position. It is
suggested that this woman was a chief or a shaman,
based on the anthropological record of the Yukagirs,
whose chiefs were female shamans. Whether or not this
conclusion is correct, one can suggest that institutions of
power and religion existed in northeast Asia in Neolithic
times or even earlier.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Almost nothing is known about the religion of this
period for northeast Asia. Traditionally, it is thought to
have been a set of beliefs or primitive cults related to
natural forces and so on. Judging from the rock arts of
the Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena rivers, we may
suppose that some shaman cults appeared in the Middle
Neolithic (Bel'kachi Tradition). A basis for speculation
can be found in burial rituals, ornamentation, portable

arts, and petroglyphs (pisanitsy). The first three sources
of information are restricted to very few sites and rare
examples. At the same time, petroglyphs are rather
numerous in the southern areas of Northeast Asia
(Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena valleys). This tradi-
tion exists supposedly from Paleolithic times. However,
researchers face many problems in dating rock art. Rock
art of Northeast Asia is attributed to Paleolithic (Dyuk-
tai tradition; bulls and horses from the Tokko river,
Olekma valley) and to different cultural traditions of the
Holocene Stone Age except the Early Holocene (Sumna-
gin) cultural tradition. Images are pecked or engraved
and sometimes colored. Figures of hunting animals (elk
and reindeer) and hunting scenes are especially numer-
ous. The earliest images of the Holocene (Syalakh
cultural tradition) are more realistic than those of later
periods. Petroglyphs of the Bel'kachi tradition include
serpentlike and anthropomorphic figures with sexual
and, significantly, shaman attributes. The latest cultural
tradition of the Holocene (the Ymyaktakh) gives an
impression of a more complicated spiritual life. The
petroglyphs of this time include solar signs, diverse
anthropomorphic figures, shaman attributes, masks.
The petroglyphs of the Pegtymel river (the northernmost
location in Northeast Asia) famous for "mushroom
people" and scenes of sea-mammal hunting give very
important information about the evolution of subsis-
tence economies in the area.
Suggested Readings
Alekseev, Aleksei N. (1996). Ancient Yakutia: The New Stone and
Bronze Ages. Novosibirsk: In Russian.
Chard, Chester S. (1974). Northeast Asia in Prehistory. Tradition:
Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Dikov, Nikolai N. (1979). Ancient Cultures of the Northeastern Asia:
Asia Joining America in Ancient Times. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Dikov, Nikolai N. (1988). "The Earliest Sea Mammal Hunters of
Wrangell Island." Arctic Anthropology 25 (I): 80-93.
Fedoseyeva, Svetlana A. (1980). The Ymyaktakh Culture of North-
eastern Asia. Novosibirsk: Nauka. In Russian.
Khlobystin, Leonid P. (1998). Ancient History of Taimyr and the
Formation of the North Eurasian Cultures. St. Petersburg: Dmitry
Bulanin. In Russian.
Mochanov, Yuri A. (I 969a). "The Early Neolithic of the Aldan."
Arctic Anthropology 6 (1): 95-103.
Mochanov, Yuri A. (l969b). "The Bel'kachi Neolithic Culture on the
Aldan." Arctic Anthropology (I): 104-114.
Mochanov, Yuri A. (1969c). "The Ymyaktakh Late Neolithic
Culture." Arctic Anthropology 6 (1): 115-118.
Mochanov, Yuri A. (1977). Drevneyshiye etapy zaseleniya chelovekom
Severo- Vostochnoy Azii [The oldest human occupation of North-
eastern Asia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Okladnikov, Aleksei P., and A. I. Mazin. (1976). Pisanitsy reki Olekmy
i Verkhnego Priamurya. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia 49
Okladnikov, Aleksei P., and A. I. Mazin. (1979). Pisanitsy basseina
reki Aldan [Petroglyphs of the Aldan river basin]. Novosibirsk:
Nauka.
Pitul'ko, Vladimir V. (1993). "An Early Holocene Site in the Siberian
High Arctic." Arctic Anthropology 30 (I): 13-21.
Pitul'ko, Vladimir V. (1998). The Zhokhov Site. St. Petersburg: Dmitry
Bulanin. In Russian.
Pitul'ko, Vladimir V. (1999). "Ancient Humans in Eurasian Arctic
Ecosystems: Environmental Dynamics and Changeability of Sub-
sistence Models." World Archaeology 30 (3): 421-436.
Pitul'ko, Vladimir V., and A. K. Kasparov. (1996). Ancient Arctic
Hunters: Material Culture and Survival Strategy. Arctic Anthropo-
logy 33 (I): 1-31.
Simchenko, Yuri B. (1976). Culture of Reindeer Hunters of Northern
Euroasia. An Ethnographical Reconstruction. Moscow: Nauka. In
Russian.
SUBTRADITIONS
Bel'kachi
TIME PERIOD: 4800/4600-3700 B.P.
LOCATION: The representative sites marking the spatial
distribution of the Bel'kachi tradition are known in all
regions of Northeastern Asia: Maimeche I and IV in
Taimyr (Khlobystin 1998), Bel'kachi I (levels 4 and 5)
and Sumnagin I (levels 9-10) in the Aldan valley
(Mochanov 1969a, 1969b, 1977), Siktyakh I (level 5) in
the Lower Lena (Argunov 1992), and Mys Sinitsyna
(Kiryak 1993). The cultural influence of this tradition
reached the Kamchatka peninsula (Dikov 1979). The
eastern portion of Chukotka was definitely part of the
Bel'kachi area as confirmed by a number of artifacts
found in surface contexts. Dikov (1979) referred also to
sherds with cord-marked surface collected at the Kam-
eshki site in the Anadyr valley.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: The most significant
cultural marker of this cultural tradition is ceramics with
vertically placed cord prints. These prints are of
technological origin but probably also played some role
in the decoration of the vessels. The ornamentation itself
is recognized as horizontal rows of comb imprints
placed along the rim and narrow pinholes below. This
may sometimes be accomplished by rows of oblique
comb imprints. Diverse combinations of these simple
elements are found. Vessels are mostly of ovaloid shape,
but some are cone based. Sometimes an incised edge is
attached to the upper part of the pots.
The lithic technology of the Bel'kachi tradition
is definitely descended from that of Syalakh. Many
artifacts of common typology are found, such as
50 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
multifaceted or "core-shaped" burins, simple burins,
end scrapers, and perforators made of blades, as well as
prismatic cores. Microprismatic knapping technology
still predominated, but bifacially flaked tools such as
leaf-shaped and triangle points, diverse large bifaces
(knives or spear points), and bifacial side blades played
a greater role in the assemblages of the Bel'kachi
Tradition than was true for the Syalakh. There were
ground tools of diverse types, including rectangular
stepped adzes and so-called adzes with lateral pro-
jections, pickaxes with side notches. A series of re-
touched fluted adzes and pebble net sinkers were also
found.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climatic changes took place in the East Arctic
around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary as rigorous
climatic conditions of arid continental type appeared.
The most significant Holocene climatic change is the
northern shift of tree vegetation. Macroremains of tree
plants aged 8000-9000 years ago were repeatedly found
far north of the modern treeline. A position of the
boreal treeline supposedly corresponds to the modern
shoreline. Tree vegetation occupied even the Southern
Arctic islands. By the time of the Bel'kachi tradition,
the region had assumed its contemporary form.
Settlements
Holocene Northeastern Asia was occupied by "mo-
bile continental hunters" who exploited reindeer popu-
lations in the tundra and elk in the taiga zones,
supplementing major activities by hunting other animals
and birds and by fishing. Settlements are small and
ephemeral.
Economy
The subsistence economy of the Mesolithic popula-
tion that occupied Northeastern Asia from 10,500-
3000 B.P. was based on two major game species: elk in
the taiga zone and reindeer in the tundra. Faunal
remains show that other animals such as bear and sheep
(Ovis canadensis) constituted part of the hunting prey as
well. Fishing and bird hunting also played some role in
the indigenous subsistence economies.
Sociopolitical Organization
There are no direct data that describe features of the
sociopolitical organization characteristic of the northern
cultures of the Holocene Stone Age. The population was
probably organized as territorial bands. Many research-
ers use anthropological data about the northern peoples
of Eurasia when speaking of the possible social organi-
zation of the Neolithic hunters of the north. These ideas
are appropriate because the ecology, environment, and
subsistence remained more or less constant for thou-
sands of years. Direct evidence of social stratification
is found for the Ymyaktakh (Late Neolithic) cultural
tradition from the excavations of the Rodinka grave,
where the burial of a young woman (20-25 years old)
yielded numerous "rich" artifacts including personal
ornaments, armor plates, engraved objects, and sculp-
tures. All these features suggest an elite social position.
It is suggested that this woman was a chief or a shaman,
based on the anthropological record of the Yukagirs,
whose chiefs were female shamans. Whether or not this
conclusion is correct, one may suggest that institutions
of power and religion existed in northeast Asia in
Neolithic times or even earlier.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Almost nothing is known about the religion of this
period in northeast Asia. Traditionally, it is seen as a set
of beliefs or primitive cults related to natural forces and
so on. Judging from the rock arts of the Aldan, Olekma,
and Middle Lena rivers, we may suppose that some sha-
man cults appeared in the Middle Neolithic (Bel'kachi
tradition). A basis for speculation can be found in
burial rituals, ornamentation, portable arts, and petro-
glyphs (pisanitsy). The first three sources of information
are restricted to very few sites and rare examples. At the
same time, petro glyphs are rather numerous in the
southern areas of northeast Asia (Aldan, Olekma, and
Middle Lena valleys). This tradition exists supposedly
from Paleolithic times. However, researchers face many
problems in dating rock art. The petro glyphs of north-
east Asia are attributed to Paleolithic (Dyuktai tradi-
tion; bulls and horses from the Tokko river, Olekma
valley) and to different cultural traditions of the
Holocene Stone Age except the Early Holocene (Sumna-
gin) cultural tradition. Images are pecked or engraved
and sometimes colored. Figures of hunting animals (elks
and reindeers) and hunting scenes are especially numer-
ous. The earliest images of the Holocene (Syalakh
cultural tradition) are more realistic than those of later
periods. The petro glyphs of the Bel'kachi tradition

include serpentlike and anthropomorphic figures with
sex and, significantly, shaman attributes. The latest
cultural tradition of the Holocene (the Ymyaktakh)
gives an impression of a more complicated spiritual life.
The petroglyphs of this time include solar signs, diverse
anthropomorphic figures, shaman attributes, masks.
The petroglyphs of the Pegtymel river (the northern-
most location in Northeast Asia) famous for "mush-
room people" and scenes of sea-mammal hunting give
very important information about the evolution of
subsistence economies in the area.
References
Argunov, V. G. (1992). Syalakhskaya neoliticheskaya kul'tura na
territorii Severo-Zapadnoi Yakutii [The Syalakh Neolithic culture of
the Northwestern Yakutiya]. In Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya v
Yakutii [Archaeological survey in Yakutiya].
Dikov, N. N. (1979). Ancient Cultures of Northeastern Asia: Asia
Joining America in Ancient Times. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Khlobystin, L. P. (1998). Ancient History of Taimyr and the Formation
of the North Eurasian Cultures. St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin. In
Russian.
Kiryak, M. A. (1993). Arkheologiya Zapadnoi Chukotki [Archaeology
of West Chukotka]. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1969a). Mnogosloinaya stoyanka Bel'kachi I [The
BeI'kachi I stratified site]. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1969b). "The Early Neolithic of the Aldan."
Arctic Anthropology 6 (I): 95-103.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1977). Drevneyshiye etapy zaseleniya chelovekom
Severo-Vostochnoy Azii [The oldest human occupation of North-
eastern Asia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka. In Russian.
Sumnagin
TIME PERIOD: 10,500-6000 B.P.
LOCATION: Sumnagin sites are known from the Tai-
myr (which is the westernmost portion of Holocene
Western Beringia in the cultural sense) to Chukotka,
and far south from the Arctic coast. Sites belonging
to this superculture (or at least influenced by it)
occurred in Alaska in the terminal period of its de-
velopment (Mochanov 1977: 252). Most Sumnagin
Mesolithic sites are known outside the Arctic region
of Northeast Siberia, in the Aldan, Vilyui, and Ole-
kma valleys (the Lena river system). In the Arctic lim-
its of the tradition, sites are found in all key areas:
the Taimyr, North Yakutia, and Chukotka. Thus, in
Taimyr there are the Pyasina I, III, and IV sites, the
Tagenar VI site (Khlobystin 1973a, 1973b), and prob-
ably some others such as the Lantoshka II and Malaya
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia 51
Korennaya III sites (Khlobystin 1973a: 94). Numer-
ous assemblages have been discovered in North Yakutia
at Staraya II, Delingde II, III, and IV; Chuostakh-
Yuryuge, Yakutsky Tyubelyakh, Ulakhkhan-Kyuel'-
Seene, Baian, Berelekh-Aian, Ochugui-Manyngda,
Khotugui-Neiuo; 255 km I and II, Khorbusuonka I,
and at the Bilir site (Mochanov et al. 1991). Sumnagin
sites are less well represented farther eastward, per-
haps because less research was carried out in this
area.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: This huge, powerful
archaeological culture that affected cultural evolution
throughout a broad area is the great mystery of Early
Holocene archaeology of Northeastern Asia. Although
some sites are well studied (primarily in the southern
areas), nobody can advance a realistic theory explain-
ing the origin of the phenomenon about 11,000 B.P.,
which rapidly occupied the entire territory in only 3000
years. The culture is a completely unlike the Dyuktai
Tradition while covering approximately the same area:
There is no evidence of any succession; they are different
in each significant feature, in knapping technology and
in the processing of secondary tools. The Dyuktai is of
distinct bifacial style, whereas this idea was almost
totally abandoned by the Sumnagin people; the wedge-
shaped cores absolutely predominating in the former
were never found in the latter, and so on. Mochanov
believed this distinctiveness to be the result of a powerful
migration supposedly from the Yenisei region where
there was a similarity between the Sumnagin culture and
the Kokorevo culture of the "Malta-Afontovo" Late
Paleolithic tradition (Mochanov 1977: 255). However,
it seems just as likely that this culture is the product of
local technological and cultural evolution.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climatic changes took place in the East Arctic
around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary as rigorous
climatic conditions of arid continental type appeared.
The most significant Holocene climatic change is the
northern shift of tree vegetation. Macroremains of tree
plants aged 8000-9000 years ago were repeatedly found
far north of the modern treeline. A position of the
boreal treeline supposedly corresponds to the modern
shoreline. Tree vegetation occupied even Southern
Arctic islands.
52 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia

Settlements Neolithic (Bel'kachi tradition). A basis for speculation

can be found in burial rituals, ornamentation, portable
Holocene Northeastern Asia was occupied by "mo-
arts, and petroglyphs (pisanitsy). The first three sources
bile continental hunters" who exploited reindeer popu-
of information are restricted to very few sites and rare
lations in the tundra and elk in the taiga, supplementing
examples. At the same time, petro glyphs are rather
major activities by hunting of other animals and birds
numerous in the southern areas of northeast Asia
and by fishing. The early Holocene sites are not large. (Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena valleys). This tradi-
tion supposedly exists from Paleolithic times. However,
Economy researchers face many problems in dating rock art. The
petroglyphs of Northeast Asia are attributed to Paleo-
The subsistence economy of the Mesolithic popula- lithic (Dyuktai tradition; bulls and horses from the
tion that occupied Northeastern Asia from 10,500- Tokko river, Olekma valley) and to different cultural
3000 B.P. was based on two major game species: elk in traditions of the Holocene Stone Age except the Early
the taiga zone and reindeer in the tundra. Faunal Holocene (Sumnagin) cultural tradition. Images are
remains show that other animals such as bear and sheep pecked or engraved and sometimes colored. Figures of
(Ovis canadensis) constituted part of the hunting prey as hunting animals (elks and reindeers) and hunting scenes
well. Fishing and bird hunting also played some role in are especially numerous. The earliest images of the
the indigenous subsistence economies. Holocene (Syalakh cultural tradition) are more realistic
than those of later periods. Petro glyphs of the Bel'kachi
Sociopolitical Organization tradition include serpentlike and anthropomorphic
figures with sex and, significantly, shaman attributes.
There are no direct data that describe features of the The latest cultural tradition of the Holocene (the
sociopolitical organization characteristic of the northern Ymyaktakh) gives an impression of a more complicated
cultures of the Holocene Stone Age. The population was spiritual life. The petroglyphs of this time include solar
probably organized as territorial bands. Many research- signs, diverse anthropomorphic figures, shaman attri-
ers use anthropological data about northern peoples of butes, masks. The petro glyphs of the Pegtymel river (the
Eurasia when speaking of the possible social organiza- northernmost location in Northeast Asia) famous for
tion of the Neolithic hunters of the north. These ideas "mushroom people" and scenes of sea-mammal hunting
are appropriate because ecology, environment, and give very important information about the evolution of
subsistence remained more or less constant for thou- subsistence economies of the area.
sands of years. Direct evidence of social stratification for
the Ymyaktakh (Late Neolithic) cultural tradition
occurs in the excavations of the Rodinka grave, where References
the burial of a young woman (20-25 years old) yielded Khlobystin, L. P. (I 973a). "Drevneyshiye pamyatniki Zapadnogo
numerous "rich" artifacts including personal orna- Taimyra" [The ancient sites of the West Taimyr]. KSIA 137: 89-95.
ments, armor plates, engraved objects, and sculptures. Khlobystin, L. P. (1973b). "0 drevnem zaselenii Arktiki" [The ancient
All these features suggest an elite social position. It is human occupation of the Arctic]. KSIA 136: 11-16.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1977). Drevneyshiye etapy zaseleniya chelovekom
suggested that this woman was a chief or a shaman, Severo- Vostochnoy Azii [The oldest human occupation of North-
based on the anthropological record of the Yukagirs, eastern Asia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
whose chiefs were female shamans. Whether or not this Mochanov, Yu. A., S. A. Fedoseyeva, 1. V. Konstantinov, N. V. Ant-
conclusion is correct, one can suggest that institutions of ipina, and V. G. Argunov (1991). Arkheologicheskiye pamyatniki
power and religion existed in northeast Asia in Neolithic Yakutii: Basseyny Vilyuya, Anabara i Oleneka [Archaeological sites
of Yakuti a: Vilyui, Anabar and Olenek Basins]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
times, or even earlier.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Almost nothing is known about the religion of this
Syalakh
period in Northeast Asia. Traditionally, it is thought to
be a set of beliefs or primitive cults related to natural TIME PERIOD: 6000-4600 B.P.
forces and so on. Judging from the rock arts of the
Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena rivers, we may LOCATION: The representative sites marking the spatial
suppose that some shaman cults appeared in the Middle distribution of the Syalakh tradition are known in

different regions of Northeast Asia: Glubokoe I
(Khlobystin 1998), Bel'kachi I (levels 6 and 7) and
Sumnagin I (levels 14-11) in the Aldan valley (Mocha-
nov 1969a, 1969b, 1977), Siktyakh I (level 7) in the
Lower Lena (Argunov 1992), Bolshoi Nuteneut 11/3
(Kiryak 1993), and Koolen III (Dikov 1993). Possible
influence from this culture is thought to affect the
development of the early Neolithic in Kamchatka
(Dikov 1979: 118).
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATIRIBUTES: Although the detailed
typology of the implements belonging to the Syalakh
cultural tradition is still absent, the Syalakh sites (more
than 100 are recognized) yielded collections that char-
acterize the most general features of this cultural
tradition. The lithic technology is based on the micro-
prismatic technology related to the early Holocene. The
blades become wider and longer. Many implements are
made from blades, including arrow points resembling
those of the Uolba facies of the Early Holocene cultural
tradition. According to observations from the multilayer
Bel'kachi I site, tools made of blades and bladelets could
constitute up to 65% of the total (Argunov 1996).
Another important feature is the reappearance of leaf-
shaped bifacial projectile points and bifacially flaked
knives of asymmetrical triangular shape. The early stage
of the culture produced flat trapezoid adzes. Ground
tools are well represented as well. There were rectangu-
lar adzes with a rectangular or trapezoid cross-section
and half-moon ground knives. A series of small pebbles
with notches on the ends-net sinkers-was collected.
Bone industry is represented by unilaterally barbed fish
spear points, inset tools, needles, and awls.
Ceramics of the Syalakh tradition are represented
by pots with a paraboloid profile with net-marked
surfaces, decorated with a belt of pinholes situated near
slightly thickened rims. Sometimes there is an incised
edge attached to the upper part of the pots. These are
large-sized vessels whose diameter varies from 20-43 cm
(Argunov 1996).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climatic changes took place in the East Arctic
around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary as rigorous
climatic conditions of arid continental type appeared.
The most significant Holocene climatic change is the
northern shift of tree vegetation. Macroremains of tree
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia 53
plants aged 8000-9000 years ago were repeatedly found
far north of the modern treeline. A position of the
boreal treeline supposedly corresponds to the modern
shoreline. Tree vegetation occupied even Southern
Arctic islands. By the time of the Syalakh tradition,
the region was beginning to cool and take on its con-
temporary form.
Settlements
Holocene Northeastern Asia was occupied by "mo-
bile continental hunters" who exploited reindeer popu-
lations in the tundra and elk in the taiga, supplementing
major activities by hunting of other animals and birds
and by fishing. Settlements are small and ephemeral.
Economy
The subsistence economy of the Mesolithic popula-
tion that occupied Northeastern Asia from 10,500-
3000 B.P. was based on two major game species: elk in
the taiga zone and reindeer in the tundra. Faunal
remains show that other animals such as bear and sheep
(Ovis canadensis) constituted part of hunting prey as
well. Fishing and bird hunting also played some role in
the indigenous subsistence economies.
Sociopolitical Organization
There are no direct data that describe features of the
sociopolitical organization characteristic of the northern
cultures of the Holocene Stone Age. The population was
probably organized as territorial bands. Many research-
ers use anthropological data about the northern peoples
of Eurasia when speaking of the possible social organi-
zation of the Neolithic hunters of the north. These ideas
are appropriate because ecology, environment, and
subsistence remained more or less constant for thou-
sands of years. Direct evidence of social stratification for
the Ymyaktakh (Late Neolithic) cultural tradition
appears in the excavations of the Rodinka grave, where
the burial of a young woman (20--25 years old) yielded
numerous "rich" artifacts including personal orna-
ments, armor plates, engraved objects, and sculptures.
All these features suggest an elite social position. It is
suggested that this woman was a chief or a shaman,
based on the anthropological record of the Yukagirs,
whose chiefs were female shamans. Whether or not this
conclusion is correct, one can suggest that institutions of
power and religion existed in northeast Asia in Neolithic
times, or even earlier.
54 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
Religion and Expressive Culture
Almost nothing is known about the religion of this
period for Northeast Asia. Traditionally, it is thought to
be a set of beliefs or primitive cults related to natural
forces and so on. Judging from the rock arts of the
Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena rivers, we can suppose
that some shaman cults appeared in the Middle Neolithic
(Bel'kachi tradition). A basis for speculation can be
found in burial rituals, ornamentation, portable arts,
and petro glyphs (pisanitsy). The first three sources of
information are restricted to very few sites and rare
examples. At the same time, petroglyphs are rather
numerous in the southern areas of northeast Asia
(Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena valleys). This tradi-
tion supposedly exists from Paleolithic times. However,
researchers face many problems in dating rock art. The
petroglyphs of northeast Asia are attributed to Paleo-
lithic (Dyuktai tradition; bulls and horses from the
Tokko river, Olekma valley) and to different cultural
traditions of the Holocene Stone Age except the Early
Holocene (Sumnagin) cultural tradition. Images are
pecked or engraved and sometimes colored. Figures of
hunting animals (elk and reindeer) and hunting scenes
are especially numerous. The earliest images of the
Holocene (Syalakh cultural tradition) are more realistic
than those of later periods. Petro glyphs of the Bel'kachi
tradition include serpentlike and anthropomorphic
figures with sexual and, significantly, shaman attributes.
The latest cultural tradition of the Holocene (the
Ymyaktakh) gives an impression of a more complicated
spiritual life. The petroglyphs of this time include solar
signs, diverse anthropomorphic figures, shaman attri-
butes, and masks. The petro glyphs of the Pegtymel river
(the northernmost location in Northeast Asia), famous
for "mushroom people" and scenes of sea-mammal
hunting, give very important information about the
evolution of subsistence economies of the area.
References
Argunov, v. G. (1992). "Syalakhskaya neoliticheskaya kul'tura na
territorii Severo-Zapadnoi Yakutii" [The Syalakh Neolithic culture
of the Northwestern Yakutiya]. In Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya v
Yakutii [Archaeological survey in Yakutiya].
Argunov, V. G. (1996). "Problems of Origins and Development of the
Syalakh Early Neolithic Culture of Northeast Asia." In L.ate
Paleolithic: Early Neolithic: Eastern Asia and Northern America.
Vladivostok: 11-15. In Russian.
Dikov, N. N. (1979). Ancient Cultures of Northeastern Asia: Asia
Joining America in Ancient Times. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Dikov, N. N. (1993). Aziya na styke s Amerikoi v drevnosti: Kamenny
vek Chukotskogo poluostrova [Asia at the joint with America: Stone
Age of the Chukchi Peninsula]. St. Petersburg: Nauka. In Russian.
Khlobystin, L. P. (1998). Ancient History of Taimyr and the Formation
of the North Eurasian Cultures. St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin. In
Russian.
Kiryak, M. A. (1993). Arkheologiya Zapadnoi Chukotki [Archaeology
of West Chukotka]. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1969a). Mnogosloinaya stoyanka Bel'kachi I [The
Bel'kachi I stratified site]. Moscow: Nauka.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1969b). "The Early Neolithic of the Aldan."
Arctic Anthropology 6 (I): 95-103.
Mochanov, Yu. A. (1977). Drevneyshiye etapy zaseleniya chelovekom
Severo-Vostochnoy Azii [The oldest human occupation of North-
eastern Asia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Ymyyakhtakh
TIME PERIOD: 3700-2800 B.P.
LOCATION: Cultural remains belonging to this tradition
are the most numerous of the stages of the Holocene
Stone Age in Northeast Asia. The dozens of Ymyyakh-
takh sites known throughout the area demonstrate
both population increase and increased mobility of the
region's inhabitants. Several hundred sites are dispersed
from Taimyr to Chukotka, including burial grounds
such as Diring-Yuryakh (Fedoseyeva 1988, 1992),
Chuchur-Muran (Fedoseyeva 1980), and Pomazkino
(Kashin, 1997); the Ust-Be1aya burial mound (Dikov
1977); and separate graves-Rodinka (Kistenev 1980),
Kullaty, Ichchillyakh, Pokrovskoye (Okladnikov 1946,
1950). Skulls of individuals from these sites are found to
be of the Arctic mongoloid type (Gohman and Tomtos-
ova 1992) and are different from the Baikal type
common in the southern portion of East Siberia.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Because of a number
of sites producing thousands of artifacts, a detailed
typology of implements was worked out by Fedoseyeva
(1980). The Ymyyakhtakh tradition is characterized by
prismatic cores, blades, and artifacts made from blades,
such as burins on blades (angle, lateral, and dihedral)
and core-shaped burins, side blades (insets), and borers.
Many tools are made from flakes. Scrapers are most
numerous. They are of triangular, trapezoid, or ovaloid
shape with convex or straight working edge; some have
fine-retouched ventral and dorsal surfaces. Some bifaces
are of a very particular shape that makes them a cultural
marker of the Ymyyakhtakh tradition. These are thin
triangular knives with a slightly convex working edge
(large side blades of composite tools), thin rectangular
side blades, small-sized ground axes and adzes of
rectangular or trapezoid shape, and arrow points. The
latter vary extremely and can be leaf shaped, triangular

with a straight or concave base, or stemmed. One group
is especially characteristic: arrow points with a triangu-
lar or rhomboid cross-section known as "file-shaped"
points.
In the terminal stage of the Ymyyakhtakh tradition,
traces of primitive bronze casting were discovered-in
the Ust-Belaya site, Chukotka (Dikov 1977), the Sikt-
yakh I site, the Lena river downstream area, 70° N
(Okladnikov 1946), and the Abylaakh I site in the
eastern Taimyr (Khlobystin 1998).
Ceramics of this cultural tradition can be easily
recognized by the waffle-marked surfaces of sherds. The
shape of vessels is paraboloid or spheroid; some of them
are round based and have a spherical or subconical
body. Reindeer hair added to the clay mass and a sliced
structure of sherds are the peculiar features of the
Ymyyakhtakh ceramics. Rims are straight and decorated
by a row of pits placed below. Some vessels have
ornamentation composed of vertical and sloping lines.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climatic changes took place in the East Arctic
around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary as rigorous
climatic conditions of arid continental type appeared.
The most significant Holocene climatic change is the
northern shift of tree vegetation. Macroremains of tree
plants aged 8000-9000 years ago were repeatedly found
far north of the modern treeline. A position of the Boreal
treeline supposedly corresponds to the modern shoreline.
Tree vegetation occupied even the Southern Arctic
islands. By the time of the Ymyyakhtakh tradition,
the region had taken on its contemporary form.
Settlements
Holocene Northeastern Asia was occupied by "mo-
bile continental hunters" who exploited reindeer popu-
lations in the tundra and elk in the taiga, supplementing
major activities by hunting other animals and birds and
by fishing. Settlements are small and ephemeral.
Economy
The subsistence economy of the Mesolithic popula-
tion that occupied Northeastern Asia from 10,500-
3000 B.P. was based on two major game species: elk in
the taiga zone and reindeer in the tundra. Faunal
remains show that other animals such as bear and sheep
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia 55
(Ovis canadensis) constituted part of hunting prey as
well. Fishing and bird hunting also played some role in
the indigenous subsistence economies.
Sociopolitical Organization
There are no direct data that describe features of the
sociopolitical organization characteristic of the northern
cultures of the Holocene Stone Age. The population was
probably organized as territorial bands. Many research-
ers use anthropological data about the northern peoples
of Eurasia when speaking of the possible social orga-
nization of the Neolithic hunters of the north. These
ideas are appropriate because ecology, environment, and
subsistence remained more or less constant for thou-
sands of years. Direct evidence of social stratification for
the Ymyaktakh (Late Neolithic) cultural tradition
occurs in the excavations of the Rodinka grave, where
the burial of a young woman (20-25 years old) yielded
numerous "rich" artifacts including personal ornaments,
armor plates, engraved objects, and sculptures. All these
features suggest an elite social position. It is suggested
that this woman was a chief or a shaman, based on the
anthropological record of the Yukagirs, whose chiefs
were female shamans. Whether or not this conclusion is
correct, one can suggest that institutions of power and
religion existed in northeast Asia in Neolithic times, or
even earlier.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Almost nothing is known about the religion of this
period for Northeast Asia. Traditionally, it is thought to
be a set of beliefs or primitive cults related to natural
forces and so on. Judging from the rock arts of the
Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena rivers, we can suppose
that some shaman cults appeared in the Middle
Neolithic (Bel'kachi tradition). A basis for speculation
can be found in burial rituals, ornamentation, portable
arts, and petro glyphs (pisanitsy). The first three sources
of information are restricted to very few sites and rare
examples. At the same time, petro glyphs are rather
numerous in the southern areas of northeast Asia
(Aldan, Olekma, and Middle Lena valleys). This tradi-
tion supposedly exists from Paleolithic times. However,
researchers face many problems in dating rock art. The
petroglyphs of northeast Asia are attributed to Paleo-
lithic (Dyuktai tradition; bulls and horses from the
Tokko river, Olekma valley) and to different cultural
traditions of the Holocene Stone Age except the Early
Holocene (Sumnagin) cultural tradition. Images are
pecked or engraved and sometimes colored. Figures of
56 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
hunting animals (elk and reindeer) and hunting scenes
are especially numerous. The earliest images of the
Holocene (Syalakh cultural tradition) are more realistic
than those of later periods. Petro glyphs of the Bel'kachi
tradition include serpentlike and anthropomorphic
figures with sexual and, significantly, shaman attributes.
The latest cultural tradition of the Holocene (the
Ymyaktakh) gives an impression of a more complicated
spiritual life. The petro glyphs of this time include solar
signs, diverse anthropomorphic figures, shaman attri-
butes, and masks. The petro glyphs of the Pegtymel river
(the northernmost location in northeast Asia), famous
for "mushroom people" and scenes of sea-mammal
hunting, give very important information about the
evolution of subsistence economies of the area.
References
Dikov, N. N. (1977). Arkheologicheskie pamyatniki Kamchatki, Chuk-
otki v Verkhnei Kolymy [Archaelogical sites of Kamchatka, Chuk-
otka, and Upper Kolyma]. Moscow: Nauka.
Fedoseyeva, S. A. (1980). The Ymyakhtakh Culture of Northeastern
Asia. Novosibirsk: Nauka. In Russian.
Fedoseyeva, S. A. (1988). "Diring-Yuryakhsky mogilnik (ograblenie
mogil i problema zarozhdeniya pervobytnogo ateizma)." In Ark-
heologiya Yakutii. 79~98. In Russian.
Fedoseyeva, S. A. (1992). "Diring-Yuryakhsky mogilnik (tipologiya
pogrebal'nogo kamennogo inventarya i mestopamyatnika v drevnei
istorii Severo-Vostochnoi Azii)." In Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya
v Yakutii, 84--105. In Russian.
Gohman, I. I., and L. F. Tomtosova (1992). "Antropologicheskiye
issledovaniya neoliticheskikh mogil'nikov Diring Yurukh i Rod-
inka" [Physical anthropology of the Neolithic burials of the Diring
Yuryakh and Rodinka cemetery]. In Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya
v Yakutii. 105~124. In Russian.
Kashin, Kalinina (1997). Pomazkinsky arkheologichesky kompleks [The
Pomazkino archaeological complex]. Yakutsk:
Khlobystin, L. P. (1998). Ancient History of Taimyr and the Formation
of the North Eurasian Cultures. St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin. In
Russian.
Kistenev, S. P. (1980). "Novye arkheologicheskie pamyatniki basseina
Kolymy" [New archaeological sites of the Kolyma river basin]. In
Novoye varkheologii Yakutii. 74--87. In Russian.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1946). Lenskiye drevnosti [The Lena antiquities].
Vol. 2. Yakutsk: In Russian.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1950). Lenskiye drevnosti [The Lena antiquities].
Vol. 3. Moscow-Leningrad: In Russian.
SITES
Chertov Ovrag
TIME PERIOD: 3100-3300 B.P.
LOCATION: The site is located on Wrangell island, the
large Arctic island north of Chukotka.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Physical Features
The Chertov Ovrag site was discovered in 1975
and excavated several times in 1975-77 and 1981
(Dikov 1988). It resembles, to some extent, contempo-
rary sites from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland
leading Tein, one of the investigators of the site, t~
conclude that the site appeared there as a result of
migration of some group of the Paleo-Eskimo popula-
tion. Several fireplaces and midden pits held fractured
walrus, bearded seal, small seal, and duck bones. It is
thought that the sea mammal bones served as a fuel at
the site.
Cultural Aspects
The Chertov Ovrag site yielded projectile points
(leaf shaped and stemmed), backed knives and knives
from lamellar flakes, scrapers, leaf-shaped bifacial
knives. Almost all were made by percussion and
pressure flaking. Grinding was never used for working
stone. Some ivory implements were found as well. The
most interesting is a single-holed toggle harpoon that
has an archaic and peculiar shape. A basal part of
another harpoon and a foreshaft to use with it, both
made of ivory, were found by Tein in 1977. Projectile
points could have been used as a kind of end blade for
these harpoons. The toggle harpoon head resembles
that from Ust-Belaya site (Dikov 1977). Many stone
implements are close to those from the so-called
Severochukotskaya and Ust-Belaya cultures (Pitul'ko
1988). It is likely that this site is a singular but real
example of local maritime adaptation, which is proba-
bly linked with the terminal stage of the Ymyyakhtakh
cultural tradition. Although the earliest Eskimo culture
of the region was introduced into northeast Asia from
the American side of the Bering strait, there is no
compelling reason to extend this to Chertov Ovrag
site.
References
Dikov, N. N. (1977). Arkheologicheskie pamyatniki Kamchatki, Chuk-
otki v Verkhnei Kolymy [Archae1ogical sites of Kamchatka, Chuk-
otka, and Upper Kolyma]. Moscow: Nauka.
Dikov, N. N. (1988). "The Earliest Sea Mammal Hunters of Wrangell
Island." Arctic Anthropology 25 (I): 80-93.
Pitul'ko, V. V. (1988). "Subsistence Patterns in the Late Neolithic of
the Chukchee Peninsula." In Ancient Sites of the North of Far East.
74--79. Magadan. In Russian.

Zhokhov
TIME PERIOD: 7800-8000 B.P.
LOCATION: The Zhokhov site, excavated in two field
seasons (1989-90), is located far north on the small
Arctic island of the same name. Zhokhov island is
situated beneath 76° N latitude and belongs to the New
Siberian island chain, which constitutes the natural
boundary between the Laptev and East Siberian seas.
Zhokhov island is rather small and it is one of the most
remote territories in the Eastern Siberian Arctic. How-
ever, there is no doubt that it was much larger 8000
years ago and may even have been part of the mainland.
In any case, the site is located not far from the shoreline.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Physical Features
The results of the excavations were reported previ-
ously (Pitul'ko 1993; Giria and Pitul'ko 1994; Pitul'ko
and Kasparov 1996). Abundant artifacts and faunal
remains characterizing ancient aboriginal culture were
discovered. The area ~f the site is abnormally large,
covering about 8000 m , but the cultural layer probably
has discontinuous distribution. One hundred forty-eight
m2 were excavated. No difference between the surface
and the subsurface contexts was found, and the strati-
graphy of the site confirms the homogeneous origin of
the assemblage. There was no evidence of redepositing
of the cultural remains; the cryoturbations discovered in
the horizon containing cultural remains were not strong
enough to make significant changes. The site yielded a
good collection of lithic artifacts including 15 pre-cores,
45 cores in different states of utilization, diverse lamellar
flakes and blades (199), bladelets and their fragments
(38). Aside from these artifacts characterizing the
microblade (prismatic) industry, the site has only a few
additional grounded axes and adzes, both intact (2) and
fragmented (4). At the same time, an excellent bone
industry was discovered, including 25 inset tools (some
of them with side blades in the grooves), and other
utensils made of bone, antler, and ivory. Because of the
conservative aspects of permafrost (the cultural stratum
is below the bottom level of the active horizon), a
number of artifacts made of wood were found, with
arrow shafts, home utensils, and even a sledge runner
among them.
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia 57
Cultural Aspects
A study of the stone industry enables us to distin-
guish three separate technological contexts resulting
from axe production; blade production; and produc-
tion of side blades. The last two are closely linked
and constitute the main body of the assemblage.
The technological study of the collection shows that
all cores are small sized, with wide, flattened flaking
surfaces; a flattening of the lateral sides was done by
diverse methods (for instance, by choosing naturally
flattened surfaces, transversal flaking, longitudinal flak-
ing, and removing the main flaking surface from the
lateral side of the core); all cores represent different
technological stages of the reduction process. A peculiar
feature of the technology consists in preparation of core
tablets by the specific technique of circular flaking. The
features mentioned distinguish the Zhokhov industry
from the other Holocene stone assemblages of North-
eastern Asia.
One of the peculiar features of the Zhokhov site is
the paucity of stone artifacts other than inset tools
blades, and axes. At the same time, use-wear analysi~
makes it possible to identify two artifacts made of fossil
mammoth ivory, which were used in skin processing.
They are formed from massive ivory flakes detached
from tusks. One of these tools is identified as a skinning
knife, and the other as a side scraper. A considerable
part of the bone tool collection (28 items) is made up of
picks made from mammoth ivory or antler and resem-
bling picks and pickaxes known from Eskimo sites. On
the basis of samples collected, there is no preference for
one or another sort of raw material. Because of the
unique preservative aspects of the permafrost, the site is
very rich in diverse wooden artifacts, including arrow
shafts, a "spoon," and a big fragment of sledge runner.
The function of some artifacts was not recognized
clearly.
It was determined that aboriginal people who visited
the island about 7800 years ago had a very unusual
survival strategy based on the hunting of polar bear and
reindeer. Although the faunal remains belonging to each
species mentioned constitute approximately 50%, the
polar bear appears to have been the most important
food source.
References
Giria, E. Yu., and V. V. Pitul'ko (1994). "High Arctic Mesolithic
Industry ofZhokhov Island: Inset Tools and Knapping Technology."
Arctic Anthropology 31 (2): 31-44.
Pitul'ko, V. V. (1993). "An Early Holocene Site in the Siberian High
Arctic." Arctic Anthropology 30: 13-21.
58 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia

Pitul'ko, V. V., and Kasparov, A. K. (1996). "Ancient Arctic Hunters:

Material Culture and Survival Strategy." Arctic Anthropology 33:
1-36.

VLADIMIR PITULKO
Paleolithic Department
Russian Academy of Science
St. Petersburg
Russia
Initial Shield Woodland
Laurel
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 3000-600 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Chronologically overlaps and then
follows the Shield Archaic tradition; partially overlaps
but largely precedes the historical period.
LOCATION: East-central Saskatchewan, central and
southeastern Manitoba, southwestern and south-central
Ontario, possibly southwestern Quebec, northern Min-
nesota, eastern Upper peninsula of Michigan, and
northern Door peninsula of Wisconsin.
Also known as the Laurel culture or tradition, the
Initial Shield Woodland tradition is almost entirely
distributed in the southern and western portions of the
vast geological region denominated the Canadian or
Laurentian Shield. On that account, the latter tradition
name is apropos, but it may unfortunately suggest a
false corollary. Because the predominant forest cover
associated with the Shield is the boreal forest of the
Hudsonian Biotic Province, the erroneous conclusion is
sometimes drawn that the cultural entity is mainly, if not
entirely, a boreal forest manifestation. In fact, and
notwithstanding the presence of Initial Shield Woodland
sites in the boreal forest, the majority occur in the Lake
Forest formation of the Canadian Biotic Province to the
south. In this region, the biggest, richest, and most
complexly developed expressions of the tradition are
found. Here also is where the earliest developmental
stage components are concentrated and where, extend-
ing southward and eastward, are the most clearly related
cultural neighbors and the likely sources of its defining
attributes.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Usually very well-
made, thin pottery that is grit-tempered, conoidal-
based, and has a smooth surface finish; when
decorated, it is variously embellished in the rim area
and sometimes on the upper body with circular punc-
tates and/or nodes or bosses, discrete or dragged linear,
pseudo-scallop shell, or dentate stamping or incising.
The restricted placement of decoration means that the
majority of potsherds are plain. Small side-notched,
corner-notched, and triangular (late period) projectile
points are common, as are linear flakes, ovoid biface
knives, and high frequencies of scrapers. Flakes for
expedient use or for tool blanks were commonly
produced from small nodular cores, often employing a
bipolar technique. Small quantities of native copper
awls, gorges, fishhooks, beads, and cones (bangles?)
have been recovered at many sites. Usually rare because
of acidic soils are artifacts of bone, antler, or teeth. But
examples have been found of awls, gorges, and/or barbs
for composite weapons, toggle-head and unilaterally
barbed harpoons, beaver incisor knives and chisels,
netting and snowshoe needles, and pottery-stamping
implements. Sites are usually small and suggest brief or
59
60 Initial Shield Woodland
seasonal occupations. Burial mounds are uncommon
except in the boundary waters area of northern
Minnesota, southwestern Ontario, and southeastern
Manitoba.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: As yet provisional and subject
to alteration with new discoveries, Initial Shield Wood-
land subtraditions (sometimes referred to as "compos-
ites" by researchers in the Shield) include Saskatchewan
Laurel, Manitoba Lakes Laurel, Boundary Waters
Laurel, and Superior Laurel.
Temporal changes in the tenure of the Laurel or
Initial Shield Woodland tradition are widely if uncle-
arly perceived. A proposed developmental sequence of
phases (also called "complexes" by some authors) has
been tendered to model those changes. This is largely
based on the best-known subtradition (the Boundary
Waters "composite"), itself heavily dependent on
ceramic seriation, but with a growing body of radio-
carbon support. This sequence includes, from first to
last, the Pike Bay, McKinstry, Smith, and Hungry Hall
phases or complexes. Because the Boundary Waters
subtradition of the greater Lake of the Woods district
of Minnesota, Ontario, and Manitoba is the best
known, includes sites from earliest through intermedi-
ate to latest Laurel times, and exhibits the most
complexity, most archaeologists look to that geograph-
ical area for the origins of the larger tradition itself.
That the tradition first emerged near the southern
margin of its eventually enormous distribution seems
likely. Stimulus diffusion, acting on regional Archaic
populations, introduced pottery making~translated
into a new idiom~as well as the less generally accepted
erection of burial mounds to an otherwise minimally
augmented cultural inventory. But the fact of Laurel
components similar to those of the earliest (Pike Bay)
phase in the Boundary Waters district well to the
southeast in the northern Lake Michigan basin argues
for a broader base of innovating interaction be-
tween north and south than a single-point model
posits. For instance, the North Bay culture of that
region is at least as ancient in its inception as earliest
Laurel is in the Boundary Waters subtradition or
anywhere else.
IMPORTANT SITES:Tailrace Bay, Manitoba; Naomikong
Point, Summer Island, Michigan; McKinstry, Smith,
Minnesota; Ballynacree, Heron Bay, Wabinosh River,
Ontario.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. Continental to Subarctic, with sub-zero tem-
peratures (Fahrenheit) common in the winter months to
summer mean monthly temperatures as high as 73 DF
(23 DC). Minimum daily readings may drop to -35 OF
(-37 DC) or even lower. Summer daily highs may attain
100 DF (38 DC), although that is unusual. Average
annual rainfall varies from less than 20 in (50 cm) in
the west to 40 in (l00 cm.) in parts of the east. Snowfall,
also typically lighter in the west, can easily exceed 100 in
(250 cm) eastward.
Topography. The Initial Shield Woodland culture area
occupies something on the order of 325,000 mi 2
(842,000 km 2 ), virtually all in the Canadian Shield. This
region is one of relatively low relief and immature
drainage. Streams and lakes abound and provide the
most practicable avenues of travel, even in winter over
the ice. Except for a few restricted areas, elevations
range from a little over 2000 ft (610 m) to about only
500 ft (l52 m).
Geology. Canadian or Laurentian Shield rocks are
mainly igneous and metamorphic (granite, basalt,
quartzite, gneiss) of Precambrian age (Archeozoic and
Proterozoic eras) and are widely exposed or covered by
only thin acidic soils or ground moraines. The latter often
contain knappable flints. Accessible native copper de-
posits occur in the southeast in the Lake Superior district.
Biota. Characteristic of the largest range of Initial
Shield Woodland sites~although not of the areas where
they are concentrated~is coniferous forest. This is the
white spruce-balsam fir-dominated boreal forest. Where
it intergrades with or is overtaken by the Lake Forest
formation to the south, as in the lake of the W oods-
Rainy River-Rainy lake sector and in the Upper Great
lakes, the flora is enriched by stands of red pine, white
pine, hemlock, cedar, birch, aspen, sugar maple, and
burr oak. Westward, in Manitoba and Saskatchewan,
the boreal forest gives way in the south to aspen
parkland and plains grassland. Thus almost the entire
geographic distribution of the Initial Shield Woodland
or Laurel culture area is in the boreal forest of the
Hudsonian Biotic Province and, especially in density, in
the Lake Forest of the Canadian Biome. In the for-
mer are such economically important animals as moose,
caribou, black bear, porcupine, snowshoe hare, and

beaver. Elk and deer are the principal ungulates in the
latter province. Not used as food, but important in an
ecological sense, are wolf, marten, wolverine, and lynx.
Where the Laurel range extended to the aspen parklands
in the west, bison were hunted. Fish (sturgeon, whitefish,
lake trout, northern pike) are a generally reliable re-
source and were minimally at least as important to
Initial Shield Woodland people as mammals and birds
combined. Wherever its habitat extended, wild rice may
have added significantly to the diet, most notably along
the southern marches. In the north, then, low natural
productivity and species diversity operated to hold
human occupation to a minimum; it is a hard environ-
ment, one unforgiving in what it requires of would-be
intruders. Much more benevolence was to be found
southward, and the numbers and types of sites reflect
that fact.
Settlements
Settlement System. Typically, most Laurel sites are
small and thinly distributed. They yield few or no
features and only a sparse scattering of a limited variety
of artifacts. Such localities doubtless reflect visits by
small family groups exploiting several such places
during seasonal rounds. They appear to signal only
intermittent tenure over no more than a few years.
Perhaps exaggerating this impression is the low visibility
of occupational debris in the only lightly surveyed
vastness of heavily forested terrain. However, a few
large sites have produced wider inventories of chipped
stone tools and large collections of potsherds. A few of
these are associated with one or several burial mounds.
These are exceptional and are virtually confined to the
Boundary Waters subtradition or composite. The larger
sites, whether or not associated with mounds, probably
demark regional rendezvous places to which numbers of
otherwise widely scattered family hunting camps re-
paired in summer or fall (or in the spring where there
were good fish-spawning runs).
Community Organization. Traces of almost all Initial
Shield Woodland occupations are located on lake shores
or river banks. Hints of greater social interaction among
communities within rather than between each of the
proposed regional subdivisions are implicit in the results
of distributional analyses of artifact-mainly pot-
tery-style attributes. Such hints are largely founded
on quantitative ordering of bossing and/or punctating
on vessels rims, dentate versus pseudo-scallop shell
stamping, linear stamping, discrete as opposed to
Initial Shield Woodland 61
dragged application of stamping tools, incising, and
combinations of such techniques. These veiled glimpses
of fragments of past social arrangements, even coupled
with the suggestive distributions of possible rendezvous
vis-a-vis the more common sites, are suggestive only and
require much more work to make of them something
more substantive.
Housing. Although no or only partial postmold align-
ments have been uncovered at most sites, only those at
the Ballynacree site in the Lake of the Woods district in
extreme Southwestern Ontario and the Summer island
site in the northern Lake Michigan basin have been
sufficiently complete to allow convincing reconstruction
of house wall configurations and probable structure.
The former site dates to the end of the Laurel tradition
and exhibits a number of traits anticipating Terminal
Shield Woodland assemblages (e.g., triangular arrow-
heads, single cord-impressed and cord-wrapped-stick-
impressed ceramics). Summer island, on the other hand,
falls in the early part of the Laurel time range.
Three houses were excavated at the Ballynacree
site, four at Summer island. Oval in floor plan, each
Ballynacree lodge was approximately 4 by 8 m and
featured a shallow central hearth and one to three U-
shaped storage pits, some of which had been lined with
birch bark. Although flint chips, potsherds, fire-cracked
rocks, flecks of red ocher, and burnt bone fragments
occurred on the house floors, and especially in the
fireplaces, most occupational debris was found on the
outside in middens. Interior lines of postmolds suggest
a low platform along the back wall. Doors faced east.
The original houses were probably dome-shaped with
sharpened poles made from saplings driven into the
ground and bent inward to be tied at the top, the whole
then sheathed in hides or sheets of bark. Floor stains
could attest to the laying down of evergreen boughs or
woven mats, as was the practice of northern Algonquian
peoples like the historic Ojibwas. The Summer island
houses, with one smaller exception, were about the same
size as those at Ballynacree although tending to a
somewhat more circular floor plan. Probably also
similar in construction and having interior hearths, the
Summer island houses are associated in at least three
cases with exterior ancillary structures (racks?) survived
in each instance by two short parallel rows of postmolds
uniformly about 0.5 m apart.
Population, Health, and Disease. Aboriginal population
estimates for the vast territory that includes most of the
Initial Shield Woodland domain are little better than
62 Initial Shield Woodland
guesses for any period before the late 19th century.
Discounting those of the lonely highest and lowest
would-be assayers, most archaeologists take a figure
within the range proferred for the area's inhabitants at
the time of first European contact and project that into
prehistory. These figures typically fall somewhere be-
tween one person per 2.7-5.9 mi 2 (6.9-15.3 km 2) to one
per 50-70 mi 2 (129-181 km 2). Whatever the true num-
ber for any given period, the population was certainly
one of the lowest anywhere in the Western Hemisphere,
and it was not uniformly distributed geographically
or seasonally. To judge from the quantity and more
complex nature of their sites, not to mention the quality
of their environment, many more people lived in the
Lake of the Woods-Rainy Lake-Rainy River sector
than in the much larger and less fruitful tracts to the
north. In the former area, at the Ballynacree site near
Kenora, Ontario, a three-house settlement is believed to
have had some 30 to 35 people in residence. Indications
from another residential area within easy shouting
distance, although separated by a marshy embayment,
may well signal an additional extended family or two
belonging to the same community.
Human remains attributable to Laurel cultural
contexts, except for those at the Smith Mounds site on
the Rainy river in Minnesota, are few and far between.
Those just exempted are poorly preserved. Furthermore,
some "Laurel" burials, typically unaccompanied by
diagnostic grave goods, are from multicomponent sites.
What has been learned speaks more to mortuary
practices than biological characteristics. It seems clear
that only a small minority of Laurel people constructed
burial mounds and that most of those who did were
restricted to the northern Minnesota-southwestern
Ontario-southeastern Manitoba environs. Smith Mound
4 revealed several episodes of multiple inhumations.
Virtually all the 109 skeletons had been disarticulated
and individually "bundled" with the mandible inverted
over stacked long bones and the cranium positioned at
one end or at the side. Some interments consisted
exclusively of torso elements. Skulls had smashed or
removed occiputs, and long bones exhibited perfora-
tions at one or both ends. Additionally, cutting and
scraping marks were indicative of defteshing as well as
dismemberment. Clay plugs had been inserted in the eye
sockets of some of the crania.
Economy
Subsistence. Initial Shield Woodland people relied
wholly on fish and game and collecting wild plant
foods. Primary reliance on anyone of these was a short-
term phenomenon depending on season, local environ-
ment, and the exigencies of not always predictable
weather perturbations and other factors. Long-term
success was predicated on adaptability and readiness
to exploit the most dependable in a shifting mix of
resources. (See Environment [Biota] above for a de-
scription of those resources.)
Industrial Arts. Limited in scope and complexity, Laurel
technology was employed in its entirety by and at the
household level. Such specialization as there was is best
interpreted as a function of locally recognized and
encouraged individual skill and inclination. Although
esoteric items such as stone platform smoking pipes or
strikingly exotic examples of knappable stone like
Wyoming obsidian make rare appearances at a few
sites, nothing has been found that exceeds the prevailing
level of technical competence. Nor do such exceptional
pieces invalidate the impression of a substantial degree
of cultural homogeneity and self-sufficiency expressed at
any given time over wide reaches of territory.
Utensils. Most commonly recovered are sherds of grit-
tempered pottery, many instances of which are arrest-
ingly well crafted, and a limited range of technically and
aesthetically indifferent chipped stone tools. (This em-
pirical contrast will be returned to later under the
heading Sociopolitical Organization [Social Organiza-
tion].) Implements of bone and antler are characteris-
tically rare, certainly a product of poor preservation
because of acidic soils and subjection to repeated
episodes of wetting and drying, not to original neglect
of those tractable materials. Pecked and ground stone
tools are exceedingly sparse whereas copper (cold
hammered or annealed) appears sporadically, and then
only in small items like awls, fishhooks, or beads. The
manufacture of some kind of cordage for lines and nets
is inferred from finds of notched pebbles identified as net
sinkers as well as by the presence of such other fishing
gear as hooks and harpoon components. In situ charred
fragments of birch bark at a few sites attest to the
onetime existence of containers, torches, burial pit
lining, and probable lodge sheeting. Bark canoes and
snowshoes and good skin clothing are implied by
environment and retrograde extrapolation from ethno-
graphic information.
As previously indicated (in Diagnostic Material
Attributes), Initial Shield Woodland pottery, if not left
unadorned or embellished solely with punctates and/or
bosses or nodes, bears a limited spectrum of design
techniques, although often elegantly imposed. Confined

to the upper third or less of the vessel, these techniques
embraced dragged (push-pull) or undragged imprinting
with plain-edged, dentate, or pseudo-scallop shell
stamps in one or more horizontal bands. A stylus was
sometimes used to execute simple criss-cross incising or,
by alternately pulling and pushing, to produce one or
several "interrupted linear" lines. Combinations of two
or more techniques sometimes appear. Often favored
were horizontal banks of vertical or oblique linear
punctates, again in either discrete or dragged fashion.
Distinctly rarer are pots bearing impressions of cord-
wrapped implements or single cords-and they appear
only in the latest times. The relative frequencies of these
treatments vary spatially and temporally. Besides the
synchronic suggestions of regional subdivisions, their
combination with radiocarbon dating and other dia-
chronic measures has made possible the tracing of some
stylistic shifts through time. An example of spatial
differences is the much greater incidence in the eastern
part of the Laurel realm than in the west of vessels
having interior rim decoration. Establishing the early
popularity of pseudo-scallop shell stamping versus
dentate stamping is one of the results of chronological
studies.
Ornaments. Confined largely to simple shell and copper
beads. Distinctive if not common are copper beads
configured in a flat, tight spiral.
Trade. Even though household and camp self-sufficiency
seem to have been highly developed and, indeed,
enforced by the nature of the land and a limited
technology and population, Initial Shield Woodland
people were in some contact with the wider world. This
is demonstrated by the presence of copper artifacts at
numbers of sites far from sources of that material as well
as by the occasional appearance of Hudson Bay lowland
or North Dakota flint or even Wyoming obsidian. Shell
traced to Manitoba has been recovered on the north-
central coast of Lake Superior. Laurel pottery has been
found associated with sites of some neighboring cultures
(e.g., the North Bay culture in Wisconsin), and foreign
ceramics have turned up at some Laurel sites (e.g.,
A vonlea net-impressed ware in Saskatchewan, Saugeen
sherds in Western Ontario). Beyond these direct proofs
of foreign contacts are the cultural traits (e.g., many
ceramic attributes, some common projectile point forms,
toggle-head harpoons) that Laurel shares with other
cultures. These traits, added to stepwise geographic
propinquity and a high degree of temporal coexistence,
particularly in the earlier periods, link Laurel with other
cultures adapted to the east-west-oriented Lake Forest
Initial Shield Woodland 63
and contiguous Carolinian-Canadian transition zone.
Such other cultures as Malmo, Nokomis, North Bay,
Saugeen, and Point peninsula link Laurel with them to
a partly common heritage and participation in wide-
spread, if often interrupted and indirect, diffusion. These
cultural siblings collectively constitute what has been
denominated the Northern Tier (or Middle Tier if
Laurel is excluded) or Lake Forest Middle Woodland
culture group. (That Laurel or Initial Shield Wood-
land can no longer be considered a strictly Middle
Woodland manifestation is clear from a growing body
of chronological indicators.) Finally, signs of Laurel
connectedness with an even wider world exist. Some
pottery attributes as well as sometime construction of
burial mounds and even the rare appearance of platform
pipes point to some influences emanating from the
Hopewell tradition far to the south.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Beyond supporting the inference of
a simply structured, essentially egalitarian society, in
that sense not radically unlike what prevailed in the
same region when first encountered by Europeans, the
Initial Shield Woodland archaeological record is difficult
to decode into social terms. That record nevertheless
favors some interpretations rather than others. As has
been seen, persistent regional disparities in relative
frequencies of ceramic attributes and in burial mound
distributions imply that certain Initial Shield Woodland
communities interacted more consistently with some of
their counterparts than with others. This is implicit in
the identification of subtraditions or composites (Man-
itoba Lakes, Boundary Waters, etc.). Some form of
social circumscription has to have operated to produce
those material differences. Keeping in mind the evidence
for what might be termed "ceramic dialects," the
previously noted technical and aesthetic superiority of
Laurel ceramics over chipped stone tools may be a key
to decoding something of the social causation. Clearly,
the producers of Laurel pottery were subject to more
rigorous tutelage and held to tighter standards of
performance than were those who made the stone
implements. Accepting comparative evidence from eth-
nographic studies of people of roughly similar scale,
population, and way of life, we can safely assume that
women were the potters and men the knappers.
Archaeological reconstructions are invariably conform-
able. Linking this presumption in this case to the
empirical dichotomy suggests that Laurel society oper-
ated with a greater degree of matrilocality than that
envisioned by weighting gender roles according to the
64 Initial Shield Woodland
predominance of one sex over the other in provisioning
the larder (a predominance bound to shift seasonally
and in the face of other contingencies in any case). For
women, if not so restrictively for their potential spouses,
such matrilocality as the pottery-stone tool contrast
suggests need not have operated on the social scale of
local camp or even extended family-foraging territory,
but rather on that of an endogamous "macroband."
Perhaps this is what has been provisionally mapped as
subtraditions or composites. To give an example of scale
for such a more flexible matrilocal endogamy, the
Boundary Waters composite embraces something on
the order of 40,000-50,000 mi 2 (103,000-129,000 km 2).
It is of course impossible to guess whether such a society
was also in any sense a political entity.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Evidences of beliefs in a supernatural
realm are few, surviving in burial practices and in rock
art possibly ascribable to Initial Shield Woodland
people. A fair but unprovable thesis is that something
of the genre, if not of the details, of early historic Ojibwa
and Cree cosmology was present at this earlier time.
Minimally, this doubtless would have included beliefs in
an afterlife, sacred places, animal souls, underwater and
other spirits, limited efficacy of human attempts to
influence them, and fear of witches and cannibal
monsters.
Arts. Petroforms (rock alignments) and pictographs
and petro glyphs occur over a large part of the country
once occupied by Laurel and later people. How much
if any of this was produced by the earlier inhabitants is
debatable. It seems likely that some may be so credited.
Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures-many al-
most certainly representations of mythological be-
ings-often appear in company with unmistakable
depictions of people and some of their material culture
(canoes and hutlike structures). What strikes the
modern observer as nonrepresentational elements in
the rock art ("doodles") often crop up alone or in
apparent association with more recognizable figures
crowded together or even superimposed on a water-
fronted rock face even though adjacent surfaces seem
to have been left untouched. Most of this iconography
(and graffiti?) is readily distinguishable from that to the
south, as in the Mississippi drainage. Indeed, a good
part of its style and many of its devices resemble the
"picture-writing" seen on historic Midewiwin birch
bark scrolls.
Death and Afterlife. The fact of considerable ritual
attending the dead of at least some communities some
of the time is signaled by remains unearthed at a couple
of places. Mound 4 of the Smith site in northern
Minnesota is one of these. That evidence has been
summarized earlier under Settlements: Population,
Health, and Disease. What needs to be stressed is the
geographically extremely limited expression of those
practices. The inference of special circumstances is
difficult to avoid. Typically, virtually nothing is known
of Initial Shield Woodland mortuary practices through-
out the greater expanses of territory and culture
history.
Suggested Readings
Brose, David S. (1970). The Archaeology of Summer Island: Changing
Settlement Systems in Northern Lake Michigan. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological
Papers 41.
Dawson, K. C. A. (1981). "The Wabinosh River Site and the Laurel
Tradition in Northwestern Ontario." Ontario Archaeology 36: 3-46.
Janzen, Donald E. (1968). The Naomikong Point Site and the
Dimensions of Laurel in the Lake Superior Region. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological
Papers 36.
MacNeish, Richard S. (1958). An Introduction to the Archaeology of
Southeast Manitoba. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, Bulletin
157.
Mason, Ronald J. (1970). "Hopewell, Middle Woodland, and the
Laurel Culture: A Problem in Archeological Classification." Amer-
ican Anthropologist 72: 802-815.
Mason, Ronald J. (1981). Great Lakes Archaeology. New York:
Academic Press.
Meyer, David (1983). "Saskatchewan Laurel: An Overview." Sas-
katchewan Archaeology 4: 3-24.
Meyer, David, and Henry T. Epp (1990). "North-South Interaction in
the Late Prehistory of Central Saskatchewan." Plains Anthropologist
35: 321-342.
Reid, C. S. "Paddy," and Grace Rajnovich (1991). "Laurel: A Re-
evaluation of the Spatial, Social and Temporal Paradigms."
Canadian Journal of Archaeology 15: 193-234.
Stoltman, James B. (1973). The Laurel Culture in Minnesota. St. Paul:
Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota Prehistoric Archaeology
Series, No.8.
Stoltman, James B. (1974). "An Examination of within-Laurel
Cultural Variability in Northern Minnesota." In Aspects of Upper
Great Lakes Anthropology: Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, ed.
E. Johnson. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota
Prehistoric Archaeology Series, No. 11, 74-89.
Wilford, Lloyd A. (1941). "A Tentative Classification of the Prehis-
toric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity 6: 231-249.
Wilford, Lloyd A. (1955). "A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric
Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity 21: 130-142.
Wright, J. V. (1967). The Laurel Tradition and the Middle Woodland
Period. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 217.
Wright, J. V. (1981). "Prehistory of the Canadian Shield." In
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6: Subarctic, gen. ed.

W. C. Sturtevant; vol. ed. J. Helm. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 86-96.
SITES
Bal1ynacree
TIME PERIOD: 755-645 B.P. (average of three radiocarbon
dates inclusive of their margins of error).
LOCATION: Far Southwestern Ontario on the Winnipeg
river in the Lake of the Woods near Kenora.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
South of the boreal forest in the ecologically
richer Lake Forest of the Canadian Biotic Province.
Burr oak, birch, and poplar are the most common trees
in the area. The site is situated on the bank of a fish- and
game-rich marsh of the Winnipeg river (Reid and
Rajnovich 1991).
Physical Features
Except for this site and another on Summer island in
Michigan where fully traceable house outlines were
discovered, Initial Shield Woodland sites have typically
revealed only a few, if any, postmold alignments
resolvable into an unambiguous pattern. At Ballynacree,
three complete lodge outlines were found accompanied
by hearths, pits, and household debris. (These are
described in the Major tradition entry under Settlements
(Housing).)
Cultural aspects
The importance of this site lies in its contribution to
the close dating by radiocarbon assays and ceramic
seriation of one of the latest Laurel components ever
found and in the excellence of physical data relevant to
understanding population size and community struc-
ture. The first reinforces and critically elucidates what
had previously been suggested about changes in projec-
tile point and pottery styles in the Boundary Waters
composite (areal subtradition) and in the Hungry Hall
complex (developmental phase). The second contribu-
tion is the unusually detailed information on house type
and settlement pattern.
Initial Shield Woodland 65
Reference
Reid, C. S. "Paddy," and Grace Rajnovich (\991). "Laurel: A Re-
evaluation of the Spatial, Social and Temporal Paradigms."
Canadian Journal of Archaeology 15: 193-234.
Heron Bay
TIME PERIOD: Dating uncertain. Four radiocarbon dates
with their error margins span over 9 centuries from
1960-1030 B.P. A comparison of these dates with the
seriation of rim sherds has led to a suggested likely
middle range date of 1510-1170 B.P. (Reid and Rajno-
vich 1991: 212).
LOCATION: On an abandoned shoreline elevated by
isostacy 8 ft (2.4 m) above the level of the Pic river
1 ml (1.6 km) inland of the north-central coast of Lake
Superior.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site lies in the boreal forest of the Hudsonian
Biome. The immediate area is a flat sandy plateau with
sparse vegetation other than some clumps of black spruce.
The opposite (east) side of the river is mainly exposed
Precambrian Shield bedrock and scattered patches of thin
soil supporting thick stands of forest (Wright 1967: 5-41).
Physical Features
A mainly Laurel but multicomponent site. The fol-
lowing pertains to the former component only. Although
most of the approximately 10 acre (4 ha) site offered
only thin isolated patches of cultural detritus (individual
family camp locations?), one section revealed an exten-
sive thick midden. Cross-mending potsherds and other
field evidence suggested a relatively restricted period of
occupation. Physical features were confined to a couple
of dozen postmolds possibly suggestive of a small
circular shelter as well as a couple of hearths and pits.
Cultural aspects
Heron bay has been tentatively assigned to the
provisional Superior composite or sub tradition (Reid
and Rajnovich 1991) and temporally aligned with the
McKinstry phase (Stoltman 1974: 89). This site has
66 Initial Shield Woodland
provided an important sample of Laurel pottery, stone
and copper tools, and-unusual in most contemporary
sites in the boreal forest-bone implements as well. The
latter includes socketed toggle-head harpoons, awls,
netting needles, tubular beads, and pottery markers.
Beaver incisor knives and modified moose incisors were
also preserved (Wright 1967: 5--41). Probably a com-
bination of band or family travel and down the line
trade is indicated by the low-frequency presence of
copper, a locally exotic black flint, taconite from the
Lakehead district of Lake Superior, shell from Man-
itoba, fragments of pottery from the Saugeen culture in
Southern Ontario east of Lake Huron, and even
obsidian from the Yellowstone country in Northwest-
ern Wyoming.
References
Reid, C. S. "Paddy," and Grace Rajnovich (1991). "Laurel: A Re-
evaluation of the Spatial, Social and Temporal Paradigms."
Canadian Journal of Archaeology 15: 193-234.
Stoltman, James B. (1974). "An Examination of within-Laurel
Cultural Variability in Northern Minnesota." In Aspects of Upper
Great Lakes. Anthropology: Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, ed.
E. Johnson. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota
Prehistoric Archaeology Series, No. II, 74-89.
Wright, J. V. (1967). The Laurel Tradition and the Middle
Woodland Period. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, Bulletin
217.
McKinstry Mound 1
TIME PERIOD: Three periods of Initial Shield Woodland
activity are recorded in the stratigraphy of Mound 1, a
large accretional burial mound, one of two at the
McKinstry site. The first two episodes of mound
construction are attributed to the Pike Bay phase or
complex of the Laurel culture. Rejecting a stratigraph-
ically anomalous assay, three radiocarbon dates with
their margins of error show a range of 2025-1775 B.P.
The third and last increment is identified with the
McKinstry phase and dates somewhere between 1445-
1335 B.P. The Laurel component of Mound 2 is also
linked to this phase.
LOCATION: In extreme north-central Minnesota on the
Little Fork river near its juncture with the Rainy river in
Koochiching county, just a few miles east of the Smith
site, type locality of the Laurel culture.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
An extension of the mixed conifer-deciduous lake
forest vegetational zone of the Canadian Biotic Prov-
ince. The site is on the east bank of the river; the upper
of two terraces supports Mound 1 while Mound 2 is
situated on the sometimes flood-prone lower terrace
(Stoltman 1973, 1974).
Physical Features
McKinstry Mound 1 is especially important for its
stratigraphic demonstration of the temporal priority of
the Pike Bay phase over the McKinstry phase as well as
for the provision of supporting ceramic seriation and
radiocarbon dates. Although it is known that poorly
reported "diggings" in the mound many years ago
uncovered the remains of at least 100 individuals, little
can now be ascertained about them. Mound 2 contained
about as many burials as Mound 1, but in this case
grave offerings indicate a majority belong to the
Blackduck culture of the Terminal Shield Woodland
tradition.
Cultural Aspects
Great quantities of potsherds and other artifacts
have been removed from the two McKinstry mounds.
From Mound 1, the virtually "pure" Laurel structure,
uncounted numbers of sherds were dug up and dispersed
by looters and early investigators who left no or only
limited accounts of their finds as later recounted by
N. H. Winchell (1911). Competent excavations in later
years by professional archaeologists provide most of the
information on which reliable conclusions must be
based. For the ceramic chronology in which McKinstry
Mound 1 plays a critical role, some 14,000 sherds were
so recovered. Approximately half of this number came
from Lloyd A. Wilford's 1939 field work (see Stoltman
1973: 19-24; Wilford 1941, 1955), the rest from James B.
Stoltman's 1970 excavations (Stoltman 1974). The
latter's sample and his analysis of it is the definitive
study.
References
Stoltman, James B. (1973). The Laurel Culture in Minnesota. St. Paul:
Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota Prehistoric Archaeology
Series, No.8.

Stoltman, James B. (1974). "An Examination of within-Laurel
Cultural Variability in Northern Minnesota." In Aspects of Upper
Great Lakes Anthropology: Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, ed.
E. Johnson. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota
Prehistoric Archaeology Series, No. 11, 74-89.
Wilford, Lloyd A. (1941). "A Tentative Classification of the
Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity 6:
231-249.
Wilford, Lloyd A. (1955). "A Revised Classification of the
Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity 21:
130-142.
Winchell, N. H. (1911). The Aborigines of Minnesota. St. Paul:
Minnesota Historical Society.
Naomikong Point
TIME PERIOD: This major Laurel locality is inadequately
dated by a single radiocarbon assay with a huge
standard error resulting in a range extending from as
early as 1920 B.P. to as late as 1120 B.P.
LOCATION:On Whitefish bay on the southeast shore of
Lake Superior in Bay Mills township, Chippewa county,
Michigan (Janzen 1968).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Located in a low shoreline meadow in what aborigi-
nally had been a predominantly pine climax of the Lake
Forest, the site is situated in the Canadian Biotic
Province.
Physical Features
Unevenly spread but sporadically artifact-rich mid-
den deposits with refuse and storage pits, ill-patterned
post molds, and fire-cracked rocks with heat-reddened
sand signaling hearths. The post-mold distributions,
together with hearth associations, make it more likely
that drying/smoking racks for processing fish are
represented rather than house structures. Notwithstand-
ing poor bone preservation, location, vast numbers
(over 1800) of chipped stone scrapers (argued to
correlate with fishing stations elsewhere), and unusually
numerous notched pebbles thought to have been used as
Initial Shield Woodland 67
net sinkers make seasonal visits and heavy reliance on
fishing likely.
Cultural Aspects
Naomikong point was either the most populous or
the most frequently revisited Laurel site yet discovered.
In addition to a large collection of chipped stone tools,
the site yielded in excess of 100,000 fragments of
pottery. Of these, 17,000 were sufficiently big to be
readily classifiable as to Laurel tradition ceramic types.
These typed sherds are from a minimum of 288 original
vessels-by far the most impressive sample from any
Initial Shield Woodland site. Besides the unparalleled
magnitude of artifact retrieval, Naomikong point,
situated as it is near the extreme southeastern end of
Lake Superior, is extraordinarily significant for another
reason. Two other sites with large Laurel components
lie within 120 mi (193 km) to the southwest in the
northern Lake Michigan basin: Summer island, Mich-
igan (Brose 1970), and Rock island, Wisconsin (Mason
1991). Multi-component sites with small collections of
Laurel sherds occur north of Summer island on the
southern shore of the Upper Michigan peninsula and
south of Rock island on the northern part of the
Wisconsin Door peninsula (Mason 1967) and, sporad-
ically, in private collections, even farther to the
southwest to Lake Winnebago. Barring these last finds
as atypical outliers, these sites attest to a impressively
large and vigorous Laurel presence south of what has
long been taken as the southeastern corner of Laurel
distribution. Furthermore, that presence, at least at
Summer island and Rock island, falls at the early end
of the Laurel time scale in what would be, far to the
northwest, the Pike bay phase in the Boundary Waters
composite. Not surprisingly, therefore, there is con-
vincing evidence of interaction, if not developmental
continuity, between the regional Woodland period
North Bay culture and Laurel in this now extended
southeastern frontier.
References
Brose, David S. (1970). The Archaeology of Summer Island: Changing
Settlement Systems in Northern Lake Michigan. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological
Papers 41.
Fitting, James E. (1970). The Archaeology of Michigan. Garden City,
NY: Natural History Press.
Janzen, Donald R. (1968). The Naomikong Point Site and the
Dimensions of Laurel in the Lake Superior Region. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological
Papers 36.
68 Initial Shield Woodland

Mason, Ronald J. (1967). "The North Bay Component at the Porte

des Morts Site, Door County, Wisconsin." Wisconsin Archaeologist
48: 267-345.
Mason, Ronald J. (1991). "Rock Island and the Laurel Cultural
Frontier in Northern Lake Michigan." Midcontinental Journal of
Archaeology 16: 118-155.

RONALD J. MASON
Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
Kamchatka Mesolithic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 8000-4000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Siberian Late Upper
Paleolithic, precedes the historic period.
LOCATION: Kamchatka.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRmUTES: Stemmed points on
blades; bifacial tools; conic, prismatic, and pencil cores;
microblades; ceramics are rare or nonexistent.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The people of the Kamchatka Mesolithic tradition
lived just after the dramatic changes that had occurred
in the nature of Northeast Asia in the early Holocene.
The intensive warming that began then resulted in the
radical alteration of Beringia's flora and fauna. The
Kamchatka relief also changed significantly: the vast
areas of the Okhotsk and Bering sea shelves were
submerged. This period (9000-7000 B.P.) corresponds to
the climatic maximum of the Holocene. The vegetation
productivity essentially increased; the forest boundary
of Northeast Asia moved far northward, up to the East
Siberian seashore, which was farther than it lies today.
In the mountains, the forest boundary lay much higher
than it lies today. Most Pleistocene animals that had
been the basis of Paleolithic hunters' subsistence died
out. Reindeer and moose adapted best to the new
climatic and resource conditions and thus became the
major object for Holocene hunters. In mid-Holocene
(6000-5000 B.P.), it was as warm as, if not warmer than,
the Early Holocene (2 0 above the modern average year
temperature). Precipitation also increased. This period
was marked by the spread of alder and birch forests with
Pinus pumila. Around 5000 B.P., a short-term temper-
ature fall occurred (1 0 below the modern temperature),
accompanied by reduced precipitation.
By the late Holocene, the climate became similar to
that of today. Birch and alder forests with Pinus pumila
and Larix open woodlands spread all over Kamchatka.
The vegetation development was influenced by volcanic
activity. Since the Early Holocene, numerous breeding
grounds of various species of seals had appeared. On the
continent, the principal hunting animals were reindeer
and moose. Numerous Kamchatka rivers had been
salmon spawning areas since the Late Pleistocene.
Settlements
Only continental sites of ancient hunters are known
for the Kamchatka Mesolithic. Probably there had been
sites on the coast of Kamchatka as well, but they must
have been destroyed during the formation of the
contemporary coastline of the peninsula. This tradition's
69
70 Kamchatka Mesolithic
sites testify to the nomadic life led by its people. The
hunting camps were short term; the dwellings surface,
probably transportable, teepee-like. The site size is
greatly reduced, perhaps because of fewer members in
particular hunting collectives.
Economy
Early in the Kamchatka Mesolithic tradition, the
hunting of individual Holocene animals determined the
necessity of elaborating new weapons and hunting
equipment. It also motivated the transfer from a semi-
settled to nomadic way of life. Tools combining the
strength of bone or antler with the sharpness of thin
blades that might be easily repaired if broken and were
light, which was vital for travelling long distances,
dominated. Blades were produced not from wedge-
shaped cores as in the Pleistocene but from more
economic conic, prismatic, and pencil cores. The blades
became larger, up to 20 cm long; they were used to make
burins, gravers, perforators, and stemmed projectile
points. This point tradition (Uolba) came to Kamchatka
from Yakutia and Upper Kolyma. At that time, bifacially
chipped oval unpolished axes with lanceolate cross-
sections, which had spread to Northeast Asia in the early
Holocene, appeared in Kamchatka. All lithic tools were
made of the local high-quality obsidian and flint.
Ceramics are unknown in Kamchatka before roughly
4000 B.P. and are rare throughout the Kamchatka
tradition. Without a knowledge of ceramics, then, the
people of Kamchatka Mesolithic might have cooked in
birch-bark dishes by placing heated stones in water.
Sociopolitical Organization
At the end of the Upper Paleolithic period, the large
clan community traced out in the big Paleolithic
settlements of Siberia, including Kamchatka (Ushki),
split into small hunting groups migrating in search of
food and uniting only for group hunting or prepar-
ing salmon during its spawning at convenient fishing
spots.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Little is known about the religion of the Kamchat-
kan peoples. Expressive culture is represented in a
variety of personal ornaments, including pendants,
labrets, and beads. The Kamchatka peoples also fash-
ioned figurines of humans and orca from bifacially
chipped stone.
Suggested Readings
Dikov, N. N. (1979). Ancient Cultures of Northeastern Asia. Moscow:
Nauka. In Russian.
Lozhkin, A. V., P. M. Anderson, W. R. Eisner, L. G. Ravako, D. M.
Hopkins, L. B. Brubaker, P. A. Colinvaux, and M. C. Miller (1993).
"Late Quarternary Lacustrine Pollen Records from Southwestern
Beringia." Quarternary Research 39: 314-324.
Ponomarenko A. K. (1996). "Surveys in Eastern Kamchatka." In
Archaeological Discoveries in 1995. Moscow. In Russian.
Slobodin S. B. (1999). "Northeast Asia in the Late Pleistocene and
Early Holocene." In World Archaeology 30 (3): 484-502.
Stefanovich, E. N., V. A. Klimanov, Z. K. Borisova, and S. N.
Vinogradova (1986). "Holocene Paleogeographic Situation on the
Northern Coast of Penzhina Bay." Bulletin of the Quarternary
Studies Commission 55: 97~102.
SERGI SLOBODIN
Far East Division
Russian Academy of Sciences
Northeastern Interdisciplinary Science Research Institute
Magadan
Russia
Kodiak
Kachemak
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 4000-700 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Ocean Bay tradition,
precedes the historic period.
LOCATION: Gulf of Alaska (Kodiak archipelago, Kenai
peninsula including Cook inlet and Kachemak bay,
Prince William sound, variant on Pacific side of Alaska
peninsula).
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Small single-room
houses with depressed floors, clay-lined interior pits,
rectangular stone slab hearths, and slab-covered floor
drains; artifacts from human bones and other ritual
treatment and dismemberment of the dead; ground slate
main lithic technology in late phase; abundant notched
pebble net weights, grooved cobble line weights, cobble
spall tools, stone lamps, lamps with anthropomorphic
and zoomorphic sculptures in late phase; toggle and
other harpoon heads, spear prongs, labrets and other
ornaments, delicate eyed needles; preservation favors
recovery of stone and bone.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Late and Early Kachemak on
Kodiak archipelago (hereafter, Kodiak) with various
named phases; Kachemak bay periods I, II, Sub-III, III,
Bluff phase, Riverine Kachemak on Kenai peninsula;
Palugvik phase at Prince William sound; influence seen
also in late Takli Birch and Cottonwood phases on
Alaska peninsula.
IMPORTANT SITES: Uyak, Three Saints, Old Kiavak, Crag
Point, Old Karluk, Malina Creek (Kodiak); Cotton-
wood Creek, Yukon Island West Beach or main site,
Yukon Fox Farm, Yukon Island Bluff, Point West of
Halibut Cove, Chugachik Island (Kachemak bay);
Merrill (riverine Kachemak); Palugvik (Prince William
sound); Little Takli (Alaska peninsula).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The modern climate is northern temperate
with strong maritime attributes: frequent cyclonic
storms, a large number of overcast and rainy days, rain
(as well as snow) at any time during the winter (160 cm
annual precipitation on the outer coast of Kodiak,
60 em at inner coast localities). Temperature extremes
are moderated through proximity to the coast. Temper-
atures vary from the outer coasts of Kodiak and Prince
William sound, where during the winter they are rarely
below -20°C (0 OF) and frequently are above the
freezing point, to a cooler regime at the inner bays.
Summer temperatures of 25°C (70s F) are relatively hot.
71
72 Kodiak
Nevertheless, hypothermia from exposure to wet
weather and cold spray while hunting on the sea is a
major risk. The climate is sufficiently mild that the sea
does not freeze, except on middle and upper Cook inlet
and in inlets that receive and trap fresh water. Atmo-
spheric and sea water temperatures probably differed in
the past, and this may have affected the distribution of
fish stocks and dependent populations of sea mammals,
although pertinent studies are not published. Kachemak
times largely correlate with a Neoglacial period when
conditions are thought to have been colder and wetter
than today, but by 1500 B.P. in Late Kachemak times,
conditions were ameliorating. During the Neoglacial,
glaciers may have limited the accessible areas in Prince
William sound.
A pollen record of more than 4500 years duration
from near Karluk on Kodiak indicates vegetational
stability and, implicitly, climatic stability from late
Ocean Bay times throughout the duration of the
Kachemak tradition.
Topography. The region occupied by this tradition is a
complexly embayed coast with numerous fiords and
islands, islets, reefs, and rugged rocky shores. Concom-
itant with this complexity is a relatively long, highly
productive coastline. Excepted, however, are local
reaches of simple shores and the smooth coastline and
sand flats of Cook inlet from the north shore of
Kachemak bay inland. Away from the coast, terrain is
rugged with low, 800-1500-m-high mountains except at
the head of Prince William sound and along the west
side of Cook inlet, where there are ranges of high,
glacier-clad peaks. Settlement was confined to the coast
and in exceptional cases inland on streams for salmon
fishing. The Inland Kachemak along the Kenai river is
particularly noteworthy. Rivers tend to be small but
numerous. Kodiak and the Kenai peninsula are subject
to strong earthquakes, which have generated tsunamis
and have resulted in changes in the relative level of the
land and sea-in subsidence and concomitant coastal
erosion (and destruction of archaeological sites) more
often than uplift.
Geology. The region of the Kodiak tradition lies
adjacent to and partially within a belt of volcanos along
the Alaska peninsula. Major falls of volcanic ash have
occurred throughout the Holocene, although there is no
evidence that this has resulted in loss of life and
abandonment of settlements. Sedimentary and meta-
morphic rocks, including beds of slate and graywacke,
are found throughout the region, and igneous plutons
and dikes are common. Numerous chert outcrops are
found in the region, although the chert tends to be a
difficult material to work because of numerous fractures.
At Kachemak bay, burning coal beds resulted in a low-
grade, red, chert-like material that was extensively used
locally. Bedrock lithology thus supports the ground slate
industry but a flaked chert industry was maintained with
difficulty. Geologic sources also provided hard green-
stone used for adze bits and intrusive rock from which
outstanding lamps were made. Lignite coal from beds at
Kachemak bay was burned in hearths there, a rather
uncommon prehistoric use of coal. Coal that probably
came from the Alaska peninsula was widely traded and
processed into labrets and other "jet" ornaments,
whereas prized amber was collected from the beaches
of one area of the Alaska peninsula.
Biota. Although today the northeastern half of Kodiak
is cloaked with spruce forest, the archipelago was
apparently still devoid of this spruce forest during
Kodiak tradition times. During this period, however,
coniferous forests of white, black, and sitka spruce and
western and mountain hemlock reached Prince William
sound and the Kenai peninsula. Driftwood scavenged
from ocean beaches presumably supplied most of the
need for timber. Kodiak was primarily a land mantled
with grasses, fireweed, and shrub-size alder, with local
stands of balsam poplar. There were six biotic compo-
nents of the subsistence economy, and these also
provided raw materials for manufactures, clothing,
and boat coverings. They are plant resources including
berries, land mammals, sea mammals, anadromous fish
(mainly salmon), near-shore marine fish, and birds.
Plants may not have figured prominently in the diet, but
some were harvested and plant materials were also used
for household paraphernelia and construction. A major
effort was placed on harvesting the runs of five species of
salmon at the point where the salmon enter freshwater
streams to spawn, and in a few cases inland along major
streams. Collectively, marine fish, including halibut,
cod, and sculpin, were very important, but to date
(1997) there are few available data from analyses. The
list of bird remains recovered from archaeological sites
numbers approximately 50 species, although quantified
data are lacking. Sea mammals were especially impor-
tant (see "Subsistence"), but there was only sparse
harvesting of fur seals, and recovery of sea otter remains
varies from nearly nil on Kodiak to common at Prince
William sound. Most land mammals of the region are
represented in midden samples, although more species
are found in mainland sites than on Kodiak island.
Numerous intertidal invertebrates, predominately shell-
fish, are present in middens. Consumption appears to

reflect a degree of epicurian interest inasmuch as marine
clamshells are found inland at salmon fishing camps, but
according to popular interpretation this resource was
gathered in times of food scarcity, not during the
summer (when people had moved to their fishing
camps).
Settlements
Settlement System. Settlements were very numerous but
were confined to the coast, with the exception of a few
that were located in major salmon-spawning drainages.
On the Kenai peninsula, inland settlements may have
been occupied around the year, but elsewhere they were
probably occupied only for salmon fishing (this assump-
tion has not been tested archaeologically). Many coastal
sites were situated to exploit the salmon runs. Some of
these were poorly suited for winter occupation and
would have been occupied only during the fish runs;
others were year-round villages. Main settlements not
linked to salmon fishing tended to be located primarily
in the lee of headlands and smaller islands. In addition
to summer villages (salmon fisheries) and main villages,
there is clear evidence of small hunting camps and of
refuges or islet forts, although the last are best known in
the succeeding Koniag tradition. Trading centers have
not been identified, but the distribution of nonperishable
raw materials shows that trade was important. Kodiak
people obtained coal ("jet"), amber, and ivory from the
Alaska peninsula for jewelry, marble for jewelry, cari-
bou antler for tools, and caribou meat, probably from
the Alaska peninsula, beaver and porcupine teeth for
carving tool bits, probably from the Kenai peninsula,
and a certain red stone used for jewelry, probably from
Kachemak bay. Native copper from Prince William
sound or from an Upper Cook inlet redistribution point
became available only at the end of this tradition and
later. Although local polities have as yet to be delineated
archaeologically, eventually they may be identified on
the basis of artifact styles, including labrets. The
topograph subdivisions of the region occupied by this
tradition, many of which are separated by water bodies,
coupled with the presence of a large number of sites,
distinctive area sub traditions, and local technological
preferences, suggest that there were many local polities
based on discrete geographic areas, each with a well-
rounded resource base. They probably were led by the
chiefs of major settlements.
Community Organization. Most settlements were laid
out linearly along the shore, although this is not always
the case. One early Kachemak site is perpendicular to
Kodiak 73
the shore, and several occupied small isthmuses. Most
are of such breadth that a single row of houses does not
account for the extent of the site. The one area
excavation done at a Late Kachemak site, on Kodiak,
revealed several closely packed houses arranged in
nonlinear fashion. Settlement size varied. Two early
permanent or all-season settlements on Kodiak island
were 50 m and 65 m long; another that was a salmon
fishing camp was more than 82 m long. Permanent Late
settlements were, for example, 32 m by 16 m, 30 m by
50 m, 65 m (2 cases), and 300 m long. The last site and
some that are even larger probably encompass periods
of nonconcurrent shifting habitation.
Housing. Houses tentatively identified as Early Kache-
mak were single rooms, only slightly depressed into the
ground, with stone slab hearths. They ranged in size
from 2.5 m to 4 by 5 m rectangular. Late Kachemak
houses were small and moderately sunk into the ground,
measuring about 4 m on a side, with central hearth,
usually formed with slate slabs, and entrance passage
half to fully the length of the main room of the house.
Cache pits were sometimes located among the houses.
Probably there were also larger community or meeting
structures, which have not been identified. In both early
and late houses, there are small clay-lined pits, larger
clay- and cobble-lined basins, and clay aprons located
adjacent to hearths.
Population, Health, and Disease. Archaeologists argue
for an increase in the Pacific area population during late
prehistoric (Koniag tradition) times. It therefore fol-
lows that during Kodiak tradition times the population
was less than the 10,000-20,000 persons proposed for
the greater Pacific Eskimo region at the time of
European contact. A Late Kachemak population of
5000 persons in the Kodiak island group may be
realistic. Each settlement probably had somewhat less
than 200 inhabitants (size of a large village during the
next, Koniag, tradition according to historical ethno-
graphy), and many had as few as 100 persons. Although
health in the Southwest Alaska region deteriorated after
the introduction of infectious diseases, common deep
boils, cataracts, ulcers and possibly also venereal disease
may be preexisting conditions on Kodiak in which
Europeans are not implicated. Herbal cures known
historically may also have been known during Kodiak
tradition times, as also was bloodletting, performed
from various points on the body according to the
complaint. Analyses of abundant human skeletal re-
mains from Kachemak tradition sites do not point
to pervasive health problems. One study of 190 adult
74 Kodiak
"Pre-Koniag" skulls found a high mortality among
young people, especially females, two fifths of whom
died by age 30 (specifically in the first age bracket, which
was 20-30 years). The crania are reported to be free
of signs of any "constitutional disease," but one child
from Kachemak bay reportedly died of mastoiditis. A
large postcranial collection was analyzed, without any
comment on health. A study of a smaller Kachemak bay
sample, partially representing 34 individuals, found a
high rate of child mortality but otherwise long life spans,
a possible case of cancer, examples of degenerative joint
disease in females, and separated neural arches (of the
vertebrae). Nutritional pathologies were found in many
specimens, including four cases of tooth enamel hypo-
plasia and growth arrest lines (Harris'S lines) in femors
from seven individuals. Poor nutrition may be respon-
sible for the first, while there are several possible causes
for growth arrest lines including both nutrition and
diseases, the former being most likely in this case.
Economy
Subsistence. Considerable data from faunal analyses are
available, but integrated analyses of mammalian, avian,
and fish remains and shellfish have yet to be published.
On Kodiak, the greatest consumption was of mammals
and fish, and the most abundant among the mammals
were harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) and harbor porpoise
(Phocoena phocoena). Northern sea lion (Eumetopias
jubata) were also taken, but it is difficult to assess their
importance because the meat may have been stripped
from the bones at the kill site. Presumably, large whales
were killed inasmuch as their bones occur in sites (and
they were avidly sought later by the Koniags). Other
species of small whales, and red fox (Vulpes fulva) were
also common. Other mammals that appear in small
numbers in the middens are fur seal (Callorhinus
ursinus), sea otter (Enhydra lutris), river otter (Lutra
canadensis), brown bear (Ursus arctos), artiodactyl
(probably caribou), beaver (Castor canadensis), and
domestic dog. Faunal refuse from sites on the mainland
and Prince William sound considerably extends this list
by including many additional land mammals, particu-
larly marmot, hare, porcupine, and muskrat, and
possibly also moose and mountain sheep.
Forty-three species of birds were found in the Uyak
site lower levels (nine uncertain as to level), but their
occurrence has not been quantified. Detailed reporting
of bird remains from excavations at Kachemak bay
show Anatidae (waterfowl) to be the most important
with fewer Alcidae (murres, etc.) and Laridae (gulls)
in about equal numbers followed by fewer Gaviidae
(loons), Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants), Tetraonidae
(spruce grouse), Podicipedidae (grebes), Corvidae (ra-
vens, crows), and Accipitridae (hawks, eagles), and the
rare shearwater, fulmar, dowitcher, plover, and alba-
tross. From a much smaller sample than that identified
at the Uyak site there are 42 species (although a few may
be from post-Kachemak levels).
A major subsistence focus that is strongly reflected
in technology is fishing. Fishing had salmon-harvesting
and saltwater-fishing aspects. Summer settlement was
oriented toward the fishing camp where five species of
salmon and probably also the occasional trout and
char were taken. Among saltwater fish, Pacific cod are
common. Walleye pollock, Pacific tomcod, starry floun-
der, halibut, great sculpin, Irish lord, and sole also occur
in the midden deposits of various sites.
One of the main components of the midden deposits
at village and camp sites is shell. Shell reflects subsis-
tence more directly than other types of faunal refuse
because virtually nothing is stripped away and left at
the "kill site", which is the littoral zone, and consump-
tion was probably not delayed long and therefore was
mainly local. The most common shells are blue mussel
(M. trossulus), clams locally referred to as butter clams
(Washington clams, Saxidomus giganteus), and cockles
(Clinocardium), green sea urchins, and the tiny periwin-
kle (Littorina) in immense numbers. After them, virtu-
ally anything else that occurs in the intertidal zone,
including large whelks, limpets, chitons, and barnacles,
was eaten. This resource is highly susceptible to para-
lytic seafood poisoning or "red tide". However, crabs,
which could be harvested in shallow water, and shrimp
and scallops, which are found in deeper water, are not
found in any middens except for uncommon occurrences
of crab claw tips at Kachemak bay. There 27 species of
shellfish were identified at Chugachik island and lesser
numbers at other sites. Some plants would have been
gathered and eaten, but there is only one site report that
gives details of recovered plant remains, and these may
be in part plants that occurred naturally on the site and
seeds cached by voles. We expect, however, that bulbs of
the Kamchatka lily (Fritillaria) were dug and stored, as
well as other roots, and that several species of berries
were eaten in season. Lowbush cranberries and blue-
berries could have been stored in closed containers.
Industrial Arts. Technologically, the Kodiak or Kache-
mak tradition differs in several respects from the Ocean
Bay tradition, and at one time it appeared that the
evidence for discontinuity outweighed that for continu-
ity. A probable transitional Early Kachemak assem-
blage has been found on Kodiak, however. Compared

with Late Ocean Bay, Early Kachemak is characterized
by a much greater use of grooved cobble weights,
produced in several styles, and notched pebble weights,
which became very common at some sites. This may
have been due to developments in fishing technology.
Weapon heads continue as a prominent technological
element, in styles that differed little from Late Ocean
Bay but with one major addition: toggling harpoon
heads. Line holes were also added to harpoon heads.
Flaked stone tools were eclipsed by ground slate tools,
except locally and especially at Kachemak bay, where
flaked chert predominated. A new form of knife, the
back-hafted curved or semilunar Eskimo ulu-style knife,
became common. Although the technique of sawing
and scraping slate blanks lapsed early in the Kodiak
tradition, the ability to saw stone was never lost com-
pletely. There was an array of bone implements: awls,
delicate eyed needles, wedges, arrowheads, and spear
prongs, pins for gorges and composite implements,
fishhook shanks and barbed parts, fishing lures, and
sockets for adze bits as well as many unidentified
objects. The adze bits remained small in most cases and
were not numerous (compared with their later incidence
in the Koniag tradition). Cobble spall tools and flaked
sheets of slate and phyllite were used as scrapers.
Domestic implements are poorly represented, prob-
ably because most were made from materials that have
perished. Most parts of weapons, boats, containers,
lines, and clothing have been lost for the same reason.
However, a few bone plates and spoons have been
recovered. Ceramic cooking vessels appeared at some
sites in transitional Kachemak-Koniag times, probably
about 900 years ago, and persisted in southwestern parts
of the island up to the time of historic contact. The
technology came over from the Alaska peninsula. In the
houses, there also were built-in containers in the form of
clay-lined pits. Pecked and ground stone lamps were use,
and in Late Kachemak times, large ritual lamps were
produced. Ornaments for human adornment became
commonplace in Late Kachemak times. These included
both stylized and naturalistic human and animal figu-
rines; larger human figure carvings; cylindrical and
sometimes globular and pendant-shaped beads in jet
(coal), amber, a red stone, shell, and other materials;
crescentic rings for the nose or ear lobe; problematical
ornamental objects or symbols; and especially labrets.
Of the last, there were several styles made of various
materials. Many materials used for ornaments were
exotic to the local area, although most apparently
originated within the Kodiak tradition area. Pieces with
many drilled holes for the ring-and-pin game also
appeared in Late Kachemak times, apparently coeval
Kodiak 75
with the appearance of this artifact north of or near
Bering strait during Birnirk times.
Trade. Evidence of trade is seen most readily in
assemblages from Kodiak inasmuch as there are no
reported local sources for the following materials:
amber, coal Get), walrus ivory, antler, probably caribou
meat, and a certain brick-red-colored stone used for
ornaments. The red stone apparently comes from
Kachemak bay, the other materials from the Pacific
side of the Alaska peninsula, with the exception of
walrus ivory that most likely comes from the Bering sea
side of the peninsula. Hematitic red ocher may also have
been obtained by trade. Processing of these materials
took place on Kodiak as unfinished ornaments have
been found there. The ornaments industry was of
sufficient magnitude for a home workshop for producing
jet ornaments, particularly labrets, to exist at the Uyak
site. The products from this shop were probably traded
to other settlements. Beaver teeth (and sometimes
porcupine teeth) used for carving tool bits also came
from the mainland. If organic preservation were better,
furs and horn from the Kenai peninsula would probably
show up in the sample. Judging from ethnographic
analogy, trade took place in the context of formalized
visiting and invitational exchange feasts and festivals.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. There is
circumstantial evidence that some villages exploited
resources at localities disjunct from their local subtribe
areas. This is especially the case for salmon fisheries,
notably along the Karluk and Ayakulik river drainages
on Kodiak. The number of fishing campsites there far
exceeds the requirements of the villages located at the
mouths of these rivers. It is surmised that the camps
along the rivers are those of peoples whose main villages
were located in other areas inadequately provided with
salmon streams and who obtained rights to fish in areas
not otherwise being used by a local group.
Kachemak tradition people evidently took large
whales, unless they only salvaged dead whales, and if the
technique they used was like that of their Koniag
successors, many struck whales would have drifted and
become beached in the territory of distant communities.
Undoubtedly, there were special rules for claiming and
sharing whales.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. There are few data on this topic. It
has been suggested that differing labret styles are visual
identification badges of either political or social groups,
76 Kodiak
but the case made thus far is not convincing. Limited
excavation of Kachemak sites has only identified small
dwellings, none of which suggests a place for social
assembly and ceremonies or a wealthy person's house.
Inasmuch as the Koniag Alutiiqs who succeeded
Kachemak people for the last 600 years of the precon-
tact period had no sibs, moieties, or other formalized
social divisions, it is probable that the Kachemak
tradition people had none either. Given the economic
riches and relatively large population of the area, it is
likely that the roles of "big men" or economically
powerful social and political leaders (so-called chiefs)
were well developed. In view of the penchant of
historical ethnographers for stratified societies of nobles,
princesses, commoners, and slaves, such as have been
attributed to the Koniag successors of the Kachemak
tradition, we believe it prudent, however, to view
Kachemak society as intermediate between egalitarian
and rank stratified. Burials and burial goods do not
clearly show wealth and class ranking. Although some
of the materials used for ornaments were likely prestige
goods, there actually are inadequate data to support
speculation on the acquisition and use of prestige goods
inasmuch as foods, both in regard to kind and quantity,
of which we have no surviving record, were probably
accorded the greatest prestige value.
Political Organization. From the supposition that there
were a large number of local subtribes, based on
population, settlement density, topography, and re-
source distribution, it can also be inferred that there
was a fairly well established political organization that
was maintained indefinitely over the long duration of
occupation at most village sites.
Conflict. At one time, conflict was assumed to account
for culture succession, especially from the Kachemak to
Koniag traditions. This hypothesis is obsolete. Conflict
or raids have also been cited to explain mass graves and
the treatment of human skeletal remains, but other
explanations for those features are likely, for instance,
the reopening of burial plots for later additions. Few
weapons have been identified as being specifically for
war, although some hunting implements were adaptable
for use in raids. An important indicator of ware fare
among coastal peoples of northwestern North America
and adjacent Siberia is bone and wood slat armor. This
type of artifact has not been recognized for the culture
under consideration, although it was used later in the
area. Occasionally the cause of death, such as an
arrowhead, is present with a human burial, but exam-
ples are rare. Human skeletal remains lack trauma that
might result from violence, particularly fractures from
club blows and cuts, one case of a "bruise" excepted. A
few natural forts or refuge islets have been identified as
Late Kachemak. Further exploration of the numerous
known (and yet to be discovered) refuge islets offers one
of the best approaches to studying conflict.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. No religious architecture and no
shrines have been identified. The succeeding Koniag
tradition reportedly had cave shrines for whalers and
burial caves. Several caves and rock-shelters at Prince
William sound have been tested or partially excavated.
These are primarily burial sites of historical or late
prehistoric age, but radiocarbon dating also documents
minor use of some caves during the last several thousand
years. Artifacts recovered suggest they were shelters
for temporary habitation as well as burial sites, but
we can only speculate that they may have been reli-
gious shrines during Kachemak times. Thus far, none
of the petroglyph and rock painting sites in the region
of Prince William sound, Outer Cook inlet, and Kodiak
island has been identified with the Kachemak tradi-
tion, although that remains a possibility. The best
match between petroglyph art and art from archaeo-
logical specimens is with late prehistoric (post-Kache-
mak) box panels from Karluk. Stone lamps, incised slate
figurines, burial customs, and treatment of human
remains richly document unspecified religious belief
and rituals, as discussed below under "Ceremonies" and
"Death and Afterlife."
Ceremonies. The absence of recognized structures that
might have been used for ceremonial gatherings has
been noted. Recovery of abundant wooden ceremonial
paraphernelia for the succeeding Koniag tradition
suggests that until a Kachemak wet site is excavated
this topic cannot be addressed adequately. There is
nevertheless some artifactual evidence of ceremony and
ritual. Recovery of incised slate figurines suggests a Late
Kachemak ritual in which faceless human depictions
were incised on slate pebbles and then discarded. The
style of depiction changed, and the proposed figurine
ritual rose to prominence in early Koniag tradition
times.
Stone lamps of obvious ritual importance were
decorated with human, seal, and geometric figures and
depictions of whales carved in the bowl or on the
exterior sides and base of the lamp. In some cases, the
lamps have to be upside down for normal orientation of
the figures, and lamps are often found upside down in

archaeological sites. Occasionally, the entire lamp
appears to represent an animal. Most notable are the
male and female lamps. Identification of the latter are
obvious, from the portrayal of human breasts, and one
notable example from Kachemak bay experienced a
clear, cleanly executed "masectomy" (total eradication
of one breast, area smoothed over) and was battered and
broken apart or "killed." Lamps with seated sphinxlike
figures in the bowl, sometimes combined with animal
figures, may be male counterparts of the breasted lamps.
These sometimes were also "killed" and on one example
the figure was also eradicated except for the outstretched
hands. The best examples of lamps with human figures
are from Kachemak bay. Examples with only low-relief
human heads in the bowl or faces on the exterior have
been found on Kodiak. Some Kachemak bay specimens
are quite standardized and reflect close adherence to a
single pattern, if not production in a single cult. Some of
these lamps reach a considerable size and a weight of
nearly 40 kg. It is easier to visualize their flickering flame
at a ceremony, where many people are gathered, rather
than lighting a small single-family Kachemak home.
Paradoxically, no evidence of larger structures or cere-
monial places has been recovered.
Arts. The limited evidence of stone and bone artifacts
has produced art in the form of geometric markings or
designs and human and animal figures. Often such
depictions appear on slate projectile points and stone
lamps where they may have been of ritual significance.
Decorations on bone points and harpoon heads are
somewhat different from those on slate points and
include hand-incised spurred concentric circles, par-
allel lines enclosing rows of dots, spurred lines, and
cross-hatching faintly suggestive of Old Bering sea
and Birnirk art motifs from the region near the Bering
strait. Ornaments, including fish, bird, whale, other
animal, and various human figurines ranging from
"portraits" to whole figures, beads, pendants, labrets,
and pins with geometric and zoomorphic carvings, are
common. One small pin portrays a bear holding a
human head, together with other zoomorphic figures.
There also are apparent doll parts, such as ivory arm-
hand pieces. Kachemak art from Kodiak, Kachemak
bay, and Prince William sound is extremely variable and
not abundant at any single site, but altogether presents
a large noteworthy corpus that has as yet to be drawn
together.
Death and Afterlife. Conditions associated with human
skeletal remains have been explained by several methods
of disposal, utilization of human remains, cannibalism,
Kodiak 77
and by a mortuary complex. Apparently a variety of
ritual customs, burial practices, and site disturbances are
involved. Mode of disposition customarily included
interment, usually in a tightly flexed position, bundle, or
secondary burial, mass burial, and, rarely, cremation
(known cases may postdate the Kachemak tradition).
There may also have been disposition outside the
community site, of which evidence has not been recov-
ered. Occupied sites were used for burials, probably
to maintain the deceased's membership in the commu-
nity. The occurrence of mass burials has stimulated
considerable interest in possible reasons for the practice.
At the Uyak site, for which there are the most data, one
grave contained parts of 18-20 individuals described by
Heizer as male and female, "skeletons piled indiscrim-
inately; skeletons incomplete. Probably secondary rebu-
rial. Long bones split (for marrow?). Evidence of
cannibalism. Lamps, barbed dart heads in association."
Another mass grave contained four undisturbed artic-
ulated skeletons, isolated skulls, various disassociated
bones, and an eagle skeleton but belongs to the upper
levels or Koniag tradition occupation. The latter case
shows that such occurrences were not limited to the
Kachemak tradition. Use of mortuary crypts that from
time to time were reopened has been offered as an
explanation for this feature and appears to be a more
reasonable alternative than are explanations such as
massacres and mass food poisoning. Incomplete artic-
ulated solo skeletons also occurred very frequently and
probably were the customary mode of interment. Bundle
burials were limited to late, Koniag, time at the Uyak
site but are reported in Kachemak tradition sites at
Kachemak bay. Surprisingly, there was no use of red
ocher.
Less common mortuary elements include fox skele-
tons in graves (Uyak site), clay mask (Kachemak bay),
artificial eyes in skull (Kachemak bay and Kodiak),
extra craniums ("trophy skulls") in graves. There is
some question as to whether the genesis of cut human
bones from Cook inlet and Kodiak and artifacts on
human bones is mortuary or relates to some other aspect
of Kachemak belief (and subsistence?). Items in this
repertoire include the cut-off proximal heads of tibiae,
one with a shoulder or lip carved around the edge of the
cut. There are innominates, mandibles, a scapula, skull
fragments, and a skull with drilled holes, the roughly
chopped-off and neatly cut-off heads of two femors, and
the broken-out portion of a face. The skull with drilled
holes also had knife marks across the forehead and was
one of a group of several skulls found in a group laid out
to form a right angle. In other cases, the bones with
drilled holes from the Uyak site are not isolated or
78 Kodiak
scattered occurrences but are parts of more or less
complete skeletons. Several specimens from the Uyak
site have been identified as skull bowls and dippers.
Reportedly they were trimmed to shape, but evidence
bearing out this interpretation has not been published.
Finally, there is the evidence of cut marks, chopping
marks, and perimortom breakage of human bones.
Studies suggest that this is the result of dismemberment,
except that some bone alteration at the Uyak site has
been interpreted as carnivore modification, which likely
means that corpses were eaten by dogs. Although in
most cases it is possible to exclude cannibalism, faunal
refuse layers are laced with disassociated human bones,
many of them broken and cut.
There appear to be many unexplained aspects to this
complex. Why dismemberment, which was sometimes
done roughly or violently? For what purpose were
human skeletons drilled and perhaps assembled into
marionettes? What is the significance of extra or trophy
skulls-which actually are craniums as they lack man-
dibles and cervical vertebrae? And why is there often no
contextual differentiation between scattered human
remains and food refuse?
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(1980). "Recent Archaeological Work in Kachemak Bay, Gulf of
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SUBTRADITION
Kachemak (on Kodiak)
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 4000-700 B.P.
LOCATION: Kodiak archipelago.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Small single-room
houses with clay-lined interior pits, rectangular stone
slab hearths, slab-covered floor drains; ritual treatment
and dismemberment of the dead; ground slate main
lithic technology in late phase, abundant notched pebble
net weights, grooved cobble line weights, cobble spall
tools, stone lamps, toggle and other harpoon heads,
spear prongs, labrets and other ornaments, delicate eyed
needles.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The modern climate is northern temperate with
strong maritime attributes: frequent cyclonic storms, a
large number of overcast and rainy days (160 cm annual
precipitation outer coast, 60 cm inner coast). Temper-
atures vary from the outer coasts of Kodiak where
during the winter they are rarely below -20 DC (0 OF)
and frequently are above the freezing point, to cooler at
inner bays. Summer temperatures of 25 DC (70s F) are
relatively hot. The sea does not freeze, except inlets that
receive and trap fresh water. Kachemak times largely
correlate with a Neoglacial period when conditions are
thought to have been colder and wetter than today, but
by 1500 B.P. in Late Kachemak times conditions were
ameliorating (Fitzhugh 1996).
The island has a complexly embayed coast with
numerous fiords and islands, islets, reefs, and rugged
rocky shores and concomitantly a relatively long, highly
Kodiak 79
productive coastline. Terrain is rugged with low, 700- to
1500-m-high mountains. Settlement was confined to the
coast and in exceptional cases inland on streams for
salmon fishing. Streams, with salmon, tend to be small
but numerous. Strong earthquakes have generated
tsunamis and have resulted in changes in the relative
level of the land and sea-in subsidence and coastal
erosion (and destruction of archaeological sites) more
often than uplift. Kodiak lies adjacent to a belt of
volcanos along the Alaska peninsula. Major falls of
volcanic have occurred throughout the Holocene. Sed-
imentary and metamorphic rocks, including beds of
slate and graywacke, ideal for ground slate tools, and
fractured chert, less ideal for flaked artifacts, are found
throughout the area.
Although today the northeastern half of Kodiak is
cloaked with spruce forest, the archipelago apparently
was still devoid of spruce during Kodiak Tradition
times. Driftwood scavenged from ocean beaches pre-
sumably supplied most of the wood used. Kodiak was
primarily a land mantled with grasses, fireweed, and
shrub-size alder, with local stands of balsam poplar.
There were six biotic components of the subsistence
economy, and these also provided raw materials for
manufactures, clothing, and boat coverings. They are
plant resources including berries, land mammals, sea
mammals, anadromous fish (mainly salmon), near-shore
marine fish, and birds.
Settlements
Settlements were very numerous but were confined
to the coast with the exception of a few that were located
in major salmon-spawning drainages. Salmon runs were
exploited from settlements located at the mouths of
streams, but many summer villages were poorly suited
for winter occupation which took place at permanent or
main villages. Trading centers have not been identified
but people obtained coal ("jet"), amber, and ivory from
the Alaska peninsula for jewelry, marble for jewelry,
caribou antler for tools, and caribou meat, probably
from the Alaska peninsula, beaver, and porcupine teeth
for carving tool bits, probably from the Kenai penin-
sula, and a certain red stone used for jewelry, probably
from Kachemak bay. Topograph subdivisions into
major bay systems, coupled with the presence of a large
number of sites, would have favored establishment of
local polities based on discrete geographic areas, each
with a well-rounded resource base.
Most settlements were laid out linearly along the
shore, although this is not always the case. The one area
excavation done at a Late Kachemak site, on Kodiak,
80 Kodiak
revealed several closely packed houses arranged in
nonlinear fashion. Typical settlement size varied from
32-65 m long for villages; a salmon fishing camp was
more than 82 m long, and there is one 300-m-long site.
The last site and some that are even larger probably
span areas of shifting habitation.
Houses were slightly to moderately depressed into
the ground, with central stone slab hearths and interior
clay-lined pits and, sometimes, slab-covered drains and
pavememts. They measured 4-5 m on a side and had
an entrance passage half to fully the length of the main
room of the house. Archaeologists have argued for
an increase in the Pacific area population during late
prehistoric (Koniag tradition) times to about 10,000
persons on Kodiak. During Kodiak tradition times, the
population was less: 5000 persons may be realistic. Each
settlement probably had less than 200 inhabitants (size
of a large village during the next, Koniag, Tradition
according to historical ethnography), and many had
fewer than 100 persons. Analyses of abundant human
skeletal remains from the Uyak site do not point to
pervasive health problems. One study of 190 adult
"Pre-Koniag" skulls from the Uyak site (Hrdlicka 1945)
found a high mortality among young people, especially
females, two-fifths of whom died by age 30 (specifically
in the age bracket 20-30 years). Crania reportedly are
free of signs of any "constitutional disease". A large
postcranial collection was analyzed, without any com-
ment on health.
Economy
Considerable data from faunal analyses are avail-
able, but integrated and quantified analyses of mamma-
lian, avian, and fish remains and shellfish have yet to be
published. The greatest consumption was of mammals
and fish, and the most abundant among the mammals
were harbor seal and harbor porpoise (Clark 1970).
Northern sea lion also were taken, but it is difficult to
assess their importance because the meat may have been
stripped from the bones at the kill site. Presumably,
large whales were killed inasmuch as their bones occur
in sites (and they were avidly sought later by the
Koniags). Additional mammals whose remains are
found in refuse deposits, sometimes uncommonly,
include other species of small whale, red fox, fur seal,
sea otter, river otter, brown bear, caribou, beaver, and
domestic dog. Forty-three species of birds were found in
the Uyak site lower levels, but their occurrence has not
been quantified (Friedmann 1935; Heizer 1956).
A major subsistence focus that is strongly reflected
in technology is fishing. Fishing had salmon-harvesting
and saltwater-fishing aspects. Summer settlement was
oriented toward the fishing camp where five species of
salmon were taken. Among saltwater fishes, Pacific cod
are common. Walleye pollock, Pacific tomcod, starry
flounder, halibut, great sculpin, Irish lord, and sole also
occur in the midden deposits of various sites. One of the
main components of the midden deposits at village and
camp sites is shell. Shell reflects subsistence more
directly than other types of faunal refuse because
virtually nothing is stripped away and left at the "kill
site", which is the littoral zone, and consumption was
probably not delayed long and therefore was mainly
local. The most common shells are blue mussels,
clams--especially butter clams (Washington clams)-
and cockles, green sea urchins, and the tiny periwinkle
in immense numbers. After them, virtually anything else
that occurs in the intertidal zone was eaten. This
resource is highly susceptible to paralytic seafood
poisoning or "red tide." Some plants would have been
gathered and eaten. We expect that bulbs of the
Kamchatka lily (Fritillaria) were dug and stored as well
as, other roots and that several species of berries were
eaten in season. Lowbush cranberries and blueberries
could have been stored in closed containers.
Compared with Late Ocean Bay, Early Kachemak is
characterized by a much greater use of grooved cobble
weights, produced in several styles, and notched pebble
weights, which became very common at some sites (Clark
1997). This may have been due to developments in
fishing technology. Weapon heads continue as a prom-
inent technological element, in styles that differed little
from Late Ocean Bay but with one major addition:
toggling harpoon heads. Line holes also were added to
harpoon heads. Flaked stone tools were eclipsed by
ground slate tools, except locally. A new form of knife,
the back-hafted semilunar Eskimo-style knife, became
common. The technique of sawing and scraping slate
blanks lapsed early in the Kodiak tradition, although
the ability to saw stone was never lost completely.
Continuing into later Kachemak times (Clark 1970,
1997; Heizer 1956; Jordan and Knecht 1988; Steffian
1992a) , there was an array of bone implements: awls,
delicate eyed needles, wedges, arrowheads, and spear
prongs, pins for gorges, and composite implements,
fishhook shank and barbed parts, fishing lures, and
sockets for adze bits as well as many unidentified objects.
The adze bits remained small in most cases and were not
numerous (compared with their later incidence in the
Koniag tradition). Cobble spall tools were common and
were used for scraping and for other tasks. Flaked sheets
of slate and phyllite served the same purpose. Pecked and
ground stone lamps were in use, and in Late Kachemak

times large ritual lamps were produced. Ornaments for
human use became commonplace in Late Kachemak
times. These included both stylized and naturalistic
human and animal figurines, larger human figure carv-
ings, cylindrical and sometimes globular and pendant-
shaped beads in jet (coal), amber, a red stone, shell, and
other materials, crescentic rings for the nose or earlobe,
problematical ornamental objects or symbols, and espe-
cially labrets. Of the last, there were several styles made
of various materials. Many materials used for orna-
ments, and also beaver teeth for carving tool bits, were
exotic to Kodiak and were obtained from the Alaskan
mainland. The ornaments industry was of sufficient
magnitude for a home workshop for producing jet
ornaments, particularly labrets, to exist at the Uyak site
(Steffian 1992b). The products from this shop probably
were traded to other settlements.
There is circumstantial evidence that some villages
exploited resources at localities disjunct from their local
areas. This is especially the case for the salmon fisheries
along the Karluk and Ayakulik river drainages on
Kodiak. The number of fishing campsites there far
exceeds the requirements of the villages located at the
mouths of these rivers (R. Knecht personal communi-
cation to D. Clark, 1997). It is surmised that the camps
along the rivers are those of peoples whose main villages
were located in other areas inadequately provided with
salmon streams and who obtained rights to fish in areas
not otherwise being utilized by a local group.
Sociopolitical Organization
Limited excavation of Kachemak sites thus far has
identified only small dwellings, none of which suggests a
place for social assembly or a wealthy person's house.
Inasmuch as the Koniag Alutiiqs who succeeded Kache-
mak people for the last 600 years of the precontact
people had no sibs, moieties, or other formalized social
divisions, it is probable that the Kachemak tradition
people had none either. Given the economic riches and
relatively large population of the area, it is likely that the
roles of "big men" or economically powerful social and
political leaders (so-called chiefs) were well developed,
but burial goods do not clearly show wealth and class
ranking. At one time, conflict was assumed to account
for culture succession, especially from the Kachemak to
Koniag traditions (Dumond and Scott 1991; Hrdlicka
1945). This hypothesis is obsolete. Conflict or raids have
also been cited to explain mass graves and the treatment
of human skeletal remains, but other explanations for
those features are likely, for instance, the reopening of
burial plots for later additions. Few weapons have been
Kodiak 81
identified as being specifically for war. An indicator of
warfare among some peoples of northwestern North
America is bone and wood slat armor. This type of
artifact has not been recognized for the culture under
consideration, although it was present in the region by
the time of historic contact. Occasionally the cause of
death, an arrowhead, is present, but examples are rare.
Human skeletal remains lack trauma that might result
from violence, particularly fractures from club blows and
cuts. Endemic hostilities may have been uncommon as
few natural forts or refuge islets have been identified as
Late Kachemak.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Stone lamps and the treatment of human remains
richly document unspecified religious beliefs and rituals.
Lamps of obvious ritual importance were decorated
with human, seal, and geometric figures and depictions
of whales that were carved in the bowl and on the
exterior sides and base. In some cases, the lamps have to
be upside down for normal orientation of the figures,
and lamps often are found upside down in archaeolog-
ical sites. Occasionally, the entire lamp appears to
represent an animal. Female lamps are identified on the
basis of human breasts carved in the bowl (Heizer 1956;
Hrdlicka 1945). Some of these lamps reach a consider-
able size and a weight of nearly 40 kg. It is easier to
visualize their flickering flame at a ceremony, where
many people are gathered, rather than lighting a small
single-family Kachemak home. Some ornaments, such
as the small pin that portays a bear holding a human
head, together with other zoomorphic figures, may also
have a religious or mythological referent.
Conditions associated with human skeletal remains
have been explained by several methods of disposal,
utilization of human remains, cannibalism, and a mor-
tuary complex. Apparently a variety of ritual customs
and burial practices are involved together with site
disturbances. Mode of disposition customarily included
interment, usually in a tightly flexed position, bundle or
secondary burial, and mass burial. All occurred in
occupied community sites, evidently to maintain the
deceased's membership in the community. The occur-
rence of mass burials, often with both complete and
partial skeletons and secondary burials (Heizer 1956), is
best explained by the reuse of plots from time to time,
interment of additional bodies, and miscellaneous, often
modified, human bones retired from ritual uses. Less
common mortuary elements include fox skeletons
in graves (Uyak site), artificial eyes in a skull, and
extra crania ("trophy skulls") in graves. There is some
82 Kodiak
question as to whether the genesis of cut human bones
and artifacts on human bones is mortuary or relates to
some other aspect of Kachemak belief such as ritual
dismemberment and defleshing (Hrdlicka 1941, 1945;
Simon 1992; Simon and Steffian 1994; Urcid 1994).
References
Clark, Donald W. (1970). "The Late Kachemak Tradition at Three
Saints and Crag Point, Kodiak Island, Alaska." Arctic Anthropology
6 (2): 73-111.
Clark, Donald W. (1997). The Early Kachemak Phase on Kodiak Island
at Old Kiavak. Canadian Museum of Civilization Mercury Series,
Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, no. 155. Hull: Canadian
Museum of Civilization.
Dumond, Don E., and Richard Scott (1991). The Uyak Site on Kodiak
Island: Its Place in Alaskan Prehistory. University of Oregon
Anthropological Papers, no. 44. Eugene: University of Oregon,
Department of Anthropology.
Fitzhugh, Benjamin (1996). "The Evolution of Complex Hunter-
Gatherers in the North Pacific: An Archaeological Case Study from
Kodiak Island, Alaska." Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology,
University of Michigan.
Friedmann, H. (1935). "Avian Bones from Prehistoric Ruins on
Kodiak Island, Alaska." Journal of the Washington Academy of
Sciences 24: 44-51.
Heizer, Robert F. (1956). Archaeology of the Uyak Site Kodiak Island,
Alaska. Berkeley: University of California Anthropological Records
17 (I).
Hrdlicka, Ales (1941). "Diseases of and Artifacts on Skulls and Bone
from Kodiak Island." Smithsonian Institution Miscellaneous Collec-
tions 101 (4).
Hrdlicka, Aid (1945). The Anthropology of Kodiak Island. Philadel-
phia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Jordan, Richard H., and Richard A. Knecht (1988). "Archaeological
Research on Western Kodiak Island, Alaska: The Development of
Koniag Culture." In The Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska's
Native People, Aurora IV, ed. R. D. Shaw, R. K. Harritt, and
D. E. Dumond. anchorage: Alaska Anthropological Association,
225-306.
Steffian, Amy F. (1992a). "Fifty Years After Hrdlicka: Further
Investigations at the Uyak Site, Kodiak Island. Alaska.": Anthro-
pological Papers of the University of Alaska. 24 (1-2): 141-164.
Steffian, Amy F. (l992b). "Archaeological Coal in the Gulf of Alaska:
A View from Kodiak." Arctic Anthropology 29 (2): 111-129.
Simon, James J. K. (1992). "Mortuary Practices of the Late Kachemak
Tradition in Southcentral Alaska: A Perspective from the Crag
Point Site, Kodiak Island." Arctic Anthropology 29 (2): 130-149.
Simon, James J. K. and Amy F. Steffian (1994). "Cannibalism or
Complex Mortuary Behavior? An Analysis of Patterned Variability
in the Treatment of Human Remains from the Kachemak Tradition
of Kodiak Island." In Reckoning with the Dead: The Larsen Bay
Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution, ed. T. L. Bray and
T. Killion. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 75-100.
Urcid, Javier (1994). "Cannibalism and Curated Skulls: Bone Ritual-
ism on Kodiak Island." In Reckoning with the Dead: The Larsen Bay
Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution, ed. T. L. Bray and T.
Killion. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 101-121.
SITES
------------------------------------------
Palugvik
TIME PERIOD: 2200-400 B.P.
LOCATION: On Hawkins island, eastern outer Prince
William sound.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Palugvik is located on a complex rocky shore, at
low tide with exposed flats well provided with clams,
cockles, blue mussels, and other littoral zone inverte-
brates. The climate is northern temperate maritime,
moderated through proximity to the ocean, with fre-
quent and extended periods of wet stormy days. The
nearby community of Cordova has on the order of
300 cm annual precipitation (de Laguna 1956). The
sea does not freeze near the site. The vicinity is heavily
forested with spruce, whereas the site is a clearing
that supports a growth of grasses, salmon berries, and
alder. The site and vicinity had access to all the major
marine fauna and near-shore fisheries common to the
Gulf of Alaska except that there are no major salmon-
spawning streams close to Palugvik. The land probably
stood 1 m or more higher, relative to the sea, when the
site was first occupied, inasmuch as in the 1930s, at the
time of excavation and before a major earthquake in
1964, the lowest part of the midden was about 30 cm
below high tide level, resting on 1 m of swamp soil or
peat that overlies bedrock (de Laguna 1956). The area
has been subject to violent earthquakes, changes in level
(in most cases subsidence), and tsunamis during recent
millennia.
Physical Features
The site is a settlement-based shell midden with the
complement of house remains, burials, and other
features and scattered artifacts customarily found in
such middens. No complete house features were recov-
ered. When observed in 1930, it measured 16 by 32 m,
and deposits were 180-240 cm thick, but by then the
site already had been greatly reduced by shoreline
erosion.

Cultural Aspects
Lower level deposits of the Palugvik phase are seen
to be affiliated with Late Kachemak, but with a lesser
degree of characterization or distinciveness than the Late
Kachemak of Kodiak island and Kachemak bay. Upper
levels of the Chugach phase (term from Yarborough
and Yarborough 1993) show many features general to
2nd-millennium A.D. Pacific Eskimos, such as the
Koniag tradition of Kodiak, including abundant fire-
cracked rock that was probably derived from the sweat
bath, abundant large splitting adzes, projectile points
made of native copper, and a certain style of elongate
slate point with thick diamond cross-section that often
is hollow ground, which is a horizon marker for the
greater Pacific Eskimo region. Analysis of the kitchen
refuse has yielded considerable information on subsis-
tence, but the original faunal analysis was selective for
sea otter and is subject to revision (Linda F. Yarborough,
personal communication, March 2000). Thus sea otter,
an animal scarcely considered as a food animal, was
reported with the highest count of individual bones,
followed by dog, which was not necessarily eaten, then
by marmot and harbor seal. After that, there are small
numbers of porpoise, sea lion, whale, black bear, brown
bear, beaver, river otter, porcupine, and possibly moun-
tain goat. Fox and caribou are represented by single
elements. Bird bones were about as numerous as land
mammal bones, whereas little fish, mainly cod and spiny
dogfish, was recovered. In the shell layers are the
customary suite of species found in North Pacific mid-
dens: clams of several species, cockles, blue mussels, also
periwinkles (littorina), large whelks, and limpets. Al-
though the collection is small (1100 artifacts), Palugvik
provided the first substantive information on the prehis-
tory of Prince William sound-the historic home of the
Chugach Alutiiq. De Laguna's work done in 1930 and
1933 remains the most significant archaeological re-
search in Prince William sound to date (Yarborough
and Yarborough 1993).
References
De Laguna, Frederica (1956). Chugach Prehistory. Seattle: University
of Washington Press.
Yarborough, Michael R., and Linda Finn Yarborough (1993).
"Regional Overview of Prince William Sound and the Pacific Coast
of the Kenai Peninsula." Paper prepared for the International
Seminar on the Origins, Development, and Spread of Prehistoric
North Pacific-Bering Sea Maritime Cultures, Honolulu.
Kodiak 83
Uyak (Our Point, Jones Point)
TIME PERIOD: 2700-500 B.P.
LOCATION: Kodiak island in Uyak bay near Larsen bay
village.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Site was located along the shore and for several
score meters inland on a slightly elevated point under-
laid by slate-graywacke and on adjacent terrain on both
sides of a small stream. A low hill rises gradually behind
the site. When the site was occupied, there were no
forests in the area, except possibly some balsam-poplar
trees. Precipitation and winter temperatures are consid-
erably less than is the case at the town of Kodiak
located on the outer side of the island, 60 cm at
Larsen Bay village. Although inner Uyak bay freezes
over, there is no winter sea ice at the site. Faunal
resources at Uyak bay are similar in kind to those found
in the greater Kodiak area (see Major Tradition and
Sub tradition entries). The distribution of these resources
is relatively even, in contrast to other areas of Kodiak,
but whale and salmon were relatively less abundant than
they are in some areas. The economy was based on
broad-spectrum use of all available resources (Fried-
mann 1935; Heizer 1956; Steffian 1992a). From its
location, the site controlled access to the resources of
adjacent Larsen bay and a portage to the Karluk river
where Uyak site people may have had a summer salmon
fishery.
Physical Features
The site consisted of up to 5 m of artifact-bearing
midden and refuse, replete with structure remains and
featuring hundreds of burials that were built or interred
concomitantly with the occupation of the village over
the span of 2 millennia. Kachemak tradition occupa-
tion (called "pre-Koniag" by Hrdlicka [1945]), which
was predominately Late Kachemak, was succeeded by
84 Kodiak
Koniag tradition occupation that terminated sometime
before Russian contact in the area in the 1760s. The
combined occupations, which were largely coeval with
the extent of Late Kachemak occupation, covered an
absolutely and relatively large area, by local standards,
of 3.2 ha, which extended approximately 300 m along
the shore and more than 80 m inland (Steffian 1992a). It
is noteworthy that the settlement plan was not restricted
to rows of houses along the shore, although depth of
settlement appears to be a characteristic of the Kache-
mak tradition. Features were poorly recorded during
several seasons of excavation by A. Hrdlicka (Bray and
Killion 1994; Heizer 1956; Hrdlicka 1945), but later
excavations have obtained controlled data for a portion
of the Late Kachemak occupation (Steffian 1992a).
Kachemak houses were slightly to moderately depressed
into the ground, with central stone slab hearths and
interior clay-lined pits and sometimes slab-covered
drains and pavememts. They measured 4-5 m on a
side and had an entrance passage half to fully the length
of the main room of the house. One 122-cm-deep
circular house, measuring 5 m in diameter at the floor
and 7.6 m at the top of the depression, is also reported
from Late Kachemak levels (Heizer 1956: Fig. 14).
Depressions in the surface of the site were evidently
from both Late Kachemak and Koniag semisubterra-
nean houses. They were only roughly recorded during
the 1930s, and none was studied while excavations were
in progress. What undoubtedly were rectangular pits
were seen as circles (Heizer 1956: Figs. 6, 17). Heizer did,
however, report, on the basis of his personal notes for
the main site area west of the creek, a large depression
15 m in diameter, thought to be from a ceremonial
house (1956: 7), two other circular surface depressions
7.5 m in diameter, 27 medium-size circular depressions,
2 rectangular depressions, and more than 13 small
depressions unlikely to have been houses. Within
probable upper level (Koniag) deposits, there was a
circular, featureless pit 9 m in diameter. Steffian (1992a)
found additional Late Kachemak houses east of the
creek.
Cultural Aspects
Excavations during the 1930s were probably the
most extensive ever undertaken in Alaska, with the use
of mine cars and a track system to dispose of the spoil.
Results were relatively unproductive, however, because
of the failure to record stratigraphy and features, failure
to collect artifacts not deemed worthwhile, failure to dig
stratigraphically, and reliance on picks and shovels for
excavation to the exclusion of screens and trowels. It is
not clear, thus, how the site was organized as a living
community and as a socially and politically governed
system. The hypotheses of cultural and racial history, of
succession and replacement, generated for this site and
extended to cover Kodiak island (Hrdlicka 1945) set the
research problem to be addressed by the next generation
of archaeologists. Questions of succession or replace-
ment versus ongoing development and transition are still
being assessed by archaeologists (cf. Dumond and Scott
1991). The Uyak site human skeletal collection has been
the subject of a major repatriation action (Bray and
Killion 1994). Work at the Uyak site led to the definition
of two successive cultures: Koniag, which might have
been forseen on the basis of historical ethnography and
the ongoing presence of Koniag descendants or Alutiiq
people, and the so-called Pre-Koniag or the Kachemak
tradition, whose presence elsewhere in the Pacific area
had been established by recent excavations at Kachemak
bay in Cook inlet (de Laguna 1934). A lesser, unsegre-
gated portion of the site is Early Kachemak; the
predominate occupation Late Kachemak; and the last
few centuries of occupation Koniag.
Stone lamps and the treatment of human remains
richly document unspecified beliefs and rituals at this
settlement. Stone lamps of obvious ritual importance
were decorated with human, seal, and geometric figures,
and depictions of whales, which were carved on the
exterior sides and base. Female lamps are identified on
the basis of human breasts carved in the bowl (Hrdlicka
1945; Heizer 1956). Elements of the mortuary complex
probably also have religious implications.
Conditions associated with human skeletal remains
have been explained by several methods of disposal, use
of human remains, cannibalism, and a mortuary com-
plex. Apparently a variety of ritual customs and burial
practices are involved together with site disturbances.
Mode of disposition included interment, usually in a
tightly flexed position, bundle or secondary burial, and
mass burial. All occurred within the site. The occurrence
of mass burials, often with both complete and partial
skeletons and secondary burials (Heizer 1956), is best
explained by the reuse of plots from time to time,
interment of additional bodies, and miscellaneous, often
modified, human bones retired from ritual uses. Less
common mortuary elements include fox skeletons in
graves, artificial eyes in a skull, and extra crania
("trophy skulls") in graves (Hrdlicka 1945). Analysts
consider that the genesis of cut human bones and
artifacts on human bones is probably due to mortuary
procedures of dismberment and defleshing (Hrdlicka
1941, 1945; Simon 1992; Steffian and Simon 1994; Urcid
1944).

References
Bray, Tamara L., and Thomas Killion (1994). Reckoning with the
Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
De Laguna, Frederica (1934). The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska.
Philadelphia: University Museum.
Dumond, Don E., and Richard Scott (1991). The Uyak Site on Kodiak
Island: Its Place in Alaskan Prehistory. University of Oregon
Anthropological Papers, no. 44. Eugene: University of Oregon,
Department of Anthropology.
Friedmann, H. (1935). "Avian Bones from Prehistoric Ruins on
Kodiak Island, Alaska." Journal of the Washington Academy of
Sciences 24: 44-51.
Heizer, Robert F. (1956). Archaeology of the Uyak Site Kodiak Island,
Alaska. Berkeley: University of California Anthropological Records
17(1 ).
Hrdlicka, AleS (1941). "Diseases of and Artifacts on Skulls and Bone
from Kodiak Island." Smithsonian Institution Miscellaneous Collec-
tions 101 (4).
Hrdlicka, AleS (1945). The Anthropology of Kodiak Island. Philadel-
phia: Wi star Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Yukon Island (West Beach or
Main Site)
TIME PERIOD: 3500-800 B.P.
LOCATION:Yukon island at the entrance to Kachemak
bay, Cook inlet.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
High, rocky, 2-km-long Yukon island forms part of
the complexely embayed rugged shores of the south side
of Kachemak bay and the Kenai peninsula. The climate
is maritime, with frequent stormy weather and moderate
(about 70 cm at Homer) to high annual precipitation,
but with temperature extremes moderated by proximity
to the sea. Thus, the area is free of winter sea ice,
although drift ice is found farther into Cook inlet and
fast ice forms some miles in inner Kachemak bay,
concomitantly enhancing the desirability of outer bay
localities such as Yukon island (Workman 1993). The
island is forested with spruce, which evidently colonized
the area midway through the occupation of the site,
starting about 2200 B.P. (Workman 1993, after Ager
et al. 1985). The range of marine mammals and near-
shore fish found in the Gulf of Alaska was available to
the inhabitants of Yukon island, as were also a number
Kodiak 85
of land mammals found on the nearby Kenai peninsula,
but the remains of some, like caribou, moose, and
mountain goat, are not common in the site. The extensive
list of fauna recovered is not quantified, but harbor seal,
harbor porpoise, and "woodchuck" (ground squirrel?)
reportedly are plentiful, sea lion, sea otter, blackfish
whale (a small whale), and Eskimo dog not uncommon,
and many other species were present to a minor extent.
Not all resources were evenly distributed, nor were
marine mammals as abundant at Kachemak bay as they
were closer to the tip of the Kenai peninsula. Yukon
island is not noted for the proximity of significant salmon
streams. Major earthquakes strike with a rough perod-
icity of every several centuries. At these times, villages
likely were swept by tidal waves, and the land dropped so
much that many would have had to be abandoned, at
least for several decades until the land rebounded (cf.
Crowell and Mann 1996). As a consequence, the West
Beach site (referred to as Yukon island before the
importance of additional sites on the island had been
established) has sunk and has been greatly reduced by
erosion. From observing the relative level of the sea and
site deposits, de Laguna (1975: 28) concluded that the
land had sunk at least 14 ft (4.25 m) since the site was
first occupied (before further subsidence in 1964). The
tidal range here is considerable, amounting to 28 ft at
locations farther into Kachemak bay.
Physical Features
Refuse deposits were up to 4.5 m thick. The area
excavated ran inland for 7.57 m and extended along the
shore for 19.7 m; the site was originally 45 m wide or
more, extending in to an old tidal lagoon and out under
beach gravels (after being truncated by erosion), and was
of undetermined length (de Laguna 1934: map PI. 4).
Houses were uncovered, but few details were discerned.
House floors appear to have been about 6--9 m long,
plus entrance passage, but possibly only half that width.
Cultural Aspects
Pioneering excavations at the site defined four
stratigraphic zones, Yukon Island I, II, sub-III, and
III and IV, which through inclusion of the results of
lesser excavations at other sites in Kachemak bay
became Kachemak I-III, or Younger Kachemak
(sub-III and III) and Older Kachemak (I and II)
(Workman 1993), hence the Kachemak tradition (ex-
clusive of Component IV). "This is an elaborating
tradition characterized by an increase in ground slate at
the expense of flaked stone artifacts, the innovation of
86 Kodiak
notched pebble net weights and their reduction in size
over time ... and most significantly, a florescence of an
almost compulsive level of craftmanship, personal
adornment, art, and elaborate and unusual burial
ceremonialism" (Workman 1993).
References
Ager, Thomas A., Meyer Rubin, and James R. Ritchie (l985).
"History of Vegetation in the Cook Inlet Region, South Central
Alaska, since Deglaciation (abstract}." Palynology 9: 235.
Crowell, Aron, and Daniel H. Mann (1996). "Sea Level Dynamics,
Glaciers, and Archaeology along the Central Gulf of Alaska Coast."
Arctic Anthropology 1996: 33 (2): 16-37.
De Laguna, Frederica (l934). The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska.
Philadelphia: University Museum.
De Laguna, Frederica (1975). The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska.
2d ed. Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society.
Workman, William B. (1993). "Archaeology of the Southern Kenai
Peninsula." Paper prepared for the International Seminar on the
Origins, Development, and Spread of Prehistoric North Pacific-
Bering Sea Maritime Cultures, Honolulu.
DONALD CLARK
15 Ellery Crescent
Nepean, Ontario
Canada
Late Northwest Coast
Developed Northwest Coast, Late Pacific, Late Prehistoric, Late Marine
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 1500-200 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Middle Northwest
Coast tradition, precedes the historic or proto-contact
period.
LOCATION: Mainland coastal regIOns and islands of
northwestern North America from Alaska to northern
California, including coastal river valleys.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: A wide variety of
naturally occurring materials was modified into artifacts
on the Northwest Coast during the Late period,
primarily through grinding and carving. The last 1500
years represents the culmination of a trend toward
grounds tone and ground and carved antler and bone
tools. Chipped stone occurs throughout the region but
remains an expedient technology in the north. In the
central and southern subregions, chipped stone points
are more common, usually with concave or side-notched
bases. Ground-stone points are more common in the
north, but groundstone knives, clubs, and large wood-
working tools like celts, mauls, and adzes are found
throughout the region. Bone was used to make a variety
of points from straight needles to bilaterally barbed
harpoon points. Whale bone was used to make clubs in
the central and southern subregions. Antler wedges were
common throughout the area. Rare and exotic materials
such as obsidian, native copper, and drift iron (from
shipwrecks) were held in high esteem, and ornaments or
tools of these materials symbolized prestige and rank
throughout the region. Wood was probably the most
common material in use, although it is preserved less
frequently than other substances. Wood was the basis of
the post and beam houses, large carved canoes, bent-
wood boxes, and ceremonial masks for which Northwest
Coast indigenous people are famous.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Central Northwest Coast,
northern Northwest Coast, and southern Northwest
Coast.
IMPORTANT SITES: Meier, Ozette, Point St. George,
Psaceley, Yuquot.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Northwest Coast climate over the past
1500 years has been similar to modern conditions, a
marine-moderated temperate cycle of cool summers and
mild winters. Temperatures averages are 15 DC in the
summer and -7 to +5 DC in winter, but these decrease
to the north and east and increase to the south. The
number of frost-free days ranges from 240 in coastal
Oregon to 120 in Alaska. Precipitation is high, up to
87
88 Late Northwest Coast

6000 mm annually in northern areas, and decreases to have been stable in the area only during the Holocene,
the south. Snow accumulation south of Alaska is rare. soil accumulation is thin in areas, and the underlying
Rain shadows in the lee of island mountains produce bedrock is frequently close to the surface.
localized dry zones. A warmer, drier interval occurred
between 650 and 800 B.P., and conditions were cooler Biota. The area contains two major ecosystems, a
and wetter following the Little Ice Age about 600 B.P. terrestrial and a marine. Low-elevation terrestrial areas
are temperate rainforests of Sitka spruce, western
Topography. The area is rugged and dominated by two hemlock, mountain hemlock, Douglas fir, and red
parallel mountain ranges. The Alexander archipelago cedar, which are home to a variety of plant foods such
appears as a mountainous island chain running along as berries and tubers and large mammal species such as
the coast north of the Canadian border. East of this, elk, deer, bear, wolf, and small mammal including otter,
the Coast mountains rise over 3000 m directly out of the marten, marmot, and a variety of rodents. Higher
ocean and form a crenellated margin of fjords, near- elevations are characterized by treeless meadows in
shore islands, and deep-cut river valleys. In the United hanging valleys containing a lush mix of alpine grasses
States, the Coast mountains become the Cascade range, and heathers, which are home to large mammals such as
which is separated from the ocean by a range of hills and bear and mountain goat. The ocean presents the most
a coastal plateau. A trough between the Alexander and abundant and significant resources, especially anadrom-
Coast/Cascade ranges forms shallow and highly produc- ous fish such as salmon, eulachon, and herring, which
tive marine environments in the north and a less migrate into freshwater rivers or estuaries to spawn. A
crenellated coastline in the south. Coastal rivers drain variety of littoral species were significant, including
large watersheds forming large, steep-sided valleys, shellfish and halibut. Sea mammals such as otters, seals,
which provide important terrestrial and riparian envi- porpoises, and whales were also significant both eco-
ronments as well as access between coast and interior nomically and spiritually.
zones. Owing to the sharp elevation changes, especially in
the north, people generally relied on watercraft for travel.
Settlements
Geology. The Coast mountains are a batholithic intru- Settlement System. The Late period Northwest Coast
sion of igneous rock, mostly granite. The plutonic settlement pattern was based on village-group commu-
nature of the range, in which the basal rock is formed of nities. Each group occupied a permanent aggregate
durable minerals such as quartz, hornblende, and village of up to 20 or more large extended family plank
feldspar held in a matrix of interlocked crystals, has houses for part of the year, usually the winters, when
promoted erosion patterns that result in steep, rugged people relied mostly on stored food. Large winter
land forms. This is particularly true of glacial effects, villages were often located on the coast in proximity to
which have produced cirques, horns, combs, hanging others of related or allied groups, although some groups
valleys, scoured cliffs, and deep valleys showing little had winter villages in interior river valleys. Villages were
erosion over the last 10,000 years. There is more at times located on defensible terraces and surrounded
sedimentary rock in the Alexander archipelago to the by walls or other defensive structures, although the
west, but in both areas the igneous origin of the latter may be a postcontact development. During the
landscape has produced widespread sources of basalt. spring to fall food-collecting seasons, each group would
Volcanic activity in the Coast range has produced move to one or more seasonally occupied, but perma-
localized sources of obsidian. Native metals, especially nent, settlements, timed to coincide with the appearance
copper, are known from river valleys in Alaska. The of a significant migratory resource, such as salmon. In
ocean floor from the coast to the outer islands is a some cases, these settlement were also large villages, but
continental shelf whose shallow waters support diverse frequently village groups would split into smaller,
and rich marine ecosystems. extended, or nuclear family subunits. These spring-to-
Where disintegration of the plutonic rock has fall sites contained one or more large houses and were
occurred, it has collected in coarse tills on colluvial often located away from the coast in river valleys. A
slopes and valley bottoms, creating a well-drained but suite of satellite sites for such purposes as resource
mobile base for vegetation. The geological character of procurement and processing, spiritual isolation, and
the area has created parent materials for soils that are burial was located around habitation sites. The settle-
coarse textured, acidic, and, because of the frequency of ment system was weakly hierarchical, and large tribal
precipitation, wet. Because soil formation processes polities were essentially polymers of allied village groups

with no regional centers. Certain resource localities,
such as the eulachon spawning grounds on the Nass
river, attracted people from the wider region, who met
both for the resource and for trading.
Community Organization. Winter villages were com-
posed of one or more lines of houses parallel to a beach
or watercourse. Where present, multiple rows repre-
sented separate extended-family lineages. This pattern
was maintained even when located on a high elevation
terrace. Habitation sites usually had ready access to
water because transportation was primarily by canoe.
The orientation of the houses and their relative place-
ment reflected clan affiliation and status, with the highest
status position being the largest house at the center of
the front row for some groups and at one end for others.
Behind most villages was a large linear midden, which
sometimes extended to areas between houses. The area
in front of the houses was a general-purpose activity
zone for resource and food processing. Ceremonial and
mortuary poles were located in front of many villages,
especially in the north. Special-purpose buildings such as
isolation huts and sweat houses were generally located
on one side of the village. This pattern was reproduced
on a smaller scale in spring-to-fall communities con-
taining as few as one or two houses, but there was more
regional variability for special-purpose sites and camps.
Housing. Northwest Coast houses reflected the spatial
organization of the primary socioeconomic unit: the
extended family household. Houses were large rectan-
gular buildings composed of spatial subunits for families
either around a central common area, as in the gabled
houses of the north, or side by side in a row, as in the
shed-roof houses of the south. Northern gabled houses
were post-and-beam constructions at times over 200 m 2 .
A single entrance faced the front of the village and the
water. At the center of the building was a common area
around a large hearth; in some houses, especially those
of high status, the common central space was in
an excavated, stepped-walled pit. The perimeter was
frequently covered with a low wooden platform for
sleeping above and storage below. Family groups lived
around the perimeter, each with its own cooking and
storage facilities. Highest-ranked families in the ex-
tended family lived at the rear of the house, which was
also the location of large-scale household storage and
performances during feasts and ceremonies. The interior
had no permanent walls, and spatial divisions were
effected by hanging mats or stacking boxes. The large
roof-supporting posts were sometimes carved with
images of household and clan crest symbols.
Late Northwest Coast 89
Linear shed-roof houses were common in the central
Northwest Coast, although gabled designs also appear.
These were constructed on a post-and-beam frame
covered with planks such that the building was expand-
able laterally. Some shed-roof buildings were massive,
up to 190 m long and 18 m wide and containing mul-
tiple extended-family households analogous to house
rows in northern villages. Floors were leveled but not
excavated, and each household was separated by plank
or mat dividers and oriented around its own central
hearth. Small gabled houses were again common on the
southern Northwest Coast, where lO-by-7-m plank
buildings housed one or two families. A similar design
was also used for sweat houses, an element absent from
northern villages. Small buildings, based on house
designs, were constructed throughout the area for
smoking foods or for storage.
Population, Health, and Disease. Population estimates
for the Northwest Coast immediately before European
contact range from 200,000 to nearly 1,000,000. This
level was probably reached early in the late period and
may have fluctuated thereafter. Populations in the north
appear to have dropped about 500 B.P. and climbed
again shortly before contact. Village group size ranged
from 100 to perhaps 1000 people, subdivided into
extended-family households of 20 to 50 individuals.
The size of regional groups, referred to ethnographically
as tribes but representing linguistic rather than political
affiliation, ranged from 500 to over 20,000. Population
densities were high for hunter gatherers, ranging from 1
person per square mile (2.59 km 2) in the north to 3.6 in
the south. Life expectancy exceeded 30 years, and many
individuals would have lived to twice that age. Although
stories of starvation abound in indigenous literature,
there is little evidence of this since stature remained
stable throughout the Late period, and these stories may
have served more as cautionary tales. Infant mortality
was high, and violent death was not uncommon, the
latter a result of warfare and raiding. Burial demo-
graphics from the beginning of the period show males
outnumbering females, a pattern that has been argued as
evidence of slavery. Precontact diseases included tuber-
culosis, nonvenereal syphilis, iron deficiency, and ar-
thritis, but the effect of these was dwarfed by European-
introduced diseases, which killed between 33% and 90%
of the indigenous population in less than a century.
Economy
Subsistence. The subsistence economy was based on the
scheduled collection of wild resources through fishing,
90 Late Northwest Coast
hunting, and gathering. Resources were collected mostly
in the spring to fall months and then stored for the
winter. Groups collected a variety of resources reflecting
local abundance, but frequently relied on one or two
staples, the most common being anadromous fish,
especially salmon. Whales were significant in the outer
islands; neritic species such as halibut and herring were
relied on in the inner islands; and plant foods and land
mammals were more significant for groups with coastal
riverine territories. Village groups would frequently split
into extended-family households to follow a scheduled
route to coincide with the arrival of seasonal species,
which were collected, processed, and then stored. Labor
divisions appear to have existed, with men involved
primarily in hunting and fishing, women controlling
processing of meat and fish as well as plant resources,
and children and the elderly occupied with light tasks
such as shellfish and berry gathering. Surplus subsis-
tence production appears to have been the basis of
wealth, an avenue to status. Some specialization in
locally abundant species was permitted by the trade in
staple foods, which allowed households to acquire a full
suite of regionally available resources. In the north,
rendered eulachon oil, which was highly valued as a
food preservative, was traded widely throughout the
coast and interior.
Wild Foods. The Late period Northwest Coast
subsistence economy was based entirely on wild species.
A large number of plants and animals were collected for
food, frequently reflecting local availability. However,
staple foods were primarily marine species, and salmon
was the most significant of these because of its predict-
ability, storability, and abundance in accessible areas
such as estuaries and rivers. Other fish species were
important where common, such as eulachon, herring,
halibut, cod, dogfish, skate, and sculpin. Pelagic fish
were less common, but sea mammals were hunted,
especially seals, sea lions, porpoises, and seas otters.
Several outer coast groups specialized in whale hunting.
Land mammals were also important, including deer, elk,
bear, rodents, lagomorphs, and mountain goat, al-
though the latter was valued more for fur than meat.
Birds, especially migratory waterfowl, were an impor-
tant spring and fall resource. Shellfish represented a
significant supplementary food resource, of particular
importance in the spring when stored supplies were low.
Plant foods such as tree cambium filled a similar role,
but other plants such as berries in the north and
tubers and acorns in the south were staple foods.
Perishable resources were commonly collected when
abundant and stored through drying, smoking, or
soaking in oil.
Domestic Foods. Domesticated species were not used
on the Northwest Coast for food, although productive
groves of wild plants were tended. Dogs were raised for
companionship and used as a pack animal and may have
been eaten when necessary. Tobacco was raised in the
south where it was smoked; it was traded north where it
was more commonly chewed with lime.
Industrial Arts. Late period Northwest Coast technol-
ogy was based on the direct modification of naturally
available materials such as wood, stone, shell, bone, and
occasionally, metal. Ceramic or smelted metal technol-
ogy was not used, except for small ceramic figurines
which were produced around the Lower Columbia river.
Architecture was among the most sophisticated tech-
nologies involving the coordinated labor of large
groups. Post supports and beam superstructures were
keyed together and designed to support wall and roof
planks with a minimum of cord or pegged fastenings.
Similar carving methods were used to make large canoes
from single trees, the design and construction of which
were organized by a master woodcarver. Other coordi-
nated construction projects included fish weirs, tidal
traps, and deadfall and pit traps. Woodworking was a
skill, usually associated with men, which may have been
an occupational specialization among some groups.
Specialists could bend wood with steam as well as carve
and split it; wood planks and bark were frequently
harvested from living trees, and the resulting scar
produced an archaeological site known as a culturally
modified tree. Painting of boxes, poles, houses, canoes,
and armor may also have been part-time specialization.
Grinding was the most-common method for creating
curated tools such as stone knives and points or bone
harpoon bits, a technology that was available to all.
Chipped stone was used as an expedient means of
achieving a cutting or scraping edge in northern areas,
and these tools, with the exception of obsidian, were
rarely curated. In the south, chipped stone technology
for producing projectile points was more developed.
Specialists in obsidian and native copper working
probably existed only where these resources were com-
mon, but the results of their labors were widely traded.
Weaving of cordage, bark, fur, withes, and hair was
highly developed on the Northwest Coast and usually
the domain of women, who may also have been special-
ists in some groups. The knowledge of multistep food-
processing techniques to convert perishable foods into
storable resources was widely available, although sig-
nificant. Among some groups, leadership of coordinated
activities such as whaling or reef-net fishing was an
occupational specialization as well as a high-status role.

Utensils. The basic technologies of grinding, chipping,
carving, and weaving produced a wide variety of tools.
Grinding of stone, bone, antler, and shell was a simple
although labor-intensive means of producing basic
cutting and piercing tools such as knives, axes, adzes,
chisels, hooks, and harpoon bits. These were often
hafted to handles or shafts. Ground-stone was also used
for war clubs and ornaments such as labrets. Elaborate
special-purpose composite tools, such as reef nets,
herring rakes, or harpoons were common. Chipped
stone points were used in the south and toward the
interior and were more common throughout the region
at the beginning of the Late period. Wood was used for
a variety of items in addition to buildings and canoes.
Woodcarvers made ceremonial poles, helmets and
armor, watertight bentwood boxes, ornaments and
masks, and a variety of household items such as racks
and fishhooks. Weaving was probably a common skill
for the production of cordage, mats, nets, fishing lines,
and baskets, but became a specialized skill for the
making of ceremonial robes, blankets, and headgear.
Ornaments. Three types of ornamentation are common:
objects of personal wealth or status, displays of crest
images signifying culturally understood meanings of the
status and allegiance of lineages in clans, and items and
images of spiritual or symbolic significance. These
frequently overlap. Personal ornamentation was associ-
ated with noble status. Labrets or lip plugs of ground
stone denoted high status, especially among females,
although males wore them at the beginning of this
period. High-status individuals also wore special cere-
monial dress and headgear during feasts and festivals.
Cranial deformation, most common on the Central
Northwest Coast, was also an indication of status, as
were ground slate mirrors and imported exotics such as
obsidian, dent alia shells, and copper. Crest symbols,
common in Northwest Coast art, denoted a lineage or
household's status and were displayed on a variety of
media, including house fronts, cloaks, boxes, canoes,
war clubs, ceremonial poles, and rock faces of cliffs and
were embossed on copper plates. Crest, symbolic, and
representational imagery also appeared on a variety of
portable objects such as clubs and ceremonial bowls and
spoons.
Trade. Late period Northwest Coast trade operated in
at least three relatively independent cycles. First,
exchange of goods of equal value between allied village
groups, especially of surplus food staples such as
eulachon oil, occurred regularly, often at annual regional
gatherings. Ethnographic reports also note that high-
Late Northwest Coast 91
status individuals could commission master craftspeople
to produce specific items such as canoes, ceremonial
clothes, or mortuary poles in exchange for goods.
Second, ceremonial exchange occurred through feasts
called potlatches. In the postcontact period, potlatches
operated as redistributive mechanisms for regional
chiefs, but it is probable that this function developed
only after the introduction of the European market
economy. In the Late Period, ceremonial feasts func-
tioned to cement alliances as the host-village group gave
away goods to its allies and affines, thereby creating
debts of obligation and maintaining or increasing its
own social status. Ceremonial feasts were conducted for
specific social purposes such as a village group leader's
announcement of an heir. They were often planned
years in advance, and each village group in a feasting
community hosted them regularly. No doubt, they
served to exchange food and wealth for status, but the
evidence that this was done in response to food
shortages is slim. The third form of exchange involved
the trade of exotic and rare materials such as native
copper, obsidian, nephrite, shell beads, and antler and
clay figurines. The distribution of these items suggests
that although the Northwest Coast operated as an
interaction sphere, there were northern and southern
subcycles of the prestige and exotics trade, each of which
had ties to peoples in the east.
Division of Labor. The fundamental economic unit of
Late period Northwest Coast society was the extended-
family household, in which all divisions of labor could
be found. All members of the household participated in
large cooperative works such as salmon fishing and
processing or house building. However, divisions of
labor along status, age, and gender lines existed and
were more pronounced in the north. Leaders and their
immediate family represented a noble elite that was
exempt from menial tasks, such as collecting firewood,
which were done by slaves. Leaders also led trade
initiatives, organized ceremonial feasts, and decided on
the annual schedule of residential moves. Men tended to
hunt and fish, whereas women controlled food process-
ing and plant resources. Basic craftwork was performed
by all, but specialists existed for specific activities such as
woodcarving, canoe building, weaving, and obsidian
and copper working where these materials were avail-
able. Children and the elderly helped in all tasks but are
ethnographically noted for collecting shellfish.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. There is
debate whether elites, who were leading families In
lineages, controlled resources or were stewards of
92 Late Northwest Coast
the lineage's property. Individual members of elite
families inherited rights to resource territories, but
required kin labor to produce food and goods, so that
control and stewardship were intertwined. However,
access to resources, even travel routes, was denied
without a legitimate claim or compensation. Households
also had exchange alliances with distant groups, giving
them preferential and at times exclusive access to
nonlocal products. Restrictions on rights to property
could be circumvented through raiding, and, indeed,
violation of territorial rights was grounds for war. All
individuals in households had access to basic subsistence
resources, but elites controlled surpluses of food and
manufactured or traded goods, which could then be
used in ceremonial exchanges to maintain or increase the
status of the leader and the entire household. As befit
their position, elites had exclusive access to prestige
goods such as exotic materials or status objects such as
labrets and ceremonial garb. Elites also tended to be
spiritual leaders and so owned sacred objects such as
masks.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Late Northwest Coast social orga-
nization is known primarily from ethnographic studies,
which refer to the late precontact era, although much
has been confirmed archaeologically through settlement
patterns and distribution of material culture. At least
five levels of social organization existed: family, house-
hold, village group, culture area, and clan. Membership
rules were more rigid in the north than in the south.
Descent was matrilineal in the north and bilateral in the
south. Postmarital residence was avunculocal in the
north and cognatic in the south. Polygyny occurred
among the highest-ranked families. Social position and
wealth were inherited, and the fundamental unit of
social order was the lineage, in essence extended families
related through time. Individuals belonged to nuclear
families, which were ranked in extended family house-
holds with the leader of the highest-ranked family
leading the household. Households were also ranked in
village groups, and again the leader of the highest-
ranked household led the village group, with other
leading families acting as advisers and representing the
nobility. Village groups were ranked relative to one
another, and the regional ranking system represented a
cultural and linguistic area, although it lacked formal
political structure because village groups were politically
autonomous. A four- or two-division clan system cross-
cut village group structure. Clans were exogamous and
maintained informal affiliation but lacked formal polit-
ical or economic structures. In principle, social strata
were endogamous, creating affinal ties in households of
similar social standing. Household leaders controlled the
economic activity of their extended families. Village
group leaders directed military and political organiza-
tion. Leadership roles were associated with an elite
nobility, whereas lower ranked members represented
commoners. A very low status also existed for outcasts
who were marginally higher than slaves. Slaves had no
social status and were possessions of elites, although
slave status could be erased through compensation or
ransom. The social system was relatively stable, with
families of different strata marrying into similar families
and passing their status on to their children. Movement
up the social hierarchy was possible through economic
or military success; descent was caused by the reverse or
through taint of slave status.
Political Organization. The maximum unit of economic
control in Late period Northwest Coast society was the
extended-family household. The maximum unit of
political, territorial, or military authority was the village
group, although alliances between groups existed. The
larger association of relatively ranked village groups
lacked formal political leadership, although some of
these developed into regional chiefdoms after European
contact, and it is possible that regional chiefdoms
appeared and disappeared at other times in the Late
period. Leaders were assisted by close relatives who
acted as counselors. Leadership was inherited, and good
leaders were capable in military, economic, political, and
spiritual matters. Males were more common as leaders,
but women are not unknown. Households held leader-
ship roles through crests that symbolized links between
the current leader, spiritual beings and power, territory,
and the historic origin of and ancestral title to these
relationships.
Social Control. Our understanding of the nature of
precontact jurisprudence comes largely from ethno-
graphic sources. Individual actions were judged against
a strict moral code, which linked spiritual knowledge
with economic and political acumen. Transgressions,
such as murder or adultery, had widely accepted levels of
compensation, although these were negotiable, and
leaders may have acted as advisers or arbiters of disputes.
A common transaction was the ransoming of a war
captive, the value of whom increased with the status of
the individual. Negotiated settlements were frequently
postponed in lieu of a military attack, and disputes
between rival village groups could last for generations
before being resolved. Ideology played an indirect role in

standards of conduct through the association between
moral and spiritual authority. More direct action
may have been taken by secretive spiritual societies.
Spirit beings and ancestral spirits could intervene in the
lives of the living, and shamans acted as inter-
mediaries and defenders against them. Sorcerers also
existed whose more nefarious services could be sought at
a pnce.
Conflict. Conflict was a regular, if infrequent, part of
Late period Northwest Coast life. Individual violent acts
such as those motivated by revenge for murder, adul-
tery, or a perceived slight frequently brought households
and entire village groups into conflict unless a negoti-
ated settlement was achieved. Raiding for monetary
goals, either wealth items or slaves, was common, but
tended to occur between distant peoples outside the
regional suite of ranked village groups. Rarely, disputes
would escalate to include many village groups in a large-
scale war. The goals of warfare or raiding were retrib-
utary and monetary and sometimes were prompted by
local food shortages, but they did not usually include
territorial expansion. There is evidence that such conflict
existed by the beginning of the Late period, because
there was a shift at this time to fortified village sites and
a preference for defensible locations, especially in the
north. This change may have been associated with the
introduction of the bow and arrow about 1500 B.P., and
some archaeologists argue that conflict was a causal
factor in the development of complex hunter gatherers
in the area. Material evidence of conflict also exists from
this period in the form of stone clubs and daggers,
spears, wooden and bone armor, helmets, and a high
frequency of cranial and forearm fractures in burial
populations. Military success was a route to increased
status for a leader, both from the monetary gains and
the enhanced prestige.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Ceremonial or ideological material
culture is comparatively rare from the Late period; more
exists from the Middle and Post-Contact eras. This is
partly due to the fewer sites and the practice of treating
the dead with burial at distant locales or cremation.
However, ethnographic sources and contemporary in-
digenous practitioners provide insight into at least the
latter part of the Late period. Religion infused all
aspects of life, and oral literature linked mythology,
history, parable, and politics. Each cultural group
adhered to its own ideology, but commonalties existed
such as the division of the universe into multiple parallel
Late Northwest Coast 93
worlds of which the human landscape was one. Each
world was populated by beings who were manifest in the
human realm as spirit beings residing throughout the
landscape and as souls of animals. Stories of the Raven,
a trickster figure, were common. Spirit denizens of
alternative worlds were organized into hierarchical
societies analogous to humans'. The land of the dead
was one such world, and ancestors could return to the
living, to punish spiritual neglect, or be reincarnated as
their own descendants. Individuals were responsible for
their own ideological stance and could gain insight
through spirit quests. Political leaders had a moral
obligation to lead spiritually pure lives. Shamans had
particular relationships with spirit beings and could be
sought for advice and intervention. A pervasive unity to
Northwest Coast religion ties all things to the
Creator and presents the individual with ties to the past
and momentum toward the future, an aspect that has
parallels to Christianity and may partly explain
some indigenous peoples' ability to quickly adopt its
tenets.
Religious Practitioners. Shamans had avenues of access
to the spirit worlds and were usually identified when
children and trained for the role. Material items, such as
rattles, masks, and robes, from archaeological and
postcontact contexts have been associated with sha-
mans. They were valued for their healing ability,
philosophical insight, power of prognostication, and
experience, although every individual could call on spirit
beings for assistance. This was especially true of nobles
whose crest titles carried obligations of learning and
performing oral traditions that linked them to specific
spirit beings. Nobles and high-ranked commoners also
participated in dancing societies or secret societies that
intervened with powerful spirit beings through perfor-
mances at feasts. In some areas, sorcerers could be paid
to cause harm for a price.
Ceremonies. Ethnographic sources indicate that cere-
monies were central to Northwest Coast life and were
conducted for most threshold events such as birth,
passage through age stages, marriage, ascension to
leadership roles, and death. Ceremonies frequently
involved feasts at which hosts distributed goods to the
guests, and the word potlatch derived from a Chinook
verb meaning "to give." Each ceremony had a formal
structure that varied regionally. Commonly, however,
the hosts invited affinal kin as witnesses; thus ceremonial
obligations followed marriage ties and linked house-
holds of similar status. The seating arrangement of
guests and the timing and order of activities reflected
94 Late Northwest Coast
their relative rank, and miscues were considered serious
affronts. Ceremonies included feasting, performances of
dance and song, recounting of oral traditions, and
distribution of gifts, all of which created reciprocal
obligations. Higher status people invited guests of
similar rank and were obliged to give considerably;
failure to do so resulted in a loss of rank. Competitive
potlatching flourished in the postcontact era as low-
ranking individuals acquired sufficient wealth in the
market economy to claim positions of high status.
Archaeological evidence of ceremonies is indirect, but
includes the prevalence of large houses in which cere-
monies were conducted. Large central hearths, stepped
sunken floors, and wooden platforms around the
interior perimeter were all architectural features associ-
ated with ceremonies that occur in the houses of the
Late period. Ceremonial artifacts have also been recov-
ered, such as carved feasting spoons and bentwood
serving boxes. Ceremonies involving feasts and recipro-
cal gift giving in exchange for status are also suggested
by the structure of the Late period economy toward the
production of surplus food and goods.
Arts. Late period Northwest Coast art is similar to
contemporary work. Zoomorphic and anthropomorphic
designs were common on portable objects such as
combs, spindles, and harpoons and probably reflective
of beneficial spirit beings. Carved anthropomorphic clay
and ceramic figures appear on the central and southern
coasts about 1000 B.P. The characteristic crest figures
that appeared on ceremonial poles were also carved into
masks and ceremonial objects, painted on house fronts
and cliffs, graven into stone outcrops, embossed into
copper sheets, and woven into robes. Crest imagery
reflects the interface of spirit realm and human land-
scape through time. The high level of artistic and
manufacturing skill suggests that artists were at least
part-time specialists.
Death and Afterlife. At the beginning of the Late
period, interment of the dead near villages was common,
but this disappeared by about 1000 B.P. and was
replaced with cremation and interment in distant locals
such as caves. Death ceremonies involved the sacrifice of
wealth and were modest for commoners but could be
very elaborate for high-ranked individuals. The respon-
sibility for proper treatment of the dead fell to affinal
kin. The dead resided in a parallel world, but could
return as ghosts to haunt those who ignored their social
and spiritual obligations. Reincarnation was also pos-
sible and often coincided with the inheritance of noble
crest titles.
Suggested Readings
Ames, Kenneth M. (1994). "The Northwest Coast: Complex Hunter-
Gatherers, Ecology, and Social Evolution." Annual Review of
Anthropology 23: 209-229.
Ames, Kenneth M. (1998). "Economic Prehistory of the Northern
British Columbia Coast." Arctic Anthropology 35 (1): 68-87.
Ames, Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). Peoples of
the Northwest Coast. London: Thames and Hudson.
Carlson, Roy L., ed. (1983). Indian Art Traditions of the Northwest
Coast. Burnaby: Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University.
Coupland, Gary (1998). "Maritime Adaptation and Evolution of the
Developed Northwest Coast Pattern on the Central Northwest
Coast." Arctic Anthropology 35 (I): 36-56.
Donald, Leland (1997). Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of
North America. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press.
Drucker, Philip (1965). Cultures of the North Pacific Coast. San
Francisco: Chandler Publishing.
Erlandson, Jon M., Mark Tveskov, and R. Scott Byram (1998). "The
Development of Maritime Adaptations on the Southern Northwest
Coast of North America." Arctic Anthropology 35 (I): 6-22.
Fisher, Robin (1992). Contact and Conflict: Indian European Relations
in British Columbia, 1774-1890, 2nd ed. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Fladmark, Knut (1986). British Columbia Prehistory. Ottawa: Archaeo-
logical Survey of Canada.
Hill, Beth, and Ray Hill (1974). Indian Petroglyphs of the Pacific
Northwest. Saanichton: Hancock House.
Isaac, Barry L., eds. (1988). Research in Economic Anthropology,
Supplement 3: Prehistoric Economies of the Northwest Coast.
Greenwich: JAI Press.
Jonaitis, Aldona, eds. (1995). A Wealth of Thought: Franz Boas on
Native American Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Matson, R. G., and Gary Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
McMillan, Alan D. (1995). Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada: An
Anthropological Overview, 2nd ed. Vancouver: Douglas and McIn-
tyre.
Moss, Madonna (1998). "Northern Northwest Coast Regional Over-
view." Arctic Anthropology 35 (I): 88-111.
Moss, Madonna, and Jon M. Erlandson (1998). "Reflections on North
American Pacific Coast Prehistory." Journal of World Prehistory 9
(1): 1-45.
Suttles, Wayne, eds. (1990). Handbook of North American Indians:
Volume 7, Northwest Coast. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Insti-
tution Press.
SUBTRADITIONS
Central Northwest Coast
TIME PERIOD: 1500-200 B.P.
LOCATION: Mainland coastal regions and islands of
Northwestern North America from Washington state
to Central British Columbia, including coastal river
valleys. The area includes the territories of the Waka-
shan- and Salish-speaking peoples.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Artifacts characteristic
of the Central Northwest Coast Late period include
artifacts of ground-stone, bone, wood, and antler
(Mitchell 1990). Ground slate was used for triangular
points and thin knives. Large ground-stone woodwork-
ing tools such as celts, mauls, and abraders were also
common. Small well-made triangular chipped-stone
points are also found, which is unusual given the trend
to ground-stone for curated items and chipped stone for
expedient tools in the Middle and Late periods (Mitch-
ell 1988: 278). Bone was used for points, bipoints,
barbed harpoon points, and pins. Antler was used for
combs and wood-splitting wedges. Shell appeared as
beads, knives, and points. Exotic materials such as
obsidian and native copper were used for ornaments.
Cranial deformation was a mark of status and was
characteristic of the Late period (Ames and Maschner
1999: 183). In architecture, the last 2400 years saw
the development of large villages composed of large
houses. This pattern was widespread by 1500 B.P., and
the gabled-roof design was used in the north and the
shed-roof type in the south. Defensive elements in
villages such as ditches and palisades were also common
(Mitchell 1990).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Central Northwest Coast shares the marine-
modified temperate climate common to the North
Pacific coast. Summers are cool, but winters are mild
for the latitude, with temperature averages ranging from
13-18 °C and -4-5 °C, respectively (Dewhirst 1980).
Rainfall is heavy, reaching over 3000 mm annually in
some areas, but much less in rain shadows on the
leeward or eastern side of mountains. The area is rugged
and dominated by two parallel mountain ranges, which
rise out of the ocean. The Alexander archipelago forms
an outer island chain, and the Coast mountains form
the crenellated shoreline of the mainland (Suttles
1990a). The marine environment is divided into two
zones: a rocky outer coast that is home to sea mammals,
deep sea fishes, and sea birds, and an inner coast that
provides sheltered habitat for shallow-water fishes,
crustaceans, and shellfish. The terrestrial environment
is varied but marked by dense rainforests of cedar,
hemlock, fir trees and stands of berries and tuberous
plants (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994). Deer, elk, and
bear are common, especially in the river valleys.
Anadromous fish, which run annually up freshwater
Late Northwest Coast 95
rivers to spawn, are among the most abundant resources
(Schalk 1977, 1981).
Settlements
The settlement pattern of permanent villages and
temporary resource procurement camps characteristic of
the Late period on the Central Northwest Coast first
developed in the gulf of Georgia during the Middle
period, about 2400 B.P. This is the earliest manifestation
of the settlement system associated with fully developed
complex hunter gatherers of the Northwest Coast and
based on the intensified use of salmon. It is characterized
by large aggregate villages of up to 10 large plank
houses, usually surrounded by deep, U-shaped middens.
In the Puget sound area to the south, the Late period-
to-Historic era Old Man House, which measures 12 by
140 m, illustrates the Salish an trend to consolidating
multiple lineages in a single shed-roof building (Matson
and Coupland 1995: 271). The villages on the lower
Fraser river are located near salmon runs and shellfish
beds (Mitchell 1971: 52) and may have been occupied
for most of the year. Specific resource-procurement sites
have been identified near abundant sources of herring
and land and sea mammals, and the settlement pattern
appears to include residential seasonal movement be-
tween the permanent village and the resource territories
(Coupland 1998: 48). This pattern continued through
the Late period with increases in the number and size of
sites, suggesting that the regional population was
increasing (McMillan 1999: 127). On the outer coast of
Vancouver island, for example, coastal villages were
occupied during the late winter to summer months, and
the village group moved to temporary camps for the fall
salmon runs (Mitchell 1990: 355). Recent faunal analysis
of habitation sites on Vancouver island suggests that
some villages were occupied year round (Calvert 1980).
The implication is that there was a range of seasonal-
mobility patterns in the Late period, with some groups
moving residences and others using villages as logistical
centers (McMillan 1999: 128). The development toward
the ethnographic settlement system at the end of the
Middle period and the beginning of the Late period is
associated with consolidation of regional variation in
artifact forms that may reflect the spread ofWakashan-
and Salishan-speaking peoples from loci on the western
edge of Vancouver island and the gulf of Georgia to
their ethnographically known territories (McMillan
1998; Mitchell 1990: 357). The appearance of forts and
other defensive site at this time implies an increase in
warfare that may relate to these expansions (Coupland
1989; Moss and Erlandson 1992: 84).
96 Late Northwest Coast

Economy of the ethnographically known social system devel-

oped early in the Late period (Mitchell 1990: 348).
By the Late period on the Central Northwest Coast,
Although the extended-family household remained the
economies had developed based on the intensified
economic unit of production, co-residence of many
production of key resources, especially anadromous fish
such households indicates that political authority ex-
such as salmon (Matson 1992: 388). Salmon remains
tended to the large, probably multilineage village
frequently constitute between 70 and 96% of fish
group. Ethnographic sources describe how acephalous
remains in Late period middens, an increase over
"confederacies" of village groups existed before contact
Middle period deposits (Coupland 1998: 48--49). Mate-
with Europeans in the 18th century (Arima and
rial culture such as fish weirs, trolling hooks, and reef
Dewhirst 1990; McMillan 1995: 211). Warfare was
nets also indicate that people were expanding their
common in the Late period, as seen in the increase in
technological reach for large quantities of salmon both
frequency of defended sites. Raiding attacks probably
in riparian and offshore locations, probably as a re-
occurred between distant village groups, rather than
sponse to population growth. (Croes and Hackenberger
within confederacies, and were waged for economic as
1988; Ames and Maschner 1999: 145). The dominance
well as political goals (Coupland 1989). Village groups
of ground-stone technology at this time, especially
were ranked in regional systems, their status probably
ground-slate knives, has been linked to intensified
correlated with the economic potential of their territo-
processing of fish (Matson and Coupland 1995: 176).
rial holdings (Donald and Mitchell 1975, 1994). Mea-
All these factors plus the expansion of settlement
sures of rank were also applied to households in village
systems based on villages of large, multifamily houses
groups and to families in households, where they
suggest that the Late period economy enabled large
determined leadership roles. It has been argued that
groups of people to subsist on wild resources through
the development of the large household as the basis of
large-scale production of stored salmon. Other resources
social organization, more than the salmon-based econ-
remained important, however, usually as a reflection of
omy, was the fundamental step in the evolution of
local abundance. In coastal sites, sea mammals such as
socially complex Northwest Coast cultures (Ames and
whales were an important subsistence resource (Mitchell
Maschner 1999: 148-149). The two are clearly linked
1988). In interior zones, deer elk, and dog were used
because the large household provided the co-operative
more frequently (Mitchell 1990: 347). Throughout the
labor, storage, and processing facilities needed to
region, shellfish and plant foods were significant food
survive on a periodic resource such as salmon (Coup-
resources, especially in the spring and summer when
land 1996: 122; Suttles 1990b). Political authority and
stored salmon was running out and the annual runs had
economic power combined with ancestral status to
not yet begun.
produce a stratified society. The fundamental division
The success of the salmon-based, delayed return
existed between slaves and everyone else, although the
economy enabled Central Northwest Coast people to latter were also divided into nobles and commoners
produce surpluses that funded occupational specializa- (Donald 1997). Slave status robbed an individual of all
tions and inter-regional trade and a rich ceremonial rights to ownership, whereas the difference between
culture. Woodworking was probably a specialized skill commoners and nobility was less economic and more a
for canoe makers and carvers of repute. Whale hunting difference of prestige (Ames and Maschner 1999: 178).
and weaving may also have been at least part-time Burials disappear by about 1000 B.P., but in the Middle
occupational specializations. An exchange network of period and the early part of the Late period they
obsidian tools and antler or clay figurines extended demonstrate that status differences were profound and
across the region and into the Southern Northwest
ascribed (Burley and Knusel 1989). High status was
Coast (Ames and Maschner 1999: 170). The regional demonstrated through cranial deformation and displays
exchange of prestige items between coastal and interior of wealth such as knob-top hats or the hosting of
peoples has been linked to the development of social and
feasts. Feasts, sometimes known as potlatches, were an
economic elites (Hayden and Schulting 1997). essential political activity in the postcontact era, con-
ducted to legitimize status by giving away wealth. Some
have argued that the Central Northwest Coast potlatch
Sociopolitical Organization
was a mechanism to redistribute resources to the needy
The development of large villages and season- in exchange for symbolic items of wealth and prestige
ally occupied resource sites suggests that many elements (Suttles 1987).

Religion and Expressive Culture
Fewer artistic or symbolic objects are known from
the Late period than either the Middle or the Historic
periods (Ames and Maschner 1999: 239). However, a
number of themes can be identified. There is a shift away
from the representational and zoomorphic themes of the
Middle period to the more stylized forms of the Historic
era (Mitchell 1990: 348). Decorated objects such as
combs, spindle whorls, hairpins, clubs, fishing and
whaling gear, boxes, bowls, and architecture are known
from this time. It has been argued that artistic embel-
lishment converted utilitarian objects into items of
status and prestige (Suttles 1983). This may reflect an
expansion in the social role of art from funerary objects
characteristic of the Middle period (Ames and Maschner
1999: 238). Styles and forms characteristic of modern
Northwest Coast art have been identified from early in
the Late period, including the combination of culturally
characteristic elements with standardized representa-
tions of specific figures. These trends may reflect the
development of crest imagery and the formalized links
among social structure, territory, and spirit beings that
they represent. Ritual preparation was a significant
prelude to economically and socially important activi-
ties, which may underlie the use of imagery on utilitarian
objects (McMillan 1999: 162). However, these func-
tional aspects belie the deeper spiritual meanings em-
bodied in Northwest Coast artistic imagery, whose
manifestation in shamanistic items, ceremonial gear,
architecture, and utilitarian objects reflects unifying
cosmological beliefs (Duff 1983; Wardwell 1996).
References
Ames, Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). Peoples of
the Northwest Coast. London: Thames and Hudson.
Arima, Eugene, and John Dewhirst (1990). "Nootkans of Vancouver
Island." In Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7:
Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 391-411.
Burley, David, and Christopher Knusel (1989). "Burial Patterns and
Archaeological Interpretation: Problems in the Recognition of
Ranked Society in the Coast Salish Region." In Development of
Hunting-Fishing-Gathering Maritime Societies along the West Coast
of North America, ed. B. Onas, Pullman: Washington State
University Press.
Coupland, Gary (1989). "Warfare and Social Complexity on the
Northwest Coast." In Cultures in Conflict: Current Archaeological
Perspectives, ed. D. Tkaczuk and B. Vivian. Calgary: The Archaeo-
logical Association of the University of Calgary, 205-214.
Croes, Dale, and Steven Hackenberger (1988). "Hoko River Archaeo-
logical Complex: Modeling Prehistoric Northwest Coast Economic
Evolution." In Prehistoric Economies of the Northwest Coast,
Late Northwest Coast 97
Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 3, ed. B. Isaac.
Greenwich: JAI Press, 19-85.
Coupland, Gary (1996). "This Old House: Cultural Complexity and
Household Stability on the Northern Northwest Coast of North
America." In Emergent Complexity, ed. J. Arnold. Ann Arbor:
International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 9,
74-90.
Coupland, Gary (1998). "Maritime Adaptation and Evolution of the
Developed Northwest Coast Pattern on the Central Northwest
Coast." Arctic Anthropology 35 (I): 36-56.
Dewhirst, John J. (1980). "The Indigenous Archaeology ofYuquot, A
Nootkan Outside Village." In The Yuquot Project, Volume 1, ed.
W. J. Folan and J. Dewhirst. Ottawa: Canadian National Historic
Parks and Sites Branch, History and Archaeology, 39-365.
Donald, Leland (1997). Aboriginal Slavery of the Northwest Coast of
North America. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press.
Donald, Leland, and Donald Mitchell (1975). "Some Correlates of
Local Group Rank among the Southern Kwakiutl." Ethnology 14:
325-346.
Duff, Wilson (1983). "The World Is as Sharp as a Knife: Meaning in
Northern Northwest Coast Art." In Indian Art Traditions of the
Northwest Coast, ed. R. L. Carlson. Burnaby: Simon Fraser
University Press, 47-66.
Hayden, Brian, and Rick Schulting (1997). "The Plateau Interaction
Sphere and Late Prehistoric Cultural Complexity." American
Antiquity 62 (I): 51-85.
Matson, R. G. (1992). "The Evolution of Northwest Coast Subsis-
tence." In Long-term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North
America, Research in Economic Anthropology Supplement 6, ed.
D. R. Cores, R. A. Hawkings, and B. L. Isaac.
Greenwich: JAI Press, 367-428.
Matson, R. G., and Gary Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
McMillan, Alan D. (1995). Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada.
Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre.
McMillan, Alan D. (1998). "Changing View of Nuu-Chah-Nulth
Culture History: Evidence of Population Replacement in Barkley
Sound." Canadian Journal of Archaeology 22 (1): 5-18.
McMillan, Alan D. (1999). Since the Time of the Transformers: The
Ancient Heritage of the Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah.
Vancouver: UBC Press.
Mitchell, Donald H. (1971). Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia Area,
"A Natural Region and Its Culture." Syesis 5: 21-42.
Mitchell, Donald H. (1990). "Prehistory of the Coasts of
Southern British Columbia and Northern Washington." In Hand-
book of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, ed.
W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
340-358.
Moss, Madonna L., and Jon M. Erlandson (1995). "Reflections on
North American Pacific Coast Prehistory." Journal of World
Prehistory 9 (I): 1-45.
Pojar, Jim, and Andy MacKinnon (1994). Plants of Coastal British
Columbia. Vancouver: Lone Pine Publishing.
Schalk, Randall F. (1997). "The Structure of an Anadromous Fish
Resource." In For Theory Building in Archaeology, ed. L.R. Binford.
New York: Academic Press, 207-249.
Schalk, Randall F. (1981). "Land Use and Organizational Complexity
among Foragers of Northwestern North America." In Affluent
Foragers, ed. S. Koyama and D. H. Thomas. Osaka: SENRI
Ethnological Studies, 53-75.
98 Late Northwest Coast
Suttles, Wayne (1983). "Productivity and Its Constraints." In Indian
Art Traditions of the Northwest Coast, ed. R. L. Carlson. Burnaby:
Simon Fraser University Press, 67-88.
Suttles, Wayne, eds. (1987). Coast Salish Essays. Seattle: University of
Washington Press.
Suttles, Wayne (l990a). "Environment." In Handbook of North
American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 16-29.
Suttles, Wayne (l990b). "Central Coast Salish Subsistence." Northwest
Anthropological Research Notes 24 (2): 147-152.
Wardwell, Allen (1996). Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian
Shamanism and Its Art. New York: Monacelli Press.
Northern Northwest Coast
TIME PERIOD: 1500-200 B.P.
LOCATION: Mainland coastal regions and islands of
Northwestern North America from Alaska to Central
British Columbia, including coastal river valleys. The
area includes the territories of the Tlingit, Haida,
Tsimshian, Haisla, Heiltsuk, and Nisqa'a.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: The artifact assem-
blage of the northern subregion during the Late period
is dominated by ground-stone, bone, antler, wood,
and shell. Characteristic lithic forms include cylindrical
labrets, bowls, triangular points, thin slate knives,
rectangular adze blades, celts, and wedges, cylindrical
and D-shaped mauls, war clubs, and hexagonal "pen-
cils" of uncertain purpose. Coarser ground-stone
abraders and net sinkers are indicative of a well-
developed woodworking and fishing technology. Wood
artifacts are less common, but include large post-and-
beam houses, ceremonial poles, bentwood boxes,
canoes, armor, and culturally modified trees. Antler
and bone were used for barbed harpoon points,
wedges, and fishhooks. Shell was used for beads and
as cutting edges in knives. Composite tools, especially
working edges hafted to wooden handles or shafts, are
common. Characteristic methods of weaving such as
twining among the Haida and Tlingit and plaiting
among the Tsimshian are known from archaeological
sites as old as 2500 B.P. Exotic materials such as native
copper, drift iron (found in shipwrecks), jet, and
obsidian appear as ornaments or points on specialized
woodworking chisels. The Late period is also associated
with the development of large coastal villages in
defensible locations and a shift away from burial
interments to cremation or internment in distant locales
such as caves.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Northern Northwest Coast is a rugged terrain of
mountains, rivers, and crenellated coastline where the
climax vegetation is temperate rainforest (Ames and
Maschner 1999: 43-53). Coastal winters are mild, with
snow accumulation common only in the very north and
interior mountain regions. Summers are cool and wet,
and annual precipitation can exceed 3000 mm. The
topography is dominated by mountains of the Alexander
archipelago, which appear as offshore islands, and by the
Coast range, which forms inshore islands and the steep
fjords and river valleys of the coastline (Fladmark 1975).
Topographic variation has exposed valuable obsidian
and native copper sources and provides diverse marine
and terrestrial environments. Terrestrial ecosystems
range from riparian marsh and rainforest to alpine
meadows that support land animals and economically
important plants such as cedar and berries (Turner
1995). The ocean and rivers contain a great quantity and
diversity of species such as sea mammals, pelagic and
neretic fish, shellfish, and anadromous fish such as
salmon, which run up freshwater rivers to spawn (Schalk
1977, 1981). Although abundant, resources often appear
in large quantities for short periods at specific locations,
and most people exploited them by following an annual
cycle of residential moves (Matson and Coupland 1995:
30-31). Owing to the mountainous landscape, waterways
were the most common travel routes.
Settlements
By 1500 B.P., most habitation sites were large
permanent villages of 10 to 20 houses that included
both small (5 x 8 m) and large buildings (10 x 15 m).
The latter have been interpreted as chiefs' residences in a
lineage-based village group (Coupland 1996). Faunal
indicators suggest that seasonal movement between
villages and resource zones in interior river valleys was
in place at the beginning of the Late period, implying
that storage and a delayed return economy were also
extant (Stewart and Stewart 1996). Radiocarbon dates
from shell midden sites suggest that the change from
egalitarian villages, composed of small houses of similar
size, to hierarchical villages, composed of houses of
different sizes, occurred by about 1900 B.P. (Archer
1992, 1996). In Alaska, villages were constructed in
defensible locations beginning at this time (Moss and
Erlandson 1992). These changes have been associated
with the development of the ethnographic pattern of

multilineage village groups of between 300 and 700
people (Davis 1990; Fladmark et al1990). The seasonal
cycle remained intact, and the scheduled production of
surplus food resources during spring-to-fall months
supported people during the winter and funded elabo-
rate ceremonials, reciprocal gift giving, and wealth item
production. Coastal (winter) villages were common
throughout the region and tend to be located near
beaches. The pattern of villages composed of one or two
parallel rows of houses, which developed in the Middle
period, continued, and the regularity of house and
village design suggests standardization in social organi-
zation (Ames and Maschner 1999: 161). Some coastal
village sites were in use for over 700 years. Less is known
from interior (summer), sites, although a variety of
hamlets of one or two large houses, camps, and
resource-processing activity sites are known, usually
located near rivers (Martindale 1999). A regional trade
center is known from the estuary of the Nass river where
people from the entire region traveled to trade for
eulachon grease produced by Tsimshian and Nisga'a
people during the eulachon run in the early spring
(Halpin and Seguin 1990). Rates of shell midden
accumulation leveled off during this period, suggesting
a stable population (MacDonald and Inglis 1981).
Burials are known only from the beginning of the
period, but they revealed a high degree of forearm and
cranial injuries, which are evidence of warfare (Cybulski
1992), probably the leading cause of premature death in
an otherwise relatively healthy population (Ames and
Maschner 1999: 56). Documentary evidence indicates
that by the end of the Late period, the northern area was
densely populated and free of lethal infectious diseases
(Boyd 1990).
Economy
Northern Northwest Coast peoples of the Late
period were hunter gatherers who relied primarily on
marine and riparian resources for food. Anadromous
fish, especially salmon and eulachon, were most signif-
icant among these and were favored because of their
predictability, abundance, and accessibility during mas-
sive spawning runs up freshwater rivers and streams
(Schalk 1977). Reliance on salmon is seen archaeolog-
ically through the use of fish weirs beginning about
3000 B.P. and the increasing frequency of fishing gear in
the Late period (Moss and Erlandson 1995: 28). Stored
fish were the staple food throughout the year and were
preserved by smoking (salmon) or rendering to grease
(eulachon), the latter being used as a preservative for
perishable food such as berries (Halpin and Seguin
Late Northwest Coast 99
1990). Other resources were significant depending on
availability and included sea mammals on the outer
islands; neretic fish such as halibut around the inner
islands; shellfish and herring on the coast; and land
mammals and plants in the river valleys. Each extended-
family household produced its own food, although it
often produced surpluses of locally abundant resources
for trade and ceremonial exchange. Reciprocity arrange-
ments existed between affines, and larger trade alli-
ances moved subsistence goods throughout the region
(Marsden and Galois 1995). Ethnographically, food
procurement was divided along gender lines, with men
fishing and hunting and women gathering plant resources
and shellfish (Moss 1993). However, the whole popula-
tion participated in salmon processing, which often
occurred at large fish weir facilities on river narrows.
The importance of ground-stone tools in this
period, especially slate knives, has been associated with
intensification of salmon processing (Matson and
Coupland 1995: 176). Technology was based on mod-
ification of naturally occurring materials. In addition to
knives, stone was ground into bowls, clubs, mauls,
celts, axes, adzes, ornaments, and daggers. Chipped
stone was used as an expedient technology except for
obsidian chisels, which were prized by woodworkers.
Wood artifacts were common and included houses,
ceremonial poles and masks, canoes, bentwood boxes,
paddles, armor, and hafting elements in composite
tools. Woodworking used many specialized stone-cut-
ting and abrading tools and represented at least part-
time occupational specialization. Bone and antler were
used, especially as points on harpoons and wood-
cutting wedges. Weaving was well developed, and
basketry techniques show consistency in design going
back 2000 years (Croes 1989, 1997). Skilled manufac-
turers of ceremonial robes and headgear were proba-
bly also specialists who, like woodworkers, could be
commissioned to produced specific items for elites. The
extended-family household was the fundamental eco-
nomic unit, although stratification existed within and
between households. Elites had preferential access to
manufactured and exotic imported items, which they
gained through their control of local trade in surplus
subsistence goods (Ames 1996; Ames and Maschner
1999: 170-171). The high labor demands of the
subsistence economy, however, meant that commoners
had adequate food supplies and were denied access only
to surpluses or wealth items. Slave labor may have been
an important element in surplus production (Donald
1997). Raiding for slaves and wealth appears to have
been a significant economic activity, especially in the
early contact era.
100 Late Northwest Coast
Sociopolitical Organization
Ethnographically, northern peoples maintained
stricter rules of group membership, marriage, residence,
and status than those in the south, a fact that some
correlate with the greater constrictions in the north on
subsistence resource availability in time and space
(Riches 1979). From the development of permanent
villages of large plank houses at the beginning of the
Late period, social organization appears to have been
based on extended-family households associated in
lineages, two to four of which co-resided as a village
group of 10 to 20 households. Each lineage was
affiliated with one of four exogamous clans (two among
the Haida). Village groups associated in regional,
acephalous ranking systems, in which the highest-
ranked leader of the highest-ranked village group held
no regional authority. Households belonged to matri-
lineal lineages with avunculocal postmarital residence
such that houses contained groups of brothers, their
nephews, and wives. Preference was for cross-cousin
marriage, and affinal ties were the main axis of
reciprocal and ceremonial obligation, a relationship
that exchanged marriage partners and responsibility for
economic goods (Rosman and Rubel 1977). Because
marriage linked people of similar status, such ties were
local for commoners but often occurred between people
of different language groups for the highest ranked, a
relationship that gave the nobility access to regional
trade. Nobles were identified by their garb and orna-
mentation, especially the labret, which was worn by
noblewomen. Labret wear became associated with
women only at the beginning of the Late period and
may reflect the origins of matrilineality (Cybulski 1992).
Leaders, commoners, and slaves lived together in large
houses and pooled labor on significant subsistence tasks
such as processing stored salmon.
Spatial analysis of households from this period
indicates that elites controlled only surplus production
(Martindale 1999). Thus, status was primarily a differ-
ence of access to wealth rather than to staples. Conflict
occurred commonly as raids between distant village
groups, frequently outside the local linguistic area
(Coupland 1989). Many oral traditions describe long-
standing feuds between village groups originating with
personal slights and culminating in kidnapping and
murder (MacDonald and Cove 1987). An increase in
interpersonal violence is seen in the rise of forearm and
skull injuries in Late period burials (Cybulski 1992) and
in the construction of defended villages and forts
throughout the Northern Northwest Coast (Moss and
Erlandson 1995).
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious beliefs of Northern Northwest Coast
peoples are well known from ethnographic sources
(Boas 1916; Carlson 1983; Hyms 1990; 10naitis 1995;
Kirk 1986). They include a belief that the universe was
divided into parallel worlds, including the human world,
the spirit realm, and the land of the dead. Denizens of
other worlds appeared in the human landscape as spirit
beings, and the stories of human relationships with these
creatures provided the mythological and historical
setting of contemporary indigenous society. These twin
themes of spirit beings entering the human world and of
their influence on the history of clans and lineages is
manifest in material culture as depictions of these beings
in art, on tools and household items, on ceremonial
clothing, and on architecture. Past interaction between
individual lineages and spirit beings was manifest as
crest symbols that linked the spirit world to the human
lineage and tied them to ancestral claims of ownership
to territories (Cove 1987; Marsden and Galois 1995).
Much of the art of Northwest Coast people is symbolic
representation of these interactions, each of which has
narrative, historical, and geopolitical meaning as well as
aesthetic value. There was a reduction in the frequency
of portable art objects from the Middle to Late periods,
perhaps owing to a shift from personal displays on
ornaments to collective imagery on architecture. Be-
cause of the territorial and economic connection of
crests, crest imagery was associated with high status,
although rank could also be displayed through wealth
ornaments such as exotic or valuable materials such as
dentalia beads, obsidian, copper ornaments, labrets, or
ground slate mirrors (Ames and Maschner 1999: 239-
244; Holm 1990). Ceremonies such as feasts were
opportunities to legitimize one's status and territorial
claims by recounting these stories through dance and
performance, and there exists a suite of items, such as
robes, masks, rattles, and serving dishes, which were
used for this purpose.
References
Ames, Kenneth M. (1996). "Chiefly Power and Household Production
on the Northwest Coast." In Foundations of Social Inequality, ed.
T. Price and G. Fienman. New York: Plenum, 155-187.
Ames, Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). Peoples of
the Northwest Coast. London: Thames and Hudson.
Archer, David (1992). "Results of the Prince Rupert Harbour
Radiocarbon Dating Project." Unpublished manuscript, Victoria,
British Columbia Heritage Trust.
Archer, David (1992). "New Evidence on the Development of Ranked
Society for the Prince Rupert Area." Paper presented at the 29th
meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association, Halifax.

Boyd, Robert (1990). "Demographic History." In Handbook of North
American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 135~148.
Coupland, Gary (1989). "Warfare and Social Complexity on the
Northwest Coast." In Cultures in Conflict: Current Archaeological
Perspectives, ed. D. Tkaczuk and B. Vivian. Calgary: Archaeological
Association of the University of Calgary, 205~214.
Coupland, Gary (1996). "This Old House: Cultural Complexity and
Household Stability on the Northern Northwest Coast of North
America." In Emergent Complexity, ed. J. Arnold. Ann Arbor:
International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series, 9,
74-90.
Croes, Dale R. (1989). "Lachane Basketry and Cordage: A Technical,
Functional, and Comparative Study." Canadian Journal of Archaeo-
logy 8: 101~130.
Croes, Dale R. (1997). "The North-Central Cultural Dichotomy on the
Northwest Coast of North America: Its Evolution as Suggested by
Wet-site Basketry and Wooden Fish Hooks." Antiquity 71: 594-615.
Cybulski, Jerome S. (1992). A Greenville Burial Ground. Ottawa:
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series 146.
Davis, Stanley D. (1990). "Prehistory of Southeastern Alaska." In
Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast,
ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
197~202.
Donald, Leland (1997). Aboriginal Slavery of the Northwest Coast of
North America. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press.
Fladmark, Knut (1975). A Paleoecological Model for Northwest Coast
Prehistory. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Man, Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 42.
Fladmark, Knut, Kenneth M. Ames, and Patricia D. Sutherland
(1990). "Prehistory of the Northern Coast of British Columbia." In
Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast,
ed. W. Suttles, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
229~239.
Halpin, Marjorie M., and Margaret Seguin (1990). "Tsimshian
Peoples: Southern Tsimshian Coast Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitk-
san." In Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest
Coast, ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 267~284.
MacDonald, George F., and John J. Cove, eds. (1987). Tsimshian
Narratives 2: Trade and Warfare. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of
Civilization.
MacDonald, George F., and Richard I. Inglis (1981). "An Overview of
the North Coast Prehistory Project (1966-1980)." BC Studies 48:
37~157.
Marsden, Susan, and Robert Galois (1995). "The Tsimshian, the
Hudson's Bay Company, and the Geopolitics of the Northwest
Coast Fur Trade, 1787~1840." The Canadian Geographer 39 (2):
169~183.
Martindale, Andrew R. C. (1999). "The River of Mist: Cultural
Change in the Tsimshian Past." Doctoral dissertation, Department
of Anthropology, University of Toronto.
Matson, R. G., and Gary Coupland (1995). "The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast." San Diego: Academic Press.
Moss, Madonna L., and Jon M. Erlandson (1995). "Reflections on
North American Pacific Coast Prehistory." Journal of World
Prehistory 9 (I): 1-45.
Riches, David (1979). "Ecological Variation on the Northwest Coast:
Models for the Generation of Cognatic and Matrilineal Descent." In
Sociological and Ecological Systems, ed. P. C. Burnham and R. F.
Ellens. London: Academic Press, 145~166.
Late Northwest Coast 101
Schalk, Randall F. (1977). "The Structure of an Anadromous Fish
Resource." In For Theory Building in Archaeology, ed. L. R. Binford.
New York: Academic Press, 207~249.
Schalk, Randall F. (1981). "Land Use and Organizational Complexity
among Foragers of Northwestern North America." In Affluent
Foragers, ed. S. Koyama and D. H. Thomas. Osaka: SENRI
Ethnological Studies, 53~75.
Turner, Nancy (1995). Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples. Vancou-
ver: University of British Columbia Press.
Southern Northwest Coast
TIME PERIOD: 1500--200 B.P.
LOCATION: The coast of northwestern North America
from northern California to Washington State, includ-
ing coastal river valleys.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: The Late period on the
Southern Northwest Coast is characterized by small
chipped-stone projectile points with concave and side-
notched bases, probably associated with the introduc-
tion of the bow and arrow around 1500 B.P. Chipped
stone was also used to make scrapers and knives,
including large obsidian knives, some up to 2 ft (60 cm)
long. Ground-stone pestles, net sinkers, and bowls are
also found. Antler and bone were used to make wedges,
needles, fishhooks, bipoints, clubs, harpoons, and gam-
ing pieces. Ground-stone woodworking tools such as
abraders and adzes are common as are the remains of
wooden post- and-beam houses.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The coastline from northern California to Wash-
ington differs from more northern areas in lacking large
offshore islands. The land near the ocean is marked by
low elevation bluffs, undulating hills, and long beaches.
To the east, it rises across a narrow plain to the foothills
and ridges of the Coast mountains, except in northern
Washington State where the Olympic mountains meet
the ocean. Farther east, the Cascade range contains
active volcanoes. The coastal plain is cross-cut by rivers
running from the mountains to the sea (Ames and
Maschner 1999: 44). The climate is the mildest found in
the marine-modified temperate zone of the Northwest
Coast. Summers are warm and dry, and winters are mild
and wet with annual average rainfall ranging between
102 Late Northwest Coast
1000 and 2500 mm (Lyman 1991). The climax vegeta-
tion of the area is temperate rainforest composed
primarily of coniferous species such as spruce, fir, and
cedar, although oak forests are common in the foothills
of the southeast. Physiographic variations produce a
patchwork of ecological niches from deciduous transi-
tional zones to riparian marshes to grassland meadows
(Pojar and MacKinnon 1994). A variety of land
mammals inhabits the region including deer, elk, bear,
and small game. However, as in the north, the signif-
icant resources are anadromous fish, which migrate up
rivers, shellfish, and marine fish and sea mammal
species.
Settlements
The last 1500 years has been described as the "Late
Littoral stage," an indication that there was continuity
from the Middle period (Lyman and Ross 1988: 100).
Site location continued to favor resource rich areas such
as intertidal zones and river estuaries. Occupation was
more intense, leaving larger and deeper archaeological
components, which has been interpreted as reflecting a
shift from foraging to a more sedentary collecting
strategy, with a particular focus on salmon. This shift
is associated with the earliest house remains. Like the
rest of the Northwest Coast, there was a seasonal cycle
to the settlement pattern. Winters were spent in aggre-
gate villages containing multiple households, usually
located on river estuaries in the lee of headlands as
protection from winter storms (Lyman 1991). Here
people lived off stored foods supplemented with acces-
sible marine resources such as shellfish. In the spring,
village populations dispersed, with some people moving
to coastal areas for fish and sea mammals, and others
moving inland along rivers to collect plant foods and to
hunt for beaver and otter. Upland areas were accessible
from both locales, and short trips were made to hunt for
deer, elk, and bear. In late summer, people regrouped at
river-fishing camps for the salmon runs where the
winter's store of food was collected, after which the
cycle was completed with a return to the winter village
(Lyman and Ross 1988). There was a modified version
of this cycle in the south where winter villages were
located on high bluffs, and people included trips to oak
forests for acorns during the late summer (Elsasser 1978:
50). The trend is from large houses in the north, about
5 x 15 m, to smaller houses in the south, 5 x 7 m. This
suggests that the extended-family household was a late
development that was spreading southward at contact
(Matson and Coupland 1995: 259). This may be related
to the establishment of habitation sites in marginal
resource sites and the proliferation of shell midden sites,
developments that imply that Late period populations
were expanding beyond the available space in river
estuaries (Lyman 1991; Ross 1990: 559).
Economy
As elsewhere on the Northwest Coast, the Late
period saw the development of an intensified hunting
and gathering economy in which people collected and
stored resources as they became available. Salmon were
the most significant resource throughout the region as
seen in the increase in fish weirs and fishing and storage-
related artifacts (Elsasser 1978: 50; Erlandson 1998: 15-
16). Salmon are intensifiable owing to their abundance
during spawning runs, the predictability of their migra-
tions, their accessibility in river channels, and their
storability through drying and smoking. Other resources
were important, at times equally so, but the use of sea
lions, harbor seals, sea otters, rockfish, flatfish, shellfish,
elk, and deer fluctuated with local availability (Lyman
1991: 292; Matson and Coupland 1995: 258). It has been
argued, for example, that at some rookeries along the
coast, sea mammal hunting in the Late period depleted
near-shore populations such that people either devel-
oped an offshore hunting strategy using boats or shifted
their hunting focus to land mammals (Hildebrandt and
Jones 1992). The trend toward social and political
complexity over the last 2000 years has been linked to
the intensified exploitation of a suite of resources
including sea and land mammals as well as salmon
(Erlandson 1998; Lyman 1991, 1995). The intensifica-
tion of hunted animals may be related to the develop-
ment of the bow and arrow about 1500 B.P. (Pettigrew
1990: 523). Two spheres of economic activity can be
identified: (I) a subsistence economy of foodstuffs in
which households were largely self-sufficient but could
trade surpluses for other foods and manufactured items
with close neighbors, and (2) a wealth or prestige
economy of long-distance trade items, most commonly
obsidian and dentalia shell beads, which functioned as a
regional trade currency (Elsasser 1978: 51; Silverstein
1990: 537). According to ethnographic sources, the two
economies were not easily interchangeable, with the
result that access to subsistence goods was open, but
wealth items were restricted to elites (Gould 1978: 132).
Thus food was a function of labor, but wealth was
achievable only through inheritance, trading, gambling,
or raiding. There is regionalization in Late period trade
networks, and the Southern Northwest Coast exchange
of exotics as well as clay and antler figurines operated in
some isolation from the northern sphere (Ames and

Maschner 1999: 170). Economic stratification appears to
have been related more to the distribution of exotic or
wealth items than to subsistence staples. Evidence of
inequality in burial goods and artifact distributions in
households is greater in the north around the Columbia
river valley than in the south (Matson and Coupland
1995: 259).
Sociopolitical Organization
During the Late period, the southern subregion was
part of a gradient of social, economic, and environ-
mental differences from north to south along the
Northwest Coast. In the south, the climate is generally
milder, and resources are available more frequently and
in greater numbers. Correspondingly, social organiza-
tion appears to have been less structured and somewhat
less stratified south of the Columbia river. Houses and
villages are smaller; households of 5 to 20 people in
villages of less than 100 are known from the Oregon
and Northern California coasts (Matson and Coupland
1995: 32). Similarly, social rules became less rigid in the
south; inheritance was ambilateral, and postmarital
residence was cognatic, suggesting that group member-
ship was more flexible in the south than in the north.
Some argue that this gradient is a consequence of
differences in resource availability. Southern groups
lived in areas where more types of foodstuffs were more
common throughout the landscape for greater lengths
of time than in the north. Thus, the rigid social order
necessary to organize the labor of the patchy resource
structure in the north is absent in the south (Riches
1979; Schalk 1981; Suttles 1968). Despite these differ-
ences, many sociopolitical themes common to the
Northwest Coast appeared in the southern region.
People were organized into village groups composed of
multiple households, each of which was ranked such
that the leading figure in the highest-ranked family
was the village leader. Rank was based on control
or management of household economic production and
labor and was manifest as unequal access to prestige
goods, which included manufactured items, trade goods,
and exotic materials. As elsewhere on the Northwest
Coast, the relationship between commoners and nobles
was part coercion, part co-operation. Leaders made
important economic decisions, but the labor of com-
moners was necessary to effect them, and economic
success benefited all. High-ranked individuals and
families could own slaves whose labor was a valuable
contribution to the household economy (Donald 1997;
Ruby and Brown 1993). People on the densely popu-
lated lower Columbia river observed pronounced dis-
Late Northwest Coast 103
tinctions among nobles, commoners, and slaves in a
rigid social system similar to the Northern and Central
Northwest Coast regions (Silverstein 1990). Inheritance
was bilateral, permitting descent of leadership roles
from father to son. Marriage relationships tended
to be status endogamous with the result that elites
married nobles from other village groups while com-
moners married within the community. South of the
Columbia River, social organization was less differen-
tiated. Leaders were less powerful and aloof, while
slaves had more rights such that marriage between
slaves and commoners is reported ethnographically
(Zenk 1990: 550).
Religion and Expressive Culture
Ethnographic sources indicate that the people of the
southern region shared the Northwest Coast pattern of
belief in spirit worlds whose denizens manifest them-
selves in the human landscape in topographical fea-
tures, animals, and plants (Gould 1978; Zenk 1990).
Spirit powers took an active role in human affairs, and
people sought to maintain good relations in inherited
spirit alliances as well as to develop new ones through
spirit quests. Ceremonialism was largely directed either
at soliciting assistance from spirit powers or announc-
ing and legitimizing claims permitted through the
assistance of spirit powers, such as ownership of
territory (Silverstein 1990; Zenk 1990). Winter was the
ceremonial season when people gathered for feasts and
celebrations of rites of passage, marriage, dancing, and
storytelling. Shamans could be consulted for their
powers of intervention in the spirit worlds for healing,
advice, and prognostication. The archaeological record
shows continuity in material manifestations of these
activities from the Late period to the postcontact
era. Houses in winter villages, especially in the north,
were large and equipped with central hearths to host
feasts and ceremonials. Artwork focused on zoomor-
phic designs, especially in stone sculpture (Ames and
Maschner 1999: 243). Anthropomorphic figurines, per-
haps representing spirit powers, made of carved antler,
clay, and ceramic appeared throughout the region. The
figurines of the Columbia river area are the only known
ceramics on the Northwest Coast. Zoomorphic designs
also appeared on utensils and war clubs, similar to
what occurred on the central coast during the Middle
period. Objects of wood and cordage such as masks,
robes, rattles, and headdresses, which are known from
the Historic period, were probably made before to
contact but have not survived in archaeological con-
texts.
104 Late Northwest Coast

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Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast,
ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, Meier is a habitation site containing a midden and a
554-559. single large plank house 14 by 35 m, of which 160 m2
Ruby, Robert H., and John A. Brown (1993). Indian Slavery in the have been excavated (Ames et al. 1992). The house is
Pacific Northwest. Spokane: Arthur H. Clarke Company. marked by a series of perimeter postholes linked by
Schalk, Randall F. (1981). "Land Use and Organizational Complexity linear plank molds, which mark where the walls would
among Foragers of Northwestern North America." In Affluent
Foragers, ed. S. Koyama and D. H. Thomas. Osaka: SENRI
have been. In the house were central postholes that held
Ethnological Studies, 53-75. supports for the gabled-roof ridge beam and smaller
Silverstein, Michael (1990). "Chinookans of the Lower Columbia." In postholes marking the outline of a sleeping platform
Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, that ran along three walls. Four large hearths were
ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, evenly spaced down the center aisle, each surrounded by
533-546.
Suttles, Wayne (1968). "Variation in Habitat and Culture on the
a wooden box indicating that at one time the floor was
Northwest Coast." In Man in Adaptation: The Cultural Present, ed. planked with wood. The floor area of the house is
Y. A. Cohen. Chicago: Aldine, 93-106. divisible into four zones. The bench zone represents the

area below the sleeping platform around the inside
perimeter. Running along the center is the row of
hearths and roof-support posts. Between the central and
bench zones is a U-shaped corridor containing multiple
pits and minor postholes representing a series of storage
and cooking facilities as well as various racks and
processing equipment. The corridor zone contained the
majority of artifacts and faunal remains. The final zone
includes the front of the building with its central
entrance. The post pattern indicates that one end of
the building was substantially rebuilt, and many of the
interior features overlap or have been redesigned,
indicating that the house was occupied for a long time,
perhaps 400 years (Ames and Maschner 1999: 161). A
midden and yard area were identified outside the house.
The midden contained small hearths and shell lenses as
well as a high concentration of artifacts. The yard space
between the midden and the house contained a mix of
shallow pits, ash, and charcoal. Over 12,500 tools,
30,000 pieces of lithic debitage, and over 100,000 faunal
elements have been recovered from Meier. The artifact
assemblage includes woodworking tools, harpoons, net
weights, points, drills, pestles, needles, figurines, shell
blades, and copper points. Ornaments such as dentalia
beads and trade beads were also recovered. Faunal
material includes high numbers of elk, deer, salmon, and
sturgeon as well as floral material such as hazelnuts and
acorns.
Cultural Aspects
Meier is a well-researched example of a Late period
Chinookan multifamily plank house. It is estimated that
over the 400 years of occupation, somewhere between
500,000 and 1,000,000 board feet of lumber were
necessary to construct and maintain the building, a
figure that demonstrates the large labor investment such
houses represent (Ames and Maschner 1999: 167). The
Chinook people lived throughout the lower Columbia
river valley, moving between permanent villages and
temporary habitations located near specific resource
territories (Silverstein 1990). That Meier is located far
from the coast but contains consistent representation of
marine shellfish, which is evidence of movement of
subsistence goods up the valley either through direct
procurement or, as is more likely, by trade or ceremonial
exchange. The architecture of the house, with its row of
central hearths surrounded by a raised sleeping plat-
form, matches descriptions from both ethnographic and
early historic accounts of a series of family subunits of
increasing rank from to back in the house (Matson and
Coupland 1995: 262).
Late Northwest Coast 105
References
Ames, Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). Peoples of
the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. London:
Thames and Hudson.
Ames, Kenneth M., Doria F. Raetz, Stephen Hamilton, and Christine
McAfee (1992). "Household Archaeology of a Southern Northwest
Coast Plank House." Journal of Field Archaeology 19 (3): 275-290.
Matson, R. G., and Gary Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
Pojar, Jim, and Andy MacKinnon (1994). Plants of Coastal British
Columbia. Vancouver: Lone Pine Publishing.
Silverstein, Michael (1990). "Chinookans of the Lower Columbia. "In
Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast,
ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
533-546.
Ozette
TIME PERIOD: 450-250 B.P.
LOCATION: On the north end of the Olympic peninsula in
northwestern Washington State, 30 km south of Cape
Flattery.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Ozette is located on a beachside terrace at the foot of
a steep hill on the western side of the Olympic peninsula.
The terrain in this area rises quickly out of the ocean
into the Olympic mountains, whose lower elevations are
covered in coniferous rainforest; the near shore is
marked by rocky islands and narrow beaches. The site
is in the marine-modified temperate climate common
throughout the Northwest Coast and characterized by
heavy annual rainfall and cool temperatures. The
rugged terrain and heavy rainfall produce fast-moving
rivers and the ever-present danger of mud slides, one of
which destroyed the village at Ozette. Marine and
terrestrial resources abound and include anadromous
fish, sea mammals, shellfish, deer, elk, bear, and beaver
(Wessen 1990).
Physical Features
Ozette is among the most famous of Northwest
Coast archaeological sites because it contains a whaling
and fishing village destroyed by a mud slide, which
sealed the cultural layers and preserved organic material
106 Late Northwest Coast
of the houses and their contents (Ames and Maschner
1999: 111). The site is a linear shell midden over 1 km
long, with deposits dating back 2000 years (McMillan
1999: 87; Samuels 1994). Excavations have revealed four
shed-roof plank houses in the upper layers, dating to the
18th century, three of which have been completely
exposed and are 21 by 11 m, 20 by 9 m, and 17 by 10 m
(Mauger 1978; Samuels 1994). Each house had a pattern
of 6 ~o 10 hearths dividing the building into family
subumts around the inside perimeter, similar to ethno-
graphic descriptions of Makah houses. Over 50,000
artifacts and 1,000,000 faunal elements have been
recovered from Ozette (Wessen 1990). Analyses of the
distribution of artifacts and faunal material in the
houses divide the floor into activity areas of food
preparation, artifact manufacture, and storage, as well
as the sleeping and living areas of the family subunits
(Samuels 1983). Suites of artifacts or kits representing
whaling, seal hunting, fishing, woodworking, weaving,
and ground-stone tool manufacture have been identi-
fied. In addition, variation in artifact and faunal
distribution exists both within and between houses.
Higher concentrations of high-status objects (orna-
ments) and food (whale and salmon) were found along
the. northern end of each house. The largest house,
WhICh. was located in the front row of buildings,
c~ntamed the highest number of ornamental objects, a
hIgher frequency of salmon, halibut, and whale remains,
a lower frequency of shellfish, and a higher proportion
of whale hunting gear (Ames and Maschner 1999: 166;
Wessen 1988). These variations imply that control of
access to resources and stored surpluses was correlated
with status (Huelsbeck 1989). Whale hunting provided
78% of the animal food represented at Ozette, a level of
intensification comparable to the ethnographic period
(Huelsbeck 1988a; Samuels 1994). Whale bones were
also used for artifacts and architecture. Ninety percent
of the artifacts from Ozette were organic such as
basketry, cordage, clothing, kerfed boxes, fishhooks,
harpoons, and composite tools including bows. Larger
wooden equipment such as cradles, racks, platforms,
drainage channels, and the architecture of the houses
themselves were also preserved. Ground-stone tools
included knives, mauls, net weights, and abraders. Most
famous, however, have been the ornamental objects,
which included a carved wooden orca fin inlaid with sea
otter teeth, decorated shell objects, knob top hats, and
carved anthropomorphic and zoomorphic designs on
implements and large wooden panels (McMillan 1999:
91). Ozette also contained iron artifacts such as small
chisel points and pendants, although the source of this
material is unknown (Wessen 1990).
Cultural Aspects
Ozette is the best preserved and most intensively
studied of Late period Northwest Coast villages. Even
though much has been published on the site and its
material culture (Mauger 1978; Wessen 1988; Samuels
1983,1991,1994; Huelsbeck 1988a, 1989), more analysis
remains to be done (Matson and Coupland 1995: 267).
The site confirms much of what is known from
ethnographic sources about Northwest Coast cultures
in general and the Makah in particular. The village was
organized into large households, probably of extended
families. The households were ordered into two rows
~arallel to the beach, each row probably representing a
Imeage. The largest of the excavated houses sat in the
middle of the front row, the traditional location of the
village leader, and this building contained the highest
concentration of status items and faunal material. Each
house was of shed-roof construction subdivided into
smaller family units, each containing a hearth and
related activity areas. Again, the variation in artifact
and faunal distribution implies that status differences
existed within the house and that the highest-status
family lived in the northern back corner. The correlation
of status objects and foods suggests that rank was based
in part on control of economic production. A full suite
of ethnographically identified economic activities is
~epresented at Ozette, the most impressive being the
Importance of whale hunting. Leading a whale hunt was
the highest-status activity among the Makah, one
reserved for leaders and associated with ceremony and
ritual (Huelsbeck 1988a, 1989). Its prominence among
other subsistence activities such as fishing and hunting
fit the Late period pattern of economic intensification
through surplus production of particular resources
(Huelsbeck 1988b). That these surpluses supported
regional trade in exotic materials and a rich system of
intra- (and probably inter-) village ranking is manifest in
the ownership of ceremonial and ornamental objects.
Seasonal indicators such as shellfish show that Ozette
was occupied throughout much of the year, although
people probably left the village for seasonally available
resources (McMillan 1999: 92).
References
Ames, Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). Peoples of
the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. London:
Thames and Hudson.
Huelsbeck, David R. (1988a). "Whaling in the Precontact Economy of
the Central Northwest Coast." Arctic Anthropology 25 (I): 1-15.
Huelsbeck, David R. (l988b). "The Surplus Economy of the Central
Northwest Coast." In Research in Economic Anthropology, Supple-

ment 3: Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast, ed.
B. L. Isaac. Greenwhich: JAI Press, 149-177.
Huelsbeck, David R. (1989). "Food Consumption, Resource Exploi-
tation, and Relationships within and between Households at
Ozette." In Households and Communities, ed. S. MacEachern,
D. Archer, and R. Garvin. Calgary: University of Calgary Archaeo-
logical Association, 157-167.
Matson, R. G., and Gary Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
Mauger, Jeffery E. (1978). Shed Roof Houses at the Ozette Archaeo-
logical Site: A Protohistoric Architectural System. Washington State
Archaeological Research Center Research Report, No. 73. Pullman:
Washington State University.
McMillan, Alan D. (1999). Since the Time of the Transformers: The
Ancient Heritage of the Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah.
Vancouver: UBC Press.
Samuels, Stephen (1983). "Spatial Patterns In Ozette Longhouse Floor
Middens." Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology,
Washington State University.
Samuels, Stephen, eds. (1991). Ozette Archaeological Projects Research
Reports, Volume 1: House Structure and Floor Midden. Washington
State University Reports of Investigations, No. 63. Pullman:
Washington State University.
Samuels, Stephen, eds. (1994). Ozette Archaeological Projects Research
Reports, Volume 2: Fauna. Washington State University Reports of
Investigations, No. 66. Pullman: Washington State University.
Wessen, Gary C. (1988). "The Use of Shellfish Resources on the
Northwest Coast: The View from Ozette." In Research in Economic
Anthropology, Supplement 3: Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific
Northwest Coast, ed. B.L. Isaac. Greenwich: JAI Press, Inc.
179-207.
Wessen, Gary C. (1990). "Prehistory of the Ocean Coast of Washing-
ton." In Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest
Coast, ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute
Press, 412-421.
Point St. George (T'aiiya7n)
TIME PERIOD: 300-200 B.P.
LOCATION: On the western edge of a narrow coastal plain
in northern California.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The Point St. George site is located on a coastal
headland of a narrow plain running between the Pacific
ocean and the foothills of the Klamath mountains of
Oregon and California. The site sits on a bluff over-
looking the ocean near a freshwater spring. The head-
land bluff runs to the south; to the north lies a long
sandy beach leading to the Winchuch river; to the east
Late Northwest Coast 107
the land rises slowly to redwood-forest-covered hills.
The Klamath mountains contain forests of cedar, fir,
and oak and coastal rivers. The climate on the coastal
plain, like most of the Northwest Coast, is mild and wet,
supporting abundant vegetation, including wild berries,
camas, rushes, and iris species. The rocky coast to the
south is home to sea mammals and birds; shellfish,
seaweeds, smelts, and perch abound off the northern
beach. Anadromous fish such as salmon run up the
rivers, as do eels. Small game occur throughout the
plain, including rabbit, hare, and raccoon; larger mam-
mals such as elk, deer, and bear are rare, but common in
the forests of the eastern mountains.
Physical Features
There are four cultural areas at Point St. George: (l)
a village consisting of a row of living houses and sweat
houses oriented E-W along the cliff bluff, perpendicular
to the prevailing north wind; (2) a midden beside the
houses; (3) a stoneworking and butchering area 365 m
north of the village; and (4) a cemetery some "consid-
erable distance" to the southeast (Gould 1966:16-17).
Erosion has swept away many of the structures, so that
excavations focused on the one remaining house, parts
of the midden, and the northern activity area. The house
matched descriptions provided by Tolowa people of
their ancestors' homes. It was terraced into the hill
slope, and its walls were constructed of vertical wooden
planks dug 23 cm into the ground forming a structure
3.2 x 3.2 m. The walls directly supported a gabled roof,
and a stone used as an entrance block was located in the
middle of the south wall. The center of the floor
contained a terraced pit supported by a wooden frame; a
large hearth ringed with upright flat stones sat in the
middle of the clay floor surrounded by activity areas
including an acorn-pounding stone.
The workshop area was located in a shallow depres-
sion,2.1 m diameter and 0.9 m deep, on a small knoll and
protected by a windbreak marked by a line of postholes.
It contained a flat anvil stone and high concentrations
of artifacts and lithic debitage. The artifacts recovered
from the three excavated areas included recognizable
Tolowa forms such as bone and chipped-stone harpoon
points, chipped-stone arrow points and scrapers, ground-
stone pestles, adze handles, net sinkers, pipe bowls,
knives, bone needles, fishhooks, awls, and shell beads.
Faunal material included shellfish, whale, sea lion, seal,
elk, deer, bear, raccoon, rabbit, coyote, and gopher, as
well as a number of coastal bird species. Fish were
represented by deep sea species such as rockfish and scul-
pins and anadromous species such as salmon.
108 Late Northwest Coast
Cultural Aspects
Gould's (1966) interpretation of Point st. George is
one of the earliest efforts on the Northwest Coast to
compare archaeological data with ethnographic sources,
oral traditions, and oral histories of living indigenous
people. The result is a convincing portrayal of a Late
period Tolowa village. Each house was occupied by a
single family, although this could be quite large as the
Tolowa were polygynous. The household was econom-
ically self-sufficient, and the interior platform of the
building was a storage facility as well as a sleeping area.
The village was home to a loose, ambilaterally related
lineage overseen by a leader whose position provided
wealth and status. The leader's authority was less formal
than that of more northern cultures, and his role
regarding such matters as seasonal resource collection
was managerial. In late summer, smelt and shellfish were
caught on the northern beach, dried, and stored at the
village in baskets. In the fall, the entire village moved
inland to the coastal rivers to collect acorns and salmon,
surpluses of which were also stored. The rainy months
of the winter were a ceremonial season in which people
relied on stored foods, although people would travel
inland and to the coast in small groups for fish and game
until the smelt ran again in late summer.
References
Gould, Richard A. (1966). Archaeology of the Point St. George Site.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Matson, R. G., and Gary Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
Psacelay (Clay Creek)
TIME PERIOD: 250-175 B.P.
LOCATION: On the Gitnadoix river, a tributary of the
lower Skeena river in northwestern British Columbia.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Psacelay is located on a well-drained, sandy terrace
by a main channel of the Gitnadoix river, about 90 km
from the Pacific ocean. The climate is more temperate
than on the coast and marked by warmer, drier summers
and cooler, snowy winters. The river valley is narrow
and lined with steep mountains, although the valley
floor is level. The site has access to all the major interior
ecosystems. It sits in a coniferous forest surrounded by a
dense blueberry plant understory; it is near a rich
salmon river and a creek that provides access to a high-
elevation hanging valley (Martindale 1999).
Physical Features
Psacelay sits on a wide, low elevation terrace about
2-4 m above a branch of the Gitnadoix river, which
runs in front of the site. Cultural features at the site
include 2 large post- and- beam plank houses charac-
terized by leveled floors, perimeter and interior posthole
patterns, and standing wooden architecture. In addition,
there are two linear middens surrounding the houses, a
wide activity area between the houses and the river, and
two smaller buildings and six cache pits behind the
houses. The houses measure 14 by 11 m and 19 by 12 m,
with long axes parallel to the river. Each house appears
to have been divided into a central zone containing a
central hearth surrounded by three large cooking pits
and five subunits around the perimeter, each containing
a small cooking hearth and one or two small cooking
pits (Martindale and Coupland n.d.). The perimeter
units are divided by lines of small posts in a pattern that
matches the ethnographic description of extended-fam-
ily houses divided into family subunits (Martindale
1999a). A grease and berry storage area was located in a
rear unit, and there was a gradient of ground-stone
artifacts from the front (low) to the back (high) of the
house. The activity area at the front of the houses was
used primarily for food processing, especially of blue-
berries. Over 2 kg of blueberry seeds were recovered
from various midden contexts, by far the most signif-
icant food resource represented at the site. Faunal and
floral evidence indicate that it was occupied during the
summer and fall months. An activity area between the
houses was used for ground-stone tool manufacture.
One house was abandoned before contact, but the upper
layer of the larger house contained two European items,
a glass bead and a fragment of crockery.
Cultural Aspects
Psacelay is the only fully investigated interior
habitation site clearly associated with a coastal village
group, in this case the Ginadoiks of the Tsimshian. It
demonstrates that during the summer to fall months,

some coastal village groups split into smaller units,
probably extended families (Martindale 1999). It con-
firms much of what ethnographic sources suggest (see
Halpin and Seguin 1990). Seasonal mobility was resi-
dential but occurred between permanent house sites.
Households were divided into family subunits, and
status variation existed within the extended family, as
indicated by artifact distributions, with the highest
ranked living at the rear of the house. The location of
household storage in the back subunits indicates that the
household produced a surplus that leaders controlled.
Artifact forms confirm that ground-stone was the most
common tool type and that woodworking was one of the
most common activities. However, Psacelay is also
significant for its differences from ethnographic sources,
specifically on economic issues. The most common
resource was not salmon, but blueberries-a resource
traditionally owned by women-which were produced
in large quantities and stored in eulachon oil. Although
the houses were of similar size to those reported from
the coast in ethnographies, their long axes were oriented
parallel instead of perpendicular to the waterfront, and
they lacked an excavated central pit. Psacelay is part of a
pre-contact settlement pattern of distributed summer
settlements, each with its own suite of satellite resource-
procurement camps (Martindale n.d.). This picture
changes after contact to include agglutinated summer
villages on the Skeena river, which has been interpreted
as the development of a regional settlement hierarchy
(Martindale 1999). The changing role of Psacelay
suggests an initial fluorescence, rather than a collapse,
of indigenous political organization in response to the
fur trade (Drucker 1943: 27; Fisher 1977: 210; Martin-
dale 1999).
References
Drucker, Philip (1943). Archaeological Survey on the Northern North-
west Coast. Bureau of American Ethnology Anthropological Papers,
No. 20. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Fisher, Robin (1977). Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations
in British Columbia, 1774-1890. Vancouver: University of British
Columbia Press.
Martindale, Andrew R. C. (1999). 'The River of Mist: Cultural
Change in the Tsimshian Past." Doctoral dissertation, Department
of Anthropology, University of Toronto.
Martindale, Andrew R. C. (n.d.). "Archaeological Stories of the
Tsimshian: Change in the Context of Contact." In The Entangled
Past. Calgary: Archaeological Association of the University of
Calgary.
Martindale, Andrew R. c., and Gary Coupland (n.d.). "Changing
House and Household Form during the Late Prehistoric Period on
the Northern Northwest Coast." In ed. F. Rahemtulla and
C. Grier. Burnaby: Simon Fraser University Publications in
Anthropology.
Late Northwest Coast 109
Yuquot
TIME PERIOD: 4000-200 B.P.
LOCATION: On Friendly cove on the southeastern end of
Nootka island, which is on the west side of Vancouver
island.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Yuquot is located on a sheltered beach on the east
side of a small peninsula on the southeastern edge of
Nootka island. The climate of the region is typical of the
Northwest Coast. Summers are cool, winters are mild,
and rainfall is heavy. The site is on the boundary
between the outer coastal environment, characterized by
a rocky and exposed coastline, and an inner coastal
environment, characterized by protected inlets sur-
rounded by hills and mountains and fed by interior
rivers. The outer coast abounds in marine life, including
whales, seals, sea otters, halibut, cod, salmon, and
rockfish. The inner coast contains marine resources such
as shellfish and anadromous fish runs, as well as plant
and animal species associated with the hemlock rain-
forest. Of these, a number of berries and roots were used
as food in addition to game animals such as deer and
bear (Dewhirst 1980).
Physical Features
Yuquot is a large linear midden 30-60 m wide and
up to 5 m high, running parallel to the beach for over
200 m. It contains continuous cultural deposition for
over 4000 years, including the Mowachaht village
encountered by the Spanish in 1774. The archaeological
features are located below the contemporary village,
which, as in earlier times, has been constructed in a line
along the top of the ridge. As a result, excavations have
been limited to a single trench across the midden 64 by
15 ft (19.5 by 4.5 m) which contained 18 ft (5.5 m) of
cultural deposit, over 7400 artifacts, 240,000 faunal
elements, and nine burials, all of which have been
analyzed (Dewhirst 1980; Folan and Dewhirst 1980,
1981). Although the lowest levels have produced radio-
carbon dates of over 4000 B.P., Zone III, found in
the upper 3.4 to 1.6 m, dates to the Late period. No
house features were associated with this zone, although
110 Late Northwest Coast
it did contain posthole patterns interpreted as a retain-
ing wall built to separate the midden from a building
(Dewhirst 1980: 53). Houses were identified in lower
layers dating to the Middle period, and it is assumed
that the settlement continued into the Late period
(Ames and Maschner 1999: 102). More than 900
artifacts were associated with the Late period, repre-
senting manufacturing, fishing, hunting, and ceremo-
nial activities. Manufacturing tools were primarily
ground stone and bone and included knives, abraders,
wedges, awls, and needles. Fishing gear included com-
posite hooks, barbed points, and small harpoon valves.
Hunting was represented by large toggling harpoon
valves and shell-tipped points, which were probably
used for whaling and seal hunting. Ornamental objects
such as pendants and whistles made of tooth and bone,
which have been associated historically with significant
rituals, were recovered. Faunal analysis indicates that
whaling, fishing, and shellfish collecting were the pri-
mary economic activities at the site during the Late
period, although barnacles and birds were also repre-
sented (Folan and Dewhirst 1980). Osteological anal-
ysis identifie intentional cranial deformation, a practice
common in high-status families (Cybulski 1980).
Cultural Aspects
Despite the lack of architectural features represented
at Yuquot, the site is significant for its evidence of
cultural continuity on the outer coast for thousands of
years, its rich artifact and faunal assemblages, and its
link to the historic period as the site of early contact
(Arima and Dewhirst 1990). Yuquot was the setting for
the dramatic encounter between the American John
Jewitt and Maquinna, the Mowachaht leader who held
him hostage for over 2 years (Jewitt 1974). The evidence
from Yuquot indicates that much of the ethnographi-
cally recorded data on the Mowachaht and other Nuu-
chah-nulth groups is accurate and has its roots in the
Middle and Early periods (Drucker 1951, 1965). The site
has been a large village since about 1200 B.P. The
economic round of these island people paralleled that
found on the coast. Late winter to summer months were
spent at large aggregate villages, like Yuquot, where the
primary economic activities were offshore fishing using
trawling hooks, shellfish and berry gathering, and
hunting of seal, sea otter, and waterfowl. Whaling,
which developed in the Late period, was a prestigious
activity that produced tremendous amounts of food,
although inconsistently (Dewhirst 1980: 13). In the fall,
people moved to camps on the inner coast and river
valleys for salmon fishing. Salmon were caught by using
weirs, nets, and traps and were stored for coming winter;
other interior resources included land mammals and
berries. Other than in the fall, Yuquot was a permanent
home to a large, probably multilineage village group, the
development of which correlates with the beginning of
the Late period.
References
Ames, Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). Peoples of
the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. London:
Thames and Hudson.
Arima, Eugene, and John Dewhirst (1990). "Nootkans of Vancouver
Island." In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7: Northwest
Coast, ed. W. Suttles. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 391-411.
Cybulski, Jerome S. (1980). "Osteology of the Human Remains from
Yuquot, British Columbia." In The Yuquot Project, Vol. 2, ed. W. J.
Folan and J. Dewhirst. Ottawa: Canadian National Historic Parks
and Sites Branch, History and Archaeology, 39,175-192.
Dewhirst, John J. (1980). "The Indigenous Archaeology of Yuquot,
A Nootkan Outside Village." In The Yuquot Project, Vol. 1, ed.
W. J. Folan, and J. Dewhirst. Ottawa: Canadian National Historic
Parks and Sites Branch, History and Archaeology, 39: 1-365.
Drucker, Philip (1951). The North and Central Nootkan Tribes.
Washington, D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 133.
Drucker, Philip (1965). Cultures of the North Pacific Coast. San
Francisco: Chandler.
Folan, William J., and John Dewhirst, eds. (1980). The Yuquot Project,
Vol. 2. Ottawa: Canadian National Historic Parks and Sites Branch,
History and Archaeology, 43.
Folan, William J., and John Dewhirst, eds. (1981). The Yuquot Project,
Vol. 3. Ottawa: Canadian National Historic Parks and Sites Branch,
History and Archaeology, 44.
Jewitt, John R. (1974). A Narrative oj the Adventures and Sufferings of
John R. Jewitt, Captive among the Nootka, 1803-1805, ed. Derek G.
Smith. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
ANDREW R.c. MARTINDALE
Department of Anthropology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada
Late Tundra
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 8000-6000 B.P.
Follows the Paleoarctic and may
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD:
have contributed in part to the following Northern
Archaic tradition.
LOCATION: Alaska-Aleutians, Alaska Peninsula, south-
west, central, and northwestern Alaska. Canada-
Yukon and Northwest Territories. Siberia-Sumnagin
culture complex (10,800-6200 B.P.) of central Yakutia
and related complexes in Chukotka. The Sumnagin
cultural complex has been derived from the Malta-
Afontova culture complex (22/20,000-12,000 B.P.) in the
Angara-Yenesei river region of Central Siberia (west of
Lake Baikal).
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Primarily a blade and
microblade industry, but at some sites there were
associated bifacial projectile points/knives. Sites were
commonly workshops with a considerable amount of
surface scatter consisting of discarded cores and debi-
tage. Both blades and microblades produced at sites of
this tradition. Blade and microblade cores are charac-
terized by removal of blades from around the circum-
ference of the core. Core platforms were created by the
removal of platform flakes, which normally did not
carry across the platform terminating in a step or hinge
fracture. Platform flakes were detached from the flute
faces and often retained a portion of the flute surface as
part of their platforms. Depending on the quarry source,
blade cores were derived from tabular blocks or cobbles
of basalt, obsidian, chert, argillite, or siltstone. The
blade cores were variable in shape ranging from
amorphous to blocky to prismatic (conoidal). With
raw material common at most sites, there was not a
great deal of care expended on the removal of blades.
The Anangula blade site is the exception as here much
greater attention was given to overall core morphology.
Attempts were made to maintain a rather steep angled
core face (approaching 90°) by the detachment of blades
from opposing platforms. In the Kagati lake region in
the Akhlun mountains of southwestern Alaska, blade
cores were not as well prepared. This may be due in part
to the large amount of locally available raw material
(argillite). When cores were reduced to microblade size
in the Kagati lake region, they began assume more
distinctive shapes. Microblade cores were conical to
cylindrical in shape with single or multiple platforms.
The flute surface to platform angle was more acute in
the conical cores with a single platform than in that of
cylindrical microblade cores where blades were detached
from opposing platforms to maintain a close to 90° face/
platform relation. Secondary platforms were, in a few
instances, established on the conical microblade cores at
an angle of approximately 45° to the primary platform
to remove additional microblades.
111
112 Late Tundra
Lanceolate to oblanceolate projectile point or knife
forms were produced at sites in the Kagati lake region
with bifacial thinning flakes common in the debitage.
Similar associations were noted at a number of other
sites (e.g., Long Lake, Lisburne, Ugashik Narrows).
Bifacial preforms were made from large flakes or derived
from tabular slabs. At several sites of this tradition,
burins are an important tool form. A greater array of
tool forms such as fishing line weights, stone bowls,
grinding pallets, ocher grinders, carved stone lamps, and
small incised stones were recovered from the Anangula
Blade site.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Microblade cores similar to
those of the Late Tundra tradition in Alaska have been
recovered from Northwest Microblade tradition sites
associated with side-notched projectile points in North-
western Canada. Sites of the Late Tundra tradition in
Alaska occur in a variety of environmental contexts but
as yet cannot be subdivided into phases or subtraditions.
The Sumnagin Culture complex has been found in the
lowest levels of a number of archaeological sites in
Yakutia and Chukotka and is consistently followed in
time by Neolithic complexes with or without ceramics.
IMPORTANT SITES: Alaska: (1) Southwest-Kagati Lake
sites; (2) Alaska peninsula-Ugashik Narrows, Kog-
giung, and Igiugig; (3) Aleutian islands-Anangula; (4)
South-Central-Mount Hayes 72 and 122, Birch Lake,
Twin Lakes, Long Lake; Whitmore Ridge; (5) North-
west-Kukpowruk River, Killik River, Upper Utukok
River, Lisburne and Kurupa Lake sites in the Brooks
Range, Middle Noatak River.
Canada: Sites of the Northwest Microblade tradition in
the Yukon territory and the district of Mackenzie.
Siberia: (1) Lower levels of the Belkachi and Ust'Timp-
ton sites in Central Yakutia; (2) Ust'Chirkuo and other
sites on the Kolyma, Lena, Vitim, Amga, Mai, and
Aldan rivers; (3) lower levels of the Maltan and Siberdik
sites near Magadan; and (4) Level IV of the Uski I site
on Kamchatka.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Late Tundra tradition occurred as a
technological tradition introduced from Siberia during
a postglacial warming phase (Zone 3 Early Boreal 9000-
6000 B.P. in the Alaskan pollen sequence; Boreal to
Atlantic episodes 9160-4950 B.P. in the Blytt-Sernander
scheme). This interval in Alaska was marked by an
increased percentage of alder followed somewhat later
by increases in spruce pollen. The pattern is not
consistent, for spruce and alder arrive in the Brooks
range simultaneously whereas the alder expansion in
Southwestern Alaska preceded that of spruce by several
thousand years. In the pollen record of the Tanana river
valley and the Tangle lakes area of Central Alaska, the
warm, dry period of the Middle Holocene is additionally
marked by a decline in spruce pollen suggesting that the
climate was not suitable for forest development. In these
areas, the increase in alder pollen indicates a shift from
forest to shrub communities.
Topography. Much of the region is mountainous,
dissected by major river systems and dotted with lakes.
The landscape has been sculpted by numerous glacial
advances during the Pleistocene and Early Holocene.
Sites are often found on high points in the valley drifts
(kames) left behind as glaciers retreated. Other sites were
located along river and lake margins and in coastal and
island settings.
Geology. Bedrock is composed of volcanic deposits,
basaltic intrusives, and extensive sedimentary rock
formations, which form many of the local mountain
groups. Obsidian, chert, chalcedony, basalt, and silici-
fied siltstone (argillite) were the common tool stones
used.
Biota. Moist to dry tundra conditions in the uplands
and willow and alder shrub thickets in the lowlands with
scattered stands of spruce across the valley bottoms. In
several regions, grass and low prostrate shrubs were
replaced by alder followed by spruce forests c. 8000-
6000 B.P.
Settlements
Settlement System. Thus far all the interior sites are late
summer to fall overlook stations to determine the
presence and movement of migrating herds of caribou.
At Kagati lake, the sites are on terraces that overlook
the lake basin and provide good views of herds moving
into the area. At these locations, a great deal of
manufacturing of blade and bifacial tools also occurred,
suggesting that raw material procurement was associ-
ated with the fall hunt. A drive fence apparently asso-
ciated with a later Northern Archaic tradition site in the
same area suggests a continuation of the economic
pattern associated with the Late Tundra tradition.

The Anangula site at the edge of the Bering sea
platform represents a different aspect of the Late
Tundra tradition, for the site would have been posi-
tioned to exploit a marine habitat. Six shallow house pit
features and the greater range of artifact types present
suggest a more permanent camp than do the other sites
where no structural features have been noted.
Community Organization. Little is known of this aspect
of life during Late Tundra tradition times. The six
shallow pit structures associated with the Anangula
Blade site suggest the possibility of village organization.
All the other sites in Alaska and in Northwestern
Canada were lookout stations providing views of the
surrounding landscape and were linked to a subsistence
strategy (intercept type of hunting practice), but provide
little information on community structure.
Housing. Information is limited to the Anangula Blade
site where six shallow pit structures were discovered. The
pit structures were oval in plan view and measured
3 by 5.5 m. All were partially dug into the ground
surface. All were single room structures with no attached
room or evidence of an entrance tunnel. Entry may have
been through the roof or the side of the structure. Houses
had multiple hearths and storage pits in the floors. No
side wall supports or roof members were recovered to
provide information on house superstructure.
Population, Health, and Disease. Estimates of 75 to 125
people have been made for the Anangula Blade site
based on house size and number. The artifact inventory
of recovered objects (greater than 50,000) supports a
population estimate of this size. In contrast, the interior
sites of this tradition are relatively small with a more
restricted inventory. No human skeletal materials have
been recovered from sites of this tradition, thus limiting
our knowledge of the nutritional status and health of
the resident population.
Economy
Subsistence. Many of the interior sites were lookout
sites to monitor the movement of migrating herds of
animals such as caribou or bison and where consider-
able quarry/workshop activity also took place. These
sites would fit into a strategy of intercept hunting. Sites
along river and lake margins were positioned to use the
runs of anadromous fish. Line weights recovered from
the Anangula site also suggest the use of bottom fish.
People at the Anangula Blade site would have used
Late Tundra 113
marine resources, judging by the presence of burned
whale bone. It appears that people of the Late Tundra
tradition made extensive use of terrestrial animals,
following the earlier pattern established by the Paleo-
arctic tradition. The maritime adaptation represented by
the Anangula Blade site locally reflects a new subsistence
strategy, perhaps as a final flooding of the Bering sea
platform.
Wild Foods. Extensive use was made of terrestrial
fauna such as caribou, bear, and possibly bison and
musk ox. Smaller animals such as beaver and ground
squirrel were probably important food sources, as were
migratory waterfowl. For those sites along river and
lake margins, resident as well as anadromous fish were
probably important resources. Seal and sea lion as well
as whale and walrus where available would have been
valued resources for the coastal residents. Reliance on
plant foods would likely have been modest, with berries
the principal food.
Domestic Foods. The domestication of plants as
food resources was not practiced in the Arctic and
Subarctic zones. Evidence for domestic dog has been
found as early as 12,000 to 11,000 years ago in
Kamchatka so that it would be reasonable to assume
that dogs were used in hunting and may have served in
times of stress as a food resource as they did in later
times. No dog remains have, however, been recovered in
sites of this period.
Industrial Arts. Implement technology was undoubtedly
sufficiently elaborate to meet the needs of a society
focused on the hunting of terrestrial and marine
mammals. Manufacturing of the requisite tool kits
would have been a skill shared by most members of
the group. Items needed by households would have been
locally produced.
Utensils. The lack of organic materials in archaeological
sites of this time period limits the amount of information
available for utilitarian items. All the data come from
the analysis of stone tools. Cutting and scraping tools
were made from blades or flakes. These tools would
have been used to fashion implements of wood, bone, or
antler. Final finishing could have been accomplished by
the use of scoria/pumice abraders. Scrapers were also
used in the process of preparing hides from various
animals for clothing, blankets, and other coverings.
Judging from the extensive stone working where blades
and microblades were the primary products, it seems
likely that they would also have been used as insets to
provide a cutting edge on bone or antler implements
such as spear or arrow points. Bifacial stone tools could
114 Late Tundra
have served as spears or knives. There is no evidence for
pottery, but both stone bowls and stone lamps were
recovered from the Anangula site, suggesting that in
permanent residential settings such utensils were used.
Use of mineral pigments is also indicated by the
presence of grinding stones and slabs on which traces
of pigment have been found at the Anangula Island site.
Ornaments. The preparation of pigments at Anangula
could have been to coat implements or to paint the
human body. Given the lack of any organic materials,
this is the only suggestive evidence of ornamentation.
Division of Labor. Most activity associated with inter-
cept type of hunting has been ethnographically associ-
ated with male pursuits. Preparation of foods for
storage and manufacture of hide clothing are ethno-
graphically the roles of women. To this extent, it can be
hazarded that such division of labor was present during
this period. Domestic activities associated with the
household, tending oil lamps and preparing meals
would also have been in the province of women.
Production of tools was the usual province of men.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. The interior
sites, such as hunting stations, are scattered across the
landscape, providing opportunities for intercept of
migrating herds of animals. It is likely that all individ-
uals had equal access to resources and that a pattern of
sharing, as indicated by ethnographic studies of small
hunting and gathering groups, was practiced. There are
no indications of status differentiation, but the data are
limited.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Given the limited amount of data
available, one can only surmise that the small groups
associated with the hunting and fishing sites were
operating as family groups under a band type of
organization with local exogamy. Needing to be sea-
sonally mobile, they could break into family groups
during the lean parts of the year and come together to
participate in the fall hunts. Through inter band mar-
riage, access was provided to adjacent hunting territo-
ries. This is the probable pattern for most of the sites in
the interior uplands and along river systems. The
encampment or village at the Anangula Blade site could
represent a more complex form of social structure, but
with the limited data available no further elaboration is
possible.
Political Organization. Probably band level of political
organization composed of family groups, which dis-
persed at different seasons of the year on the annual
subsistence round. Leadership would have been minimal
and probably temporary in nature. At the Anangula
Blade site encampment/village, there may have been a
family head who operated as a local band headman.
Social Control. Based on ethnographic examples, indi-
vidual behavior would likely have been controlled by
sanctions imposed by other members of the group as
well as by restrictions or prohibitions imposed by the
religious systems. Ethnographic accounts suggest that at
this level of sociopolitical organization individuals
would have been free to leave a particular group at
any time to join relatives in other camps or bands.
Conflict. Conflict was probably settled by the involved
individuals. There is no suggestion of conflict between
groups such as raiding or warfare at this time. Given the
small populations involved, there were probably no
difficulties with access to resources, and there is no
evidence of status differences.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. No evidence is directly applicable. By
extension, most ethnographic hunting and gathering
groups have personal hunting power conveyed by
guardian spirits and have concepts of proper behavior
toward hunted animals. Religion tends to be animistic.
Ceremonies. Probably ceremonies concerned with the
increase of food resources. The use of pigments and
incised stones at the Anangula Blade site may have had
ritual aspects.
Arts. The use of pigments and the presence of incised
stones at the Anangula Blade site suggest some involve-
ment in art. The lack of organic tool forms and
implements is particularly significant as it is in this
medium that artistic expression is found.
Suggested Readings
Ackerman, R. E. (1987). "Mid-Holocene Occupation of Interior
Southwestern Alaska." In Man and the Mid-Holocene Climatic
Optimum, ed. N. A. McKinnon and G. S. L. Stuart, 181-192.
Calgary: University of Calgary Archaeological Association.
Ackerman, R. E. (1992). "Earliest Stone Industries of the North
Pacific Coast of North America." Arctic Anthropology 29 (2): 18-27.
Aigner, J. A. (1978). "The Lithic Remains from Anangula, an 8500
Year Old Aleut Coastal Village." In Urgeschichtliche Materialhefte
3. Tiibingen: Institut fUr Urgeschichte, Universitiit Tiibingen.

Aigner, J. S., and B. Fullen (1976). "Cultural Implications of Core
Distribution and Use Patterns at Anangula, 8500-8000 B.P." Arctic
Anthropology 13 (2): 71-82.
Aigner, J. S., and T. Del Bene (1982). "Early Holocene Maritime
Adaptations in the Aleutian Islands." In Peopling of the New World,
ed. J. E. Ericson, R. E. Taylor, and R. Berger, 35-67. Los Altos,
CA: Ballena Press.
Anderson, D. D. (1972). "An Archaeological Survey of the Noatak
Drainage, Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 9 (I): 66-117.
Bowers, P. M. (1982). "The Lisburne Site: Analysis and Cultural
History of a Multi-Component Lithic Workshop in the Iteriak
Valley, Arctic Foothills, Northern Alaska." Anthropological Papers
of the University of Alaska 20 (1-2): 79-112.
Clark, D. W. (1987). "Archaeological Reconnaissance at Great Bear
Lake." Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper no.
136, Canadian Museum of Civilization. Ottawa: National Museums
of Canada.
Del Bene, T. (1992). "Chipped Stone Technology of the Anangula
Core and Blade Site, Eastern Aleutian Islands." Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska 24 (1-2): 51-72.
Dixon, E. J., Jr. (1975). "The Gallagher Flint Station, an Early Man
Site on the North Slope, Arctic Alaska and Its Role in Relation to
the Bering Land Bridge." Arctic Anthropology 12 (I): 68-75.
Dikov, N. N. (1977). Arkheologicheskie Pamiatniki Kamchatki, Chuk-
otki i Verkhnei Kolymy [Archeological sites of Kamchatka, Chuk-
otka and the Upper Kolyma]. Moscow: Nauka.
Dikov, N. N. (1979). Drevnie Kul'tury Severo- Vostochnoi Azii [Ancient
cultures of Northeast Asia]. Moskva: Nauka.
Dikov, N. N. (1996). "The Ushki Sites, Kamchatka Peninsula."
In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of
Beringia, ed. F. H. West, 244-250. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Dumond, D. E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960-1975. University of Oregon Anthropological
Papers, No. 21.
Dumond, D. E. (1987). The Eskimos and Aleuts. New York: Thames
and Hudson.
Hall, E. S., Jr. (1975). "An Archaeological Survey of Interior
Northwest Alaska." Anthropological Papers of the University of
Alaska 17 (2): 13-30.
Late Tundra 115
Henn, W. (1978). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The Ugashik
Drainage, 1973-1975. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers,
NO.4.
Laughlin, W. S. (1980). Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
McCartney, A. P., and D. W. Veltre (1996). "Anangula Core and
Blade Site." In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoe-
cology of Beringia, ed. F. H. West, 443-450. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Mochanov, I. A. (1984). "Paleolithic Finds in Siberia (Resume of
Studies)." In Beringia in the Cenozoic Era, ed. V. L. Kontrimavi-
chus, 694-724. New Delhi: Amerind Publishing.
Mochanov, I. A., and S. A. Fedoseeva (1984). "Main Periods in the
Ancient History of North-East Asia." In Beringia in the Cenozoic
Era, ed. V. L. Kontrimavichus, 669-693. New Delhi: Amerind
Publishing.
Reger, D. R., and G. H. Bacon (1996). "Long Lake." In American
Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia, ed. F. H.
West, 437-438. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schoenberg, K. M. (1985). The Archaeology of Kurupa Lake. Research!
Resources Management Report AR-IO. Anchorage: National Park
Service.
Solecki, R. S. (1996). "Prismatic Core Sites on the Kukpowruk and
Kugururok Rivers." In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and
Palaeoecology of Beringia, ed. F. H. West, 513-521. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
West, F. H. (1981). The Archaeology of Beringia. New York: Columbia
University Press.
West, F. H., B. S. Robinson, and C. F. West (1996). "Whitmore
Ridge." In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology
of Beringia, ed. F. H. West, 386-394. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
ROBERT E. ACKERMAN
Department of Anthropology
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington
United States
 Middle Northwest Coast

ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 5500-1500 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Early Northwest
Coast tradition and precedes the Late Northwest Coast
tradition that is generally associated with the develop-
ment of the ethnographic cultures.
LOCATION: Coastal regions of northwestern North
America from southeastern Alaska to northern
California.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Considerable regional
variability in artifact forms, but chipped stone, ground
stone, and ground bone, antler, and shell tools are found
in all regions throughout this period. Pottery is absent.
The most common site type is the shell midden. Shell
midden sites dated to the later part of this period
sometimes include rectangular house-depression fea-
tures of varying size, often arranged in rows.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Central Northwest Coast,
Northern Northwest Coast.
IMPORTANT SITES: Crescent Beach, Paul Mason.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The climate of the Northwest Coast is charac-
terized by cool summers and wet, mild winters. The
combination of moisture-laden air over the north Pacific
ocean and rugged coastal mountains results in high
levels of coastal precipitation, which falls mainly in the
form of rain throughout the year. Along a south-to-
north gradient from Oregon to Alaska, annual precip-
itation increases to as much as 750 cm, and average
temperature decreases, but prolonged freezing periods at
sea level are rare. This climate regime was probably in
effect throughout the period of the Middle Northwest
Coast Tradition.
Topography. The Northwest Coast is extremely rugged
and mountainous in the north, somewhat less so in the
south. The Coast mountains of the northern mainland
coast, with numerous peaks over 3500 m, create a
complex coastline dotted with islands, channels, and
long, narrow inlets. Offshore, another range rises out of
the sea to form the Alexander archipelago, the Queen
Charlotte islands, and Vancouver island. The Coast
mountains turn slightly inland in Washington and
Oregon to become the Cascade mountains, which
parallel a series of lower ranges and a relatively straight
coastline to the west.
Geology. The Coast mountains and Cascade mountains
consist mainly of granitic rocks and crystalline gneisses.
The islands to the west are composed of heavily faulted
volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Vulcanism has resulted
in localized outcroppings of basalt and obsidian, which

116

were used, along with metamorphic rocks, for making
stone tools. Native copper from the Copper river area in
the far north was also traded widely.
Biota. Most of the Northwest Coast is a temperate rain
forest of coniferous trees including western hemlock,
Sitka spruce, red cedar, and Douglas fir. Deer and some
edible tubers were important terrestrial food resources,
but the real bounty was in the sea, along the shorelines,
and in the rivers, where sea mammals, aquatic fowl,
shellfish, and fish, especially salmon, could be taken in
great abundance. Mid-Holocene stabilization of sea
levels, leading to peak salmon abundance, may have
coincided with the onset of the Middle Northwest Coast
tradition.
Settlements
Settlement System. Important changes occurred in the
settlement system during this period. The beginning of
the period was characterized by a forager type of
settlement system in most areas, with high residential
mobility and limited group size. The first villages
appeared about 3000 B.P., by which time a collector
system, with various types of specialized activity sites,
had developed. By 2000 B.P., large winter villages were
common on all parts of the coast. These villages, were
permanent but seasonally occupied. In late spring,
household groups moved from the winter villages to a
series of base camps and limited activity sites to fish,
hunt, and gather plants, returning to the winter villages
in late fall. Although villages varied in size, there is no
evidence of a site hierarchy or special-purpose commu-
nities. Each village appears to have been an autonomous
sociopolitical unit.
Community Organization. Little is known about com-
munity organization during the first half of this period.
Presumably, relatively small, mobile groups occupied a
series of seasonal, residential base camps. The transition
to more sedentary communities probably began between
3500 and 3000 B.P. Varying greatly in size, the layout
of villages was remarkably consistent over much of
the coast. Most villages faced water, either coastline or
river shoreline, with a beach or front area for process-
ing or other community activities, a residential area
well above the tide line, with houses typically arranged
side by side in rows, and a rear refuse midden area that
was also used for human burials. Some groups main-
tained discrete winter and summer villages. Virtually all
Northwest Coast communities were located to provide
Middle Northwest Coast 117
access to marine and anadromous resources, especially
salmon.
Housing. The earliest houses, dated to about 3200 B.P.,
were rectangular, of post-and-plank construction, and
relatively small by historic standards (approximately 10
by 5 m). Household size has been estimated at about
10-12 people. By the end of this period, houses were
much larger (10 x 10 m) in some regions such as the
Fraser delta, whereas house size remained stable in other
regions such as the North Coast. In the larger houses,
there is evidence of economic specialization among
household members. Differences in household wealth
and status may be reflected in the variability in house
size in villages.
Population, Health, and Disease. Northwest Coast pop-
ulation certainly increased during this period, but exact
figures are unavailable. Population figures for the
European contact period range from 100,000-200,000,
and there is no reason to think that at least the lower
end of this range had not been reached by 1500 B.P.
Typical winter village size may have been 100-150
people, but villages of 400-500 people were not un-
known. It is not known when multiline age villages
were established, but this custom would certainly have
led to an increase in average village size. Population
density increased along a north-to-south gradient. For
example, the prehistoric Tlingit of southeastern Alaska
may have numbered about 15,000 by the end of this
period, the Kwakiutl of the central British Columbia
coast about 20,000, and the Coast Salish of south-
western British Columbia and Puget sound about
30,000.
Morbidity and mortality figures are unavailable, but
in general, the population of this period seems to have
been remarkably healthy. Prehistoric burial populations
contain relatively few infants, children, and juveniles,
although selective burial practices may partly account
for this. Paleopathalogical research has revealed possi-
ble skeletal evidence of bone cancer, tuberculosis, and
endemic syphilis, all before European contact. Cribra
Orbitalia, a condition related to iron-deficiency anemia,
has also been revealed. Skeletal traumas, such as cranial
and forearm fractures, are common in some burial
populations, especially among males, and probably
resulted from endemic warfare. Sex profiles in burial
populations consistently favor males by as much as two
to one. One theory holds that female slavery was
common during this period and that female slaves, who
lacked social status, were not buried with the rest of the
population.
118 Middle Northwest Coast
Economy
Subsistence. The basic mode of subsistence was fishing,
hunting, and gathering, with an emphasis in all areas
on marine resources. The most important seasons of
resource production were summer and fall, when large
runs of Pacific salmon ascended the coastal rivers and
many groups moved to their summer fishing villages.
Winter was mainly a time for social activities, with
subsistence based primarily on stored foods. Food
storage was certainly a major part of the subsistence
economy by the end of this period, but it may not have
been widely practiced until about 3500 B.P.
Wild Foods. Wild animals and plants were relied on
exclusively for subsistence. With the advent of storage,
salmon became the critical food resource for most
groups in the region. Other important animal foods
were sea mammals, marine fish, especially halibut,
herring, and rockfish, and shellfish. Herring and shellfish
were important spring resources, when winter food
stores were running low. Deer remains are common in
many sites, but carbon isotope studies show that the diet
of most groups was overwhelmingly marine based. Little
is known of the plant portion of the subsistence
economy during this period. Berries and edible greens
could be found throughout the region, whereas edible
bulbs, including camas, were basically restricted to the
central and southern coasts.
Domestic Foods. Domestic foods were unknown to
Northwest Coast groups until the European contact
period. The only prehistoric domesticate was the dog,
which was more important for its hair, for weaving, and
as a pack animal, than as a food source.
Industrial Arts. Middle Northwest Coast technology
was varied and occasionally complex. Most items
appear to have been manufactured by the individuals
who used them, but some fixed facilities, like stone
tidal traps, wood-stake weirs for fishing, and the large
multifamily houses, were probably co-ordinated group
efforts. Most raw materials were locally available, but
some, such as obsidian and copper, were traded for over
long distances.
Utensils. Middle Northwest Coast cultures were ace-
ramic, but the inhabitants were highly skilled at making
vessels and containers from wood and plant fibers.
Water-saturated deposits ("wet sites") have yielded the
remains of woven baskets, storage boxes made of bent
cedar planks, and fragments of house planks and
canoes. Cedar was, by far, the preferred wood-working
material. Other utensils were chipped from stone or
ground from bone, shell, and stone. In most areas, the
frequency of ground stone tools increased steadily
during this period. Utensils made from these materials
were used for hunting, processing, and manufacturing.
Most raw materials were locally available, but high-
quality obsidian, chert, and nephrite were sometimes
imported.
Ornaments. Carved items made from wood, goat horn,
and other materials are rare during this period, probably
partly because of factors of preservation, but their
occurrence, in some cases in deposits dated to the
beginning of this period, suggests that aspects of the
complex Northwest Coast exchange system may have
great antiquity. Wearing of labrets ("lip plugs") may
also date to the beginning of this period. Most archae-
ologists agree that labrets were markers of social status,
but whether this status was ascribed or achieved is
debated. Quite possibly, the social significance of labret
use was not the same in all regions and may have
changed in some regions during this period. Cranial
deformation, another indicator of high status, was a late
introduction in some regions, at about 2000 B.P. Beads
made of shell and soft stone were probably the most
common form of personal ornamentation and spanned
the entire tradition. Less common was the use of copper,
which is also associated with high status.
Trade. Northwest Coast cultures of the European
contact period had very complex, redistributive ex-
change systems, epitomized by the famous ceremonial
known as potlatch. Most archaeologists believe that
redistributive exchange has considerable antiquity on
the Northwest Coast, and some believe that ceremonial
serving utensils and possible evidence of "feeding the
dead", both dated to the beginning of the Middle
Tradition, may be associated with the "paleopotlatch".
Less speculative studies have shown that sourced mate-
rials, like obsidian and copper, were traded over surpris-
ingly long distances, beginning at a very early period.
Division of Labor. Households were autonomous and
self-sufficient, and the main divisions of labor existed
within households. Gender and age may have been
important to the division of labor, but it is also likely
that most household members were expected to perform
a wide variety of tasks. Some production, like canoe
building, other wood carving, and stone sculpture, hints
at the existence of craft specialists, who probably
functioned as such on a part-time basis. It is not clear
how or whether labor was divided along status lines

during this period. Hereditary elites probably existed, at
least during the last 1000 years of this tradition, and
these individuals may have been exempt from certain
menial tasks. There is also possible skeletal evidence of
slavery during the later part of this period. Slaves, if they
existed, may have performed the menial tasks from
which elites were exempt.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. At the time
of European contact, Northwest Coast households
owned resource locations, and hereditary house chiefs
controlled whatever was produced at these locations.
This system, or some version of it, was likely in place
at least by the end of the Middle Northwest Coast
tradition. Elites probably controlled the manufacture
and trade of prestige goods and may have had prefer-
ential access to certain types of food. Although all local
groups appear to have had access to basic resources,
emerging evidence also suggests that some local groups
may have controlled certain subsistence and non-
subsistence resources and were in a position to deny
access to these resources to neighboring groups.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. At the beginning of this period,
most groups were organized at the level of the foraging
band, but by the middle of the period villages existed,
and by the end of the period status hierarchies existed in
villages. Forms of descent historically varied by sub-
region, and this was probably the case prehistorically as
well. Matrilineal descent was practiced on the North
Coast, and it has been suggested that the sudden change
in this region in labret use from men and women to
exclusively women, at about 1500 B.P., may have coin-
cided with the advent of matrilineal descent. There is no
evidence from any period that certain descent groups
rose to power and authority over others, but in some
areas the principle of social ranking was pronounced,
both in descent groups and among them. Mortuary
evidence and the appearance of large houses suggest that
this system was in place by at least 2000 B.P.
Political Organization. There was no true political
organization on the Northwest Coast. Chiefs did exist
as hereditary heads of households and/or lineages, but
their power and authority did not extend beyond their
own domestic group. There is some mortuary and
osteological evidence to suggest that three distinct strata
may have existed in Northwest Coast society, at least by
the end of the Middle tradition. Chiefs and their close
relatives formed an elite group that controlled much of
Middle Northwest Coast 119
the wealth of the society. Commoners were free people
who lacked hereditary title, whereas slaves were the
property of chiefs. The existence of these groups as true
social classes is hotly debated.
Social Control. There were probably no true specialists
in social control during the Middle tradition. Chiefs
may have had some responsibility for settling disputes,
at least as they involved the chiefs own domestic group.
Village settlement patterns occasionally reveal evidence
of dwellings isolated from and oriented at right angles to
the others. It is suggested that these may have been the
houses of shamans, but this view is highly speculative at
the moment.
Conflict. Conflict, in the form of small-scale skirmishes,
raiding, and warfare, appears to have been an important
aspect of life during the last 1000-1500 years of the
Middle tradition. High frequencies of injuries almost
always on male skeletal remains, evidence of weaponry,
including elaborate clubs carved from stone and whale
bone, and even occasional burials of "warriors" dressed
in armor attest to the importance of warfare. Reasons for
conflict were probably varied, but may have included
raiding for food, items of wealth, and slaves.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. There is little direct archaeological
evidence of religious beliefs for the Middle Northwest
Coast tradition, although carvings in bone and stone of
birds and other animal forms suggest strong links to the
natural world. At the time of European contact, many
groups believed in supernatural beings, some of which
could become guardian spirits. For some groups, vision
quests were part of the rite of passage.
Religious Practitioners. There were no full-time reli-
gious practitioners, but shamans probably filled this role
on a part-time basis. Shamans communicated with the
supernatural world and sometimes functioned as heal-
ers. Rattles containing bear claws and other parapher-
nalia may attest to the presence of shamans during the
Middle Tradition.
Ceremonies. Serving vessels, such as carved wooden
platters and goat-horn spoons, some dated to the
beginning of the Middle tradition, were probably used
in ceremonial contexts. Whether these ceremonies con-
stituted a "paleopotlatch" or simply feasting on a more
general level is unknown. All feasting ceremonies were
hosted by chiefs. Part of the reason for large houses near
120 Middle Northwest Coast
the end of the Middle tradition may have been to
properly accommodate large numbers of guests at feasts.
Arts. Artistic expression was highly developed on the
Northwest Coast and continues to be so today. Many
motifs commonly used in contemporary Northwest
Coast art, such as ovoids, U-forms, and T-forms, appear
to have originated during the Middle tradition. Carving
was done in many media, wood being the most
common, but also bone, antler, shell, horn, and stone.
Zoomorphic images were very common. Specialists in
the expressive arts may have existed, but probably on a
part-time basis.
Death and Afterlife. Throughout the Middle tradition,
most human burials were placed in midden deposits
usually in primary residential sites. In the last 1000-1500
years of the tradition, it is evident that some individuals
received elaborate treatment in death including exten-
sive offerings of wealth items. Mound and stone cairn
burials in the Gulf of Georgia area of the Central
Northwest Coast subregion may date to the very end of
the Middle tradition.
Suggested Readings
Ames, Kenneth M. (1994). "The Northwest Coast: Complex Hunter-
Gatherers, Ecology, and Social Evolution." Annual Review of
Anthropology 23: 209-229.
Ames. Kenneth M., and Herbert D. G. Maschner (1999). "Peoples of
the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory." New
York: Thames and Hudson.
Burley, David V. (1980). Marpole: Anthropological Reconstruction of a
Northwest Coast Culture Type. Burnaby, B.C.: Simon Fraser
University Department of Archaeology, Publication 8.
Carlson, Roy L., and Philip M. Hobler (1993). "The Pender Canal
Excavations and the Development of Coast Salish Culture." BC
Studies 99: 25-52.
Coupland, Gary G. (1988). Prehistoric Cultural Change at Kitselas
Canyon. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 138.
Coupland, Gary G. (1998). "Maritime Adaptation and Evolution of
the Developed Northwest Coast Pattern on the Central Northwest
Coast." Arctic Anthropology 35: 36-56.
Cybulski, Jerome S. (1992). A Greenville Burial Ground: Human
Remains and Mortuary Elements in British Columbia Coast Prehis-
tory. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 146.
Erlandson, Jon M., Mark Tveskov, and Scott Byram (1998). "The
Development of Maritime Adaptations on the Southern Northwest
Coast of North America." Arctic Anthropology 35: 6-22.
Fladmark, Knut R. (1975). A Paleoecological Model for Northwest
Coast Prehistory. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Man, Archaeolog-
ical Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 42.
Lyman, R. Lee (1991). Prehistory of the Oregon Coast: The Effects of
Excavation Strategies and Assemblage Size on Archaeological Inquiry.
San Diego: Academic Press.
Matson, R. G. (1992). "The Evolution of Northwest Coast Subsis-
tence." Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 6, Long-
term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North America ed. D. Croes,
R. Hawkins and B. L. Isaac. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 367-428.
Matson, R. G., and Gary G. Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
McMillan, Alan (1999). Since the Time of the Transformers: The
Ancient Heritage of the Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht and Makah.
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Mitchell, Donald H. (1971). Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia:
A Natural Region and Its Cultural Types. Victoria, B.c.: Syesis 4,
Supp!. I.
Moss, Madonna L. (1998). "Northern Northwest Coast Regional
Overview." Arctic Anthropology 35: 88-111.
SUBTRADITIONS
Central Northwest Coast
TIME PERIOD: 3500-1400 B.P.
LOCATION: Gulf of Georgia region of southwestern
British Columbia and northwestern Washington, in-
cluding eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, northern Puget
sound, and the Fraser river delta.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Site types vary accord-
ing to function. Large, deep shell middens are common
in many coastal sites. There is considerable variability in
artifact forms. Chipped stone and ground stone projec-
tile points are common and include small triangular,
contracting stemmed, and lanceolate forms. Pointed
bone implements are very common. Composite or
"toggling" harpoons are a hallmark of the early part
of this period, during the Locarno Beach culture (3500-
2400 B.P.). In the ensuing Marpole culture (2400-
1400 B.P.), single-piece barbed harpoons are more
common. There is a marked increase in artwork during
Marpole, including stone sculpture, and by the middle
of the Marpole culture, about 2000 B.P., there is evidence
of large, extended family or multifamily houses.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The climate of this period was much as it is today.
Winters were wet and mild, with precipitation falling
mainly in the form of rain (Shaw 1965; Suttles 1990).
Summers were warmer, but never hot, and generally
drier. The topography of much of the area is rugged and
mountainous, but the most intensively occupied areas,
 Middle Northwest Coast 121

such as the Fraser delta, Southeastern Vancouver island Economy

and the shorelines of northern Puget sound, are mor~
Although there is some evidence from site location
gently rolling and favorable to human settlement. The
to suggest that Marpole subsistence was relatively more
Coastal and Cascade mountains dominate the eastern
dependent on salmon than Locarno Beach subsistence
portion of this region, whereas the Pacific border zone
it is clear from faunal remains that the subsistenc~
lies to the west. The biota of the region includes a rich
economy of both cultures was based primarily on
variety of animal and plant resources, the most impor-
salmon, with evidence of large-scale salmon storage
tant of which, economically, was Pacific salmon, which
(Matson 1992). Other important marine food resources
annually ascend the Fraser and other smaller rivers in
include flatfish, especially starry flounder, herring, sea
huge numbers (Hart 1973). The sheltered waters of this
mammals, especially harbor seal, and shellfish. From the
region offered a variety of other fish and sea mammals
land, deer and elk may have been relatively more
and shellfish were available in the intertidal zone:
important to these Gulf of Georgia cultures than
Waterfowl was also seasonally abundant throughout
elsewhere on the Northwest Coast, and edible roots,
the region (Suttles 1990). On land, elk was plentiful at
like camas, were probably also important. Artifact types
one time, and deer continue to be so (Cowen and Guiget
do not differ greatly between the Marpole and Locarno
1964). The temperate rain forest provided cedar for
Beach cultures, leading most archaeologists to infer an
house building and other wood-working activities
evolutionary relation rather than population replace-
(H. Stewart 1984) and edible bulbs, like camas, for food.
ment (Mitchell 1971; but see Borden 1951; Burley 1979).
Basic tool kits for woodworking, fishing and hunting,
Settlements food processing, and manufacturing include stone and
bone tools that are generally similar in form and
A settlement system centered around winter villages
function for both cultures. One basic difference is the
evolved during this period in the Gulf of Georgia
apparent replacement of the Locarno Beach composite
(Matson and Coupland 1995). Marpole winter villages
harpoon by the barbed, single piece Marpole variety
contain large, deep, shell midden deposits and multiple
(Mitchell 1971, 1990). This may have been more a
house-depression features often arranged in a row
change in style than function. Craft specialization was
pattern (Burley 1980). Some Locarno Beach compo-
probably done on a part-time basis. Not everyone had
nents have deep shell midden deposits, but in general,
the skill to make a dugout canoe, although the presence
are not as large as their Marpole counterparts, nor do
of heavy-duty woodworking tools suggests that such
they appear to contain multiple house-depression fea-
water craft were made. The proliferation of personal
tures. Other aspects of the settlement system appear
adornment and stone sculpture in Marpole also hints at
similar for both cultures. Spring resource collection sites
part-time specialization. The basic economic unit during
are well documented (Coupland 1991), as are summer/
this period was the household. From the few extent
fall sites that appear to have functioned primarily as
examples, Locarno Beach households seem to have been
salmon fishing and processing camps. The distribution
small, probably not larger than a small extended family,
of sites suggests that Marpole people may have taken
but by 2000 B.P., Marpole households were much larger,
greater advantage of salmon, especially entering the
containing up to 20-25 people, equal in size to historic
Fraser river, than Locarno Beach people (Mitchell
period households (Matson and Coupland 1995). House-
1971). Little can be said of Locarno Beach community
holds were the primary producing units, and there is
organization, but for Marpole it is clear that commu-
some evidence that the larger Marpole houses were
nities were organized into large, multifamily households
headed by elites who organized labor activities and may
of up to 20-25 people, and village size may have
numbered well into the hundreds in some cases (Matson have functioned as redistributors on a limited basis.
and Coupland 1995). There is, however, no evidence of
Sociopolitical Organization
intersettlement hierarchy during this period. To date,
only one definite Locarno Beach house feature, a small The Locarno Beach and Marpole cultures differ
pit house, has been excavated (Matson 1992), but at most in terms of sociopolitical organization. Differences
other sites large postholes suggest that the post-and- in social status in the Locarno Beach culture were not as
plank construction technique was not unknown at this pronounced as in Marpole (Burley and Knusel 1989).
time (McMillan and St. Claire 1982). Marpole winter Achievement was probably the primary vehicle to status
houses, some measuring about 12 x 12 m, were defi- in Locarno Beach, whereas heredity was likely the
nitely post-and-plank structures. determining factor in Marpole. There is no evidence of
122 Middle Northwest Coast
settlement hierarchies in either culture. Although Mar-
pole is best described as a rank society, this is less
obvious for Locarno Beach. Even during Marpole times,
a leader had authority over his own household, but his
dominion probably did not extend beyond that. Warfare
was known but probably not endemic in Marpole
society. Burial evidence suggests that some elites were
also warriors (Burley 1989). The practice of warfare
probably centered on small-scale raiding for food,
booty, and slaves (Coupland 1989). Although revenge
may have been a primary motivation, the spoils of war
represented material gain that could be used to elevate
one's status through exchange.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Little is known of religious practices and beliefs in
the Locarno Beach culture, but the proliferation of
zoomorphic art in the Marpole culture may be a mani-
festation of the acquisition of spirit power, which was so
prominent in ethnographic Coast Salish culture (Burley
1980). Representations of sea mammals applied to
harpoons and clubs have been interpreted as statements
of power (Coupland 1989), and a strong connection to
the supernatural world is recognized in the acquisition of
warrior power. Other Marpole artifact types that may
have had ritual or spiritual significance were stone bowls,
especially the seated human figure bowls.
References
Borden, Charles E. (1951). "Facts and Problems of Northwest Coast
Prehistory." Anthropology in British Columbia 2: 35-52.
Burley, David V. (1979). "Specialization and the Evolution of
Complex Society in the Gulf of Georgia Region." Canadian Journal
of Archaeology 3: 131-143.
Burley, David V. (1980). Marpole: Anthropological Reconstructions of a
Prehistoric Northwest Coast Culture Type. Burnaby, B.C.: Simon
Fraser University Department of Archaeology Publication 8.
Burley, David V. (1989). Senewe'lets: Culture History of the Nanaimo
Coast Salish and the False Narrows Midden. Victoria: Royal British
Columbia Museum Memoir 2.
Burley, David V., and Christopher Knusel (1989). "Burial Patterns
and Archaeological Interpretation: Problems in the Recognition of
Ranked Society in the Coast Salish Region." Paper presented at the
Circum-Pacific Prehistory Conference, Seattle.
Coupland, Gary G. (1989). Warfare and Social Complexity on the
Northwest Coast." In Cultures in Conflict: Current Archaeological
Perspectives, ed. D. Tkaczuk and B. Vivian. Calgary: Archaeological
Association of the University of Calgary, 205-214.
Coupland, Gary G. (1991). "The Point Grey Site: A Marpole Spring
Village Component." Canadian Journal of Archaeology 15: 73-96.
Cowan, J., and C. Guiget (1964). The Mammals of British Columbia.
Victoria: British Columbia Provincial Museum Handbook II.
Hart, John (1973). Pacific Fishes of Canada. Ottawa: Fisheries
Research Board of Canada Bulletin 180.
Matson, R. G. (1992). "The Evolution of Northwest Coast Subsis-
tence." In Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 6, Long-
term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North America, ed. D. Croes,
R. Hawkins, and B. L. Isaac. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 367-428.
Matson, R. G., and Gary G. Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
McMillan, Alan, and Denis St. Claire (1982). Alberni Prehistory:
Archaeological and Ethnographic Investigations on Western Vancou-
ver Island. Port Alberni, B.C.: Theytus Books and Alberni Valley
Museum.
Mitchell, Donald H. (1971). Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia:
A Natural Region and Its Cultural Types. Victoria, B.C.: Syesis 4,
Supp!. 1.
Mitchell, Donald H. (1990). "Prehistory of the Coasts of Southern
British Columbia and Northern Washington." In Handbook of
North American Indians, Vol. 7, the Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 340-358.
Shaw, Earl (1965). Fundamentals of Geography. New York: John Wiley.
Stewart, Hilary (1984). Cedar. Vancouver: University of British
Columbia Press.
Suttles, Wayne (1990). "Environment." In Handbook of North
American Indians, Vol. 7, the Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 16-29.
Northern Northwest Coast
TIME PERIOD: 5000-1500 B.P.
LOCATION: The northern Northwest Coast of North
America, including the northern coast of British
Columbia and southeastern Alaska. The area includes
the ethnographic homelands of the Tsimshian, Haida,
and Tlingit.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: The main characteris-
tics of the artifact assemblages from this period are a
ground stone industry, including points, knives, and
woodworking tools, and a ground bone and antler
industry, including harpoons, wedges, and a variety of
pointed implements. Stone microblades, which were
characteristic of early period cultures before 5000 B.P. on
the northern coast, are notably absent during the middle
period. Shell midden deposits, although not unknown
from the early period, are far more numerous and much
deeper in the middle period. Human burials in deep shell
midden deposits are common throughout this period.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The climate of this region, at the northern end of the
Northwest Coast, is more extreme than in regions

farther south (Suttles 1990). Winters are longer, receive
less daylight and more precipitation, especially in the
form of snow, and are windier at these higher latitudes.
Summers are short, cool, and damp (Shaw 1965). This
climatic regime has persisted, probably with little
variation for at least the last 5000 years. Topographi-
cally, the northern coast is also the most rugged region
of the Northwest Coast. Here, the coastline is steep and
mountainous, dotted with islands, and cut by numerous
long narrow inlets (Farley 1979). The coastal forest is a
dense temperate rain forest of mainly coniferous trees,
including cedar, western hemlock, and spruce. The
terrestrial environment is thought of as a "food desert"
by some (Schalk 1981). Edible plants are limited mainly
to berries, but deer and small furbearers abound.
The marine environment offers great abundance of re-
sources, including sea mammals, marine and anadrom-
ous fish, and shellfish. The density of anadromous fish
(e.g., salmon) and shellfish may have increased to his-
toric levels at the beginning of this period when post-
Pleistocene sea levels finally stabilized at or near their
current position (Fladmark 1983).
Settlements
At the beginning of this period, from 5000 to about
3500 B.P., site components are small and few in number,
suggesting low population density. Shell midden deposits
are generally thin at this time, and there is little or no
evidence of permanent structures (MacDonald and Inglis
1981). A mobile settlement system is indicated, possibly
with seasonal transhumance from coastal to inland
riverine locations (Coupland 1988). After 3500 B.P.,
there is an increase in the size and number of site
components. At many sites, shell deposits are quite
dense, which may reflect longer durations of site occu-
pation. The earliest evidence of a permanent village is
seen by about 3200 B.P. at Kitse1as canyon, a major
salmon fishing location on the lower Skeena river
(Coupland 1988). By 3000-2500 B.P., winter villages
were common throughout the region. These villages
varied greatly in size, from as few as 1 or 2 houses to as
many as 40. An average village may have included 10-15
houses (Coupland 1993). A strong sense of community
organization is revealed in the layout of houses in
villages. The typical pattern was to have houses arranged
side by side in rows facing the beach or water. Often two
or more rows of houses were present. The houses
themselves were typically rectangular and much smaller
than historic lineage houses. An average house measured
about 10 by 6 m and held perhaps 10-15 people.
Relatively small houses persisted throughout this sub-
Middle Northwest Coast 123
tradition (Coupland 1996). Only at the very end of the
period is there evidence for larger houses, but even at this
time small houses are still the norm (Maschner 1991).
Economy
The subsistence orientation throughout the long
period of this subtradition was generally, characterized
by a maritime adaptation, but the evidence suggests
relatively greater use of land mammals during the first
1500 years of the subtradition than was the case later
(Stewart and Stewart 1996). Shell midden layers are thin
and diffuse (MacDonald and Inglis 1981) and deer and
elk remains are common (Calvert 1968) in deposits dated
from 5000-3500 B.P. Although deer continued to be used
after this time, they clearly became a secondary resource
to marine and anadromous fish, sea mammals, and
shellfish. Utensils made of bone, antler, and stone were
commonly used throughout the region. Various pointed
bone tools were made, and antler was used primarily to
make wedges for woodworking. Ground stone tools,
such as points, knives, adzes, and celts, were more
common than chipped stone varieties (MacDonald and
Inglis 1981). Probably the most important indus-
try-utensils made of wood and wood fibre-has all
but vanished from the archaeological record because of
factors of preservation. Basketry and other perishables
have been recovered on occasion, however, from the few
water-saturated sites in the region (Croes 1989). Items of
personal adornment, including shell beads and labrets,
were common in deposits dated younger than 3500 B.P.
(MacDonald 1983). Ornamentation of copper is less
common, and one can only guess at the importance and
extent of wood carving. Any or all of these items may
have been produced by craft specialists. The skills neces-
sary to produce a cedar dugout canoe or to build a plank
house were probably not held by everyone, but there is
no evidence to suggests that specialists existed on any-
thing but a part-time basis. Economic specialists, who
functioned as managers and redistributors of resources,
emerged during this sub tradition, probably some time
between 3500-2000 B.P. (Ames 1981, 1994). The power
and authority of these individuals probably never
extended beyond their own household groups. Long-
distance trade in prestige goods is seen in the appearance,
usually in burials, of raw materials such as obsidian,
copper, and certain types of shells (MacDonald 1983).
Sociopolitical Organization
During the early part of the subtradition, from 5000
to 3500 B.P., most, if not all, North Coast groups were
124 Middle Northwest Coast
organized as hunting and gathering bands. This tradi-
tion began to change soon after 3500 B.P., first with the
appearance of permanent villages and evidence for
large-scale storage (Coupland 1985), then with mortuary
evidence for pronounced differences in wealth and social
rank by about 2500 B.P. Most archaeologists agree that
a rank society had evolved or was evolving on the North
Coast at this time (Ames 1981). Certainly some indi-
viduals had access to prestige goods through long-
distance trade, while others did not. Mortuary remains
also reveal substantial evidence for conflict between
3000-2000 B.P. Burials dated to this period from sites
near Prince Rupert on the northern coast of British
Columbia reveal evidence of skeletal trauma in many
members of the male population (Cybulski 1978). Male
burials outnumber female burials here by a ratio of
almost two to one. According to one theory, the under-
representation of women may be due to the fact that a
significant number of women were enslaved, and were,
therefore, not given the same treatment in burial as the
nonslave population (Cybulski 1992). The status of
women, in general, may have changed near the end of
the subtradition, at about 1500 B.P. Before this time,
labrets had been worn by both men and women, but the
practice changed to exclusive use by women (Moss
1996). One theory links this change to the emergence of
matrilineal kinship systems, which were in place ethno-
graphically among the Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingit
(Cybulski 1992).
Religion and Expressive Culture
Little is known of the belief systems that existed
prehistorically on the North Coast. At the time of
European contact, the ethnographic cultures believed
strongly in the importance of the spiritual world,
particularly in the idea that power emanated from this
world. A version of this belief system probably extends
back into prehistory and may relate to the anthropo-
morphic and zoomorphic carvings applied to hunting
gear and particularly to weaponry (Coupland 1989).
References
Ames, Kenneth M. (1981). "The Evolution of Social Ranking on the
Northwest Coast of North America." American Antiquity 46: 789-
805.
Ames, Kenneth M. (1994). "The Northwest Coast: Complex Hunter-
Gatherers, Ecology, and Social Evolution." Annual Review of
Anthropology 23: 209-229.
Calvert, Gay (1968). "The Co-op Site: A Prehistoric Midden on the
Northern Northwest Coast." Unpublished manuscript, University
of British Columbia, Laboratory of Archaeology, Vancouver.
Coupland, Gary G. (1985). "Household Variability and Status
Differentiation at Kitselas Canyon." Canadian Journal of Archaeo-
logy 9: 39-56.
Coupland, Gary G. (1988). Prehistoric Cultural Change at Kitselas
Canyon. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 138.
Coupland, Gary G. (1989). "Warfare and Social Complexity on the
Northwest Coast." In Cultures in Conflict: Current Archaeological
Perspectives, ed. D. Tkaczuk and B. Vivian. Calgary: Archaeological
Association of the University of Calgary, 205-214.
Coupland, Gary G. (1993). "Recent Archaeological Research on the
Northern coast." BC Studies 99: 53-76.
Coupland, Gary G. (1996). "This Old House: Cultural Complexity and
Household Stability on the Northern Northwest Coast of North
America." In Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate
Societies, ed. J. Arnold. Ann Arbor, MI: International Monographs
in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 9, 74-90.
Croes, Dale R. (1989). "Lachane Basketry and Cordage: A Technical,
Functional, and Comparative Study." Canadian JournalofArchaeo-
logy 13: 165-205.
Cybulski, Jerome S. (1978). "Modified Human Bones and Skulls from
Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia." Canadian Journal of
Archaeology 2: 15-32.
Cybulski, Jerome S. (1992). A Greenville Burial Ground: Human
Remains and Mortuary Elements in British Columbia Coast Prehis-
tory. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 146.
Farley, A. L. (1979). Atlas of British Columbia: People, Environment
and Resource Use. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Fladmark, Knut R. (1983). "A Comparison of Sea-Levels and
Prehistoric Cultural Developments on the East and West Coasts
of Canada." In The Evolution of Maritime Cultures on the Northeast
and Northwest Coasts of America, ed. R. Nash. Burnaby, B.C.:
Simon Fraser University Department of Archaeology Publication
II, 65-75.
MacDonald, George (1983). "Prehistoric Art of the Northern North-
west Coast." In Indian Art Traditions of the Northwest Coast, ed.
R. Carlson. Burnaby, B.C.: Simon Fraser University Archaeology
Press, 99-120.
MacDonald, George, and Richard Inglis (1981). "An overview of the
North Coast Prehistory Project." BC Studies: 48: 37--63.
Maschner, Herbert (1991). "The Emergence of Cultural Complexity on
the Northern Northwest Coast." Antiquity 65: 924-934.
Moss, Madonna L. (1996). "Gender, Social Inequality, and Cultural
Complexity: Northwest Coast Women in Prehistory." In Debating
Complexity: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Chacmool Con-
ference, ed. D. A. Meyer, P. C. Dawson, and D. A. Hanna.
Calgary: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary,
81-88.
Schalk, Randall (1981). "Land Use and Organizational Complexity
among Foragers of Northwestern North America." In Affluent
Foragers, ed. S. Koyama and D. H. Thomas. Osaka: National
Museum of Ethnology, Senri Ethnological Studies 9,53-75.
Shaw, Earl (1965). Fundamentals of Geography. New York: John
Wiley.
Stewart, Frances, and Kathy Stewart (1996). "The Boardwalk and
Grassy Bay Sites: Patterns of Seasonality and Subsistence on the
Northern Northwest Coast, B.c." Canadian Journal of Archaeology
20: 39-60.
Suttles, Wayne (1990). "Environment." In Handbook of North
American Indians: Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, ed. W. Suttles. Wash-
ington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 16-29.

SITES
Crescent Beach
TIME PERIOD: 4500-1500 B.P.
LOCATION:At the mouth of the Nicomekl river, south of
Vancouver, British Columbia, near the Canada-U.S.
border.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The Crescent Beach site is located in deltaic deposits
at the mouth of the Nicomekl river (Ham 1982; Matson
1992). Here, the river empties into Boundary bay, a
shallow bay formed by the expanding delta of the Fraser
river. In recent years, the site vicinity has been subjected
to industrial and suburban development, but at the time
of prehistoric occupation, temperate coastal rain-forest
conditions probably existed.
Physical Features
Whatever physical features may have existed at this
site prehistorically have now been destroyed by 20th
century development, including road building and
railway construction. Shell midden deposits were once
extensive at the site, covering at least a few hectares
(Ham 1982). There is no evidence of earthworks or
house-depression features ever having been identified on
the surface of the site.
Cultural Aspects
Crescent Beach probably served first as a residential
base camp, then later, by about 3500 B.P., as a major
seasonal habitation site (Matson 1992). The site is most
important for the evidence it provides on subsistence
changes through time. During the early period of
occupation, from 4500-3500 B.P., subsistence practices
were diversified among a number of resources, including
salmon, and storage was not critical to the economy
(Matson 1992; Matson and Coupland 1995). In the
following period, however, from 3300-2000 B.P., salmon
fishing intensified, and there is good evidence for a
subsistence economy based on storage. The site may
have functioned as a winter village at this time, although
clear evidence for large, multifamily houses is lacking.
Middle Northwest Coast 125
The advent of a storage economy is seen by many as a
critical initial step in the evolution of cultural complex-
ity on the Northwest Coast (Croes and Hackenberger
1988; Matson 1992; Matson and Coupland 1995).
References
Croes, Dale R., and Steven Hackenberger (1988). "Hoko River
Archaeological Complex: Modeling Prehistoric Northwest Coast
Economic Evolution." In Research in Economic Anthropology,
Supplement 3, Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast,
ed. B. L. Isaac. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 19-85.
Ham, Leonard C. (1982). "Seasonality, Shell Midden Layers, and
Coast Salish Subsistence Activities at the Crescent Beach Site, DgRr
I." Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver.
Matson, R. G. (1992). "The Evolution of Northwest Coast Subsis-
tence." In Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 6, Long-
Term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North America, ed.
D. R. Croes, R. Hawkins, and B. L. Isaac. Greenwich, CT: JAI
Press, 367-428.
Matson, R. G., and Gary G. Coupland (l995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
Paul Mason
TIME PERIOD: 3500-2500 B.P.
LOCATION: On the lower Skeena river in Northwestern
British Columbia.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The Paul Mason site is located in Kitselas canyon, a
narrow gorge about 2 km long, on the lower Skeena
river (Coupland 1988a). The site is surrounded by peaks
of the Coast mountains and exists in a coniferous
coastal rain forest.
Physical Features
The Paul Mason site sits at the edge of a vertical
canyon wall on a sloping terrace about 10-12 m above
the river level. The site measures about 120 m long by
80 m wide. The main physical features of the site are 10
rectangular house depressions dug into the terrace slope
and arranged side by side in two rows facing the river
(Coupland 1985, 1988a). The front row contains four
such features; the back row, six. The house depressions
126 Middle Northwest Coast
are very consistent in size, measuring about 10 m long x
6 m wide. Cooking and heating hearths, activity areas,
and sleeping and storage benches were identified within
the house features. These features are dated to the late
period of occupation of the site, 3200-2700 B.P. The site
is surrounded by numerous food storage pits.
Cultural Aspects
With its neatly arranged house-depression features,
the Paul Mason site is one of the earliest village sites on
the Northwest Coast. The layout of the site is remark-
ably similar to later village sites of the early historic
period (Matson and Coupland 1995). One important
difference, however, is the size of the houses, which
appear to have been much smaller than historic lineage
houses, suggesting that the large corporate households
of historic times had not yet evolved (Coupland 1988b,
1996). The uniformity in the size of the houses, the
similarity of their interior structure, and the general
absence of artifacts that might be associated with
personal wealth or social status all argue for egalitarian
social organization at this time (Coupland 1985). The
Paul Mason site was a small village, possibly occupied
year round, at a key salmon fishing location on the
Skeena river. This site may represent an early stage in
the development of cultural complexity on the North-
west Coast.
References
Coupland, Gary G. (1985). "Household Variability and Status
Differentiation at Kitselas Canyon." Canadian Journal of Archaeo-
logy 9: 39-56.
Coupland, Gary G. (1988a). Prehistoric Cultural Change at Kitselas
Canyon. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archaeological
Survey of Canada, Mercury Series 138.
Coupland, Gary G. (1988b). "Prehistoric Economic and Social Change
in the Tsimshian Area." In Research in Economic Anthropology,
Supplement 3, Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast,
ed. B. L. Isaac. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 211-243.
Coupland, Gary G. (1996). "This Old House: Cultural Complexity and
Household Stability on the Northern Northwest Coast of North
America." In Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate
Societies, ed. 1. Arnold. Ann Arbor, MI.: International Monographs
in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 9, 74-90.
Matson, R. G., and Gary G. Coupland (1995). The Prehistory of the
Northwest Coast. San Diego: Academic Press.
GARY COUPLAND
Department of Anthropology
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Northern Archaic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 6000-4000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD:Follows the Paleo-Arctic tradition,
precedes the Western Arctic Small Tool and Eastern
Arctic Small Tool traditions.
Nonglaciated Arctic and Subarctic regions of
LOCATION:
North America.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Leaf-shaped projectile
points with wide and deep side notches and convex bases,
changing to corner-notched and lanceolate forms late in
the tradition, unifacially flaked knives, end scrapers, and
notched cobbles (presumably net sinkers). A general
absence of microblade technology, present during both
the preceding Paleo-Arctic and the following Arctic
Small Tool traditions, is also an important defining
characteristic of the Northern Archaic tradition.
IMPORTANT SITES: Anaktuvuk Pass, Onion Portage.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Northern Archaic peoples lived in the post-
glacial environment characterized by a warming trend,
rising sea levels, and the northward spread of forests.
Indeed, by the end of the Northern Archaic tradition,
forests extended more than 300 miles farther north than
they do today. These were boreal forests composed
largely of conifers with a thin but varied ground cover of
mosses, ferns, and flowers. Although there certainly
were a variety of animals in these forests, caribou form
the bulk of faunal remains from archaeological deposits.
Settlements
The settlements of the Northern Archaic peoples
were small and short term. They were commonly located
in river valleys and on bluff tops, presumably allowing
hunters to see herds of migrating caribou approaching.
Houses were circular, roughly 10 feet in diameter, and
with a central fire pit. In some cases, the floors were dug
below the ground level. They were likely covered by
skins stretched over a frame of bent saplings to form
a tent.
Economy
The Northern Archaic peoples were nomadic
hunters of large game animals, particularly caribou.
The presence of what appear to be net sinkers sug-
gests that fish formed part of the diet for at least
some Northern Archaic groups. The technology of
127
128 Northern Archaic
the Northern Archaic peoples included a variety of stone
tools, the most characteristic being side to corner-
notched projectile points, with the notches being wide
and deep, used to arm spears. Knives and scrapers were
used to prepare hides for clothing, bags, and skin tents.
Sociopolitical Organisation
Although direct archaeological evidence is lacking,
the Northern Archaic peoples probably lived in small,
egalitarian bands of under 30 people. Membership in
these bands was likely fluid, with members joining and
leaving regularly. The size of bands may have fluctuated
seasonally, and bands may have aggregated into larger
groups during caribou migrations or during summer
months when gathered foods and fish may have formed
a major part of the diet.
Suggested Readings
Anderson, Douglas D. (1968). "A Stone Age Campsite at the
Gateway to America." Scientific American 218 (6): 24-33.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed. D. Damas.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 80-93.
Campbell, John M. (1961). "The Tuktu Complex of Anaktuvuk Pass."
Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 9 (2): 61-80.
Dumond, Don E. (1987). The Eskimos and Aleuts. Rev. ed. London:
Thames and Hudson.
Dumond, Don E. (1984). "Prehistory of the Bering Sea Region." In
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed. D. Damas.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 94-105.
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
Northwest Microblade
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 7000-2000 B.P.; earlier In the
Yukon than east of the Rocky mountains.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Late Paleoindian
tradition, precedes the Proto-Athapaskan tradition.
LOCATION: Northwestern Canada (western District of
Mackenzie, Yukon territory, northern interior British
Columbia, minor presence in northern Alberta); for-
merly also assigned to interior Alaska.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Microblades (and
cores), end scrapers, other beveled flake scrapers, side-
notched, oblanceolate, and leaf-shaped spear points,
square-based and elliptical flaked knives (only stone
implements have been recovered).
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Little Arm phase; Pointed
Mountain complex. The Northwest Microblade is some-
times interpreted as a late local manifestation of the
Denali complex or of the Northern Archaic tradition.
IMPORTANT SITES:Pointed Mountain (NWT type site),
Little Arm (Yukon type site), Kelly Creek (a Yukon
microblade production workshop), Otter Falls (Yukon),
Annie Lake (Yukon); Whirl Lake (lower component,
NWT); Campus (Alaska, usually assigned to late Denali
complex).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The northwest interior region has extremes of
long, very cold winters and hot summers with a 70°C
range in temperatures. Rainfall is very light but
frequent. Northward extension of forests beyond their
modern limits 11,000-8000 years ago suggests that the
climate then was milder than it is today at the beginning
of the Northwest Microblade tradition. Subsequent
cooling of the central Arctic 4000 years ago may also
have a counterpart in the western Mackenzie District.
This cooling may have been the cause of Paleo-Eskimo
movement southward into the northern fringe of
Northwest Microblade Tradition territory about 3500
years ago.
Topography. Northwest Microblade people occupied
the northern Cordillerian region, which included not
only mountain chains and uplands of the Rocky
mountain system but also intermontane valleys and
basins, the valleys of the Mackenzie river, and the upper
Yukon river and tributaries. At times, people of this
tradition may have extended onto the Arctic coastal
plain.
Geology. The bedrock geology of this region is extremely
varied, especially in the Yukon. Modern industry has
129
130 Northwest Microblade
obtained oil, gas, coal, gold, silver, zinc, copper,
tungsten, and other minerals from the region. The
prehistoric inhabitants used cherts, high-quality exam-
ples of which were traded into many sites, although
people often relied on poor-quality local silicified stone.
Obsidian was obtained from at least two sources in
northern British Columbia, Mt. Edziza and Hoodo
mountain, and from other sources in northwestern and
eastern interior Alaska. It was traded widely to people
who did not live proximal to the sources. A glassy fused
tuff unique to the Keele river tributary of the Mackenzie
river was also widely traded, especially in the District of
Mackenzie and to a lesser extent into the central Yukon.
Most of the region is underlaid by discontinuous
permafrost, ranging from nearly absent in the south to
nearly continuous in the northern lowlands. The distri-
bution of permafrost affects, directly or indirectly, the
type and distribution of vegetation, drainage, hydrology,
and in some cases wildlife and thus is subtly reflected
in the lifeways of the region.
Biota. Habitat was preeminently boreal forest in which
white spruce predominated, together with white pine in
well-drained southern portions of the area, black spruce
over shallow permafrost, and a mix of aspen and birch.
The patterning of this vegetation and stage of succession
in the forest is related to local wildfire history. Large
balsam poplars or cottonwood are found along graveled
stream courses. Other arborial species occur in restricted
areas or only occasionally reach tree size-larch, alpine
fir, and alders, for instance. In the area, there also are
upland tundra and alpine areas and extensive expanses
of shrubs.
Few faunal remains have been recovered from
archaeological sites. Historic and contemporary data
permit the following suppositions about the Holocene
fauna of the northern interior region. Utilized game
included migratory waterfowl, ptarmigan, and spruce
grouse. Fish were a major resource and included
whitefish (several species), grayling, sucker, lake trout,
pike, and in the Yukon drainage chum and king salmon.
Mammals were the primary source of food and material
for clothing and tentage. Caribou were important
throughout the area whereas other mammals were
available only locally or were of secondary value. These
included (not exhausting the list of mammals) moose,
mountain sheep, mountain goat, varying hare, brown
bear, black bear, bison, wapiti (elk), musk oxen, beaver,
muskrat, ground squirrel, marmot, porcupine, lynx and
red fox. Other furbearers, especially the five or six
species of mustelids, may have been trapped but with the
exception of river otter were not customarily eaten.
Musk oxen, bison, wapiti and mountain goat were
formerly more widely available in the region than they
are today, whereas the case may have been the opposite
for moose.
Settlements
Settlement System. Settlements were on lakes, most
commonly near their outlet. Some were also near the
confluence of river tributaries, and others were widely
dispersed in river valleys and along the juncture of
uplands and river flats or basins. Sites appear often to
have been located with some economic rationale: the
intersection of a caribou migration or fish trap locale at a
lake outlet, for instance. But more subtle explanations
may lie behind the penchant for campsite locations on
high ground near the juncture of uplands or hills and
lowlands. Evidence of trade survives in the presence of
nonlocal lithic materials, although these were of minor
extent. The composition of assemblages suggests they
represent major campsites, minor outpost sites, lookouts
and lithic processing sites.
Community Organization. Sites were small, although
adequate information is not available because of sparse
data and the difficulty of recognizing discrete compo-
nents or single camping episodes. Community organi-
zation may be inferred on the basis of the historic
lifeways of the Dene (Athapaskan Indians) who were
loosely organized in small mobile family groups and
bands.
Population, Health, and Disease. No human skeletal
remains or pertinent data have been recovered. A small
population with bands each composed of a few dozen
individuals can be suggested. Isolation and separation
into small groups may have resulted in a low incidence
of contagious diseases, but inbreeding may have resulted
in genetic defects. Concomitant with the lifeway of the
times, there probably was a heightened risk of accidental
injury and death, as from drowning.
Economy
Subsistence. Little subsistence refuse has been recovered
but artifacts point to hunting and probably also fishing
and gathering, which are in fact the only subsistence
possibilities that the environment offers. Traps and
snares were likely used, but evidence of them has not
survived. Each band would have had only a few
experienced hunters, but major activities such as the
operation of fish traps and caribou surrounds or game

drives, which we surmise existed, would have required
the combined efforts of men, women, and older children.
The main animal exploited for food and materials was
the caribou. Other utilized animal resources are noted
above in the description of the biota. Judging from
historic conditions, fisheries east of the Rocky moun-
tains (District of Mackenzie) differed from those in the
west (Yukon and part of British Columbia) in that the
latter had access to runs of salmon. The caribou,
salmon, waterfowl, and to a lesser degree other mam-
mals and fish were migratory, and thus their harvest
depended on being present at the right place at the right
time. Edible berries are locally abundant, although the
yield varies from year to year. Among them, low-bush
cranberries and blueberries could have been harvested
and stored in ground caches for later use.
Industrial Arts. Data are limited to stone artifacts. The
core trait is the microblade industry. Microblades were
produced from cores of several formats including the
Campus type, which also is distinctive of the Denali
complex and Paleo-Arctic tradition, tabular cores, and
roughly cylindrical cores. Other artifacts included leaf-
shaped points and side-notched points (late), burins
including the transverse notched or Donnelly type,
generalized large biface knives with oval to square base,
beveled flakes of side scraper and end scraper formats,
utilized flakes, graver spurs, notched cobble weights
(uncommon at this time), and split cobble tools. Some
components also have macro blades (over 10 mm width),
which were used as tools and tool blanks. The micro-
blades would have been mounted to form cutting edges,
most commonly, it is surmised, in projectile points as
evidence from western Alaska indicates. The failure of
bone, antler, and wooden artifacts to survive results in a
very skewed inventory of known tools.
Four selected site assemblages show the mix of
tool types, the relative abundance of tools compared
with microblades, and the evidence for microblade
manufacture or core refurbishment. These data are
thought to reflect differences in settlement type or site
function. Some positions in the table are dashed because
we are uncertain whether the type is absent or is present
but included in other artifact classes as originally
reported. A question mark indicates probable presence,
but with some uncertainty. The Campus, Pointed
Mountain, and Little Arm sites figure in MacNeish's
definition of the Northwest Microblade Tradition,
although Campus was also a major site in the definition
of the Denali Complex and now is seen by many
archaeologists as late Denali. Local usage would assign
Kelly Creek to the Northwest Microblade Tradition, but
Northwest Microblade 131
from the perspective of Alaskan archaeology it is a
Denali complex assemblage.
All four sites appear to have been loci of microblade
manufacture. They have abundant microblades and
evidence of core production and frequent core refur-
bishment in the form of platform tablets. All also have
several types of nonmicroblade tools, which indicate
various activities. Points show that the inhabitants
possessed and repaired projectiles (most points are
fragments). Other activities, probably domestic in
nature, are represented by biface knives, notched cob-
bles, and tci-tho hide-working slabs. However, the
proportionate strength of items that do not form part
of the microblade industry varies considerably from site
to site. The size of each collection recovered is not
considered here as all assemblages are only samples,
although the Kelly Creek sample probably includes the
greater part of that site. Considering the vagaries of
recovery and classification, we place little meaning in
small differences but can point to possible significance in
the following situations:
• Kelly Creek yielded the greatest number of micro-
blades and cores but the fewest implements.
• Little Arm produced relatively few cores.
• The proportionate number of implements appears to
increase further at Pointed Mountain, though the
data are imprecise for this site and we have been
unable to use the results of later work there.
• Although all these sites were microblade manufac-
turing stations, Campus and Pointed Mountain were
also campsites where families lived at least part of
the year over the course of many seasons. These two
have relative high frequencies of biface tools, many
of them unfinished, and large numbers of scrapers.
At Little Arm, the relative frequency of scrapers
drops, and at Kelly Creek, it decreases further.
Bifaces of a format customarily termed projectile
points are present at all sites, but the occurrence of
only two points at Kelly Creek is relatively and
absolutely low.
• The most striking difference is the lack at Kelly Creek
(none) and Little Arm (1 only, 2% of assemblage) of
bifaces of the large, broad format, customarily
identified as knives, in contrast to Pointed Mountain,
which has 14 such objects (9%) and Campus which
has 71 (24%) of them. If Little Arm, which is
somewhat intermediate in makeup, is removed from
consideration, we see two highly contrasting assem-
blages: Kelly Creek, on the one hand, and Campus
and Pointed Mountain. Clearly, Kelly Creek was not
the kind of camp that the other two sites were. It was
132 Northwest Microblade
primarily a microblade factory. The situation at Otter
Falls, a southern Yukon site not discussed in this
article, is similar to Kelly Creek.
Trade. Among materials used for implements is ob-
sidian, which was carried northeastward from the
Mt. Edziza source on the Stikeen River, British
Columbia, to reach such localities as the Pointed Moun-
tain site, Southwest Mackenzie. Obsidian from the same
source and from the northern British Columbia Hoodoo
mountain source, mainly the first, was also widely
distributed throughout northern British Columbia and
the Southern Yukon. Some Alaskan obsidian from as far
west as the Koyukuk river was also traded into the
Yukon. A distinctive glassy fused tuff was exchanged
southward from the Keele river in the Mackenzie valley
(located just west of Fort Norman) to Pointed mountain
and is found widely elsewhere in other sites of the
western Mackenzie and central Yukon.
Division of Labor. Information pertinent to this topic
has not been recovered. Ethnographically, gender-based
role distinctions were well established among northern
hunter gatherers, although exceptions to the stereotyped
situation abound.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. There are
no data. Certain local groups would have been in a
position to control access to and distribution of obsidian
from Northern British Columbia and fused tuff from the
Keele river in the Mackenzie District.
Suggested Readings
Anderson, D. (1968). "A Stone Age Campsite at the Gateway to
America." Scientific American 218 (6): 24-33.
Anderson D., (1970). Akmak: An Early Archaeological Assemblage
from Onion. Portage, Northwest Alaska. Copenhagen Acta: Arctica
No. 16.
Anderson, D. (1980). "Continuity and Change in the Prehistoric
Record from North Alaska." In Alaska Native Culture History, ed.
Y. Kotani and W. B. Workman. Senri Ethnological Series, No.4
Osaka: National Museums of Ethnography, 233-251.
Bacon, Glenn H. (1977). "The Prehistory of Alaska: A Speculative
Alternative." In Problems in the Prehistory of the North American
Sub-Arctic: The Athapaskan Question, ed. J. W. Helmer, S.
VanDyke and F. J. Kense. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual
Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of
Calgary. Calgary: University of Calgary Archaeological Association
(CHACMOOL), 1-10.
Clark, Donald W. (1991). Western Subarctic Prehistory. Hull: Cana-
dian Museum of Civilization.
Clark, Donald W. (1992). "A Microblade Production Station
(KbTx-2) in the South Central Yukon." Canadian Journal of
Archaeology 16: 3-33.
Clark, Donald W., and Ruth M. Gotthardt (1998). "The Kelly Creek
Site (KbTx-2) and Its Place among Microblade Industries of
Northwestern Canada and Alaska." Occasional Papers in Archaeo-
logy No.6. Whitehorse; Yukon Heritage Branch.
Clark, Donald W., and Richard E. Morlan (1982). "Western Subarctic
Prehistory: Twenty Years Later." Canadian Journal of Archaeology
6: 79-93.
Dixon, E. James (1985). "Cultural Chronology of Central Interior
Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 22 (I): 47-66.
Dumond, Don E. (1982). "A Chronology of Native Alaskan Subsis-
tence Systems." In Alaska Native Culture and History, ed. Y. Kotani
and W. B. Workman. National Museums of EthnographY, Senri
Ethnological Series, No.4. Osaka: National Museums of Ethno-
graphy, 233-252.
Dumond, Don D. (1988) The Eskimos and Aleuts, 2nd ed. London:
Thames and Hudson.
Erlandson, Jon, R. Walser, H. Maxwell, N. Bigelow, J. Cook, R.
Lively, C. Adkins, D. Dodson, A. Higgs, and J. Wilber (1991). "Two
Early Sites of Eastern Beringia: Context and Chronology in Alaskan
Interior Archaeology." Radiocarbon 33 (1): 35-50.
Fladmark, Knut R. (1985). Glass and Ice: The Archaeology of
Mt. Edziza. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University,
Publication, No. 14. Burnaby: Simon Fraser University, Depart-
ment of Archaeology.
Gordon, B. c., and Howard Savage (1974). "Whirl Lake: A Stratified
Indian Site Near the Mackenzie Delta." Arctic 27 (3): 175-188.
Le Blanc, Raymond J., and John W. Ives (1986). "The Bezya Site: A
Wedge-Shaped Core Assemblage from Northeastern Alberta."
Canadian Journal of Archaeology 10: 59-98.
Mac Neish, Richard S. (1954). "The Pointed Mountain Site near
Fort Liard, Northwest Territories." American Antiquity 19 (3): 234-
253.
Mac Neish, Richard S. (1962). "Recent Finds in the Yukon Territory
of Canada." In Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and
Temperate Zones of North America, ed. J. M. Campbell. Arctic
Institute of North America Technical Paper, No. II. Arctic Institute
of North America 20-26.
Mac Neish, Robert S. (1964). Investigations in Southwest Yukon:
Archaeological Excavations, Comparisons and Speculations. Papers
of the Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Vol. 6,
No.2. Andover, NH: Phillips Academy, 201-488.
Millar, James V. F. (1981). "Interaction between the Mackenzie and
Yukon Basins during the Early Holocene." In Networks of the Past:
Regional Interaction in Archaeology, ed. Peter D. Francis. F. J.
Kense, and P. G. Duke. Calgary: Archaeological Association of
the University of Calgary, 259-294 and figs.
Mobley, Charles M. (1991). The Campus Site: A Prehistoric Camp at
Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.
Morrison, David A. (1987). "The Middle Prehistoric Period and the
Archaic Concept in the Mackenzie Valley." Canadian Journal of
Archaeology II: 49-74.
West, Frederick Hadleigh-West (1967). "The Donnelly Ridge Site and
the Definition of an Early Core and Blade Complex in Central
Alaska." American Antiquity 32 (3): 360-382.
West, Frederick Hadleigh-West (1981a). The Archaeology of Beringis.
New York: Columbia University Press.
West, Frederick Hadleigh-West (l981b). "Reflections on Beringian
Prehistory and Early Man in America." Geoscience and Man 22:
103-114.
West, Frederick Hadleigh-West (1996). "The Archaeological Evi-
dence." American Beginnings, ed. F. H. West. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.

Workman, William B. (1978). Prehistory of the Aishihik-Kluane Area,
Southwest Yukon Territory. National Museum of Man Mercury
Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. 74. Ottawa:
National Museum of Man.
Wright, James V. (1995). A History of the Native People of Canada,
Vol. 1 (10,000-1000 B.C.). Canadian Museum of Civilization Mer-
cury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. 152. Hull:
Canadian Museum of Civilization.
SUBTRADITIONS
Little Arm Phase
TIME PERIOD: 6500-5000 B.P.
LOCATION: Southwestern Yukon Territory.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Microblades and
cores, leaf-shaped projectile points, graver spurs, end
scrapers, side scrapers, burins (Clark and Gotthardt
1998; Hare 1995; MacNeish 1964; Workman 1978).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Although days with rain or snowfall are moder-
ately numerous, the actual amount of precipitation is
low, in the semidesert order of magnitude, primarily
because of the rain shadow effect of the Coast moun-
tains. At Whitehorse, the principal modern settlement
in the area, the mean annual precipitation is only
about 25 cm. This has resulted in the presence of xeric
vegetation on well-drained slopes and a sierra-like
landscape in some areas such as the vicinity of White-
horse. The climate is one of long rigorous winters when
low temperatures can dip below minus 60 OF., and hot,
brief summers during which the temperature rises to
between 90 OF and 100 OF. But there are frequent
midwinter mild spells when temperatures in the fabled
land of Robert Service are warmer than temperatures at
that time in the northern tier of the United States. Little
Arm people occupied an area of lakes, uplands, low
mountain ranges, and narrow river valleys drained by
the headwaters of the Yukon river and its tributaries
located in the southern Yukon territory and, evidently,
northernmost portion of British Columbia.
Most sites are located above 700 m elevation, and
some are above 900 m. The geology is complex and
consists of numerous rock types, which frequently
Northwest Microblade 133
outcrop in the hills and along river courses. Alluvial
plains are of relatively minor extent. Habitat, in the past
as well as today, was mainly boreal forest in which white
spruce predominated, together with lodgepole pine on
well-drained terrain. A mix of trembling aspen and
white birch is also found in patches and stripes in the
forest and in areas recently burned. In the territory,
there are also upland tundra and alpine areas. Distri-
butions may have differed in the past, especially at the
beginning of the tradition when summers may have been
even drier and warmer than they are today (Workman
1978: 62-63). Wildlife that likely would have been used
as game includes migratory waterfowl, ptarmigan, and
spruce grouse. Fish were a major resource and included
whitefish (several species), grayling, sucker, lake trout,
pike, and chum and king salmon. Among the mammals,
there are caribou, moose although possibly rare during
Little Arm times, mountain sheep, mountain goat found
at the southern edge of the area, brown bear, black bear,
bison of undetermined abundance, wapiti (elk) of
uncertain abundance during Little Arm times, beaver,
muskrat, ground squirrel, marmot, porcupine, lynx, and
red fox.
Settlements
Settlements were on lakes, most commonly near
their outlets or at major inlet streams. Others were
widely dispersed over the land, along the juncture of
uplands and river valleys or basins. Sites often appear to
have been located with some economic rationale: for
fishing, for instance. The composition of artifact
assemblages suggests that they represent major camp-
sites, minor outpost sites, lookouts and lithic pro-
duction sites. Sites were small, although adequate
information is not available because of the sparse data
and difficulty of recognizing the extent of discrete
components. Community organization may be inferred
on the basis of the historic lifeways of the Dene
(Athapaskan Indians) who were loosely organized in
small mobile family groups and bands. No information
on shelters has been recovered although hearths, with
nearby postholes, have been found at some sites. No
human skeletal remains or pertinent data have been
recovered. A small population with bands composed of
a few dozen individuals each can be suggested. Isolation
and separation into small groups may have resulted in a
low incidence of contagious diseases, but inbreeding
may have resulted in genetic defects. Concomitant
with the lifeway of the times, there probably was a
heightened risk of accidental injury and death, as from
drowning during travel.
134 Northwest Microblade
Economy
Subsistence was entirely by hunting and gather-
ing, including the netting and trapping of fish and
small game. Berries and possibly other vegetal prod-
ucts would have made a minor but important contribu-
tion. Almost no faunal refuse bones have been recovered
from sites, but a broadly based hunting economy would
have exploited nearly all the available species as listed
above under Biota. The main animal exploited for food
and materials was the caribou. Mountain sheep were
also important. There were runs of two or three species
of salmon, but those that came up the Yukon river were
in poor condition by the time they reached Little Arm
territory. Salmon also reached the Southwest Yukon
from the Pacific Coast by means of the Alsek river and
its tributaries. The caribou, salmon, waterfowl, and to a
lesser degree other mammals and fish were migratory,
and thus their harvest required seasonal scheduling and
appropriate fit with the settlement pattern.
Insofar as the archaeological record is involved,
technology was limited to the production of stone
artifacts, especially the chipped stone tools listed in the
discussion (in Major Tradition entry). However, it may
be assumed that most paraphernalia was produced from
bone, antler, bark, wood, hides, and other materials that
have perished from the record. Evidence for trade is seen
in the distribution of obsidian, northward of the
Mt. Edziza and Hoodoo Mountain sources that are
located, respectively, in and near Little Arm territory.
There is little in the known Little Arm technology that
suggests craft specialization, but it is reported that
among the historic inhabitants of the region there were
craftspersons who were patronized for their specific
abilities, for making snowshoes, for instance. Resources
and points of easiest access were distributed in a manner
that would lend itself to differential access or control of
resources by particular bands or local elites. These
include obsidian outcrops, caribou crossings where
animals mass during migrations, and fisheries locations
at stream rapids and lake narrows.
Sociopolitical Organization
Given the context in which Little Arm people lived,
the most likely social, political, and residental group was
the local band. Band members would have followed
acclaimed leaders, which tended to form elites, but
membership in a band would have been very flexible.
Band exogamy, which likely occurred only as a loosely
followed rule, and partnerships with members of other
bands would have facilitated the fluid composition of
bands. Conflict is not documented by any artifacts for
defense or aggression or by defensive site locations. The
most common conflicts were likely raids between
neighboring groups, which probably occurred as the
result of internecine feuds.
Religion and Expressive Culture
No recovered artifacts, artworks, art motifs, struc-
tures, or mortuary data appear to bear on personal
religious practice, religious practitioners, ceremonies,
art, and belief and practice relating to afterlife. At the
time of historic contact, however, Native inhabitants of
the region had a rich repertoiry of didactic myths and
legends with religious significance, used personal amu-
lets, consulted shamans, and followed well-defined rules
and rituals for treatment of the remains and spirits of
animals hunted and deceased humans. Arts were
expressed in their clothing and oral literature.
References
Clark, Donald W., and Ruth M. Gotthardt (1998). "The Kelly Creek
Site (KbTx-2) and Its Place among Microblade Industries of
Northwestern Canada and Alaska." Occasional Papers in Archaeo-
logy No.6. Whitehorse; Yukon Heritage Branch.
Hare, Paul Gregory (1995). Holocene Occupations in the Southern
Yukon, New Perspectives from the Annie Lake Site. Occasional
Papers in Archaeology, No.5. Heritage Branch, Whitehorse:
Government of the Yukon Heritage Branch.
Mac Neish, Richard S. (1964). Investigations in Southwest Yukon:
Archaeological Excavations, Comparisons and Speculations. Papers
of the Robert S.Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Vol. 6,
No.2. Andover, NH: Phillips Academy, 201--488.
Workman, William B. (1978). Prehistory of the Aish-Kluane Area,
Southwest Yukon Territory. National Museum of Man Mercury
Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. 74. Ottawa:
National Museum of Man.
DONALD CLARK
15 Ellery Crescent
Nepean, Ontario
Canada
Norton
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 3000-1000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Western Arctic Small
Tool tradition, although probably coexistent with final
aspects of it; precedes the Thule tradition, although
contemporary for some centuries with early regional
aspects of it. Some investigators working in North
Alaska incorporate this tradition in an expanded
Western Arctic Small Tool tradition.
LOCATION: Coast and coastal hinterland and some major
river valleys and lakes of Alaska from the Alaska
peninsula on the south to Point Barrow on the north,
with scattered presence eastward to the Mackenzie river
mouth in Northwest Canada.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Harpoon, arrow, and
dart heads of antler or ivory; labrets; chipped projectile
points and side blades; settlements chiefly on the coast or
major rivers, campsites in the interior. Distinctive art
style in one subtradition (Ipiutak). Ceramics-generally
fiber tempered, linear or check stamped-as well as stone
lamps and minor polished slate in two sub traditions
(Choris, Norton). Burins in one subtradition (Choris).
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Choris, Ipiutak, Norton.
IMPORTANT SITES:Point Hope, Cape Krusenstern, Choris
peninsula, Onion Portage, Cape Denbigh, Brooks river,
Cape Nome.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The tradition appears at the end of the climatic
optimum as cold increased by around 2500 B.P., with
steady warming thereafter. Its region is on or near
Alaska coasts that are ice fast in winter, although the
majority are south of the Arctic circle.
Topography. Relatively flat and swampy tundra on the
coast and in the near hinterland; sites are less common
in mountains, nearly absent in boreal forest.
Geology. Bering and Chukchi sea coastal regions are
glacial outwash, little consolidated, with river mouths
drowned by post-Pleistocene sea-level rise. Some areas
are marked by pro-grading beach deposits that postdate
5000 B.P. Inland, mountains of both sedimentary folding
and volcanic origin rise abruptly from glacial plains;
although some ranges include active volcanoes and both
ancient and recent volcanic deposits, the region is
generally tectonically stable.
Biota. The region was characterized by expanding
forests in the interior, migrating caribou, coastal sea
mammals (whales, walrus, migrating seals where salient
points of land stretch toward migration paths, harbor
seals ubiquitous); seabirds, waterfowl. In most of the
region, moose were absent during the period. Plants
135
136 Norton

were apparently less favored for subsistence, but pre- many as 40 house structures. On the southern coast of
sumably included berries, some greens in the short the Bering sea, some evidence suggests a fairly steady
summer season. population increase through the period from about
2300-1000 B.P.
Settlements
Settlement System. Major coastal sites included multi- Economy
ple semi subterranean houses. Hinterland settlements
were more scattered, some of substantial size occurring Subsistence. Sealing, fishing, and caribou hunting ap-
south of the Bering strait in regions with significant pear to have been the basis of subsistence, the more
salmon migrations; in the north, some permanent common pattern evidently with winter and spring on or
settlements were on lakes, but most northern hinterland near the coast, summer and fall along fishing streams
sites, like many in the south, were more ephemeral and at caribou crossings. Some sites on the lakes and
seasonal camps. streams of the north slope of the Brooks range of
mountains may have been of inconvenient access to the
Community Organization. Semi sedentary, with devel- sea, suggesting that trade in caribou products, especially
oped patterns of seasonal exploitation. Some sugges- hides, and ocean products such as sea mammal oil
tions are of public ceremonial structures at least partly probably foreshadowed documented patterns of historic
analogous to the later men's house of Eskimo people times. Some slight evidence of whaling, in the form of
(karigi, kashim, kazigi), possibly implying team organi- whaling harpoon heads, is reported from two separate
zations for economic purposes. Some cemetery areas are coastal sites.
reported, but the total number is extremely limited. Wild Foods. Such faunal remains as have been
Most sites are without clear plan, although some have reported are heavily seal on the coast, caribou in the
indicated a pattern of small structures clustered around interior; although fish remains are less well preserved,
or near a larger one. they are not nonexistent and a majority of sites (of the
Norton subtradition) have yielded plentiful notched
Housing. Structures varied from early, elliptical houses stones interpreted as net sinkers; salmon are believed to
(up to 11 x 5 m), slightly excavated into contemporary have been the southern staple.
surface, without identified entries and with somewhat
uncertain superstructures composed at least in part of Industrial Arts. Ivory and caribou antler, with sea- and
driftwood (Choris), to square wooden structures exca- land-mammal bone used to a lesser extent, provided the
vated slightly to deeply below surface, modally about raw material for many objects; ivory was favored for
4 m on a side, with central fire hearth and a smoke hole artistic embellishments in the subtraditions where such
in a roof evidently of poles, moss, and sod, some with elaborations are more common, and in some cases
entry tunnels sloping downward from the surface evidently involved the use of iron for engraving. Stone
(Norton), some with less clearly discernible entrances artifacts were manufactured predominantly by chipping,
(Ipiutak). Nearly all used driftwood for heat. Ephemeral making use of a variety of cherts, dense andesitic rocks,
campsites are generally without discernible pattern save and silicified shales. Jade, available in the Brooks range,
a cluster of artifacts and a campfire. appears in artifacts in the north, and obsidian, available
in or near the Brooks range and apparently in the
Population, Health, and Disease. In most cases, recur- Wrangell mountains, occurs fairly plentifully in sites on
rent occupation of beaches over long periods, with both slopes of the Brooks range and in Central Alaska,
hundreds of house depressions enumerated at some but sporadically elsewhere. Lip ornaments are of bone,
sites, makes determination of contemporary plan and ivory, and, especially in the south, of lignite. Slate and
settlement size impossible without more extensive exca- shale polishing occurs sporadically in the earlier portion
vation than is the general case. Where patterns of of the temporal span, becomes common in the form of
apparently contemporary clusters are more nearly transverse knives and lance heads in later portions of the
discernible, settlements appear to have consisted of span in the south.
from one to possibly more than a dozen houses. One
recent projection for Northwest Alaska suggests as Utensils. Coastal sites in which organics are preserved
many as 200 people at one time may have lived in at are characterized by ivory, bone, or antler toggling
least one large site (Ipiutak subtradition) in perhaps as harpoon heads, barbed dart heads, harpoon and dart

foreshafts, arrowheads (most of which are armed by
stone points), bow parts, knife handles, engraving
tool handles, adze heads (formed to hold stone blades),
snow goggles, ice chisels, wedges. Arrow points, har-
poon arming points, side-hafted cutting implements,
knives, and scrapers are of chipped hard stone. Adzes
and some scraper blades have carefully polished bits.
Two subtraditions (Choris, Norton) include oil-burning
lamps or other vessels of pecked and ground stone,
utilitarian ceramic cooking pots, and (sporadically)
polished slate knives, including the transverse ulu.
One subtradition (Ipiutak), lacking lamps and ceram-
ics, is noted for a variety of nonutilitarian decorative
objects of ivory or antler, as well as for elaborately
engraved implements such as knife handles and har-
poon heads.
Ornaments. All sub traditions are noted for the earliest
use of lip ornaments or labrets (of stone, ivory, or bone)
in regions of coastal Alaska north of the Aleutian
islands and the Pacific coast. One subtradition (Ipiutak)
is noted for decorative art that includes items that are
presumed to be simply ornamental-----{;arved ivory
chains, for instance-as well as decorative elaboration
consisting of engraving and sculptural representations
worked onto utilitarian objects, including combs, har-
poon heads, harpoon foreshafts, knife handles, and
other objects. The variations in the numbers of these in
grave offerings in one cemetery have been suggested to
imply status differences, but the lack of confirmation of
this skewed distribution in the only set of graves at a
different site to be reasonably reported mandates cau-
tion in concluding anything about systematic status
marking by such means.
Trade. Obsidian and jade, where present, represent
trade over medium distances, but neither is distributed
so widely as to indicate trade networks that cover more
than fairly restricted regions. Iron, present in one
subtradition (Ipiutak), evidently represents trade from
mainland Asia. Although the complexity of some
engravings in ivory suggests iron was regularly used in
engraving tools, the volume of such trade is unknown,
as well as the immediate source in northeasternmost
Asia.
Division of Labor. Some differential distributions of
"men's tools" (carving implements, engraving tools) as
against "women's tools" (transverse knives, needles)
as well as some faunal remains (e.g., walrus tusk or
antler sections vs. general faunal trash) suggest anal-
ogy with historic Eskimo peoples in which men hunted,
Norton 137
built the houses, produced almost all crafts in-
volving hard materials, with women caring for car-
casses of animals, working and sewing skins, including
those for boat covers. Specialists appear to have
included shamans, judging by special distributions of
certain decorative objects and sporadic caches of found
items such as quartz crystals. Generally, however,
division of labor appears minimal other than by age
and sex.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. None is
clearly evident. The potential existence of ceremonial or
"men's" houses may imply team organizations that
involve at least some leadership, but the conclusion is
based almost entirely on analogy with historic North-
western Alaskan settlements.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. There is no evidence for anything
significantly beyond a family and band level of organi-
zation. Variations in size and distribution of settlements
with permanent habitations suggest flexibility in resi-
dence and organization, with kinship probably reckoned
bilaterally (as with the majority of historic Eskimo
people) and with status achieved.
Political Organization. Again, the possible existence of
loose organizations for subsistence focused around the
ceremonial or "men's" house implies at least seasonal
groups with minor and possibly ephemeral structure.
There is no evidence of strong leadership organiza-
tions or of recognition of high status by sumptuary
goods.
Conflict. Present in burial evidence of killings and
some mutilations. Analogy with historic peoples sug-
gests local or individual conflicts were endemic, leading
at times to actual warfare between settlements, but
without evidence of permanent leadership positions
resulting.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Artistic representations include com-
bination human-animal representations that suggest the
presence of ideas of animal kinship and both fantastic
animal forms and small carvings with indications of
inner (bone) structure that have been interpreted as
representations of spirit helpers related to shamanistic
138 Norton
practices. Grave offerings suggest some such relation-
ships continued in an afterlife.
Ceremonies. Masks were apparently placed on the
deceased in some burials, but whether they were used
in ceremonies such as those of later Eskimo peoples is
not clear. Drum parts or other direct evidence of dance
ceremonies is lacking, although the possible presence of
community (i.e., "public") structures may imply group
ceremonies.
Arts. Both ivory and antler engravings and sculpture in
the round are well represented in one of the three
subtraditions (lpiutak). Motifs include representational
animals and human faces, fantastic animal forms, and
nonrepresentational design elements applied to utilitar-
ian and other objects. Arts in other organic materials are
less well represented, although basketry was evidently
present.
Death and Afterlife. The quantity and quality of grave
offerings vary substantially both between sites and
between individuals. Some masks and other representa-
tions among such offerings have been interpreted as a
ghost cult that existed alongside shamanism.
Suggested Readings
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol.5,
ed. W. C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 80-93.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River. Fairbanks: Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Dumond, Don E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960-1975. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, no. 21.
Dumond, Don E. (1984). "Prehistory of the Bering Sea Region." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol.5,
ed. W. C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 94-105.
Giddings, James L. (1964). The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. Provi-
dence: Brown University Press.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Larsen, Helge, and Froelich Rainey (1948). Ipiutak and the Arctic
Whale Hunting Culture. New York: Anthropological Papers of the
American Museum of Natural History, 42.
Shaw, Robert D., and Charles E. Holmes, eds. The Norton Interaction
Sphere: Selected Papers from a Symposium. Madison: Arctic
Anthropology 19 (2).
SUBTRADITIONS
----------------------------------------------
Choris
TIME PERIOD: 3000-2500 B.P.
LOCATION: The majority of sites are in the region around
Kotzebue sound, Northwestern Alaska, with additional
but scattered indications on the Kobuk river; in interior
Seward peninsula; on the northern slope of the eastern
Brooks range; possibly as far east as the delta of the
Mackenzie river. One site is reported from immediately
north of the western tip of Seward peninsula at the
Bering strait.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Large elliptical house
depressions; medium- to large-sized stone projectile
points, often with diagonal flaking; thick chipped stone
burins and burin spalls used as tools; chipped stone adze
blades; subtriangular shaped knives or bifacial scraping
implements; fixed (nontoggling), bilaterally barbed har-
poon dart heads of antler; sporadic occurrence of
crudely scraped slate with polished cutting edge; fiber-
tempered ceramics with linear-stamped surface decora-
tion; some labrets; some stone lamps.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
All areas of Choris occupation are north of, or no
more than a fraction of a degree south of, the Arctic
circle, a region of shores that are ice fast in winter and
that experience periods of winter darkness. Interior sites
are near river courses, at the extreme northern edge of
boreal forest, or in tundra zones. Coastal locations are
consistently windy (Stager and McSkimming 1984),
whereas some interior locations were protected from
winds south of mountain barriers (Giddings 1952: 3).
Subsistence resources available were especially seal and
caribou, together with shore birds and some fish. Fish
run now in some of the rivers, although evidence for
Choris fishing with nets is limited (Giddings and
Anderson 1986: 229).
Settlements
The two known settlements include one on the coast
(Choris peninsula in Kotzebue sound), consisting of at

least three elliptical houses (8-13 m in the long dimen-
sion) as well as apparently more ephemeral campsites
(Giddings and Anderson 1986: 187-208). The second, in
the interior (Kobuk river), consists of a single elliptical
house (7.7 m in long dimension) surrounded by campfire
areas suggestive of eight possibly permanent tent loca-
tions, with one interpretation that a forerunner of the
Eskimo men's house was surrounded by tents occupied
especially by women (Anderson 1988). All other sites
apparently represent ephemeral camps (Dixon 1971;
Giddings and Anderson 1986: 209-230; Le Blanc 1994;
Sutherland 1997).
Economy
The presence of relatively stable settlements and
ephemeral campsites on both the coast (Giddings 1952;
Giddings and Anderson 1986: 187-192) and in the
interior (Anderson 1988) implies a broad subsistence
adaptation, with possibly trade as well as seasonal
movements between zones, although direct evidence for
the former is not reported. Some artifact forms, includ-
ing well-formed lanceolate points suitable for arming
spears or lances, suggest a significant focus on interior
game animals, a conception supported by dominant
frequencies of caribou bone. Nevertheless, the major
researchers believe Choris also to represent a mature
maritime adaptation to the Northwest Alaskan coast, a
conclusion indicated by oil-burning lamps, relatively
plentiful seal bones, recognizable harpoon technology,
and evidence that the Choris peninsula settlement was
occupied throughout much of the year. On the other
hand, although fishing is indicated at Onion portage in
the interior, there is no evidence for it on the coast, and
although whale bones are plentiful on Choris-period
beaches at Cape Krusenstern, there is no direct evidence
of Choris whaling. Notable is the earliest Alaskan use of
pottery, evidently derived from Northeast Asia, al-
though the mechanism is unknown. These cooking pots
occur in the absence of evidence for stone boiling,
common in earlier periods, suggesting a functional
replacement of one practice by the other.
Sociopolitical Organization
Clear evidence of organization is lacking. Larger
house sizes in the two settlements known indicate the
possibility of extended family units, although they did
not include multiple hearths or identifiable cooking
paces (e.g., as with lamps) (Giddings and Anderson
1986: figs. 107, IlO, Ill). The possibility that the house-
plus-tent sites of the Kobuk river (Onion portage) site
Norton 139
may indicate a forerunner of the Eskimo men's house
plus subsidiary structures has been suggested (Anderson
1988: II 2), but other interpretations cannot be ruled
out.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Burials are unknown, and few decorative objects
pertinent to the subtradition have been recovered. Items
of adornment include a labret, a pendant, a drilled piece
of amber, and a piece of what may be an ivory pendant.
The limited number of other decorative items includes
the head of an ivory figurine (Giddings and Anderson
1986: 205-206).
References
Anderson, Douglas D. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River. Fairbanks: Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Dixon, E. James, Jr. (1971). "The Gallagher Flint Station and Other
Sites along the Sagavanirktok River." In Final Report of the
Archeological Survey and Excavations along the Alyeska Pipeline
Service Company Pipeline Route, ed. J. P. Cook. College: University
of Alaska, 117-207.
Giddings, James L. (1952). The Arctic Woodland Culture of the Kobuk
River. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylva-
nia.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Le Blanc, Raymond J. (1994). " The Crane Site and the Lagoon
Complex in the Western Canadian Arctic." In Threads of Arctic
Prehistory: Papers in Honor of William E. Taylor, Jr., ed. D. Morison
and J.-L. Pilon. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization,
87-101.
Stager, John K., and Robert J. McSkimming (1984). "Physical
Environment." In Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North
American Indians, Vol. 5, ed. W. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 27-35.
Sutherland, Patricia D. (1997). "New Evidence for Links between
Alaska and Arctic Canada: The Satkualuk site in the Mackenzie
Delta." Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Alaska
Anthropological Association, Whitehorse.
Ipiutak
TIME PERIOD: 1700-1100 B.P.
LOCATION: Northwest and North-Central Alaska; coast-
ally from western Seward peninsula to Point Hope on
the Chukchi sea, possibly as far north as Point Barow;
in the interior, eastward from Point Hope to the
140 Norton
east-central Brooks range, south to North-Central
Alaska, possibly as far as the upper waters of the Yukon
river system, or even the headwaters of the Kuskokwim.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Plentiful bifacially
chipped side blades, both symmetrical and asymmetri-
cal, for use in both knives and projectiles; chipped end
blades for knives and projectiles, the arrow points often
with squared or asymmetrically indented bases or
slightly constricting stems, but not the pentagonal end
blades of the Norton subtradition; absence of stone
lamps or polished stone implements except for adze
blades, which range from small chipped specimens with
polished bit to larger and more extensively ground
specimens possibly used for splitting. Labrets in lignite
or other mineral (with much of the evidence for them
confined to engraved representations of human faces).
Toggling harpoon heads in various forms, both open
and closed socketed, self-armed and with side blades, or
with end blades, executed chiefly in antler and often
engraved, in sizes suitable for walrus and seals. Antler
arrowheads, barbed and unbarbed, again slotted for side
or end blade or both. Iron evidently used in engraving
tools. Noted especially for grave art, which includes
openwork ivory carvings (such as chain links, often
combined with other devices, both representational and
otherwise), renditions of both naturalistic and fantastic
animals forms, some of which are engraved to show
inner skeletal elements.
Environment
Arctic coast. Arctic interior lake- and riversides,
especially in regions crossed by caribou in annual
migrations. Some sites are reported on river courses
within the modern tree lines, but are apparently suscep-
tible to confusion with sites of the Norton subtradition.
Settlements
Two major coastal settlements are known; in both of
them the former houses being not superimposed but
rather laterally dispersed. At Point Hope, more than 600
house depressions were estimated to lie along a complex
of old beaches (Larsen and Rainey 1948). At Cape
Krusenstern, eight clusters of house remains of between 5
and 14 structures each, plus open campsites (Giddings
and Anderson 1986: 116-160). Major houses were semi-
subterranean, with wood frames, square, 4-5 m on a
side, with entry from one side or often not determinable.
Central fireplaces burned wood or blubber. At Cape
Krusenstern, less deeply excavated houses surrounded
larger, more substantial structures. At both sites, the
presence was inferred of men's houses approximately
analogous to the ceremonial or men's structures of
historic North Alaskan Eskimo peoples. A large struc-
ture concluded to have been such a building was
excavated at Deering on the north coast of the Seward
peninsula (Larsen 1951), in an area in which Ipiutak
burials have recently been reported (Reanier et al. 1998).
Interior sites in which artifacts have suggested Ipiutak
affinities have been largely those in which houses were
not clearly identified (Anderson 1988: 113-124; Camp-
bell 1962; Clark 1974; Gal 1982; Gerlach and Hall 1988;
Irving 1962), although semi subterranean house remains
that are compared to Ipiutak have been explored in at
least five such sites (Clark 1977; Hall 1973; Holmes 1986;
Irving 1964; Reanier 1992; West 1978). These settlements
were evidently much more restricted in size than those of
the coast, with precise house forms often undetermined.
In many of the cases in the interior, there is also difficulty
in discriminating sites of the Ipiutak sub tradition from
those of the Norton subtradition, leading in some cases
to excavators branding them "Norton-Ipiutak" (e.g.,
Anderson 1988; Holmes 1986).
Economy
At the Ipiutak type site at Point Hope, arrowheads
outnumbered harpoon heads by a substantial margin,
caribou antler predominated over walrus ivory for tools,
and interior products like birch bark were common.
Despite the observation that 90% of faunal remains
were sea mammals, and the remainder caribou (with fish
and birds unimportant), the excavators concluded that
although the Ipiutak people were capable sea hunters,
they were especially heavily focused on caribou, with
Point Hope a seasonal site of spring and summer only
(Larsen and Rainey 1948: 68, 147). At the the other
major coastal site, Cape Krusenstern, tools of the chase
and faunal elements occurred in similar ratios (with a
single whaling harpoon head represented), but here the
evidence led the excavator to conclude the settlements
were occupied in parts of all seasons and to suggest that
Point Hope with its semisubterranial houses was a
winter village, while still recognizing a strong seasonal
focus on interior resourses, especially caribou (Giddings
and Anderson 1986: 158-160).
As noted above, a number of interior sites with
presumed Ipiutak connections have come to light, a
majority located along the high northern slope of the
Brooks range, where sea-run fish are relatively scarce,
caribou migration routes are plentiful; those sites in
which faunal remains have been reported confirm the

heavy reliance on caribou (e.g., Gerlach and Hall 1988).
All in all, the Ipiutak complex of sites in the north, while
demonstrating a facility in the harvest of coastal
resources that is equivalent to that of people of the
other subtraditions of the Norton Tradition, con-
trasts-in its northern interior focus on caribou-with
the more southernly Norton subtradition and its
emphasis on migrating salmon.
Just as there is evidence of interior products in
coastal Ipiutak sites, interior occupations include minor
amounts of sea mammal remains, including walrus ivory
(e.g., Gerlach and Hall 1988), indicating substantial
seasonal movements or the existence of internal trade
networks, or both. At the coast, trade extended more
widely: smelted iron was reported from the Ipiutak site
at Point Hope (Larsen and Rainey 1948: 83), and iron of
supposedly a similar source occurred in a minor Ipiutak
site on the south coast of Seward peninsula (Larsen
1979-80). These finds reinforce the evidence of a series
of ivory objects in Ipiutak contexts at Point Hope,
which on stylistic grounds were declared to be from the
vicinity of st. Lawrence island or the Chukotsk penin-
sula (Larsen and Rainey 1948: 151), and so point to
trade relations across the Bering strait in the period after
about 1700 B.P. Whether contacts were direct or indirect
is not known.
Sociopolitical Organization
In grave offerings at the major cemetery at Point
Hope, the only one in which numerous burials have been
both excavated and reported, there are differences that
may relate to social position. In one recent argument,
coffin burials are contrasted with surface burials (the
latter with more numerous openwork carvings and other
artistic representations), and the fact that nearly 20% of
the burials included no (preserved) burial offerings is
taken as evidence of differential status (Mason 1998).
Nevertheless, there is no clear evidence of comparable
distinction in habitations. The vast majority of house
remains known are of a size that can be expected to have
accommodated little more than a single nuclear family.
Save for the possible but by no means certain evidence
for the presence of the men's house, there is no
settlement evidence suggesting other than a family level
of organization. The question here remains open.
Similarly, the existence of hostilities is suggested by the
very plentiful artifacts of the archery complex (bows and
arrows are poorly suited to use in small one-person skin
boats), although only a handful of the 137 Ipiutak
burials excavated showed evidence of violent death (see
Mason 1998).
Norton 141
Religion and Expressive Culture
From the extensive corpus of nonutilitarian and
artistically embellished objects, the excavators con-
cluded an affinity for the "Scytho-Siberian" art style of
the Asian steppes, and with it the importance of sha-
manism. In addition, embellishments of corpses in cer-
tain burials, including the placement of artificial eyes
and of some mouth covers suggestive of lips sewn
together, suggested to them also an active ghost cult,
with accompanying care to limit ghostly powers of
visitation (Larsen and Rainey 1948: 149).
References
Anderson, Douglas D. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River. Fairbanks: Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Campbell, John M. (1962). "Cultural Succession at Anaktuvuk
Pass, Arctic Alaska." In Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the
Arctic and Temperate Zones of North America, ed. J. M. Camp-
bell. Montreal: Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper,
No. 11,39-54.
Clark, Donald W. (1974). Archaeological Collections from Norutak
Lake on the Kobuk-Alatna River Portage, Northwestern Alaska.
Ottawa: National Museum of Man, Archaeological Survey of
Canada Paper, 18.
Clark, Donald W. (1977). Hahanudan Lake: An Ipiutak-Related
Occupation of Western Interior Alaska. Ottawa: National Museum
of Man, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, 71.
Gal, Robert (1982). "Archaeological Sites in the Vicinity of the South
Meade Test Well." Anthropological Papers of the University of
Alaska 20 (1-2): 51-59.
Gerlach, S. Craig, and Edwin S. Hall (1988). "The Later Prehistory of
Northern Alaska: The View from Tukuto Lake." In The Late
Prehistoric Development of Alaska's Native People, ed. R. D. Shaw,
R. K. Harritt, and D. E. Dumond. Anchorage: Aurora, Alaska
Anthropological Association Monograph Series, 4, 107-135.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Hall, Edwin S., Jr. (1973). "An Ipiutak Site in Interior Northern
Alaska." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Anthropological Association, New Orleans.
Holmes, Charles E. (1986). Lake Minchumina Prehistory: An Arche-
ological Analysis. Anchorage: Aurora, Alaska Anthropological
Association Monograph Series, 2.
Irving, William N. (1962). "1961 Field Work in the Western Brooks
Range, Alaska: Preliminary Report." Arctic Anthropology I (1):
76-83.
Irving, William N. (1964). "Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool
Tradition." Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Larsen, Helge (1951). "De dansk-amerikanske Alaska ekspeditioner
1949-1950." Geograjisk Tideskrift 51: 63-93.
Larsen, Helge (1979-80). "Examples of Ipiutak Art from Point
Spencer, Alaska." Folk 21-22: 17-28.
Larsen, Helge, and Froelich Rainey (1948). Ipiutak and the Arctic
Whale Hunting Culture. New York: Anthropological Papers of the
American Museum of Natural History, 42.
142 Norton
Mason, Owen K. (I 998}. "The Contest between the Ipiutak, Old
Bering Sea, and Birnirk Polities and the Origin of Whaling during
the First Millennium A.D. along Bering Strait." Journal of Anthro-
pological Archaeology 17: 240-325.
Reanier, Richard E. (1992). "Refinements to K-Means Clustering:
Spatial Analysis of the Bateman Site, Arctic Alaska." Ph.D. diss,
University of Washington, Seattle.
Reanier, Richard E., Glenn W. Sheehan, and Anne M. Jensen (I998).
Report of 1997 Field Discoveries, City of Deering Village Safe Water
Cultural Resources Project. Barrow: UIC Real Estate Science
Division.
West, C. Eugene (1978). "Archeology of the Birches Site, Lake
Minchumina, Alaska." M.A. thesis, University of Alaska, Fair-
banks.
Norton (Near Ipiutak)
TIME PERIOD: 2500-1000 B.P.
LOCATION: Alaska coast and coastal hinterland from the
northern portion of the Alaska peninsula in the south to
Point Barrow on the north coast of Alaska, with
reflections as far east as the delta region of the
Mackenzie river.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Check-stamped ceram-
ics (primarily), linear-stamped ceramics (secondarily,
and apparently early), usually fiber tempered, almost
entirely utilitarian. Chipped stone projectile points,
often of hard igneous rock, with set-off stems and weak
to moderate shoulders, or with contracting bases;
discoidal, bifacial scrapers or knives; numerous chipped,
asymmetric side blades of chert or igneous rock; burin-
like grooving tools of chipped metamorphic rock with
polished facets instead of burin facets; small chipped
adze or scraper blades with polished bits; flat stone
vessels, commonly used as oil-burning lamps; numerous
bi-notched pebble net sinkers; plentiful labrets of shale
or lignite; occasional polished slate knives, growing
more frequent through time. Where organic material is
preserved, antler is favored material for small toggling
harpoon heads, often self-armed and rudimentary in
form; fish spear prongs. Semi subterranean houses with
sloping entrance passage and central fireplace.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Predominantly coastal tundra varying from Arctic
conditions in the north, including coastal islands such as
Nunivak, to sub-arctic in the south, although substan-
tially limited to regions of wintertime ice-fast coasts.
Numerous settlements are on rivers draining into the
Bering sea, fewer north of Seward peninsula--either on
the coast or in the interior-where occupation ends by
2000-1900 B.P. (Anderson 1984); south of the Arctic
circle, occupation grows heaviest after that date. Interior
hinterlands provide access to caribou migrations, where-
as southern rivers provide summer fish runs, often of
substantial size (Dumond 1982), their exploitation
credited by some with expansion into the interior of
the Yukon river delta zone (Shaw 1983). There is little
evidence of occupation in the northern Brooks range,
where appear some partly contemporary sites of the
Ipiutak subtradition.
Settlements
Permanent houses are semisubterranean, square,
constructed with timbers around a hearth, presum-
ably with a smoke hole in the roof of moss and
sod, and entered by a sloping entrance tunnel. Vil-
lages of substantial size (with house depressions rang-
ing from a half-dozen to scores) appear in favorable
coastal locations or along major river systems debou-
ching on the Bering sea (Bockstoce 1979; Dumond
1981; Giddings 1964; Henn 1978; Larsen and Rainey
1948; Lutz 1972; Nowak 1982; Shaw 1982, 1986). Sites
in other coastal and interior locations, including the
banks of small streams, are marked by only a house
or two or more ephemeral campsites (Anderson
1988: 113-124; Dumond 1987: 136-141; Giddings
and Anderson 1986: 161-176; Hall 1982; MacNeish
1956); with restricted artifact inventories and the usual
absence of pottery, small seasonal sites can be mis-
taken for those of the Ipiutak subtradition. In the
region of the lower Mackenzie river, artifacts reminis-
cent of the Norton subtradition are found integrated
into a context harking to the eastern American
Arctic and the Dorset cultural manifestations (Arnold
1981 ).
Economy
The number of large Norton sites on the coast
clearly indicates a growing efficiency in the harvest of
marine resources (Dumond 1982). Although in many
cases, Norton harpoon technology is relatively simple,
Near Ipiutak graves at Point Hope produced a pair of
whaling harpoon heads to support the supposition that
some individuals were whalers (Larsen and Rainey 1948:
163), and it has been argued that interest in open-water

maritime hunting led to an intrusion of Norton-related
people across the Alaska peninsula from the Arctic zone
of the Bering sea to the warmer and more open North
Pacific (Dumond 1969). Yet the presence in the interior
of both settled villages and smaller camps on rivers and
lakes suggests the maintenance of a relatively balanced
subsistence system; some of these sites are far enough
from the coast to make inconvenient regular seasonal
travel there, suggesting in turn the maintenance of
trade networks that might make coastal sea-mammal
oil, for instance, available to more interior settlements
(Dumond 1982).
Significantly, however, although a number of reports
of Norton occupations concern areas north of the
Seward peninsula as far as Point Barrow (e.g., Hall
1982), both the number and the persistence of Norton
sites are substantially greater south of the Bering strait.
Although caribou were of obvious importance to
Norton people, with antler used as the major organic
material for artifacts, including harpoon heads, the
people are not known to have spread into northern
areas of high caribou availability such as the Brooks
range (Dumond 1982). Rather, although Norton peo-
ple appeared in the Kotzebue sound region and north-
ward to Point Barrow after the passing of the Choris
subtradition, they were shortly replaced by people of the
Ipiutak subtradition. Norton and Ipiutak were for a
number of centuries contemporary, the former to the
north, the latter south of the Bering strait. In the south,
it is clear from site distribution and artifactual evi-
dence-stones interpreted as net sinkers, for in-
stance-of a developed river fishing technology. Thus
Norton staples consisted of caribou, sea mammals, and
salmon, with the latter fueling much of the southern
expansion (Shaw 1982).
Sociopolitical Organization
The presence of a community or men's house is
suggested for one Bering sea site (Lutz 1972). If
confirmed elsewhere, this might indicate at least some
suprafamily cooperation in subsistence pursuits as well
as ceremonial activity. Otherwise, the relative unifor-
mity in the size of house units, 4-5 m on a side (Bockst-
oce 1979; Giddings 1964), suggests nuclear families as
the basis of organization, whereas the occurrence of
apparently seasonal and ephemeral sites in hinterland
locations appears to indicate the periodic subsistence
movement of such units into areas where other re-
sources-such as migrating caribou--can be exploited.
Burials are virtually unknown in sites of the subtradi-
tion, so that comparisons of grave offerings are not
Norton 143
possible. The consistent use of lip ornamentation
(e.g., Bockstoce 1979: 51; Dumond 1981, plate 7, Bk,
plate 9, Ab, plate 10, Ghi; Giddings 1964, plate 39;
Larsen 1950: 181, 183) certainly bespeaks an interest
in individual adornment. Whether this reflects any
significant social marking is unknown, although the
general uniformity of house contents seems to suggest
otherwise. Finally, the presence of two whaling har-
poons in burials attributed to the subtraditfon at Point
Hope (Larsen and Rainey 1948: 163) must imply some
team organization, although there is no evidence that
whale hunting was widespread among sites of the
subtradition. The position of the individuals interred
in the two graves yielding the whaling harpoon heads
appears to have been special, although whether their
position may have reflected political position is un-
known.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Almost no decorative objects of the sub tradition are
known, with the exception of the very commonly im-
pressed utilitarian ceramics. One apparent exception to
the absence of decorated objects and of burial evidence
is a burial at Battle Rock, located immediately north of
Cape Krusenstern and Kotzebue sound on the Chukchi
seacoast, attributed to an early stage of the Norton sub-
tradition. Here caribou antler was engraved in patterns
involving intersecting and sometimes double-pointed
grooves. Except for an antler arrowhead, slotted for an
end blade and with minor grooving, the function of the
few objects is unknown (Giddings and Anderson 1986:
177-186). A major exception, however, is at Point Hope
on the northeastern shore of the Chukchi sea, where a
dozen burials were attributed to Near Ipiutak, as
the subtradition was called there. Of several hundred
artifacts recovered from them, all were utilitarian and
undecorated, except for a flat and rudimentary portion
of a human figurine in ivory and for the small engraving
of a whale on one of two whaling harpoon heads of
ivory (Larsen and Rainey 1948: 162-164, plate 79, figs.
1,2, plate 81, fig. 17). It is the latter, a whale engraved
on a whaling head, both conditions being unusual in the
subtradition, that may attest to the initial stages of a
whaling cult such as was known among some later
Eskimo peoples.
References
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5,
144 Norton

ed. W. C. Sturtevant, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution SITES

Press, 80-93.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River. Fairbanks: Anthropological Brooks River
Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Arnold, Charles D. (1981). The Lagoon Site (OjRI-3): Implica-
tions for Paleoeskimo Interactions. Ottawa: National Museum of TIME PERIOD: 2300-1000 B.P.
Man.
Bockstoce, John (1979). The Archaeology of Cape Nome, Alaska. LOCATION: Upper portion of the Naknek river system, in
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, University Museum
the geographical center of the northern Alaska penin-
Monograph, 38.
Dumond, Don E. (1969). "Prehistoric Cultural Contacts in South- sula, but on its Bering sea slope.
western Alaska." Science I 66: II 08- II 15.
Dumond, Don E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960--1975. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, 21.
Dumond, Don E. (1982). "Trends and Traditions in Alaskan
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Prehistory: The Place of Norton Culture." Arctic Anthropology 19
(2): 39-52. Local Environment
Dumond, Don E. (1987). Prehistoric Human Occupation in South-
western Alaska: A Study of Resource Distribution and Site River 2 km long, draining Brooks lake into Naknek
Location: Eugene: University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, lake, which empties into the Naknek river-a portion of
36. a system that receives massive runs of salmon from
Giddings, James L. (1964). The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. Provi-
midsummer to fall. The river is now fringed by spruce
dence, RI: Brown University Press.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge forest, which invaded the region within the past 500
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park years, earlier with birch, alder, and willow brush
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20. interspersed with grass, and is near the northern limit
Hall, Edwin S., Jr. (1982). "The Potential Significance of Small, Single of winter migration of the Alaska peninsula caribou
Component Archaeological Sites for Elucidating the Culture His-
herd in decades in which the herd is of substantial size.
tory of Northern Alaska." Anthropological Papers of the University
of Alaska 20 (1-2): 7-13. The modified Arctic climate is influenced by the winter-
Henn, Winfield (1978). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The icebound Bering sea, while protected from mediating
Ugashik Drainage, 1973-1975. Eugene: University of Oregon influences of the North Pacific by the Aleutian range of
Anthropological Papers, 14. mountains. Bering sea and Pacific coasts are equidistant
Larsen, Helge (1950). "Archaeological Investigations in Southwestern
at 80 km, the former reached by downstream river
Alaska." American Antiquity 15 (3): 177-186.
Larsen, Helge, and Froelich Rainey (1948). Ipiutak and the Arctic journey, the latter by passes through the mountains,
Whale Hunting Culture. New York: Anthropological Papers of the some as low as 1200 m.
American Museum of Natural History, 42.
Lutz, Bruce J. (1972). "A Methodology for Determining
Regional Intracultural Variations within Norton, an Alaskan
Physical Features
Archaeological Culture." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia. The short river evolved over the past 8000 years as
MacNeish, Richard S. (1956). "The Engigstciak Site on the Yukon
the Naknek river downcut through moraines of the
Arctic Coast." Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska
4 (2): 91-104. terminal Pleistocene, leaving a complex system of fossil
Nowak, Michael (1982). "The Norton Period on Nunivak Island: lake and river terraces that have been divided into 22
Internal Change and External Influence." Arctic Anthropology 19 localities for recording purposes. All of those formed
(5): 75-92. before 1000 B.P. have yielded remains of one or more
Shaw, Robert D. (1982). "The Expansion and Survival of the Norton
stages of the Norton subtradition of the Norton
Tradition on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta." Arctic Anthropology
19 (2): 59-74. Tradition. Individual occupation zones are both single
Shaw, Robert D. (1983). "The Archaeology of the Manokinak Site: A occupation and stratified, Norton Tradition material
study of the Cultural Transition between Late Norton Tradition and appearing between deposits of material of the Arctic
Historic Eskimo." Ph.D. diss., Washington State University, Pull- Small Tool Tradition and that of the later Thule
man.
Tradition (Dumond 1981: 15-27). Volcanism has been
Shaw, Robert D. (1986). Cultural Resources Survey of the Togiak
District Herring Fishery Management Base Camp, Summit Island, recurrent, as indicated by more than 10 sequential
Alaska. Fairbanks: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical tephra deposits recognized in the area (Dumond 1979;
Surveys, Public Data File 86-12. 1981: 11-13).

Cultural Aspects
The site represents the most complete exploration
of a southern Bering sea representative of the Nor-
ton subtradition, the fullest exposure of an interior
riverine Norton subtradition location, and the most
complete documentation of evolution in that subtradi-
tion. Norton materials are represented by three sequen-
tial phases, locally termed Smelt creek, Brooks river
weir, Brooks river falls, at least the latter two of which
are believed to be represented on the riverside by
semi subterranean houses-squarish, about 4 m on a
side, cut 30-50 cm into contemporary ground, with
central fireplace and sloping entry (e.g., Dumond
1981: 140-141). Ceramics are predominantly check
stamped, although some cord-marked and linear-
stamped sherds have been recovered. Through time,
ceramics evolve toward thicker and more consistently
plain utilitarian wares, and slate polishing achieves
more and more of a place in the complex, the semilunar
ulu essentially replacing chipped side blade knives by the
third phase (about 1400 B.P.). Population apparently
expanded through the entire Norton period (Dumond
1972, 1981: 191). Although faunal preservation is
almost nonexistent in the volcanic-ash-dominated and
acid soils, artifactual evidence (as in notched pebble net
sinkers) and occupation location on the terraces provide
evidence of primary focus on the fishery. Presumably
migrating caribou as well as certain waterfowl and
terrestrial birds provided subsidiary resources (Dumond
1981: 132-152). Occupation is represented both by
constructed houses, presumably with wooden frame-
work and covered by moss and sod, and by more
ephemeral campsites, suggesting both fairly permanent
(winter) and short-term seasonal usages of the river. The
Norton sequence follows extensive occupation by
people of Arctic Small Tool Tradition and ends with
the apparently sudden advent of people of Thule
Tradition.
References
Dumond, Don E. (1972). "Prehistoric Population Growth and
Subsistence Change in Eskimo Alaska." In Population Growth:
Anthropological Implications, ed. B. Spooner. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 311-328.
Dumond, Don E. (1979). "People and Pumice on the
Alaska Peninsula." In Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology, ed.
P. D. Sheets, and D. K. Grayson. New York: Academic Press,
373-392.
Dumond, Don E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960-1975. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, 21.
Norton 145
Cape Krusenstern
TIME PERIOD: 3000-1000 B.P.
LOCATION: Northern shore of Kotzebue sound, north-
western Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The cape is a complex of sequentially formed
ocean beach ridges bordering the sea for more than
12 km, numbered by the chief investigators at 114
(Giddings and Anderson 1986: 15-18), but described
by others as composed of about 70 principal ridges
and as many as 44 ridge fragments (Mason et al.
1995). The position is a short distance north of the
Arctic circle. Seaward ridges are exposed gravel and
sand, which landward are covered with herbacious
vegetation.
Physical Features
The sequence of ridges was used to infer chronology
for the scattering of sites on them. Counting from the
sea edge, those bearing remains assigned to aspects of
the Norton Tradition occurred on ridges numbered 29
through 78 (Giddings and Anderson 1986). With regard
to the apparently lengthy sequence, however, some
geomorphologists have argued that a disconformity is
such that a substantial number of the ridges numbered
54 to 78 were actually formed later than Ridge 53
(Mason and Ludwig 1990).
Cultural Aspects
All three Norton sub traditions are recognized on
the ridge complex: Choris on Ridges 78-44, Norton on
Ridges 44-36, Ipiutak on Ridges 35-29 (Giddings and
Anderson 1986). All consist of relatively ephemeral
campsites except for the eight Ipiutak settlements,
which each consists of 5 to 14 structures indicative of
occupation over much of the year. In general, faunal
remains were not abundant. In the Ipiutak houses,
large and small seal remains amounted to well over
90% of identifiable individuals, caribou and sea
mammals such as walrus and beluga making up
146 Norton
the remainder. A single whaling harpoon head in an
Ipiutak house was not matched by faunal evidence of
whaling (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 116-160). On
the other hand, whale bones were found to be
relatively plentiful in the segment of ridges assigned
by the excavators to the Norton and Choris subtradi-
tions, where there was no artifactual evidence indica-
tive of whale capture (Giddings and Anderson 1986:
169-176, 209-222, 268-287). Rather, on Beach 48 was
recovered a cache of more than 70 stone artifacts
reminiscent of diagonally flaked spear or lance points
of the Plano cultures of the continental United States
(Giddings 1963; Giddings and Anderson 1986: 215-
216) and presumably more in line with terrestrial than
maritime hunting. Evidence of affective culture was
almost lacking, with only two decorated Ipiutak pieces
recovered, one in a burial (Giddings and Anderson
1986: 146).
References
Giddings, James L. (1963). "Some Arctic Spear Points and Their
Counterparts." Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 10
(2) 1-12.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Mason, Owen K., and Stefanie L. Ludwig (1990). "Resurrecting Beach
Ridge Archaeology: Parallel Depositional Records from St. Law-
rence Island and Cape Krusenstern, Western Alaska." Geoarchaeo-
logy 5 (4): 349-373.
Mason, Owen K., James W. Jordan, and Lawrence Plug (1995). Late
Holocene Storm and Sea-Level History in the Chukchi Sea." In
Holocene Cycles: Climate, Sea Levels, and Sedimentation. Fort
Lauderdale, FL: Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 17,
173-180.
Cape Nome
TIME PERIOD: 2200-1600 B.P.
LOCATION: Cape Nome, 240 km south of the Arctic
circle, projects south from the southern shore of
the Seward peninsula, marking the boundary between
the Bering sea proper and Norton sound to the east.
The Norton tradition site is east of the cape, along
a 3 km stretch of old beaches extending to the
western edge of the shallow inlet known as Safety
sound.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Seven successive beach ridges front the sea between
Cape Nome and Safety sound. Newly formed areas are
covered with beach grass, more stabilized ridges with
mosses, lichens, and low bushes. Seals are plentiful
during much of the year, walrus sometimes present but
not abundant, beluga or white whales appearing in early
summer. Salmon migrate into the three short rivers that
empty into Safety sound. For some time before the late
19th century, caribou were numerous in interior hinter-
lands (Bockstoce 1979: 9-16). The coast is ice fast from
November or December to April or May.
Physical Features
Remains assigned to the Norton tradition are found
on the earliest of the beaches, numbered 1 and 2, where
about 320 presumed house depressions (a minority of
them representing aspects of the succeeding Thule
tradition) were enumerated in the early 1970s, the
original number unknown because of ongoing ero-
sion at the east end of Beach 1 (Bockstoce 1979: 31).
Sixteen depressions yielding Norton remains have been
explored and reported to some extent (Bockstoce
1979), with those assigned to an Early Norton pe-
riod (2200-2000 B.P.) located only on Beach 1, those
of a Late Norton period (1700-1600 B.P.) on both
Beaches 1 and 2. Below one Early Norton house at
the east end of Beach 1 was found a minor deposit
assigned to the Arctic Small Tool Tradition (Bockstoce
1979: 31).
Cultural Aspects
The site is an example of the large coastal settle-
ments that appeared during the Norton period, espe-
cially south of Bering strait (Anderson 1984). Houses
were semisubterranean, rectangular, and about 4 x 4 to
6 x 6 m in size, excavated 0.5-1 m below the contem-
porary surface, entered by either a sloping passageway
more than 2 m long or by a shorter, sloping runway and
with central hearth area (Bockstoce 1979: 32--43).
Faunal remains were scanty, although some seal and a
few caribou were represented; organic artifacts were not
found preserved. Stone implements included chipped
end and side blades, many of quartz; chipped knives and
drills; side and end scrapers; longitudinally grooved
stone fishline sinkers; adze blades and grooving tools

with polished bits; and pecked stone lamps (Bockstoce
1979: 43-52). Fiber- and sand-tempered ceramics bore
check- and (less frequently) linear-stamp surface im-
pressions (Bockstoce 1979: 53-55). A single fragmentary
lab ret, said to be of bitumin, was found in looters' back
dirt (Bockstoce 1979: 51).
Early and Late period materials were separated on
the basis of ridge position and radiocarbon evidence,
with differences noted in house floors (flat in Early
Norton, with raised earthen benches around the periph-
ery in Late Norton) and in hearths (stone ringed, Early;
without stones and with oil-soaked sand suggestive of
burned blubber, Late); in the presence of end-notched
pebble net sinkers Early, their absence Late (Bockstoce
1979: 57). Pottery illustrations (Bockstoce 1979: 53-54)
suggest an increase in the proportion of open, as
opposed to restricted, vessel forms in Late times,
although linear-stamped decoration was present in both
periods. A middle period was presumed to have existed
at the site, but permission to explore houses that might
represent it was not obtained from private landowners
(Bockstoce 1979: 88). The absence of notched pebble net
sinkers in Late Norton is suggested to relate to a local
decline in salmon runs sometime during the hypothe-
sized Middle period, which may have forced the Norton
people to modify their earlier practice of summer
residence at the site and to have seriously affected their
overall subsistence. A later decline in caribou numbers
(hypothesized, but with some possible evidence cited)
could then have caused the Norton abandonment of the
site by 1500 B.P. (Bockstoce 1979: 89-90).
References
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 80-93.
Bockstoce, John (1979). The Archaeology of Cape Nome, Alaska.
Philadalphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania,
University Museum Monograph, 38.
Choris Peninsula
TIME PERIOD: 2900-2300 B.P.
LOCATION: Choris peninsula, a peninsula forming
a southern extension of the much larger Baldwin
peninsula of Eastern Kotzebue sound, northwestern
Alaska.
Norton 147
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The sites are situated on the southwest corner of the
Choris peninsula, where nine sequentially deposited
gravel and sand beach ridges, in part covered with sod,
span an embayment more than 200 m wide. The three
large Choris subtradition houses are on the ninth ridge,
counting from the seashore; later Choris traces unac-
companied by identified house sites lie on the seventh
ridge (Giddings 1957; Mason et al. 1995).
Physical Features
Three semi subterranean houses, elliptical in plan,
8-13 m in greater dimension, marked with interior post
molds, containing hearth remnants, are referred to as
the Choris "village" and lie on the innermost ridge of
the complex (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 187-208).
Two ridges forward from that point was located
evidence of three small middens in apparent association
with post molds thought to have represented drying
racks (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 22).
Cultural Aspects
The Choris "culture" or subtradition of the Norton
tradition has been described as representing the earliest
"adaptation to full arctic maritime life" in Northwestern
Alaska (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 187). The as-
semblage, in addition to evident sea-mammal hunting
equipment with fixed or nontoggling harpoon dart
heads as well as arrowheads, includes relatively heavy
knives and burins of chipped stone. It also includes the
earliest lab ret in northern Alaska, one of ivory, and
some of the earliest crudely polished slate in knives or
weapon points (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 187-208).
Furthermore, the village site includes representatives of
ceramics of one of the earliest types in Alaska, fiber
tempered and marked by impressions of a linearly
grooved paddle on the exterior, referred to as "Norton
linear-stamp" (Griffin and Wilmeth 1964), with a
scattering of check- and linear-stamped sherds recovered
from the later middens (Giddings and Anderson 1986:
222-223). In major harpoon forms as well as in the use
of labrets and ground slate, connections have been
suggested with southern Alaska, whereas the ceramics
point toward Asia (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 187).
Subsistence at the village site included especially cari-
bou, seconded by small seal, followed by both shore
148 Norton
birds and inland ptarmigan, suggesting occupation for
much of the year, with the possible exception of spring.
Net fishing was absent (Giddings and Anderson 1986:
229).
References
Giddings, James L. (1957). "Round Houses in the Western Arctic."
American Antiquity 23 (2): 121-135.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Griffin, James B., and Roscoe H. Wilmeth Jf. (1964). "The Ceramic
Complexes at Iyatayet." In The Archeology of Cape Denbigh,
J. L. Giddings. Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 271-303.
Mason, Owen K., James W. Jordan, and Lawrence Plug (1995). "Late
Holocene Storm and Sea-Level History in the Chukchi Sea." In
Holocene Cycles: Climate, Sea Levels, and Sedimentation. Fort
Lauderdale, FL: Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 17,
173-180.
Iyatayet
TIME PERIOD: 2500-1700 B.P.
LOCATION:At Cape Denbigh on Norton bay of Norton
sound, western Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The stratified site is located on two sides of Iyatayet
creek at the northwest edge of Cape Denbigh, in a
major bay of inner Norton sound south of the Seward
peninsula. Grass and alder thickets now cover the site,
from which could be obtained seals, waterfowl, and
shore birds to seaward, migrating caribou to the
landward side.
Physical Features
The grassy areas on both sides of Iyatayet creek
defined the limits of the later Nukleet (Thule tradition)
occupation, which was marked by surface depressions,
with Norton tradition remains (of the Norton subtra-
dition) and earlier deposits (Arctic Small Tool tradition)
located on the north side of the creek and partly covered
by alder and essentially undetected from the surface.
One Norton subtradition house was located and was
concluded to have been cut into previous Norton
deposits an undetermined depth, about 3 m square with
a central fire hearth in the main section, and with a
protrusion on one side of about 1 m, which narrowed to
a short entrance tunnel (Giddings 1964: 119-137,
Fig. 40). Major Norton tradition deposits were largely
sandwiched between Arctic Small Tool material below,
Nukleet material above.
Cultural Aspects
Relatively poor organic preservation in this original
type site of the Norton tradition and Norton subtradi-
tion limited artifacts to a very few items such as parts of
bird and fish spears, arrowheads for both end blades and
side blades, blunt arrowheads, rudimentary toggling
harpoon heads, flaking tools, a bilaterally barbed
harpoon dart head-all predominantly of ivory-as
well as an ivory icepick, awls, and an ivory doll. Much
more plentiful stone artifacts included numerous small
chipped projectile heads, chiefly unstemmed and with
relatively square base, some with bases contracting to a
squared butt to produce a pentagonal shape; bifacial
discoidal knives or scraping implements; asymmetrical
side blades to be set in hafts or projectile heads; steeply
retouched unifacial implements termed by the excavator
"flakeknives"; plentiful binotched pebbles interpreted as
net sinkers. Ground stone objects included labrets of
lignite and stone; pecked and polished stone lamps;
small burin-like groovers and small chipped adze blades,
both with polished bits; and a very few fragments of
rudimentarily scraped and polished slate knife blades
(Giddings 1964: 139-175). Pottery was largely fiber
tempered, utilitarian, in few shapes, and marked on
the exterior with linear striations or waffle-like patterns
imparted by grooved paddles (Giddings 1964: 175-76;
Griffin and Wilmeth 1964). The house structure was
interpreted as one designed for winter, and others were
presumed present at the site but not excavated. Faunal
remains, house form, and artifacts combined to suggest
occupation in the winter, with heavy reliance on seals
and fish, and seasonal trips away from the site in
pursuite of caribou (Gidding 1964: 185-187).
References
Giddings, James L. (1964). The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. Provi-
dence, RI: Brown University Press.
Griffin, James B., and Roscoe H. Wilmeth Jr. (1964). "The Ceramic
Complexes at Iyatayet." In The Archeology of Cape Denbigh,
J. L. Giddings. Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 271-303.

Onion Portage
TIME PERIOD: 3000-1400 B.P.
LOCATION:Right bank of the Kobuk river, about 200 km
upstream from its mouth on Kotzebue sound.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
A long-time river-bank resting place for travelers on
the Kobuk, at one end of a portage to avoid a great
meander in the channel where a ridge of Jade mountain
thrusts to the river. Thickets of alder and willow
discontinuous spruce forest, and spongy herbaceou~
tundra along portions of the river bank characterize the
area that lies 60 km north of the Arctic circle (Anderson
1988: 12; Giddings 1962).
Physical Features
This major stratified site of the riverine interior was
divided by the excavators into eight major bands or
cultural layers, of which Bands 2 and 3 (counted from
the top) yielded material assigned to the Norton
tradition, with Band 3 and transitional 3/2 assigned to
"interior Choris," and Band 2 assigned to a less-
determinate unit of the Norton tradition called here
"Norton-Ipiutak" (Anderson 1988). Resources of the
region include spawning runs of chum salmon, as well as
resident fish; migrating caribou that, although varying
significantly from year to year and decade to decade, are
usually heavier in fall; waterfowl in spring. Distance
from the coast has not prohibited seasonal movements
by recent peoples to obtain sea mammals, either by hunt
or by trade.
Cultural Aspects
Band 3 had yielded the major known remains of an
interior facies of the Choris subtradition. Five layers in
the band are concluded to have covered several hundred
years, yielding collections of affiliation with the Choris
subtradition as known from the coast, but together with
those more common in the Northern Archaic tradition
of the interior. Level 2 of Band 3 yielded remains of an
Norton 149
evident semi subterranean habitation with elliptical floor
5.4 by 7.7 m, with an entrance passage entering one of
the long sides, and an inner hearth. Except for one
pottery rim sherd, the artifacts were those associated
with the manufacture of weapons and wooden imple-
ments. In the vicinity were eight large hearth areas
surrounded by artifacts interpreted as the remains of
tent-like structures, which the quantity of charcoal sug-
gested was for winter use. Unlike the larger house, these
included tools suggestive of butchering and hide pre-
paration, leading to the suggestion that the complex
represented a winter settlement with men's house and
surrounding houses of the remaining portions of nuclear
families, women, and children (Anderson 1988: 103-
110).
The lower portions of Band 2 yielded material
comparable to both the Norton and Ipiutak subtradi-
tions known from the coast and thought to date
primarily from about A.D. 400 (Anderson 1988: 113),
at about the end of the Norton subtradition as
represented on the northwestern coast of Alaska. In
lower Band 2 could be distinguished three superimposed
layers apparently representing sequential occupations,
but no significant differences were indicated by the
artifacts, despite trends such as an increase in the
frequency of polished slate in upper levels. Two
potsherds, one linear stamped, the other check stamped,
were recovered, as were a few notched stones often
called net sinkers. Two habitation floors with central
hearths and 58 additional hearth areas were identified
leading to tentative conclusions of the presence of
winter semi subterranean house, spring tent site, and a
variety of hearths, some surrounded by unburned
caribou bone-one of the few direct indicators of
subsistence practice (Anderson 1988: 113-124). Based
on polished slate and even the few potsherds, this
occupation would by some investigators be assigned to
the Norton subtradition; that it is designated "Norton-
Ipiutak" is related to the contemporary presence on the
coast in Northwest Alaska of representatives of the
Ipiutak subtradition and simply underlines the difficulty
of discriminating the two subtraditions in interior
northern Alaska.
References
Anderson, Douglas E. (l988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology
of a Stratified Site from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska.
Fairbanks: Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 22
(1-2).
Giddings, James L. (1962). "Onion Portage and Other Flint Sites of
the Kobuk River." Arctic Anthropology I (I): 6--27.
150 Norton
Point Hope (Ipiutak)
TIME PERIOD: 700-1200 B.P.
LOCATION: Point Hope, northwestern Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Windy, open location 200 km north of the Arc-
tic circle, on the interior (northern) edge of a salient
point of land thrusting northwestward from the north-
west corner of mainland Alaska; the gravelly land
was formed by beaches prograding over at least
2 millennia.
Physical Features
The westernmost extension of Alaska north of the
Bering strait, the point thrusts into the Chukchi sea
some 200 km north of the Arctic circle, a flat area of
gravel ridges, with a partial covering of grasses, herbs,
and willows. The location affords a vantage point for
migrations of major whale species and walrus along
the American shores, as well as the seasonal or regu-
lar presence of migratory and nonmigratory seals and
some coastal fishes. Eastward is the Brooks range,
c:ossed seasonally by caribou in their regular migra-
tIOns, as well as resident land mammals of lesser
economic interest. At the time of major study (1939-
41), the flat, parallel-ridged beach deposits of Point
Hope were noted to include four current and former
settlements: The Ipiutak site proper, on four of the
oldest ridges of the construction, in the north or
northwest, the classic representative of the Ipiutak
subtradition; Jabbertown, 10 km to the east, a settle-
ment established by overwintering American whalers
near the end of the 19th century, but apparently at the
location of a prehistoric site; Old Tigara, on four ridges
at the western tip of the spit, a prehistoric site of the last
1,000 years; and New Tigara or Tikeraq, the modern
village abutting Old Tigara on the east (Larsen and
Rainey 1948: 20-22, Figs. 2, 3). In addition, Ipiutak
graves were to be found along the older beach ridges
well to the east of the old Ipiutak settlement (Larsen
and Rainey 1948: 16).
Cultural Aspects
The Ipiutak site itself thus included two major
segments, the village site, containing an estimated 600 or
more semi subterranean house remains, of which 72 were
excavated in whole or part, and the rather more
dispersed cemetery or burial remains. The latter area
was found to include both log coffin interments and
numerous additional placements presumed to be on the
surface, and 138 of them were excavated (Larsen and
Rainey 1948: 58-59). There were, in addition, miscella-
neous middens and intrusive as well as Ipiutak campsites
scattered over the cemetery area. In addition, one house,
12 graves, and some midden areas were assigned not to
Ipiutak but to the entity termed Near Ipiutak, which
although having much in common with the Ipiutak
assemblages, departed from them in the presence of
some linear-stamped pottery, stone lamp, and minor
pieces of polished slate, as well as two evident whaling
harpoon heads (Larsen and Rainey 1948: 162-168).
Although first presumed to follow the Ipiutak occupa-
tion on the basis of pottery and slate, radiocarbon
evidence has since shown clearly that the Near Ipiutak
remains predated those of Ipiutak, and continuing
research on the Alaska coast has made it clear that
Near Ipiutak is an aspect of what is here called the
Norton subtradition.
Sometime after the excavations, the Ipiutak settle-
ment, in which the houses were strung along four beach
ridges, was described as a sedentary village (Rainey
1971). This seemed somewhat out of keeping with
conclusions about subsistence that were made earlier
when the excavators, although presuming a fairl;
substantial population, suggested the occupants were
seasonal migrants spending winters inland and summers
on the coast, their heavy interior bias being indicated by
a great number of artifacts of the archery complex and
heavy use of antler, their use of wood rather than sea-
mammal oil for heat and cooking, and the frequent
occurrence of remains of birch-bark containers. A later
commentator has suggested that the site was occupied
only seasonally by very few families (McGhee 1976),
whereas one current estimate, based on house areas and
assumptions about the numbers of houses occupied
concurrently, is of a population maximum of around
200 (Mason 1998). At least some recent opinion is that
th~ people of the Ipiutak site were more coastally
onented and sea-mammal interested, despite the absence
of evidence for the use of lamps to burn sea-mammal oil
(e.g., Anderson 1984). Among faunal remains, the ratio
of sea mammal to caribou was about five to one, but
there was no evidence for the taking of whales, despite

what is now a favorable location for it (Larsen and
Rainey 1948: 68).
Although recognizing the Ipiutak people of Point
Hope as adept at taking certain sea mammals, the
culture of Ipiutak people in general, of which those of
Point Hope are the best exemplar, stands apart from
contemporaries in several respects. There is very limited
use of polished stone (confined to adze blades, grooving
tools, and some drills); there is no evidence for oil-
burning lamps; there is no pottery. Above all is the
sophisticated style of decoration applied to ivory
objects, both utilitarian and otherwise, with evidence
recovered to some extent from houses but especially
from the long series of burials explored. Concluded by
the original excavators to be a derivative of the "Scytho-
Siberian animal style" of Asia (Larsen and Rainey 1948:
125-126), whatever the pigeonhole into which it is
placed it is remarkable among Alaskan hunting-gather-
ing people-with complex varieties of openwork carv-
ings, as well as depictions of animals, both real and
fanciful, of ivory eyes and mouth coverings placed on
corpses; work is both engraved and in the round.
Despite the fact that the Ipiutak site is unusual among
Alaskan sites in the number of burials explored, it is
impossible to escape the fact that the urge to decorate
Norton 151
was pursued far more than was usual among most of
their predecessors and apparent descendants in Arctic
America, or among most hunting peoples anywhere.
References
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5,
ed. W. C. Sturtevant. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press,
80--93.
Larsen, Helge, and Froelich Rainey (1948). Ipiutak and the Arctic
Whale Hunting Culture. New York: Anthropological Papers of the
American Museum of Natural History, 42.
Mason, Owen I. (1998). "The Contest between the Ipiutak, Old Bering
Sea, and Birnirk Polities and the Origin of Whaling during the First
Millennium A.D. along Bering Strait." Journal of Anthropological
Archaeology. 17: 240--325.
McGhee, Robert (1976). "Differential Artistic Productivity in the
Eskimo Cultural Tradition." Current Anthropology 17 (2): 203-220.
Rainey, Froelich (1971). The Ipiutak Culture: Excavations at Point
Hope, Alaska. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
DON E. DUMOND
Department of Anthropology
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
United States
 Ocean Bay
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 8000-4000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Initial in the local sequence,
precedes the Kodiak (Kachemak) tradition. Early Ocean
Bay arose within or was a part of the Anangula-Chaluka
transition phase (7800-4000 B.P. uncalibrated carbon-14
years) of the eastern Aleutian islands.
LOCATION: Gulf of Alaska (Kodiak archipelago, adjacent
coast of Alaska peninsula, Outer Cook inlet, minimally
Upper Cook inlet and Prince William sound); to a minor
extent also the Bering sea drainage of the Alaska
peninsula.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Red-ocher--covered
floors, large ocher grinders, undefined semi subterranean
house (Early), circular semi subterranean house (Late),
rectangular stone slab hearths, macroblades (Early),
slotted bone points for microblade insets, microblade
cores (Early), tiny to large flaked chert projectile points
in various styles (including knives), flaked adze bits with
only minor grinding, barbed bone harpoon heads in one
style with line guards but no line hole (absence of tog-
gling harpoon heads), delicate eyed needles, fishhooks,
stone lamps, atlatl hook, distinctive sawn, scraped, and
ground slate technology that partially replaces flaked
stone for projectile points and pointed knives (Late),
cobble spall saws, and scrapers for slate (Late).
152
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Sequent Ocean Bay I (Early
OB), Ocean Bay II (Late OB) in the Kodiak archipelago
(hereafter "Kodiak"); sequent Takli Alder and Takli
Birch phases on Alaska peninsula, Brooks River Strand
phase on Naknek river Bering sea drainage. Also Old
Islander phase on Chirikof island, Pedro bay at Iliamna
lake (Alaska peninsula), and Sylva site at Kachemak
bay, none of which is published. The Takli island phases
are very similar to those on Kodiak island and are not
presented here as a separate regional tradition, nor are
some other occurrences because of their minor or
unpublished status. More detail about them is given in
the Site Entries.
IMPORTANT SITES: Sitkalidak Roadcut at Ocean bay,
Afognak Slate site, Rice Ridge, Tanginak Anchorage,
Malina creek, Zaimka (all Kodiak); Kaflia, Hook Point,
and Takli (Alaska peninsula Shelikof strait side); Brooks
River, Pedro Bay (Alaska peninsula Bering sea drain-
age); Silva (Kachemak bay, outer Cook inlet).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The modern climate is northern temperate
with strong maritime attributes: frequent cyclonic
storms, a large number of overcast and rainy days, rain

(as well as snow) at any time during the winter. Annual
precipitation ranges between 160 cm on the outer coast
of Kodiak to 60 cm on the Shelikof strait side of the
island. Distributions vary to the extent that month-long
periods of either continuous daily sunshine or constant
overcast and rain occur-sometimes in the same month
but in sequent years. Temperatures, moderated through
proximity to the coast, vary from the outer coast of
Kodiak island, where during the winter they are rarely
below 0 DF or -20 DC and frequently are above the freez-
ing point, to a cooler climate on inner bays, and cooler
yet at Kachemak bay and on the Kenai peninsula.
Spring slowly develops into summer, and deciduous
trees do not come into full leaf until the end of June.
Summer temperatures in the 70s F or 25 DC are hot in
the local context. Nevertheless, hypothermia from
exposure to wet weather and cold spray while hunting
on the sea is a major risk. Temperatures are sufficiently
mild that the sea does not freeze except in inlets that
receive and trap freshwater. During Early Ocean Bay
time, the climate was warmer and possibly drier than
today, followed by a decline during Late Ocean Bay
time. This may have affected the distribution of fish
stocks and dependent populations of sea mammals,
although no pertinent local studies have been published.
Although it is hypothesized that a milder climate
resulted in easier maritime hunting conditions, it actu-
ally may have reduced the abundance of marine
resources and the size of salmon runs. A pollen record
of 4260 radiocarbon years', duration from near Karluk
on the Shelikof strait side of Kodiak indicates that
vegetation and, evidently, climate had reached modern
conditions in that area in Late Ocean Bay times.
Topography. Ocean Bay people occupied a long, com-
plexly embayed rocky coast with numerous fjords,
islands, islets, and reefs. Away from the coast, terrain
is rugged with mountains of low to moderate height.
Ocean Bay settlements were also located at two large
lakes on the Alaska peninsula. Rivers in the area tend to
be small but numerous. Kodiak and the Kenai peninsula
are subject to strong earthquakes, which have generated
tsunamis and have resulted in changes in the relative
level of the land and sea and in coastal erosion (and loss
of archaeological sites). At the time of earliest Ocean
Bay settlement, postglacial rise in sea level was still
occurring. This rise and isostatic rebound following
deglaciation, together with tectonic events, likely have
resulted in extensive changes in local detail along the
coast and possibly in the extent of the land mass.
Deglaciation occurred several millennia before the date
of the oldest documented sites on Kodiak (13,000
Ocean Bay 153
radiocarbon years B.P. partial deglaciation, readvance,
11,000 radiocarbon years B.P. at southwest end of
Kodiak, but basal bog dates at northeast end of Kodiak
and Afognak are little more than 9000 radiocarbon
years B.P.).
Geology. The region of the Ocean Bay tradition lies
adjacent to and partially within a belt of volcanos along
the Alaska peninsula. Major falls of volcanic ash have
occurred throughout the Holocene. Layers of ash are
found below, in, and above Ocean Bay site deposits,
although there is no evidence that this has resulted in
loss of life and the abandonment of settlements.
Sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are found widely
in the region, and igneous plutons and dikes are
common. Lithic formations are zonal, however, in
bands following the trend of the islands, and in poorly
endowed areas local groups used inferior local chert and
slate. Bedrock lithology, particularly the most com-
monly occurring Late Cretaceous graywacke-argillite
rocks, generally supports the ground slate industry that
distinguishes Ocean Bay II. The availability of good
slate at several localities may have been an instrumental
factor in the transfer of bone-working technology to
slate. Numerous chert outcrops are found in the region,
but this chert is difficult to work because of its numerous
fractures. Basalt and black chert, which were also used
for flaked implements, were obtained from the Alaska
peninsula or from cobbles widely distributed by Pleis-
tocene glaciers that arose on the peninsula and overrode
Kodiak. Topography, including the intricately embayed
coastline, strongly reflects the late Pleistocene glaciation
and deglaciation, Holocene changes in level have
resulted in drowning of coastlines and isolation of old
shoreline features inland at the heads of bays. There also
is ongoing coastal erosion, and small-scale changes in
level from seismic activity.
Biota. On Kodiak island and on the coast of the Alaska
peninsula immediately across from Kodiak, forests were
limited to stands of tacamahac poplar (balsam-poplar)
and black cottonwood trees, found largely in gravelled
valleys (identified as populus in pollen profiles). The rest
of the land, specifically Kodiak but also adjacent areas,
was cloaked with a mosaic of alders, willow and birch
shrubs, and a composite of grasses, fireweed, umbelli-
fers, ferns, and other vegetation sometimes referred to as
coastal tundra and slope muskeg. Sitka spruce, which
today is prominent on the northern half of the islands,
did not arrive until long after Ocean Bay times. On the
Kenai peninsula, spruce of three species arrived earlier
than it did on Kodiak but evidently also postdates
154 Ocean Bay
Ocean Bay times. Mountain hemlock also grows there
locally, and Kenai birch is widespread although on
Kodiak it is limited to the northeast end of the island
where it is a small gnarled tree. Bird populations are
extensive, especially seabirds. On Kodiak island, before
historic introductions, land mammals were limited to
brown bears, red foxes, river otters, weasels, voles, and
bats. All these species colonized Kodiak after deglaci-
ation, and, pending analysis of faunal remains, their
presence on the island in early Ocean Bay times remains
to be established. On the mainland, there was a far
greater variety of terrestial fauna, including several
ungulate species. The primary resources used by Ocean
Bay people came from the sea. The coastal banks, near-
shore zones, and littoral zones of Kodiak are highly
productive, and the island is in the path of migrating fur
seals (which generally pass offshore) and whales. Specific
resources included anadramous fishes, notably several
species of salmon, near-shore fish, littoral invertebrates,
especially blue mussels, clams, whelks, and sea urchins,
and sea mammals. The last included harbor seal, fur
seal, northern sea lion, sea otter, porpoises, and other
small whales, and several species of larger whales.
Settlements
Settlement System. Settlements were located along the
shore in essentially the same settings as those of the
succeeding Kodiak tradition. Most occupy locations in
slightly sheltered coves or in the lee of islets. Some,
located at the mouths of streams, appear to have been
dedicated salmon fishing sites and were occupied
primarily during the summer period of salmon runs.
Late phase sites are also reported inland on large lakes
on the Alaska peninsula and Kodiak island. There is
also evidence of refuge or natural fort sites on islets,
limited to one example at present. One site, in addition
to having been an apparent salmon fishery, was a slate
tool manufactory that seemingly produced items in
excess of the needs of the local community, that is for
exchange. Judging from the geographic distribution of
sites in a number of areas separated by significant water
bodies, the Ocean Bay tradition apparently represents
many autonomous polities. Information on political
organization is lacking, although it is probable that
there were correlations between communities, local
areas defined by major topographic features, and
resource distributions.
Community Organization. Limited data from intact sites
show Early and Late settlements 40 m long. One
additional settlement was about twice that size. In the
last the layout of houses was probably linear, judging
from the width of the site. However, many Ocean Bay
sites fail to show the pronounced linearity paralleling the
shore seen in later coastal sites. Activity areas have not
been defined, but it appears from the proximity of house
features, layers with lithic refuse, and midden layers that
there was little spatial separation of houses, disposal
areas, and materials-processing areas.
Housing. Early houses had red-ocher-stained floors
exceeding 4 m in extent, with rectangular and circular
hearths and large postholes. The size and shape of these
houses and details of the entry are not known because of
incomplete excavation. A partially excavated oval or
circular Late semisubterranean house was at least 5 m in
diameter. It had several small pits in the floor but
apparently no hearth. A partially uncovered set of
postholes in a Late (Takli Birch phase) site also suggests
an oval structure of 7x5 m. In the Naknek drainage of
the Alaska Peninsula, a Late (Strand phase) dwelling or
floor trace stained with charcoal and red ocher was
sub triangular or pentagonal and had a very slightly
depressed floor (-20 cm). It was barely 3 m long and
little more than 2 m wide. Other structural remains,
including low stone walls in a Late site, have been only
partially uncovered. Altogether, several structure forms,
all probably dwellings, are indicated.
Population, Health, and Disease. With the exception of
a few teeth, no human remains have been recovered.
Considering that most settlement sites have been lost to
erosion or have not been discovered because of low
visibility, but that more than 25 Ocean Bay sites are
known from Kodiak island, it is probable that the
population was reasonably large, although smaller than
the estimated 10,000-person late prehistoric Alutiiq
population. At the time of European contact, settle-
ments often held 200 or more persons, but they may
have been smaller during Ocean Bay times.
Economy
Subsistence. Ocean Bay people followed a marine-
hunting subsistence economy and also emphasized
near-shore marine fishing, salmon fishing at the mouths
and lower courses of streams, catching birds, and littoral
gathering. Settlements on the Bering sea watershed of
the Alaska peninsula and at Kachemak bay had a
potentially more diverse economy with access to land
mammals, including caribou, but faunal data are sparse.
Fauna from Takli Alder and Takli Birch phase compo-
nents on the Pacific coast of the peninsula indicate that

porpoises, sea lions, seals (probably harbor seal), and
sea otters were harvested, in approximately equal
numbers but varying widely between sites, along with
the occasional marmot, brown bear, and moose. Bird
remains were common in the Alder phase (which had
better preservation than Birch), including, in descending
order of frequency, albatrosses, cormorants, murres,
geese, and six uncommon species. A large fauna sample
from Kodiak (Rice Ridge site) remains to be fully
reported but includes abundant sea otter remains, sea
lion, harbor seal, porpoise, whale, murre and auklet (the
most common birds), salmon, cod, halibut, clam, and
blue mussel. Plant resources used during later traditions
probably were also available to Ocean Bay people. They
would have included bulbs of the kamchatka lily, high-
bush and low-bush cranberries, local blueberries, and
salmon berries. The last, although the most accessible
of berries, do not store well. To some degree, these
resources are seasonal. For instance, although shellfish
can be harvested at any season, there is risk of red tide
or paralytic seafood poisoning during the summer. And
although there were resident populations of harbor seals
and sea lions, they tended to shift location with the
arrival of the salmon, which were highly seasonal. Early
red salmon arrived in April, but the run did not build up
strength until the end of May. Silver salmon arrived in
September and were available in some streams into
December, by which time the subsistence harvest had
turned its emphasis to other activities. As for berries, the
wild fruit crop varied markedly from year to year.
Hunting and fishing techniques are indicated by the
recovery of implements such as projectile points, spear
prongs, harpoons, and fishhooks, but many aspects of
subsistence are undocumented and unknown. It is not
known, for instance, how and if larger whales were
taken, and the absence of small notched pebbles and
bone weights and net gauges brings the use of nets into
question. Salmon may have been caught in traps and
pens at weirs, not netted.
Industrial Arts. Early Ocean Bay (OB I) is characterized
by bifacially flaked stone tools, macro blades, and a
microblade industry together with a bone-working
technology by which barbed harpoon heads, spear
prongs, points grooved for microblade inserts, fishhook
barbs and prongs, wedges, and delicate eyed needles
were produced. Stone lamps were used, and there also
was a rudimentary cobble industry of cobble spall tools,
heavy spall scrapers, choppers, mauls and ocher grind-
ers, and uncommon grooved cobbles. Later, in Ocean
Bay II, bone-working techniques of sawing (blanks),
scraping, and grinding or whetting to a finish were
Ocean Bay 155
transferred to slate. The saw was a cobble spall. Some
slate blanks were also flaked. The distinctive saw-snap-
scrape technique of Ocean Bay II slate working is a
hallmark of that culture and permits its recognition on
the basis of a few specimens, although scraping and
sawing techniques of slate fabrication were sometimes
used by later inhabitants of the region. Ground slate
implements became very popular and locally replaced
flaked stone tools, although most communities contin-
ued to maintain a flaked stone industry. Concomitantly,
whetstones became numerous. Some slate points have
close flaked tool analogs; others, like the long slate
bayonets, may incorporate a former haft area as well as
a blade into a single slate blade. Small adze blades,
although not numerous, were produced in a distinctive
flaked format with minimal grinding of the bit on the
ventral surface.
Pointed slate tools, particularly projectiles and lance
blades, are often marked with patterned lines and, at the
edge, notches or vestigial barbs. It is not clear whether
these incisions are ownership marks, receptacles for
poison, or decorations. They do not have any counter-
part in the bone tools. A single style of barbed harpoon
head, made in various sizes, with line guard but no line
hole, was used throughout the tradition. There were no
toggling harpoon heads.
Other than for stone lamps and awls and needles,
domestic implements such as chamber pots, cooking and
eating vessels, ladles, spoons, bowls, cups, skewers, and
cutting boards are unknown. Some of these items may
have been made of wood and horn, which have not been
preserved. The case is the same for clothing and
containers, boat parts, and weapons and nets and traps
other than projectile tips and spear thrower hooks.
Ornaments are rarely recovered and largely limited to
tooth pendants. Labrets are found only in the Late OB
Takli Birch phase and possibly postdate the Kodiak
venu of the tradition. Ritual and ceremonial parapher-
nelia similarly has perished.
Trade. There is little evidence of any long-distance trade
for exotic goods. However, the source of red ocher used
on Kodiak and on the Alaska peninsula has not been
determined. Many Ocean Bay communities were not
located near good sources of chert (or other flakable
material) and, in the case of Late Ocean Bay, slate.
These materials could have been acquired by short-
distance trade or by expeditions. In terminal Ocean Bay
times, there was contact with the Arctic Small Tool
Tradition, which had settled the Bering sea side of the
Alaska peninsula, resulting in the presence of ASTT
artifacts on Kodiak. ASTT people actually lived at
156 Ocean Bay
Kachemak bay about 4000-4200 years ago (uncal-
ibrated radiocarbon years). Trade likely took place in
the context of ASTT-Ocean Bay relationships.
Division of Labor. There likely was strong differentia-
tion between the tasks of men and women, in hunting
and construction of houses and boats, for instance.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. The local-
ization of the best salmon fishing locations and sea
mammal and seabird rookeries would have lent itself
well to control by strong individuals or elites.
Sociopolitical Organization
Political Organization. Authority and differences in
status and wealth between individuals and households
have not been recognized in the results of limited
excavations.
Conflict. No artifacts are identifiable as weapons of war
as distinct from hunting weapons. There is tentative
evidence for refuge islets or natural fort sites, at one site
on Kodiak. Human skeletal remains and burials, which
might be expected to bear evidence of violence and
warfare, have not been recovered.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Belief. Extensive use of red ocher is probably
indicative of an unidentified ritual. With the exception
of some Late houses, dwelling floors were sprinkled with
red ocher, and one entire stratum in an Early Ocean Bay
Alder phase site was stained red. The ocher appears to
have been produced or imported in solid form, then
reduced in large ocher grinders that are common in sites.
Arts. Very few art objects have been recovered. No
motifs can be identified other than lines of dots, slashes
or hatch marks, Xs, and chevrons, most of which are
found on slate points.
Death and Afterlife. Burials and scattered human re-
mains have not been recovered, although the extent of
excavation in deposits with organic preservation is
limited. There is no known link between the use of red
ocher by Ocean Bay people and death and afterlife.
Suggested Readings
Clark, Donald W. (1979). Ocean Bay: An Early North Pacific Maritime
Culture. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological
Survey of Canada Paper, No. 86. Ottawa: National Museum of
Man.
Clark, Donald W. (1982). "An Example of Technological Change
in Prehistory: The Origin of a Regional Ground Slate Industry
in South-Central Coastal Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 19 (I):
103-126.
Clark, Gerald H. (1977). Archaeology of the Alaska Peninsula: The
Coast of Shelikof Strait 1963-1965. University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, No. 13. Eugene: Department of Anthropology,
University of Oregon.
Dumond, Don E. (1971). A Summary of Archaeology in the Katmai
Region, Southwestern Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological
Papers, No.2. Eugene: Department of Anthropology, University of
Oregon.
Dumond, Don D. (1987). The Eskimos and Aleuts. 2nd ed. London:
Thames and Hudon.
Fitzhugh, J. Benjamin (1996). "The Evolution of Complex Hunter-
Gatherers in the North Pacific: An Archaeological Case Study from
Kodiak Island, Alaska." Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor.
Hausler-Kmecht, Philomena (1993). "Early Prehistory of the Kodiak
Archipelago." Paper presented at International Seminar on the
Origins, Development, and Spread of Prehistoric North Pacific-
Bering Sea Maritime Cultures. Honolulu.
Heusser, C. J. (1960). Late-Pleistocene Environments of North Pacific
North America. American Geographical Society Special Publication,
35. New York: American Geographical Society.
Nelson, Robert E., and Richard H. Jordan (1988). "A Postglacial
Pollen Record from Western Kodiak Island, Alaska." Arctic 41 (1):
59-63.
Oswalt, Wendell H. (1965). "Prehistoric Sea Mammal Hunters at
Kaflia, Alaska." Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska
4 (1): 23-61.
SUBTRADITIONS
Inland Alaska Peninsula (Brooks
River Strand Phase)
TIME PERIOD: 3900-4500 B.P.
LOCATION: On the Brooks river, upper Naknek river
drainage, Bering sea watershed of the Alaska peninsula
at site 49MK 001.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Ground slate lances or
elongate spears, flaked chert points and scrapers, small
pointed-oval shelter floor.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Brooks river locality is situated adjacent to
Naknek lake and tributary Brooks river in the north-

western foothills of a chain of volcanic peaks, the
Aleutian range. The modern white spruce forest there
substantially postdates the Ocean Bay occupation.
Topography has been molded by Late Pleistocene
glaciation, which terminated several millennia before
first occupation at Brooks river and subsequent forma-
tion of beach ridges and cutting of terraces by the
Brooks river and Naknek lake (Dumond 1981). BR20 is
located on one of these beach ridges alongside the lake,
near the river mouth (Dumond 1981: 19). Today
salmon, which occurs in notable abundance, is the
principal resource available at the site, and caribou
occur in the area.
Settlements
The Brooks river strand phase is the sole represen-
tative of this regional subtradition. It forms the earliest
known human occupation at Brooks river. The subtra-
dition is noteworthy for its location in the Bering sea
drainage in contrast with the Pacific or Gulf of Alaska
location of most Ocean Bay sites. Excavation was
insufficient to uncover the full extent of strand occupa-
tion. A small pentagonal- or teardrop-shaped habitation
floor was found at one locality. The slightly depressed
outline is thought to be from a temporary shelter or a
tent (Dumond 1981: 58, 117, Fig. 6.6). The floor was
covered with charcoal, red ocher, stone chips, and
crushed bone.
Economy
Significant faunal remains and features for food
storage were not recovered, with the exception of
mammal bone fragments thought to be largely caribou
(Dumond 1981: 116). Recovery of several large bayo-
net-shaped slate blades also suggests that strand people
were spearing or lancing caribou. The site locality would
have allowed a co-focus on salmon fishing, although
Dumond (1981: 118) proposed that that was not the
case. Radiocarbon dating, including the chronology of
tephras, and the style of slate artifacts indicate that
strand is a late Ocean Bay occupation. Strand artifacts
are limited to a small assemblage of 71 distinctive
implements from the main site locality plus 8 others.
They include large polished slate lance blades, large
chipped stemmed points, a side-notched knife, end
scrapers, and stone lamps. The departure from a sea-
mammal-hunting economy is noteworthy, although the
assemblage from Brooks river may be a seasonal
assemblage of a people who at times lived in a very
different setting on the coast.
Ocean Bay 157
Reference
Dumond, Don E. Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The Naknek
Region, 1960-1975. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers,
No. 21. Eugene: Department of Anthropology, University of
Oregon.
Kachemak Bay
TIME PERIOD: Early phase not dated; late 5000-5200 B.P.
LOCATION:At China Poot bay and Aurora lagoon,
Kachemak bay, outer Cook inlet.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Bifacially flaked stone
industry from China Poot bay is provisionally assigned
to Early Ocean Bay. A mixed ground slate and flaked
chert industry from Aurora lagoon (Sylva site) repre-
sents Late Ocean Bay.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
There have been net subsidence and shoreline
changes in the area as the sites now are below high tide
level and portions of one site are overridden by modern
storm-beach gravels. Occupation apparently precedes
the arrival of the modern spruce forest at Kachemak bay
(Workman et al. 1993). The principal site is situated in a
coastal environment generally similar to that occupied
by Ocean Bay people on Kodiak island and the adjacent
coast of the Alaska peninsula. But is was subject to more
rigorous winter conditions and an attenuation of the
abundance of sea mammals and salmon because of its
position far within Kachemak bay. Concomitantly, the
area offered access to an increased range of land
mammals.
Settlements
The presence of nearly 1 m of refuse deposits, with
volcanic ash partings and nondescript large stone
features or alignments, at the Sylva site suggests
recurrent use of resource sites, and possibly stable
settlements, although no formalized hearths and no
postholes were encountered (Workman et al. 1993). The
original size of the wave-eroded site has not been
determined. Abundant detritus shows that tool produc-
tion and maintenance took place at the site.
158 Ocean Bay
Economy
A small area of Late Ocean Bay midden has
produced remains of seal, porcupine (?), caribou calf,
seabirds and uncommon cod. Shells include blue mus-
sels, steamer and butter clams, cockles, limpets, and
whelks (Workman et al. 1993).
Recovery from Site SEL 250 is limited largely to
bifacially flaked knives and points suggestive of an
Ocean Bay I industry, but microblades and blades
indicative of Early Ocean have not been found there.
The assemblage is not satisfactorily dated. The Sylva site
has ground slate and lesser flaked stone industries,
together with a cobble tool industry consisting of scoria
abraders, siltstone whetstones, boulder spalls, and
hammer stones. Ulu blades, lamps, adzes, and notched
and grooved stones were absent in the sample of about
700 artifacts (half of which are scraps and unretouched
flakes). The majority of diagnostic implements are
pointed, double-edged, ground slate blades as is usual
for Ocean Bay II. The styles of slate tools, which are
often decorated with cut lines and small barbs, show
strong Alaska peninsula Takli Birch and Kodiak island
Ocean Bay II affiliation. But the flaked chert industry
tends to be nondescript and poor in specific Ocean Bay
styles of projectile points. Kachemak bay production of
slate preforms relied more on chipping and less on
sawing and scraping than did Kodiak assemblages of
OB II. The Sylva site firmly extends the range of late
Ocean Bay to include Kachemak bay.
References
Workman, William (1996). "Human Colonizations of the Cook Inlet
Basin before 3000 Years Ago." In Adventures through Time:
Readings in the Anthropology a/Cook Inlet, Alaska, ed. N. Y. Davis
and W. E. Davis. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society, 37-48.
Workman, William B., Janet Klein, Mariene Testaguzza, and Peter
Zollars (1993). "1992 Test Excavations at the Sylva Site (SEL 245):
A Stratified Late Ocean Bay Occupation in Upper Kachemak Bay,
Kenai Peninsula." Paper presented at the 20th annual meeting of the
Alaska Anthropological Association, Anchorage.
Ocean Bay I and II
TIME PERIOD: 8000-4000 B.P.
LOCATION: Kodiak archipelago, western Gulf of Alaska.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Red-ocher-covered
floors, large ocher grinders, macroblades (Ocean Bay I),
slotted bone points with microblade insets, microblade
cores (Ocean Bay I), tiny to large flaked chert projectile
points (including knives) in various styles, flaked adze
bits, simple bone harpoon heads in one style with line
guards (but absence of toggling harpoon heads), deli-
cate eyed needles, fishhooks, stone lamps, atlatl hook,
distinctive sawn, scraped, and ground slate technology
that partially replaces flaked stone for projectile points
and pointed knives (Ocean Bay II), cobble spall saws
and scrapers for slate (Ocean Bay II).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The modern climate is northern temperate with
strong maritime attributes: frequent cyclonic storms and
a large number of overcast and rainy days. Annual
precipitation ranges between 160 cm on the outer coast
of Kodiak to 60 cm on the Shelikof strait side of the
island. Temperatures are moderated through proximity
to the coast and vary from the outer coast of Kodiak
island, where during the winter they are rarely below
o DF or -20 DC and frequently are above the freezing
point, to a cooler climate on inner bays. The sea does
not freeze except in inlets that receive and trap fresh-
water. Summer temperatures in the 70s F or 25 DC are
hot in the local context. During Early Ocean Bay time,
the climate was warmer and possibly drier than today,
followed by a decline during Late Ocean Bay time
(Fitzhugh 1996; Heusser 1960).
Ocean Bay people occupied a complexly embayed
rocky coast with numerous fjords, islands, islets, and
reefs. Away from the coast, terrain is rugged with
mountains of low to moderate height. Kodiak is subject
to strong earthquakes, which have generated tsunamis
and have resulted in changes in the relative level of the
land and sea and coastal erosion (with loss of archae-
ological sites). At the time of earliest Ocean Bay
settlement, postglacial rise in sea level was still occur-
ring. This rise and isostatic rebound following deglaci-
ation, together with tectonic events, likely resulted in
extensive changes in local detail along the coast during
Ocean Bay times.
Kodiak lies adjacent to a belt of volcanos along the
Alaska peninsula. Major falls of volcanic ash have
occurred throughout the Holocene, although there is no
evidence that these have resulted in the loss of life and
abandonment of settlements. Bedrock lithology, partic-
ularly the common Late Cretaceous graywacke-ar~ill!te
rocks, supports the ground slate industry that dlstm-

guishes Ocean Bay II. Topography strongly reflects the
late Pleistocene glaciation and deglaciation and Holo-
cene changes in relative sea level, costal, erosion, and
seismic activity.
Forests were limited to stands of tacamahac poplar
(balsam-poplar) and black cottonwood trees, found
largely along stream courses. The rest of the land was
cloaked with a mosaic of alders, other shrubs, grass-
lands, and other small vegetation. Sitka spruce, which
today is prominent on the northern half of the islands,
did not arrive until long after Ocean Bay times. Modern
bird populations are extensive, especially seabirds.
Before historic introductions, land mammals were
limited mainly to brown bears, red foxes, and river
otters. The primary resources used by Ocean Bay people
came from the sea. The coastal banks, near-shore zones,
and littoral zones of Kodiak are highly productive.
Biotic resources included several species of salmon,
near-shore fish, littoral invertebrates, and sea mammals,
especially harbor seal, northern sea lion, sea otter,
porpoise, other small whale, and larger whale.
Settlements
Settlements were located along the shore in essen-
tially the same settings as those of the succeeding
Kodiak tradition. Most occupy locations in slightly
sheltered coves or in the lea of islets. Some, located at
the mouths of streams, appear to have been dedicated
salmon fishing sites occupied during the summer period
of salmon runs. An Ocean Bay II site was also located
inland on Karluk lake, probably for fishing. One
settlement, at the mouth of the Afognak river, in addi-
tion to having been an apparent salmon fishery, was a
slate tool manufactory that seemingly produced items in
excess of the needs of the local community. Limited data
from intact sites show that settlements were about 40 m
long, but the Rice Ridge site was twice that size. Activity
areas have not been defined, but from the proximity of
house features, layers with lithic refuse, and midden
layers, there was apparently little spatial separation of
houses, disposal areas, and materials-processing areas.
Early houses had red-ocher-stained floors exceeding
4 m in extent, with rectangular and circular hearths
and large postholes. The full size and shape of these
houses are not known because of incomplete excava-
tion. A partially excavated oval or circular Ocean Bay
II semi subterranean house was at least 5 m in diame-
ter (Hausler-Knecht 1993). With the exception of a few
teeth, no human remains have been recovered from
which to judge matters of health and mortality. Con-
sidering that most settlement sites have been lost to
Ocean Bay 159
erosion or have not been discovered because of low
visibility, but that at least 25 Ocean Bay sites are known
from Kodiak island, the population there was probably
reasonably large, although smaller than the estimated
1O,000-person late prehistoric Alutiiq population.
Economy
Ocean Bay people followed a marine-hunting sub-
sistence economy, with a heavy emphasis also on near-
shore marine fishing, salmon fishing at the mouths of
streams, catching birds, and littoral gathering. A large
fauna sample from Kodiak (Rice Ridge site) remains
to be fully reported but includes abundant sea otter
remains, sea lion, harbor seal, porpoise, whale, murre
and auklet (the most common birds), salmon, cod, hal-
ibut, clam, and blue mussel (Hausler-Knecht 1993). To
some degree, these resources are seasonal. For instance,
although shellfish can be harvested at any season, there
is risk of red tide or paralytic seafood poisoning during
the summer. Early red salmon arrived in April, but the
run did not build up strength until well into May. Silver
salmon arrived in September and were available in
some streams into December, by which time the
subsistence harvest had turned its emphasis to other
activities. Hunting and fishing techniques are indicated
by the recovery of implements such as projectile points,
spear prongs, harpoons, and fishhooks (Hausler-
Knecht 1993), but many aspects of subsistence are
undocumented and unknown. It is not known, for
instance, how and if larger whales were taken, while the
absence of small notched pebbles and bone weights and
net gauges brings the use of nets into question.
Ocean Bay I is characterized by bifacially flaked
stone tools, macro blades, and a microblade industry
together with a bone-working technology by which
barbed harpoon heads, spear prongs, points grooved for
microblade inserts, fishhook barbs and prongs, wedges,
and delicate eyed needles were produced. Stone lamps
were used. There was also a rudimentary cobble
industry of cobble spall tools, heavy spall scrapers,
choppers, mauls, and ocher grinders, and uncommon
grooved cobbles. In Ocean Bay II, bone-working
techniques of sawing (blanks), scraping and grinding,
or whetting to a finish were transferred to slate (Clark
1979, 1982). Ground slate implements became very
popular and in some communities largely replaced
flaked stone tools. Some slate points have close flaked
tool analogs. A single style of barbed harpoon head,
made in various sizes, with line guard but no line hole,
was used throughout the tradition (Hausler-Knecht
1993). There were no toggling harpoon heads.
160 Ocean Bay
There is little evidence of any long-distance trade for
exotic goods. In terminal Ocean Bay times, there was
contact with the Arctic Small Tool tradition, which had
settled the Bering sea side of the Alaska peninsula,
resulting in the presence of ASTT artifacts on Kodiak
(Hausler-Knecht 1993). Some trade likely took place
in the context of ASTT-Ocean Bay relationships. The
localization of the best salmon fishing locations and sea
mammal and seabird rookeries would have lent itself to
control by strong individuals or elites.
Sociopolitical Organization
Authority and differences in status and wealth
between individuals and households have not been
recognized in the results of limited excavations. No
artifacts are identifiable as weapons of war as distinct
from hunting weapons. Human skeletal remains and
burials, which might be expected to bear evidence of
violence and warfare as well as ritual or religion, have
not been recovered.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Extensive use of red ocher to cover floors may
indicate unidentified religious beliefs or ceremonies.
There is no known link between the use of red ocher by
Ocean Bay people and death and afterlife. Very few art
objects have been recovered. Lines of dots, slashes or
hatch marks, Xs, and chevrons are found on slate points
(Clark 1979).
References
Clark, Donald W. (1979). Ocean Bay: An Early North Pacific Maritime
Culture. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeologi-
cal Survey of Canada Paper, No. 86. Ottawa: National Museum of
Man.
Clark, Donald W. (1982). An Example of Technological Change in
Prehistory: The Origin of a Regional Ground Slate Industry in
South-Central Coastal Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 19 (I): 103-
126.
Fitzhugh, J. Benjamin (1996). "The Evolution of Complex Hunter-
Gatherers in the North Pacific: An Archaeological Case Study from
Kodiak Island, Alaska." Ph.D. diss., Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan.
Hausler-Knecht, Philomena (1993). "Early Prehistory of the Kodiak
Archipelago." Paper presented at International Seminar on the
Origins, Development, and Spread of Prehistoric North Pacific-
Bearing Sea Maritime Cultures. Honolulu.
Heusser, C. J. (1960). Late-Pleistocene Environments of North Pacific
North America. American Geographical Society Special Publication,
35. New York: American Geographical Society.
SITES
Afognak Slate
TIME PERIOD: 5200-4000 B.P.
LOCATION: At the mouth of the Afognak river, Kodiak
archipelago.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site 49-AFG Oil (first published as Afo-109) is
located on a small, rounded islet in the estuary of the
Afognak river. It is connected with the main island,
Afognak, by a small tombolo bar (Clark 1979). A
moderate-size run of four species of salmon passes by
the site and enters the Afognak river. Salmon fishing
during the summer months was probably the main
economic operation undertaken here, although the
settlement is sufficiently close to the ocean for sea-
mammal hunting. Adjacent slate outcrops provided
material for the manufacture of large numbers of slate
tools, most probably for use elsewhere. Winter occu-
pation is unlikely because the low-salinity waters of the
estuary freeze. Low, glacially sculptured peaks domi-
nate the terrain inland from the site. Today the site is a
grassy clearing in the Sitka spruce forest, but it was
abandoned several millennia before the forest appeared
in the area.
Physical Features
Artifact-bearing, soily deposits and charcoal-stained
streaks reach 100 cm maximum thickness. The site
is about 40 m long although its original size is not
known because of erosion. There is no preservation of
organic materials, but the site matrix probably owes its
origin to the decomposition of organic refuse formerly
present together with gradual increments of volcanic
ash. Poorly patterned clusters of small cobbles, boul-
ders, and stone slabs are evidently from more than one
house feature, but excavation was too limited, coupled
with loss at the eroded front of the site, to reveal clearly
interpretable structures (Clark 1979: 140-146). In one
area, successive stones appeared through a vertical
interval of 1 m, which suggests that they may have been
stacked. No floor was recognized in this feature, but

three open postholes and two stone lamps were found in
a deep level. Informal hearths with orange wood ash and
charcoal are also present in the site but are not
associated with the stone features.
Cultural Aspects
The ground slate industry of the Gulf of Alaska
region has been interpreted as an innovation of Ocean
Bay people based on the transfer of bone-working
technology to slate (Clark 1982). Slate tools vastly
outnumber flaked chert implements, which supports
identification of an Ocean Bay II occupation. The site
was a manufactory for slate tools, as well as, probably,
a salmon fishing camp, and this accounts for the
recovery of 1773 slate artifacts (mostly blanks, scrap,
work in progress) from the excavation of l3 six-ft
squares and a beach collection. Slate tools likely were
taken away for use elsewhere. There is also a cobble
industry, consisting mainly of cobble spalls used to saw
and scrape slate.
References
Clark, Donald W. (l979). Ocean Bay: An Early North Pacific Maritime
Culture. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological
Survey of Canada Paper, No. 86. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
Clark, Donald W. (1982). "An Example of Technological Change in
Prehistory: The Origin of a Regional Ground Slate Industry in
South-Central Coastal Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 19 (I): \03-
126.
Hook Point
TIME PERIOD: 5000/6000-3500 B.P.
LOCATION: On Takli, a small island nestled against the
Shelikof strait coast of the Alaska peninsula across from
Kodiak island.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Small un forested but heavily shrubbed (especially
alder) Takli island has rugged shores. The site (MK-14)
takes its name from the shape of the small basalt
promontory it occupies at an elevation of about 5 m
above high tide level (Clark 1977: 10).
Ocean Bay 161
Physical Features
The site area of 1100 sq m, of which 30 sq m were
excavated, includes post-Ocean Bay occupation areas.
Early Ocean Bay deposits are found in 100 cm-thick
Stratum II. They consist of a reddish-brown, clayey soil
streaked with charcoal, red ocher, and possible gray
volcanic ash. Later Ocean Bay occupation occurs in
Stratum Ib, consisting of 10-75 cm of compact gray to
brown-black soil. Artifacts were generally distributed
throughout the deposits. Dwelling features are present
in the Stratum Ib Birch phase component but were
incompletely uncovered in the excavation trench. Evi-
dence consists of hearths, postholes, and an arcuate
alignment of cobbles.
Cultural Aspects
The Stratum II occupation is attributed to the Takli
Alder phase, which is equivalent to Ocean Bay I.
Stratum Ib is attributed to the succeeding Takli Birch
occupation, which is equivalent to Ocean Bay II but also
extends into a later period. Stratum Ia contains the
overlying 1st millennium A.D. Cottonwood phase occu-
pation that is not part of the Ocean Bay tradition. Lithic
artifacts in the Alder phase are almost exclusively
chipped stone. Birch phase people had both chipped
stone and ground slate industries. No bone artifacts and
refuse was recovered from Hook Point.
Reference
Clark, Gerald H. (1977). Archaeology of the Alaska Peninsula: The
Coast of Shelikof Strait 1963-1965. University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, No. 13. Eugene: Department of Anthropology,
University of Oregon.
Pedro Bay
TIME PERIOD: 5300-4900 B.P.
LOCATION: At Pedro bay at the head of Iliamna lake,
base of the Alaska peninsula.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site occupies a 7-m-high ridge that projects from
nearby Pedro mountain into a swampy area along the
shore of Pedro bay.
162 Ocean Bay
Physical Features
The surface of the site has several protohistoric
semi subterranean Athapaskan house pits that were dug
into earlier Norton and Ocean Bay deposits.
Cultural Aspects
The site is noteworthy both for its inland location,
on a large lake in a setting that does not allow the
pursuit of sea mammals and other maritime coastal
activities, and for being situated in the Bering sea
drainage in contrast with the Pacific or Gulf of Alaska
location of most Ocean Bay sites. The Pedro Bay slate
industry is similar to Ocean Bay II at Kodiak island;
however the flaked chert industry differs from Kodiak in
styles of points and scrapers.
References
Townsend, Joan B., and Sam-Joe Townsend (1961). "Archaeological
Investigations at Pedro Bay, Alaska." Anthropological Papers of the
University of Alaska 10 (I): 25-58.
Townsend, Joan B. (1970). "The Pedro Bay Site, Iliamna Lake,
Alaska." Paper presented at the 35th annual meeting of the Society
for American Archaeology, Mexico.
Rice Ridge (49KOD 363)
TIME PERIOD: 7100-4200 B.P.
LOCATION: Chiniak Bay, Kodiak island.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site is located on two small, low bedrock
promontories and connecting high ground, which form
an arc more than 100 m long. This terrain formerly
fronted a shore in the lee of two small islets, but currents
have filled the channel with sand and gravel, leaving the
site isolated a short distance inland. Today the region is
densely forested with Sitka spruce, which, however,
appeared several millennia after the site was abandoned.
With its locally sheltered position but proximity to
extensive reefs, numerous islets, and the outer coasts of
Kodiak, the site was excellently situated for maritime
hunting and fishing and gathering. Salmon spawn in a
small stream located near the site.
Physical Features
The site deposit consists of 2 m, more or less, of
micro stratified deposits bearing numerous house floors,
large postholes, hearth features, an oval or circular
semi subterranean house (upper levels), and midden
streaks as well as compacted soily layers and stony
streaks with artifacts generally distributed through-
out. Most house floors are marked by red ocher streaks.
Preservation of bone varies but relative to the situation
at other Ocean Bay sites is good. Approximately half of
the collection of 2600 implements is bone, and an
estimated 20,000 or more identifiable faunal elements
have been recovered (Hausler-Knecht 1993).
Cultural Aspects
Rice Ridge is notable for its large size and the
substantial collection of bone artifacts and remains that
stand to amply document the lifeways of Ocean Bay
times. The long occupation illustrates the succession of
flaked chert (mainly lower levels) and ground slate
industries (mainly upper levels) as well as change and
continuity in implement styles. The microblade industry
of the lower levels, consisting of micro blades, cores, and
points slotted for microblade edges, is better document-
ed here than it is in other Ocean Bay assemblages.
Certain artifacts found in upper levels of one area of the
site suggest close contact with ASTT people whose
home was primarily in the Bering sea region northwest
of Kodiak (Hausler-Knecht 1993).
Reference
Hausler-Knecht, Philomena (1993). "Early Prehistory of the Kodiak
Archipelago." Paper presented at the International seminar on the
origin, Development, and spread of Prehistoric North Pacific-
Bering Sea Maritime Cultures, Honolulu.
Sitkalidak Roadcut
TIME PERIOD: 6200-4000 B.P.
LOCATION: At Ocean Bay on the outer coast of Sitkalidak
island, Kodiak archipelago.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The site (Kod-438, officially renumbered as 49-KOD
119) is located on a low, rounded colluvial bench
(sequent Ocean Bay I and Ocean Bay II occupation) and
the end of an attached beach ridge (Ocean Bay II only)
100 m inland from the storm berm at Ocean Bay (Clark
1979). Salmon spawn in the nearby tidal inlet and lakes
that owe their genesis to beach ridge barriers. Low,
glacially sculptured peaks that reach 540-m elevation
dominate the other terrain inland from the site. The
region is unforested except for insignificant stands of
poplars in the adjacent lake country. With its open
exposure to the Pacific Ocean, the site bears the brunt of
frequent cyclonic storms but is subject to very little snow
accumulation.
Physical Features
The site consists of artifact-bearing, locally stony,
soily deposits and charcoal-stained streaks that reach
1.5 m maximum thickness. Minor red ocher streaks
evidently are anthropogenic. There is almost no preser-
vation of organic materials, and the site matrix probably
owes its origin to the decomposition of organic refuse
formerly present together with gradual increments of
volcanic ash. Strata lines, isolated pits, post molds,
sandstone slabs, and groups of cobbles suggest the
presence of significant features, but excavation was too
limited to reveal their nature or grouping, in any house
floors for instance. The deposit measures 17 by 33 m,
not including an adjacent beach ridge zone of about half
that extent.
Cultural Aspects
The succession of flaked chert (lower levels) and
ground slate industries (upper levels) is more pro-
nounced at this site than it is elsewhere in the Ocean
Bay tradition, giving rise to the sharpest definition of the
sequent Ocean Bay I and Ocean Bay II phases. The
ground slate industry of the Gulf of Alaska region has
been interpreted as an innovation of Ocean Bay people
based on the transfer of bone-working technology to
slate (Clark 1982).
References
Clark, Donald W. (1979). Ocean Bay: An Early North Pacific Maritime
Culture. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological
Survey of Canada Paper, No. 86. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
Ocean Bay 163
Clark, Donald W. (1982). "An Example of Technological Change in
Prehistory: The Origin of a Regional Ground Slate Industry
in South-Central Coastal Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 19 (I):
103-126.
Takli
TIME PERIOD: 6500-3500 B.P.
LOCATION: On Takli, a small island nestled against the
Shelikof strait coast of the Alaska peninsula across from
Kodiak island.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Small, unforested but heavily shrubbed (especially
alder) Takli island has rugged shores. The site (MK-12) is
situated on a grassy basalt promontory about 5 m above
high tide level on the lee side of the island (Clark 1977: 7).
Physical Features
The site is about 1200 sq m, of which 66 sq m were
excavated. Early Ocean Bay deposits are found in 5-10-
cm-thick olive-buff colored Stratum IV at the base of the
site. A thin layer of volcanic ash separates this layer
from Stratum III, which consists of a 20-40 cm-thick
layer of clayey soil tinted various shades of reddish by
ocher. Stratum II, composed of about 50 cm of medium
to dark brown earth flecked with charcoal, intergrades
with Stratum I, which is composed of 55 cm of black,
sticky carbonaceous soil. In addition, there was a mid-
den at the seaward edge of the site. Artifacts were gen-
erally distributed throughout these deposits. A dwelling
is indicated by an uncompletely uncovered oval align-
ment of postholes encountered in Birch phase deposits
(Clark 1977).
Cultural Aspects
Strata IV and III are attributed to the Takli Alder
phase, which is equivalent to Ocean Bay I. Stratum I
and II belong to the succeeding Takli Birch occupation,
which is equivalent to Ocean Bay II but also extends
into a later period. Lithic artifacts in the Alder phase are
almost exclusively of chipped stone, especially points,
knives, scrapers, and adze bits. A modest number of bone
artifacts from the midden, significantly barbed harpoon
164 Ocean Bay

heads, are also attributed to this phase. Birch phase po logical Papers, No. 13. Eugene: Department of Anthropology,
people had both chipped stone and ground slate indus- University of Oregon.
tries, and more numerous barbed harpoon heads and
other bone tools have been recovered from the midden.
DONALD CLARK
Reference 15 Ellery Crescent
Clark, Gerald H. (1977). Archaeology of the Alaska Peninsula: The Nepean, Ontario
Coast of Shelikof Strait 1963-1965. University of Oregon Anthro- Canada
Old Itel'men
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 5000-500 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Tarya Neolithic
tradition, precedes the historic period. It is the direct
ancestor of the historically known Itel'man peoples.
LOCATION: Central and southern Kamchatka.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL AITRIBUTES: Diagnostic stone tools
including scrapers, perforators, knives, including pol-
ished ones, polished axes, burins. Bone tools such as
harpoons, including toggling, composite and whole-cut
fishing hooks, net needles, scrapers, and arrow points.
The presence of toggling harpoons implies the use of
boats to hunt sea mammals in the open sea. Fishing
nets, hooks, spears, and weirs are common. Ceramics of
the Ainu-type (Neiji) and Koryak type are found.
Nettle-fiber textiles are present. Houses are of two
forms: light summer dwellings made of branches that
were probably covered with skins, and semi sub terra-
nean, rectangular sod houses.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
About 2000 B.P., Kamchatka experienced a period of
slight warming. The mean yearly temperature went up
10 and precipitation was 25 mm higher than it is today.
However, by 1500 B.P., the annual average temperature
went down to what it is today, with 50 mm less
precipitation. Between 1500 and 380 years B.P., another
warming started which led to the expansion of the Larix
area. Since the early Holocene, breeding grounds of
various species of seals (Callorhinus ursinus L., Enhudra
Lutris L., Eumetopias jubatus Schr., Phoca yitulina
Largha, Phoca hispida subsp.) appeared, and these were
actively hunted, although the principal game animals
were reindeer and moose. Numerous Kamchatka rivers
had been salmon spawning areas since at least the Late
Pleistocene.
Settlements
Several stages of the Old Itel'men tradition are based
on the chronological and territorial principles classifying
the sites. The latter are reflected in tool kits and the
degree of the adjacent cultures (Ainu, South Kamchat-
ka, and Koryak, North Kamchatka) influencing the Old
Itel'men tradition. The earliest (2000-1000 B.P.) is the
Kronotsky stage during which light summer dwellings
were made of branches that were probably covered with
skins. They were constructed in places where fishing and
fish processing took place. Winter dwellings are un-
known for this period, but one can suppose that they
were of the same type as during the previous Tarya
tradition.
165
166 Old Itel'men
Later (1000-500 B.P.), Kamchatka settlements con-
sisted of one large dwelling, supposedly for community
celebrations and gatherings, and several smaller ones
in which the collective members lived. In central
Kamchatka, on the Kamchatka river, such settlements
are thought to have grown into small fortified commu-
nities surrounded by ditches and banks. During this
period the dwellings were semisubterranean, rectangular
with rounded corners. In the center, there were support
columns on which the roof was fixed; this all was
covered with sod and soil. Dwellings had a lateral
corridor and an entrance through the smoke hole in the
roof. Some dwellings were double, consisting of a large
and a small room connected with a corridor. In the
middle of the dwelling, there was a hearth, sometimes
contoured with the vertically positioned flat stones. In
the wall niches, there were shelves with birch-bark,
wooden, or ceramic vessels. Numerous tool remains
found around the hearths imply that there household
chores were being conducted and tools were being made.
The floor was covered with birch-bark and grass. The
dwelling size was 4-8 m in the cross-section.
Economy
At the beginning of our era, sea resources were more
actively used in Kamchatka. Sea mammals were hunted
mostly at breeding grounds by means of spear and bow.
Special sea-hunting tools-harpoons with a stone
insert-appeared, implying the use of boats to hunt
sea mammals in the open sea, though no direct evidence
of boats used by early Itel'men has been found. Fishing
with nets, hooks, fish spears, and weirs was probably the
principal subsistence source. Land animals were also
hunted. At sites of this period, the number of shell
and bird bones found increases, testifying to coastal
gathering and nesting bird hunting. About 500 years
ago, Old Itel'men acquired toggle harpoons, suggesting
the start of specialized sea mammal hunting. Old
Itel'men continued to use stone retouched arrow and
spear points. Points found were mostly small, triangular,
and stemmed, and were used to arm arrows. Stone was
used to produce scrapers, perforators, knives, both
polished and unpolished, polished axes, and burins.
Various bone tools, such as harpoons, including tog-
gling, composite and whole-cut fishing hooks, net nee-
dles, scrapers, arrow points, and ornaments were used.
About 500 B.P. in Kamchatka, metal began to be used
for making knives; bronze Japanese coins were used as
ornaments. At the same time, Ainu-type (Neiji) ceramics
appeared; flat-bottomed, with ears inside the vessel, they
were found in the south of Kamchatka. In the north,
round-bottomed pottery of the Koryak type was
exposed. The nettle-fiber textile-making tradition was
also continued in the Old Itel'men tradition. Dog bones
and sled parts found at the sites imply dog sledding.
Dwellings were lit with stone oil lamps of triangular
form; some had an ear handle and were ornamented.
Sociopolitical Organization
It is supposed that since the start of our era in the
Old Itel'men society, the process of clan community
degradation began in association with the development
of sea mammal hunting and exchange with coastal
cultures of Chukotka and the Kuril islands, though this
process was slow and its remnants survived until the
18th century. It is also implied that fortified settlements
and communities of central Kamchatka clearly testify to
the clan community degradation and the start of
military democracy.
Religion and Expressive Culture
In the Old Itel'men tradition, ornamented bone tools
(blades, needlers, harpoons, etc.) were known. Judging
by the human bones found inside the dwellings, the Old
Itel'men burial ritual was the same as that of the historic
Itel'men, who would put the dead on the dwelling roof
and build another dwelling to live in.
References
Dikov, N. N. (1979). Ancient Cultures of Northeastern Asia. Moscow:
Nauka. In Russian.
Dikova, T. M. (1983). "South Kamchatka Archaeology in Connection
with the Ainu Occupation Problem. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Lozhkin, A. V. (1997). "Environmental History of Beringia During the
Late Pleistocene and Holocene: Some Results of Joint Russian-
American Research." Late Pleistocene and Holocene of Beringia.
Magadan. In Russian.
Ponomarenko, A. K. (1985). Ancient Cultures of the East Kamchatka
ltelmen. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Stefanovich, E. N., Klimanov, V. A., Borisova, Z. K., and S. N.
Vinogradova (1986). "Holocene Paleogrographic Situation on the
Northern Coast of Penzhina Bay." Bulletin of the Quarternary
Studies Commission, no. 55, pp. 97-102. In Russian.
SERGI SLOBODIN
Far East Division
Russian Academy of Sciences
Northeastern Interdisciplinary Science Research Institute
Magadan
Russia
Paleo-Arctic

ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 11,000-6000 B.P. Settlements

The Paleo-Arctic peoples lived in small, short-term
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Precedes the Northern Archaic
settlements, often located in river valleys with easy
tradition.
access to water and fuel, protection from wind, and
relative freedom from biting insects. Some settlements
LOCATION: Nonglaciated Arctic regIOns of North were also located on bluff tops or other locations with
America. good visibility of the surrounding territory. These
settlements were likely hunting camps established to
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Microblades, small, watch for migrating animals. There is no evidence of
wedge-shaped prismatic cores, disk bifaces, leaf-shaped Paleo-Arctic housing, which likely consisted of simple
bifaces, burins. skin tents.

IMPORTANT SITES: Onion Portage, Trail Creek Cave.

CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Paleo-Arctic peoples lived in the Arctic regions
of the retreating Cordilleran ice sheet. The environment
was dry tundra with mixed areas of steppe-like grass-
lands and marshlands. Large mammals dominated the
landscape, including elk, moose, bison, and mammoth.
Summers were short and mild, winters long and harsh.
By the end of the Paleo-Arctic period, the ice sheets were
rapidly retreating, and the warmer and wetter conditions
of the early postglacial environment were in place.
Economy
Nomadic hunting of big game animals was the core
of the Paleo-Arctic economy. Hunters used microblades
to arm spears, blades and bifaces to butcher animals,
and blades, bifaces, and burins to work hides and wood.
The presence of chert from distant locales suggests trade
played some role in the Paleo-Arctic economy.
Sociopolitical Organization
Although there is no direct archaeological evidence,
it is likely that the Paleo-Arctic peoples lived in small,
egalitarian bands of 30 or fewer related individuals.
These bands were likely fluid, with members joining and
leaving regularly, and their size may have fluctuated

167
168 Paleo-Arctic

seasonally-becoming larger when game was plentiful, Dumond, Don E. (1987). The Eskimos and Aleuts. rev. ed. London:
and smaller when game was scarce. Thames and Hudson.
Dumond, Don E. (1989). "Prehistory of the Bering Sea Region." In
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed. D. Damas.
Suggested Readings Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 94---105.
Larsen, Helge (1968). Trail Creek: Final report on the Excavation of
Anderson, Douglas D. (1968). "A Stone Age Campsite at the Gateway Two Caves on Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Copenhagen: Acta Artica,
to America." Scientific American 218 (6): 24---33. Vol. 15.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1970) "Microblade Traditions in Northwest-
ern Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 7 (2): 2-16.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1970). Akmak: An Early Archaeological PETER N. PEREGRINE
Assemblage from Onion Portage, Northwest Alaska. Copenhagen: Department of Anthropology
Acta Arctica, Vol. 16.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In Lawrence University
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5: Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Appleton, Wisconsin
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 80-93. United States
Proto-Athapaskan
Late Northern Archaic, Late Taltheilei in East, Athapaskan, Dene
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 2000-150 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Northwest Micro-
blade tradition, includes the early historic period.
LOCATION: Areas inhabited by Northern Athapaskans,
primarily the Western Subarctic of ethnographers,
extending from western interior Alaska eastward to a
point just touching Hudson bay, and also reaching the
Pacific coast at Cook inlet, Alaska, and in Canada, the
Arctic ocean early in the tradition.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Fire-cracked rock,
semi subterranean houses in Alaska and northern Yu-
kon, coarse ceramics in western Alaska, native copper
artifacts, bone and antler arrowheads and spear prongs,
bone and stone hide- processing tools (beamers, fleshers,
end-of-bone scrapers, end scraper bits, stone slab tei-tho
scrapers, awls), large pecked and ground adzes and
picks, stone spearheads, flaked arrow tips.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Taltheilei (Canada east of the
Mackenzie river), late Northern Archaic, Yukon Dene.
IMPORTANT SITES:Thelon river sites, Taltheilei narrows,
Peace point, Whirl lake (Taltheilei); Chimi, Taye lake,
Klo-Kut, Rat Indian creek, Old Chief (Yukon territory);
Karpinsky (Alberta); Gulkana, Dakah Denin's village,
Dixthada, Healy lake, Nenana gorge, Old Fish camp,
Onion Portage Itkillik component, Kijik (Alaska).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The climate during Proto-Athapaskan times
was essentially modern, although the period ended
during the "Little Ice Age" when conditions likely were
harsher in the north than they were at any other time
since the end of the Ice Age. Features common to the
Subarctic interior region are short hot summers and
long, sometimes intensively cold winters. Certain local
areas are known to be "cold traps" where intense cold
can prevent human activity for many days and even
weeks at a time. Winter-summer extremes range from
80 0 below zero F to 100 0 above F. Although the
continental Subarctic interior is cited for having
precipitation equivalent to an arid region (little more
than 10 in), conditions vary greatly. A month can pass
with fewer than 50 percent clear days, and more than
5 in of rain can fall in a single 24-hr period. This can
have serious consequences when people are camped in
minimal shelters, nets and traps are set in streams, and
dry weather is needed for preserving fish and red meat.
Hunting and fishing during autumn days when it freezes
169
170 Proto-Athapaskan
at night provide partial solutions to the needs for
preservation.
Topography. Proto-Athapaskans lived and hunted over
mountain foothills, local uplands, forested plains, river-
ine lowlands, and banks and shores of lakes and smaller
rivers and at the confluence of major rivers and their
tributaries. From the central Subarctic region of Can-
ada, they made summer excursions onto the treeless
barren grounds, primarily to hunt caribou. Most terri-
tory east of the Mackenzie river is technically a plain. A
series of large lakes served as focal points for some
groups-Lake Athabasca, Great Slave lake, and Great
Bear lake-as did many smaller lakes. West of the
Mackenzie, a region of mountains, uplands or plateaus,
and river basins and flats extends westward to the Bering
sea. It is part of the Cordilleran region.
Geology. Inasmuch as these people occupied far-reach-
ing territories, the geology of their region is highly
varied. The easternmost lands, east of Great Bear lake,
are part of the Canadian Pre-Cambrian shield. The
shield bedrock is responsible for a microtopography
riddled with complexly shaped lakes that undoubtedly
presented a challenge to summer travelers and likely
mandated the use of lightweight canoes. For flaked
stone industries, raw material was obtained from local
outcrops and river bars and was often of poor quality.
Better quality material found at a few sources was
traded widely. This included obsidian from several
outcrops in Alaska and Northern British Columbia,
native copper from the Copper river in Alaska and the
Coppermine river, N.W.T., a relatively unique fused
rock that outcrops near the Keele river in the Mackenzie
valley, and agate found in the Yukon.
Biota. Habitat was preeminently boreal forest in which
white spruce predominated, together with white pine in
well-drained southern portions of the area and a mix of
aspen and birch whose presence depends in part on local
wildfire history. In the area, there are also upland tundra
and alpine areas, extensive expanses of shrubs, and a
small extent of barren-ground tundra. Utilized game
included migratory fowl, ptarmigan, and spruce grouse.
Fish were a major resource and included whitefish
(several species), grayling, sucker, ling cod, lake trout,
pike, local Arctic char, and in the Yukon drainage chum
and king salmon. Mammals were the primary source of
food and material for clothing and tentage. Caribou
were important in nearly every region, while other
mammals were either available and important only
locally or were widespread but of secondary value.
Should a main resource like caribou fail, however, a
combination of other game sufficed. These included
moose, mountain sheep, mountain goat, brown bear,
black bear, bison, wapiti (elk), musk oxen, beaver,
muskrat, ground squirrel, marmot, porcupine, lynx,
and red fox. Other furbearers, especially mustelids
(in addition to beaver, muskrat, lynx, and fox) were
sometimes trapped but were not customarily eaten. In
the past, musk oxen, bison, wapiti, and mountain goat
were more widely available in the region than they are
today.
Settlements
Settlement System. Sites are very numerous. They can
be found almost anywhere: on terrain without distin-
guishing features, along the shores of lakes and rivers,
near rapids, near lake outlets, near the confluence of
rivers with their tributaries, near lithic sources, and
along game migration routes. In a sense, the entire
territory, except mountain peaks and off-shore areas of
lakes, was a settlement lived over by these mobile
hunters and gatherers. People even camped on the ice.
Conceptually, settlement and territory tend to merge.
Most sites are small, and larger ones are thought to be
derived from repeated episodes of occupation or the
periodic gathering of bands. Traditional ethnographic
knowledge describes a settlement pattern that should be
discernible in the archaeologic data. This includes the
dispersed hunting camps and fishing sites of small
groups often composed of no more than two families,
favorable wintering sites, especially lake fisheries usually
found at narrows, where several families were able to
take up extended residence, and summer fishing sites
located on major rivers or at the confluence with
tributaries where relatively large groups or entire local
bands came together during the summer. The summer
gathering sites were sometimes annual trade centers
where people from several bands and other tribes (i.e.,
other linguistic groups) met. Other sites were located in
valleys proximal to game fences or surrounds and at
river crossings to intercept migrating caribou and,
locally, moose and mountain sheep. Lithic waste accu-
mulations or workshops appear both in and separate
from settlement areas. Thus, there were many special-
purpose sites, some occupied concurrently, some ac-
cording to the season of the annual cycle, but it is not
always possible to distinguish the archaeological data in
this manner. Again on the basis of ethnographic
information, ideal band territories can be modeled,
which contained the various resources necessary to
support a band throughout the year, and archaeological

data can be fitted to such a model. But there is a risk of
the models not being precise through periodic and
aperiodic changes in the abundance and distribution of
game, which resulted in major fluctuations in band
territories.
Community Organization. Settlements ranged in size
from about 4 m to more than 100 m in extent. The
smaller ones were probably short-term camps of a single
family or couple of families sharing a shelter, the larger
ones variably composites of such small camps and the
camps of larger groups. Generally, camp and flaking
station traces without surviving structural remains
predominate. In ecologically marginal areas, a settle-
ment may have consisted of one or two houses. But in
late prehistoric and early historic times, villages along
the rivers and lakes of western Alaska had up to a score
of semi subterranean houses. According to ethnographic
information, settlements and bands of one or more
settlements were autonomous, although some were
loosely aligned on the basis of common speech, inter-
marriage, visiting, and cooperative sharing of periph-
eral hunting grounds. Residents of each settlement and
band followed acclaimed leaders. Other features located
peripheral to settlements, and sometimes at a great dis-
tance, were hunting blinds, cache pits for fish and meat,
and game fences and surrounds. Surviving examples of
the latter are early historic in age.
Housing. Generally, structural remains that survlVe
archaeologically are limited to so-called tent rings in
easterly areas, enigmatic scattered house pits in the
northern Yukon and northern District of Mackenzie,
and house-pit villages in Alaska. Originally, only por-
table tents and temporary brush shelters were present at
some of many sites; others were open-air working
stations. It follows that shelter forms reported at the
time of historic contact were also used during precontact
times by this tradition. These included pyramidal and
conical tents, used mainly in the east, oval dome-shaped
tents probably used throughout the area, spruce-sapling
teepee and solid pole conical structures, in the Macken-
zie, Yukon, and possibly elsewhere, various rectangular
pole, brush, and moss-covered structures often built on
the twin-ridgepole double leanto format, heavily turfed-
over twin-ridgepole semi subterranean houses in Alaska
and possibly rarely in the northern Yukon, and both
rectangular and circular pit houses in north-central
British Columbia. There were variations to meet sum-
mer and winter conditions, respectively, expectations for
reuse over several seasons, need for portability, and
locally available construction materials. In most areas,
Proto-Athapaskan 171
different shelters were made for summer and winter use.
Dwellings tended to be small and single roomed, but
some semi subterranean houses in Alaska had appended
rooms, one of which was used for the vapor sweathbath
("wet heat") and sometimes also as a sleeping compart-
ment. There were separate temporary structures for the
segregation of women giving birth and during menstru-
ation. According to ethnographic information, custom-
arily an extended family (often two adult generations)
or two-partner nuclear families occupied a dwelling.
Household membership could change from season to
season.
Population, Health, and Disease. There is little direct
information for the precontact period. Northern Atha-
paskan human skeletal material is rare, and almost all
that reported is historic in age. A high mortality from
epidemics and infectious diseases is largely the result
of contact with Europeans. Ethnographic information
suggests, however, that before European contact popu-
lations were extremely sparse and disseminated in small
bands, with the exception of some groups that exploited
productive salmon runs and other food resources in
western Alaska and northern British Columbia. Oth-
erwise, bands sometimes had as few as 30 persons, and
smaller linguistic divisions or so-called tribes numbered
only a few hundred persons. Traditional accounts report
mortality through drowning and starvation and inter-
necine raids. Genetic anomalies, such as congenital
mutism, have been reported in historic Athapaskans and
probably were present during earlier periods, possibly
exacerbated by the small size of breeding isolates.
Economy
Subsistence. Artifacts point to hunting, fishing, and
gathering, which are in fact the only possibilities that
the environment offers. Traps and snares were used at
the time of historic contact and probably throughout the
duration of the tradition, but evidence of them is not
expected to have survived from very long before contact.
Each band would have had only a few experienced
hunters, but major activities such as the operation of fish
traps and weirs and caribou surrounds or game drives,
including processing of the catch, required the combined
efforts of men, women, and older children. Faunal
refuse has been recovered from several sites. The main
mammal exploited for food and materials was the
caribou, which can account for 90 percent of specimens
and nearly all the mammal biomass represented.
Exceptions occur at some historic sites whose location
and period of occupation coincide with a crash in
172 Proto-Athapaskan
the caribou population. In one Alaskan site, Dall sheep
are most abundant. Hare are usually present and some-
times abundant, but this animal was not a major resource,
and neither was ground squirrel although both are
abundant in the refuse of some sites. Other utilized
animal resources include a broad spectrum of species
among which moose, beaver, and bear were important
because of their size, but not abundant. Waterfowl
included loons, ducks, and swans. At the A.D. 100 Old
Chief site in the northern Yukon, for example, the
following classified fauna was obtained: caribou 11,290
elements (99.50%), varying hare 21 (O.IS%, unidentified
mammalS (0.07%), birds 6 (0.05%), muskrat 5 (0.04%),
moose 5 (0.04%), Arctic ground squirrel 5 (0.04%),
beaver 2 (0.01 %), vole, fox, pine marten, dog, or wolf 1
each (0.01 %).
Fisheries east of the Rocky mountains (District of
Mackenzie) differed from those in the west (Yukon and
part of British Columbia) in that the latter had access to
runs of two and locally three species of salmon, which
could be intercepted from fixed sites that were controlled
by local bands. The caribou, salmon, waterfowl, and to
a lesser degree other mammals and fish were migratory,
and thus their harvest depended on being present at the
right place at the right time. Edible berries are locally
abundant, although the yield varies from year to year,
and among them low-bush cranberries and blueberries
were harvested and stored in ground caches for later
use. Food was given as gifts between families, especially
meat taken during seasons when it would not keep well.
Actual trade in food stuffs was uncommon except with
communities that had a surplus of stored fish, as occurred
at Cook inlet in Alaska, and for specialty items such as
fish and sea-mammal oil. Historically, long-term shifts in
the distribution of game such as caribou and moose led to
the movement of families to more productive areas.
Industrial Arts. Certain classes of implements and
certain technologies were common to all areas or
regional sub traditions, but there were distinctive local
specialties. Common to all or most were a suit of hide-
working and sewing tools (beamers, end of-the-bone
scrapers, stone slab scrapers or tei-thos, awls, end
scrapers made on beveled flakes), small flat adze bits,
large heavy adze bits and picks, whetstones, various
flake tools and scrapers with no, little, to considerable
shaping, beaver and porcupine tooth gouges, small stone
tips for arrows, an array of bone and antler arrows and
spear prongs, fishhooks, flaked stone knives in small
utilitarian format and in larger dagger-shaped format,
and sometimes net gauges and snowshoe-webbing nee-
dles. Small, sharp flakes were used ethnographically for
surgical operations such as cutting veins of the eyelids
swollen from snow blindness. In the core Alaska-Yukon
area and parts of the district of Mackenzie, many of
these items were made of native copper. In the Yukon
and Alaska, flaked chert was of very minor importance
compared with antler, bone, and copper. Ceramic vessels
were used in western Alaska, but throughout the
tradition containers were made principally of birch bark,
which has survived at late sites. Some were also made of
hides or carved from wood, which have not survived. As
life depended on hunting and fishing, the weapons or
implements for subsistence were especially important as
also were those for working hides, which were essential
for survival during the worst of winter weather. There
was less concern over other tools, which could be
multipurpose implements or expendable tools and ac-
cessories of the moment or could be cached on site. The
last included naturally shaped stone mauls used to drive
fish-weir stakes and posts for removable fish traps.
Trade. Trade was fueled by a yen to travel, visit, and
learn about foreign places, under formalized trading
relationships, and in gatherings that, to some degree,
guaranteed personal safety in others' territories. There
were a number of traditional trade rendezvous points.
Principals in the trade were members of other bands, of
other Athapaskan linguistic groups or "tribes", and, in
certain regions, Tlingit Indians from the coast, Cree in
central Canada, and Inuit, Inupiat, and Yupik Eski-
mos. Material evidence of precontact indigenous trade
is found in the distribution of lithic raw materials,
especially obsidian and native copper, from sources in
Alaska, northern British Columbia and the Northwest
Territories. Ethnographic accounts fill out the list with
perishable items, with furs and hides from the interior,
for instance. During early historic times, some Atha-
paskans were also middlemen between European traders
and isolated tribes, as also were Tlingit traders from the
coast. But for most European goods found in archae-
ological sites, it would be difficult to identify the
intervention of Native middlemen.
Division of Labor. Ethnographic information indicates
that there was a pronounced division of labor according
to gender and to some degree also according to rank.
This is only very weakly supported by archaeological
data. There are few floor plots of the distribution of
artifacts in Athapaskan dwellings, and on most floors
there are too few items to form a clear pattern. Those of
historic age on the Koyukuk river of Alaska show a
weak correlation of hide working stones (tei-thos) with
areas where women traditionally sat.

Differential Access or Control of Resources. Ethno-
graphic accounts express Northern Athapaskan interest
in controlling access to natural resource locations,
native copper outcrops, for instance, to support their
position as traders. This may not always have been
possible because of the small size of bands. Historically,
use of a trapping territory or occupation of a fishing site
amounted to ownership, which was often passed on to
relatives, but unused sites could be reoccupied by people
who were not the original "owners".
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Historically, in the west, matrisib
membership controlled many important social func-
tions: trade, visiting other bands, and burial of members
of an opposite sib, for instance. There was sib exogomy
and flexibly interpreted temporary matrilocal residence.
Political Organization. Band members occupied one or
more settlements. Nearly everyone came together at
times for tasks such as the operation of fish weirs and
traps. People aligned themselves with "big men" or so-
called chiefs who had demonstrated their ability to lead
people, organize hunts and fishing camps, and trade
successfully at indigenous gatherings or European posts.
Each band had a main chief, and sometimes there were
additional "big men." Some chiefs were recognized in
affilliated bands or so-called tribes. In the west, there
was a tendency for leadership roles to be passed on in
certain families, thus creating a noble class.
Social Control. Ethnographic accounts suggest that
social control was by precept, jesting, ridicule, and
personal retribution to avenge wrongs. The last fre-
quently led to maiming one's spouse and internecine and
intertribal raids and killings.
Conflict. Ethnographic accounts are replete with stories
of raids or so-called wars. Intertribal "wars" for the
control of trade, trapping territories, and plunder may
have been exacerbated by historic factors. "War clubs"
and "war picks" may have been used primarily otherwise.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Religious beliefs are extensively doc-
umented in ethnographic literature, especially for areas
west of the Mackenzie river. Little about them would be
recognized in an archaeological context. Some objects
could be amulets and puberty paraphernelia, but the
latter are unlikely at a dwelling site. It should be possible
to see customary animal respect and disposal practices
Proto-Athapaskan 173
in the distribution of faunal remains and refuse, but
there are many departures from customary proscriptions
and prescriptions. Certain geographic locations, lakes,
and features such as cliffs, boulders, and caves are
accorded special significance ranging from the sites of
episodes in epic legends to abodes of mythical monsters
and places of power. Few if any, however, were shrines
for annual religious rites and shamanistic seances or
vision quests.
Petroglyphs and petro forms (arrangement of boul-
ders: medicine wheels, for instance) are unknown. Rock
paintings are found at a few localities: north of Lake
Athabasca (historic in age), north-central British Co-
lumbia (in part historic, some attributable to non-
Athapaskan people), Cook inlet, Alaska (authorship
may be partly or entirely Eskimo), and a single group of
figures along the Tanana river near Fairbanks (isolated
and undoubtedly Athapaskan).
Religious Practitioners. Retrospective accounts tell of
male and female shamans, many of whom were thought
to be very powerful and sometimes feared. The material
elements of shamanism are not likely to be recovered
from archaeological contexts.
Arts. Athapaskan art was expressed mainly in clothing.
Decorated hide-working tools have been recovered from
the Yukon territory. Motifs are linear and geometric.
Pendants also have been found in the Yukon, and there
is an incised depiction of two animals on a bone object
from Whirl lake at the Mackenzie delta.
Death and Afterlife. Mortuary observances and cere-
monialism, including memorial potlatches, were well
developed in the west in early historic times. Certain
possessions of the deceased such as an axe, knife,
vermilion (pigment), a cup and bowl, a fry pan, scissors,
and even a rifle were placed at the grave along with food.
In precontact times, there may have been similar obser-
vances, but precontact Athapaskan graves have not been
reported. At the time of contact, the dead were placed in
elevated tree coffins, placed in conical pole caches, placed
on the ground and covered with logs and boulders, or
cremated. The last was common in parts of the Yukon
and Alaska. Grave sites atop river bluffs and on head-
lands around lakes have attracted notice, but other
locations with less visibility may have been the norm.
Suggested Readings
Clark, Donald W. (1991). Western Subarctic Prehistory. Hull: Cana-
dian Museum of Civilization.
174 Proto-Athapaskan
Clark, Donald W. (1992). "The Archaic in the Extreme Northwest of
North America." Revista de Arqueologia Americana (Instituto
Panamericano de Geografia e Historia) 5: 71-99.
Gordon, Bryan C. (1996). People of Sunlight, People of Starlight:
Barrenland Archaeology in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. 154.
Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Fladmark, K. R. (1986). British Columbia Prehistory. Hull: National
Museum of Man.
Helm, June, Terry Alliband, Terry Birk, Virginia Lawson, Suzanne
Reisner, Craig Sturtevant, and Stanley Witkowski (1975). "The
Contact History of the Subarctic Athapaskans: An Overview." In
Proceedings: Northern Athapaskan Conference, 1971, ed. A. Clark.
Vol. I: National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian
Ethnology Service Paper, No. 27. Ottawa: National Museum of
Man, 302-349.
Helm, June, ed., William C. Sturtevant, gen. ed. (1981). Handbook of
North American Indians, Vol. 6: Subarctic. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press.
Helmer, J. W., S. Van Dyke, and F. J. Kense (1977). Problems in the
Prehistory of the North American Subarctic: The Athapaskan
Question. Calgary: Archaeological Association, Department of
Archaeology University of Calgary.
VanStone, James W. (1974). Athapaskan Adaptations: Hunters and
Fishermen of the Subarctic Forests. Chicago: Aldine.
Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 5 (3-4) (1975). "Special
Issue: Athapaskan Archaeology." Edmonton: Department of An-
thropology, University of Alberta.
SUBTRADITIONS
Taltheilei (Taltheilei Shale
Tradition)
TIME PERIOD: 2700-European contact (Helm et al. 1975)
LOCATION: Canada, northern boreal forest and southern
Barren Grounds west of Hudson bay and east of the
Mackenzie river exclusive of the outer zone occupied by
Inuit, including northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba (Clark 1991: Map 9).
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATIRffiUTES: Stemmed, lanceolate,
and side-notched spear points, adze bits, oval and
pointed knives, scrapers of various types; native copper
industry and stone arrow tips late in time; tent rings.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Eastern areas are underlaid by frequently outcrop-
ping rocks of the Canadian shield, resulting in a
landscape rich in microtopography with thousands of
intricately shaped lakes and numerous small rushing
rivers. To the west, the landscape is a forested northern
extension of the plains. From north to south are
successive zones of tundra, mixed-wood parkland, and
coniferous forest, although in the west the forest nearly
reaches the Arctic ocean. The boreal forest is a mosaic of
plant communities: trees among which spruce and aspen
are prominent, shrub plains, and muskeg. Hungry
whitefish, char, lake trout, and other fish live in the
waters, but fishery productively is very low. The main
biotic resource is caribou, but a broad spectrum of
mammals is present. Black bear and also brown bear on
the Barrens, hare, muskrat, beaver, moose, bison, and
musk oxen, as well as migratory waterfowl and resident
grouse (ptarmigan and spruce grouse) were lesser re-
sources. Caribou migrate southward from the barrens
to winter in the forest, and some of the Proto-Atha-
paskan peoples evidently did the same (Gordon 1996).
The region has short warm summers that breed a torment
of biting insects and long cold winters. The forest
provides partial shelter for winter dwellers, but condi-
tions on the barrens can become unpleasant at any season
when damp, cool weather moves southward from the
Arctic ocean.
Settlements
Over the centuries, Taltheilei people recurrently
occupied innumerable travel and hunting camps in
small groups of one to a few families. Camps of longest
duration were located near places where caribou
reappeared predictably during their annual migrations,
as at river and lake-narrows crossings. Impoundments
were constructed to corral caribou at some localities
within the edge of the forest (Clark 1991: Plate 43;
Gordon 1996: Fig. 1). There also were fishing sites. A
common form of shelter was a conical hide-covered
tent, somewhat squatter than classic Plains Indian
tepees (Clark 1987: Figs. 6.1, 6.2, 6.4; Gordon 1996).
In the western parts of the area, there also were
rectangular brush and pole dwellings and conical
shelters with solid pole walls. Their remains survive
at historic sites, but only stone rings and floor traces
are found at older sites.
Economy
The basis oflife for the historic Dene (Athapaskans)
was caribou, and caribou hunting was the main activity.
Most tools were related to the caribou hunt, to butch-
ering the carcasses, and to processing the hides, or were
those required to make paraphernalia for living and
traveling on the hunt. Caribou were not only food, but

their hides provided essential material for tent covers,
clothing, and packs and babiche for lines and snowshoe
webbing. Their sinew was used for thread, and antlers
and bones were fashioned into fish spears, arrowheads,
and many other implements. The seasons of the annual
cycle were organized around the movements of caribou,
and it has been proposed that hunting bands moved
accordingly (Gordon 1996). A lesser hunting effort was
directed toward fishing and hunting moose and bison,
especially in southerly parts of the area.
Several sequent archaeological phases have been
defined (Clark 1987; Gordon 1996; Noble 1981). Talt-
heilei origins are not clear. In the core area, Taltheilei
succeeded a Paleo-Eskimo occupation during a period
of climatic amelioration about 2600 years ago. Many
implements are common to the entire temporal span and
geographic breadth of the tradition. These include
numerous end scrapers and side scrapers, stemmed
and lanceolate and notched points, large adze bits
probably used for splitting wood, including distinctive
double-bitted adze bits, tabular hide-scraping stones
(archaeologists' tei-thos), pointed knives and lance
blades, and broad side-hafted knives. Few bone and
antler implements have survived, except in ethnographic
collections. The spear tips changed through time, gen-
erally, from slightly stemmed points to square-shoul-
dered stemmed points, to lanceolate points, and then to
side-notched ones. Small points for arrows are known
from late sites. Prongs, awls, knives, and projectile
points hammered from native copper from the Copper-
mine river appeared throughout the area during the 2nd
millennium A.D. The spread of the copper industry is
evidence for trade and possibly also craft specialization.
A fused glassy rock from the hills west of Fort Norman
was widely distributed in the Mackenzie drainage, but it
was not traded eastward into the core Taltheilei area
(Cinq-Mars 1973).
Religion and Expressive Culture
There is little in the archaeological record of
artifacts, structures, and rock art that bear on this
topic, although ethnographic descriptions can be ex-
trapolated for late prehistoric times (see Main Tradition
entry; Helm 1981; VanStone 1974). Rock paintings
found north of Lake Athabasca are at least in part
historic in age. Prominent rock painting localities found
farther south in Saskatchewan more likely are a product
of ancestral Cree than Proto-Athapaskans. Today some
localities are said to be abode of mythic creatures, as
they probably also were in precontact times.
Proto-Athapaskan 175
References
Cinq-Mars, Jacques (1973). "An Archaeologically Important Raw
Material from the Tertiary Hills, Western District of Mackenzie,
Northwest Territories: A Preliminary Statement, Appendix E."
In A Preliminary Archaeological Study, Mackenzie Corridor, ed.
J. Cinq-Mars. Environmental-Social Committee Northern Pipe-
lines. 73-10 lAND Publication No. QS-1506-000-EE-XIA. Ottawa:
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.
Clark, Donald W. (1987). Archaeological Reconnaissance at Great Bear
Lake. Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper,
No. 136. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Clark, Donald W. (l991). Western Subarctic Prehistory. Hull: Cana-
dian Museum of Civilization.
Gordon, Bryan C. (1996). People of Sunlight, People of Starlight:
Barrenland Archaeology in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. 154.
Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Gordon, Bryan C., and Howard Savage (1974). "Whirl Lake: A
Stratified Indian Site near the Mackenzie Delta." Arctic 27 (3):
175-188.
Helm, June, ed., William C. Sturtevant, gen. ed. (1981). Handbook of
North American Indians, Vol. 6: Subarctic. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press.
Helm, June, Terry Alliband, Terry Birk, Virginia Lawson, Suzanne
Reisner, Craig Sturtevant, and Stanley Witkowski (1975). "The
Contact History of the Subarctic Athapaskans: An Overview." In
Proceedings: Northern Athapaskan Conference, 1971, Vol. 1, ed.
A. Clark. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian
Ethnology Service Paper, No. 27. Ottawa: National Museum of
Man, 302-349.
Noble, W. C. (1981). "Prehistory of the Great Slave Lake and Great
Bear Lake Region." In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6:
Subarctic, ed. J. Helm; gen. ed. W. Sturtevant, 97-106.
VanStone, James W. (1974). Athapaskan Adaptations: Hunters and
Fishermen of the Subarctic Forests. Chicago: Aldine.
Yukon Dene
TIME PERIOD: Before 2000 B.P. to mid-19th century
historic period.
LOCATION: The Yukon territory and interior Alaska from
approximately the vicinity of Fairbanks eastward. This
entry focuses on the Porcupine river, northern Yukon,
which has one of the better sets of data.
Other Proto-Athapaskan sites are located in west-
ern and south-central Alaska and the Copper river
drainage (Anderson 1970, 1988; Campbell 1968; Clark
and Clark 1993; de Laguna 1947; Dixon 1996; Holmes
1986; Ketz 1983; Reger and Boraas 1996; VanStone and
Townsend 1970; K. Workman 1996; W. Workman
1977) and central British Columbia and northwestern
Alberta (Bryan and Conaty 1975; Donahue 1973, 1975;
Fladmark 1986; Helmer 1977; Wilmeth 1977).
176 Proto-Athapaskan
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRffiUTES: A suite of implements
for processing and tanning hides, barbed bone and
antler arrowheads and spear prongs, scrapers, a native
copper industry, flaked arrow tips, heavy adzes, birch-
bark containers, sparse evidence of semi subterranean
houses before contact, inferred use of caribou fences and
surrounds (fence and fishtrap data are historic).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Terrain in the focal area consists of systems of low
mountains, plateaus, and intermontane basins dissected
by the Porcupine river and its tributaries. Most occu-
pation took place in the topographic range of the basins,
275 m elevation in the case of the Old Crow flats. The
Porcupine river area is openly forested with white
spruce, which occurs in a boreal forest mosaic that
includes also Alaska birch, balsam poplar, and trem-
bling aspen trees, areas of shrubs, and muskeg. Treeline
is at 1077-1170 m (Le Blanc 1994). Several edible berries
include some that can be harvested and stored, espe-
cially blueberries and high- and low-bush cranberries.
Summers are short and warm to hot, but winters are
long and extremely cold so that the mean annual
temperature is a cool -10 dc. Precipitation at Old Crow
is very slight at 20 cm or less than 10 in annually.
An extensive suite of land mammals inhabits the
area, although the 36 species include many small
rodents. Economically important mammals were cari-
bou, mountain sheep, moose, musk oxen, beaver,
muskrat, porcupine, varying hare, and black bear. The
most significant resource is the caribou of the Porcupine
herd, which passes in and out of the area annually
(Le Blanc 1994, discusses caribou distribution and move-
ments). Migratory waterfowl are abundant in season,
while spruce grouse and ptarmigan are permanent
residents. Fish are an important part of the biota and
include several species of whitefish, char, king, and
chum salmon, pike, turbot, grayling, and suckers.
Settlements
Settlement pattern was riparian, taking advantage of
the opportunities for river travel, caribou hunting at
river crossings, and fishing. There also were seasonal
settlements and caribou surrounds in the hills, ethno-
graphically attributed to the fall season of the annual
cycle (Morlan 1975: 735). Some sites are of considerable
size for the Subarctic region, but they probably
represent many episodic occupations: 170 m along the
Porcupine river for Rat Indian creek (Le Blanc 1994:
23),400 m or more at Old Chief (Cinq-Mars 1974: c2),
and 450 m at Klo-kut (Morlan 1973). Informal hearths
are common, but dwelling features are rare. A 6 by 7 m
ovoid depression for a house with floor depressed 45 cm
below the ground surface is a unique feature of the Old
Chief site that may be nearly 2000 years old, although it
was reused during a later period (Cinq-Mars 1974).
Other evidence of houses is limited to undated, untested
house depressions in the Porcupine drainage. Farther
afield, there are numerous rectangular pits for substan-
tial houses (Clark 1995; Shinkwin 1979) and oval
depressions that are probably tent floors (Andrews
1986; Greer 1990) in the upper Tanana river country
and near Dawson and Eagle, but all are of historic age.
Occasional large cache pits occur near Dawson. A 7-m-
long narrow pit has been radiocarbon dated to 320 A.D.
(uncorrected). Altogether, this is an enigmatically sparse
representation of housing for several thousand years,
and evidence from the southern Yukon (Workman
1973) suggests that semi subterranean houses were gen-
erally not an element of the prehistoric Yukon tradition.
Economy
Faunal analyses from three precontact sites (Klo-
kut, Rat Indian Creek, Old Chief) indicate that the
caribou was the centerpiece of the economy. Caribou
constitute 87 to 99.5 percent of identified faunal
elements, whereas muskrat, moose, hare, and beaver
and fish remains were recovered in much smaller
numbers.
Le Blanc (1984) identified two sequent late prehis-
toric phases in the northern Yukon: the Old Chief
phase, which extended from approximately 2900-1300
years ago and the Klo-kut phase, which continued the
sequence to the time of direct historic contact in the mid-
19th century. In the latter phase, there was a consider-
able reduction in the frequency of flaked stone tools.
Bone and antler artifacts occurred mainly in the later
phase, probably because of factors of preservation, and
native copper implements, which were not numerous,
also occurred primarily in the Klo-kut phase. Common
implements for the tradition include end scrapers and
other stone scrapers, abundant pices esquil/es, relatively
uncommon biface projectile points in various styles,
broad biface knives, numerous cobble spall tools,
tabular slab hide scrapers (tci-thos), uncommon grooved
shaft smoothers, whetstones in various formats, hammer
stones, and adze bits including large grooved splitting
adzes. In the bone and antler industry, there are barbed

tanged arrowheads, most of which are self tipped,
projectile points with open sockets at the base, barbed
and unbarbed spear and lister prongs, end-of-the-bone
defleshers, split metapodia1 beamers, spoons or scoops,
awls and other pointed prongs, rare snowshoe-netting
needles, beaver incisor tooth bits, and pendants. Frag-
ments of birch-bark baskets have been recovered, and
some bark scraps may be from the manufacture of other
paraphernelia. Most of these implements are also found
in the greater tradition area (cf Clark 1991, 1992;
Shinkwin 1979; Workman 1973) although the best
preservation of bone artifacts is in the late phase on
the Porcupine river.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Beamers and end-of-the-bone fleshers are decorated
with ticked lines (Morlan 1973: Fig. 31a, b). The nearly
exclusive occurrence of decoration on skin-processing
tools suggests that these decorations relate to some
element of Athapaskan ideology. Flat, pointed elongate
bone and antler pendants are reported (Le Blanc 1994:
PI. 78), and from the Dixthada site, located in the
greater tradition area, there are ornaments made of
native copper (Shinkwin 1979: Fig. 28).
References
Anderson, D. D. (1970). "Athapaskans in the Kobuk Arctic Wood-
lands, Alaska." Canadian Archaeological Association Bulletin 2: 3-12.
Anderson, D. D. (1988). "Onion Portage: The Archaeology of
a Stratified Site from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska."
Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Andrews, Elizabeth F. (1986). "Archaeological Perceptions of Early
Contacts of Han Athabaskans at Eagle, Alaska." Paper presented to
Eagle Historical Symposium, Eagle, Alaska.
Bryan A. L., and Gerald Conaty (1975). "A Prehistoric Athapaskan
Campsite in Northwestern Alberta." Western Canadian Journal of
Anthropology 5 (3-4): 64-91.
Campbell, John. M. (1968). "The Kavik Site of Anaktuvuk Pass,
Central Brooks Range, Alaska." Anthropological Papers of the
University of Alaska 14 (1): 33-42.
Cinq-Mars, Jacques (1974). "Old Chief (MjVk-7): An Evaluation,
Appendix C." In Preliminary Archaeological Study Mackenzie
Corridor (Second Report), Environmental-Social Committee North-
ern Pipelines, Task Force on Northern Oil Development, Report No.
74-11, ed. J. Cinq-Mars. Ottawa: Government of Canada.
Clark, Donald W. (1991). Western Subarctic Prehistory. Hull: Cana-
dian Museum of Civilization.
Clark, Donald W. (1992). "The Archaic in the Extreme Northwest of
North America." Revista de Arqueologia Americana (Instituto
Panamericano de Geografia e Historia) 5: 71-99.
Clark, Donald W. (1995). Fort Reliance, Yukon: An Archaeological
Assessment. Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada
Paper, 150. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Proto-Athapaskan 177
Clark, Donald W., and A. McFadyen Clark (1993). Batza Tena: Trail
to Obsidian. Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada
Paper, 147. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
De Laguna, Frederica (1947). The Prehistory of Northern North
America as Seen from the Yukon. Memoirs of the Society for
American Archaeology, No.3. Society for American Archaeology.
Dixon, R. Greg (1996). "Tiq'atl'ena Bena (Hewitt Lake) Archae-
ological Research.''' In Adventures through Time: Readings in the
Anthropology of Cook Inlet, Alaska, ed. N. Y. Davis and
W. E. Davis. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society, 93-107.
Donahue, Paul (1973). "Ulgatcho: An Archaeological Outline." Syesis
6: 153-178.
Donahue, Paul (1975). "Concerning Athapaskan Prehistory in B.C."
Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 5 (3-4): 21-64.
Fladmark, K. R. (1986). British Columbia Prehistory. Hull: National
Museum of Man.
Greer, Sheila (1990). "Oral Traditions and Oral History in the
Blackstone Uplands." Paper presented at the Canadian Archaeo-
logical Association Annual Meeting, Whitehorse, Yukon.
Helm, June, Terry Alliband, Terry Birk, Virginia Lawson, Suzanne
Reisner, Craig Sturtevant, and Stanley Witkowski (1975). The
Contact History of the Subarctic Athapaskans: An Overview." In
Proceedings: Northern Athapaskan Conference, 1971, Vol. 1,
A. Clark. National Museum of Canada, Mercury Series, Canadian
Ethnology Service Paper, No. 27. Ottawa: National Museum of
Man, 302-349.
Helmer, J. W. (1977). "Points, People and Prehistory: A Preliminary
Synthesis of Culture History in North Central British Columbia." In
Problems in the Prehistory of the North American Subarctic: The
Athapaskan Question, ed. J. W. Helmer, S. Van Dyke, and
F. J. Kense. Calgary: Archaeological Association, Department of
Archaeology University of Calgary, 90--96 and figs.
Holmes, Charles E. (1986). Lake Minchumina Prehistory: An Archaeo-
logical Analysis. AURORA Alaska Anthropological Association
Monograph Series No.2. n.p.: Alaska Anthropological Association,
Monograph Series AURORA.
Ketz, James (1983). Paxson Lake: Two Nineteenth Century Ahtna Sites
in the Copper River Basin, Alaska. Occasional Paper No. 33.
Fairbanks: Anthropology and Historic Preservation Cooperative
Park Studies Unit, University of Alaska.
Le Blanc, Raymond (1994). The Rat Indian Creek Site and the Late
Prehistoric Period in the Interior Northern Yukon. National Museum
of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper,
No. 120. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
Morlan, Richard E. (1973). Later Prehistory of the Middle Porcupine
Drainage, Northern Yukon Territory. National Museum of Man,
Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. II.
Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Morlan, Richard E. (1975). "Kutchin Prehistory, As Seen from the
Middle Porcupine Drainage, Northern Yukon Territory." In The
Contact History of the Subarctic Athapaskans: An Overview, ed.
A. Clark. Proceedings Northern Athapaskan Conference, 1971,
Vol. I., National Museum of Canada, Mercury Series, Canadian
Ethnology Service Paper, No. 27. Ottawa: National Museum of
Man, 669-758.
Reger, Douglas R., and Alan Boraas (1996). "An Overview of the
Radiocarbon Chronology in Cook Inlet Prehistory." In Adventures
through Time: Readings in the Anthropology of Cook Inlet, Alaska,
ed. N. Y. Davis, and W. E. Davis. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical
Society, 156-171.
Shinkwin, Anne D. (1979). Dakah De'nin's Village and the Dixthada
Site: Contributions to Northern Athapaskan Prehistory. National
178 Proto-Athapaskan
Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada
Paper, No. 91. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
VanStone, J. W., and J. B. Townsend (1970). Kijik: An Historic
Tanaina Indian Settlement. Anthropology Vol. 59, Fe1ediana.
Chicago: Field Museum.
Wilmeth, Roscoe (1977). "Chilcotin Archaeology: The Direct Historic
Approach." In Problems in the Prehistory of the North American
Subarctic: The Athapaskan Question, ed. J. W. Helmer, S. Van Dyke,
and F. J. Kense. Calgary: Archaeological Association, Department
of Archaeology University of Calgary, 97-101.
Workman, Karen W. (1996). "An Archaeological Definition of
Dena'ina." In Adventures through Time: Readings in the Anthropo-
logy of Cook Inlet, Alaska, ed. N. Y. Davis and W. E. Davis.
Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society, 207-220.
Workman, William B. (1973). Prehistory of the Aishihik-Klulane Area,
Southwest Yukon Territory. National Museum of Man, Mercury
Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper, No. 74. Ottawa:
National Museum of Man.
Workman, William B. (1977). "Ahtna Archaeology: A Preliminary
Statement." In Problems in the Prehistory of the North Ameri-
can Subarctic: The Athapaskan Question, ed. J. W. Helmer,
S. Van Dyke, and F. J. Kense. Calgary: Archaeological Asso-
ciation, Department of Archaeology University of Calgary,
22-39.
DONALD CLARK
15 Ellery Crescent
Nepean, Ontario
Canada
Shield Archaic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 6000-3000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Late Paleo-Indian
tradition, precedes the Initial Shield Woodland tradi-
tion.
LOCATION: The eastern Subarctic regIOn of North
America.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRffiUTES: Shield Archaic sites are
characterized by three primary types of flaked stone
tools: scrapers, bifacial knives, and projectile points
(often side notched). Lancolate spear points, knives,
fishhooks, and other tools of raw hammered copper are
found in areas near copper sources, particularly north of
Lake Superior. There is a lack of the ground stone tools
generally found in Archaic sites farther south.
IMPORTANT SITES: Aberdeen, Migod, Montreal river.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Shield Archaic peoples lived in the vast boreal
forests and tundra lands of the postglacial Subarctic.
The climate was much like today, with harsh winters
and generally short and mild summers. The major
categories of flora were conifers in the forests and
lichens and mosses in tundra areas, although a great
diversity of other plants was also present. Fauna was
diverse as well, with caribou, moose, beaver, and bear
being primary big-game species.
Settlements
Shield Archaic settlements were small and short
term. Deeper deposits on some sites suggest annual or
seasonal reoccupation of prime locations. Sites tend to
be situated along rivers or lakes near caribou migration
routes, providing a location where a group could easily
remain for several days or weeks waiting for caribou to
pass. The remains of only a few Shield Archaic house
floors have been found. They tend to be oval, sometimes
semisubterranean, and roughly 4 m in diameter. They
probably supported a light framework of poles covered
by skin or bark.
Economy
Caribou and fish formed the foundation of the
Shield Archaic economy. Although moose, beaver,
rabbit, and other animals were actively hunted, caribou
was the primary game animal. Families followed
migrating herds and camped along migration routes in
a seasonal round of hunting and gathering. When
179
180 Shield Archaic
caribou were not present, fish was the dietary staple.
Berries and other collected plant foods would have
supplemented this largely meat diet.
Hunting was done with spears armed by large, well-
made points flaked from locally available rhyolite and
quartzite. Lancolate and side-notched forms predomi-
nate in the projectile point assemblage. Bifacially flaked
knives and large raw flakes were used to butcher the
animals, and the skins were processed by using large
flaked scrapers. In areas near copper sources, especially
along the north coast of Lake Superior, hammered
copper projectile points and knives were used in
addition to flaked stone. Fishing was probably done
with wooden or bone spears and with nets, but these
have not been preserved, although grooved stones that
appear to be net sinkers have been found on Shield
Archaic sites. Copper fishhooks and fishing spears were
used, and the remains of fish weirs have been suggested
to date to the Shield Archaic period. As water travel was
essential to movement through the Canadian Shield,
bark canoes were almost certainly used by the Shield
Archaic peoples, but again, these have not been
preserved, nor have the sleds or snowshoes that must
have been necessary for winter travel.
Sociopolitical Organization
Although there is no solid evidence, it is very likely
that the Shield Archaic peoples were organized into
small, acephalous bands or simple family groups that
wandered seasonally through loosely defined territories.
These groups may have come together into larger
summer encampments, as historic residents of the
Canadian Shield did, but there is no solid archaeological
evidence to support this idea.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Many Shield Archaic graves contain abundant grave
goods and red ocher, which suggest Shield Archaic
peoples had formal burial rituals.
Suggested Readings
Buchner, A. P. (1979). "The Shield Archaic: A Review." Manitoba
Archaeological Quarterly 3 (2): 2-1l.
Gordon, Bryan H. C. (1976). Migod: 8000 Years of Barren/and
Prehistory. Mercury Series 56. National Museum of Man.
Knight, Dean H. (1977). "The Montreal River and the Shield
Archaic." Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto.
Wright, James V. (1995). A History of the Native People of Canada,
Vol. 1. Mercury Series 152. Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Wright, James V. (1972). The Aberdeen Site, Keewatin District, N. W.T.
Mercury Series 2. National Museum of Man.
Wright, James V. (1972). The Shield Archaic. Publications in Archaeo-
logy, 3. National Museum of Man.
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 42,000-28,000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows Siberian Mousterian
tradition, precedes Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic
tradition.
LOCATION: Southern Siberia, from Altai mountains to
Transbaikal between about 50° and 55° N latitude.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRmUTES: Parallel and subpris-
matic core and blade technology, unifacial points on
blades, angle burins on blades, and end scrapers on
blades are the major diagnostic cultural remains of the
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. Diagnostic hominid
fossils are absent.
IMPORTANT SITES: Kara-Bom, Makarovo-4, Malaia Syia,
Tolbaga, Ust'-Karakol, Varvarina Gora.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic spans the
middle period of the Upper Pleistocene, a time of
significant warming regionally referred to as the Karga
Interglacial. The Karga is divided into the following
episodes: Early interstadial (50,000-45,000 B.P.), Early
stadial (45,000-43,000 B.P.), Malokheta interstadial
(43,000-33,000 B.P.), Konoshchel'e stadial (33,000-
30,000 B.P.), and Lipovsko-Novoselovo interstadial
(30,000-25,000 B.P.). The Early Upper Paleolithic ap-
peared during the Malokheta interstadial, when south-
ern Siberian climate was nearly as warm as today. This
was followed by a brief "cold snap" between 33,000-
30,000 B.P., then a return to relatively warm conditions
(but not as warm as before), and, finally, gradual onset
of full glacial conditions after 30,000 B.P.
Topography. Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic sites
occur in the mountainous zone of southern Siberia,
between about 50° and 55° N latitude. Most sites occur
in areas of high vertical relief-the mountains and
northern foothills of the Altai, Saian, and Transbaikal
ranges.
Geology. Most Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic sites
are found in the open. The typical geomorphic context
of these sites is in colluvial terrace-like ledges high on the
sides of open river valleys. Artifact-bearing geological
strata are often dense and thick, suggesting either
repeated or long-term occupations. Lithic raw materials
are typically microcrystalline silicates of local origin.
Biota. During the warm interstades of the Karga
Interglacial, Southern Siberian environments were sim-
ilar to those of today. Mountain tops were ice free and
mantled by alpine tundra, whereas mountain slopes and
181
182 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic
foothills were covered by open forests dominated by
pine and sometimes birch, with an understory of grasses
and herbs. Valley bottoms were mantled by open
meadow steppe. These varied vegetation zones supported
diverse mammal communities. Subarctic and Arctic
Siberia was probably blanketed by a dense boreal forest,
one that was relatively unproductive for humans, with
terrestrial fauna being characterized by moose and
woodland caribou that were difficult to access.
Settlements
Settlement System. Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic
sites can be grouped into three types: large open sites
with extensive accumulations of artifacts, ecofacts, and
features (for example, Kara-Bom, Tolbaga, Varvarina
Gora); small open sites with distinct features and work
areas (Ust'-Karakol, Makarovo-4); and ephemeral cave
occupations with small assemblages and no features
(Denisova cave, Maloialomanskaia cave). The first site
type is most common. These were probably repeatedly
occupied base camps, whereas the other site types were
probably short-term campsites occupied only once or on
several occasions. Perhaps these were connected through
a base camp-spike camp settlement system.
Community Organization. Most Siberian Early Up-
per Paleolithic sites display some internal spatial
order-large sites are replete with lined hearths, storage
pits, and stone rings representing dwellings, whereas
small sites typically have unlined hearths and distinct
work areas.
Housing. Features interpreted as dwellings have been
found at Tolbaga. Given that this site has been par-
tially deformed by soil creep and solifluction, it is not
possible to reconstruct their original forms; however,
their outlines appear to have been marked with large
plates of stone, and they contained dense concentrations
of lithic and faunal debris, multiple hearth features, and
occasionally storage pits.
Population, Health, and Disease. Early Upper Paleo-
lithic populations probably existed as small hunter-
gatherer bands, consisting of less than 50 individuals,
given the relatively small size of their sites. A few
hominid teeth have been found at Malaia Syia and
Maloialomansksaia cave, and although these have not
been presented in detail, preliminary reports suggest
they are modern. Better preserved remains are needed,
however, to ascertain whether the Siberian Early Upper
Paleolithic represents an anatomically modern human
population.
Economy
Subsistence. Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic humans
appear to have been generalized hunters who relied
heavily on large-bodied and medium-bodied prey. In
every faunal assemblage that has been extensively
studied, 10 or more prey species occur, and no single
species dominates. At Varvarina Gora, horse, Mongo-
lian gazelle, argali sheep, and woolly rhinoceros are
almost equally represented, and at Malaia Syia, rein-
deer, steppe bison, and Siberian mountain goat occur in
comparable numbers. There is no evidence of fishing,
collecting freshwater shellfish from lakes, or gathering
wild plants.
Industrial Arts. Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic lithic
industries are based primarily on the manufacture of
blades from parallel and subprismatic cores. Lithic raw
materials are overwhelmingly from local sources. Tools
were predominantly retouched unifacially (although in
nearly every assemblage several bifacially worked im-
plements occur). In addition, the Early Upper Paleo-
lithic is characterized by the earliest known osseous
technologies yet found in Siberia.
Utensils. Lithic tool assemblages include retouched
blades, unifacial points from blades, end scrapers,
burins, gravers, side scrapers, denticulates, notches,
and knives. Many retouched blades display ventral
retouch on their proximal ends. Points were made from
blades and secondarily retouched dorsally to form
symmetrical tips. The majority of end scrapers are
elongate and manufactured from blades; however,
carinated and circular forms from flakes also occur.
Burins are almost exclusively angle and double-angle
burins made from blades. Side scrapers are also com-
mon, were usually manufactured from large flakes or
blades, and display steep, invasive retouch. Osseous
tools include four antler points and two antler billets
from Malaia Syia, a spatulate-shaped billet from Varv-
arina Gora, and several bone awls and needles and a
slotted horse rib from Tolbaga.
Ornaments. Objects of personal ornamentation occur
but are rare. A single pendant with a biconically drilled
hole on a red deer canine was found at Maloialomans-
kaia cave, and in the late 1800s several incised pendants
or art objects were found at Voennyi Gospital.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Arts. Alleged items of mobiliary art include a woolly
rhinoceros vertebra from Tolbaga, which resembles a
 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic 183

bear's head (microscopic use-wear analyses have re- Pozdnem Antropogene [Natural Environments and Ancient Man in
vealed traces of polishing and a series of incisions Late Anthropogene). Ulan-Ude: Nauka, 109-121.
forming facial features) and a series of stone artifacts
from Malaia Syia, which, according to Larichev et al. SITES
(1988), were purposefully flaked to resemble woolly
mammoths, tortoises, and eagles. However, the desig- Kara-Bom
nation of these lithics as works of art is debatable.
TIME PERIOD: 60,000-25,000 B.P.
Suggested Readings
Near the village of Elo in Gorno-Altai
LOCATION:
Abramova, Z. A. (1989). "Paleolit Severnoi Azii [Paleolithic of
Northern Asia]." In Paleolit Kavkaza i Severnoi Azii [Paleolithic of
Autonomous Oblast', Russia (Siberia).
Caucasus and Northern Asia), Leningrad: Nauka, 143-243.
Bazarov, D.-D. B., M. V. Konstantinov, A. B. Imetkhenov, L. D.
Bazarova, and V. V. Savinova (1982). Geologiia i Kul'tura Drevnikh
Poselenii Zapadnogo Zabaikal'ia [Geology and Culture of Ancient DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Settlements of Western Transbaikal). Ulan-Ude: Nauka.
Derev'anko, A. P. (1998). The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries Local Environment
and Interpretations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Derevianko, A. P., I. V. Grichan, M. I. Dergacheva, A. N. Zenin, Kara-Bom is located in a broad upland river valley
S. A. Laukhin, G. M. Levkovskaia, A. M. Maloletko, S. V. Markin, amid the Altai mountains of Southwest Siberia. The site
V. I. Molodin, N. D. Ovodov, V. T. Petrin, and M. V. Shun'kkov
(1990). Arkheologiia i Paleoekologiia Paleolita Gornogo Altaia
is surrounded by open forest-steppe vegetation (Goebel
[Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Paleolithic of the Mountainous et al. 1993).
Altai) Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Derevianko, A. P., S. V. Markin, and S. A. Vasil'ev (1994). Paleo-
litovedenie: Vvedenie i Osnovy [Paleolithic Affairs: Introduction and Physical Features
Principles). Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Goebel, T. (1993). The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in
Kara-Bom is an open site situated on a colluvial
Siberia. Ph.D. diss., University of Alaska, Fairbanks. talus cone at the base of a steep bedrock cliff overlook-
Goebel, T., A. P. Derevianko, and V. T. Petrin (1993) "Dating the ing the confluence of two small tributaries of the Ursul
Middle-to-Upper-Paleolithic Transition at Kara-Bom." Current river. The site is well stratified, and Paleolithic cultural
Anthropology 34 (4): 452-458. components occur in a clearly defined stratigraphic
Kirillov, I. I. (1987). "Tolbaginskaia paleoliticheskaia kul'tura Zabai-
kal'ia i ee korreliatsiia s kul'turami sopredel'nykh territorii [Tolbaga
sequence. Sediments reach 5 m thick and have been
Paleolithic culture of the Transbaikal and its correlation with divided into six geologic levels, for the most part sandy
cultures of surrounding territories)." In Drevnosti Sibiri Dal'nego loams with angular scree. Three humic bands in the
Vostoka [Antiquities of Siberia and the Far East). Novosibirsk: profile apparently represent warm intervals of the mid-
Nauka, 68-73. Upper Pleistocene. Two stratigraphically distinct Mid-
Konstantinov, M. V. (1994). Kamennyi Vek Vostochnogo Regiona
Baikafskoi Azii [Stone Age of the Eastern Region of Baikal Asia).
dle Paleolithic components are associated with infinite
Ulan-Ude and Chita: Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian accelerator radiocarbon determinations and probably
Division. date to the period from 60,000-42,000 B.P. Based on
Larichev, V. E., U. Khol'ushkin, and I. Laricheva (1988). "The Upper accelerator radiocarbon determinations on charcoal
Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Perspec- from hearth features, Early Upper Paleolithic occupa-
tives. I: Western Siberia." Journal of World Prehistory 2: 359-396.
Larichev, V. E., U. Khol'ushkin, and I. Laricheva (1990). "The Upper
tion layers (of which there are at least four) range from
Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Per- 43,300-31,000 B.P. (Goebel et al. 1993). Kara-Bom has a
spectives, II: Central and Eastern Siberia." Journal of World spring that was probably a source of water for hominids
Prehistory 4: 347-385. during the mid-Upper Pleistocene (Okladnikov 1983).
Okladnikov, A. P., and I. I. Kirillov (1980). Iugo- Vostochnoe Zabai-
kal'e v Epokhu Kamnia i Rennei Bronzy [South-eastern Transbaikal in
Stone and Early Bronze Ages). Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Cultural Aspects
Tseitlin, S. M. (1979). Geologiia Paleolita Severnoi Azii [Geology of the
Paleolithic of Northern Asia]. Moscow: Nauka. Kara-Bom is one of the only known Siberian sites
Vasil'ev, S. A. (1993). "The Upper Palaeolithic of Northern Asia."
that contains multiple Middle and Early Upper Paleo-
Current Anthropology 34: 82-92.
Vasil'ev, S. G., O. V. Kuznetsov, and M. N. Meshcherin (1987). lithic occupations in stratigraphic succession (Goebel
"Poselenie Tolbaga (novyi etap issledovanii) [The settlement Tolbaga et al. 1993). Middle Paleolithic industries are Levallois
(new phase of research»)." In Prirodnaia Sreda i Drevnii Chelovek v in character, and tool assemblages contain Mousterian
184 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic
points, side scrapers, denticulates, notches, and knives.
Overlying Early Upper Paleolithic industries are tech-
nologically and typologically distinct. Primary reduction
techniques focused on production of blades; blade cores
include parallel ("flat-faced") and subprismatic forms.
Among the tools are retouched blades, points from
blades, end scrapers, angle burins, bifaces, side scrapers,
denticulates, and notches. Faunal remains, although not
studied in detail, include woolly rhinoceros, horse,
Kiakhta antelope, yak, argali sheep, marmot, hare,
wolf, and hyena (Derev'anko 1998; Goebel et al. 1993).
The site most likely served as a lithic workshop and base
camp for Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic hunters.
References
Derev'anko, A. P. (1998). The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries
and Interpretations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Goebel, T., A. P. Derevianko, and V. T. Petrin (1993). "Dating the
Middle-to-Upper-Paleolithic Transition at Kara-Bom." Current
Anthropology 34 (4): 452-458.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1983). "Paleoliticheskaia stoianka Kara-Bom v
Gornom Altae (po materialam raskopok 1980 goda) [paleolithic site
Kara-Bom in mountainous Altai (according to material of 1980
excavations)]." In Paleolit Sibiri [Paleolithic of Siberia], Novosib-
irsk: Nauka, 5-20.
Tolbaga
TIME PERIOD: 35,000-27,000 B.P.
LOCATION: Near the town of Novopavlovka in Chita
Oblast', Russia (Siberia).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Tolbaga is located along the Khilok river in the
Central Transbaikal. Local vegetation is mixed, with
open steppe on valley floor and taiga (boreal forest) in
higher elevation areas.
Physical Features
Tolbaga is an open site that lies near the top of
a high hill slope, 35 m above the Khilok floodplain.
Site sediments are primarily sandy loams with varying
amounts of scree, most likely colluvial in origin
(Bazarov et al. 1982). The single cultural component,
situated about 1 m below the modern surface, has been
radiocarbon dated between about 35,000-27,000 B.P.
(Konstantinov 1994). Although excavations have un-
covered numerous artifacts, ecofacts, and features,
much of the original Paleolithic "living floor" has been
deformed by geologic processes like soil creep and
solifluction (Vasil'ev et al. 1987). Slope deformation of
this sort is common among Upper Paleolithic sites in the
Transbaikal.
Cultural Aspects
Tolbaga is the type site of the "Tolbaginskaia
Culture", a regional manifestation of the Siberian Early
Upper Paleolithic. Large-scale excavations during the
last three decades have produced a lithic assemblage of
well over 10,000 pieces, including about 200 cores and
1100 tools. The lithic industry is characterized by blades
detached from flat-faced and subprismatic blade cores,
as well as a variety of retouching techniques including
unifacial, bifacial, burin, and backing technologies. In
addition, Tolbaga contains many bipolar cores, some
manufactured from small cobbles, others from thick
blades. Stone tools include retouched blades and flakes,
end scrapers, unifacial points from blades, gravers,
burins, side scrapers, notches, hammer stones, and anvil
stones. Bone artifacts include a slotted horse rib pre-
sumably used as a tool handle, three polished needle
fragments, two small pendants, and a woolly rhinoceros
vertebra cut and polished into the form of a bear's head
(Vasil'ev et al. 1987). Excavations also revealed dis-
turbed remains of seven dwelling structures. These
features typically were oval in shape, 6-12 m in dia-
meter, and outlined by large gneiss plates lying flat on
the ground. Other features include stone-lined and un-
lined hearths, as well as three storage pits (one of which
contained a set of horse bones) (Bazarov et al. 1982;
Vasil'ev et al. 1987). Megafaunal remains from Tolbaga
are predominantly steppe species, with horse, woolly
rhinoceros, Kiakhta antelope, Mongolian gazelle, and
argali sheep being most common. The site most likely
served as a residential base camp and may have been
repeatedly occupied by Early Upper Paleolithic hunters
over many thousands of years, as suggested by the
extensive debris concentrations and 8000-year-span
represented in the radiocarbon chronology of the site.
References
Bazarov, D.-D. B., M. V. Konstantinov, A. B. Imetkhenov, L. D.
Bazarova, and V. V. Savinova (1982). Geologiia i Kul'tura Drevnikh
 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic 185

Poselenii Zapadnogo Zabaikal'ia [Geology and Culture of Ancient Pozdnem Antropogene [Environmental Condition and Ancient Man in
Settlements of Western Transbaikal]. Ulan-Ude: Nauka. Late Anthropogene]. Ulan-Ude: Nauka, 109-121.
Konstantinov, M. V. (1994). Kamennyi Vek Vostochnogo Regiona
Baikal'skoi Azii [Stone Age of Eastern Region of Baikal Asia]. TED GOEBEL
Ulan-Ude and Chita: Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Department of Anthropology
Division.
Vasil'ev, S. G., O. V. Kuznetsov, and M. N. Meshcherin (1987). University of Nevada
"Poselenie Tolbaga (novyi etap issledovanii) [Settlement Tolbaga Las Vegas, Nevada
(new stage of research)]." In Prirodnaia Sreda i Drevnii Chelovek v United States
 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 19,000-10,000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows Siberian Middle Upper
Paleolithic tradition, precedes Siberian Neolithic tradi-
tion.
LOCATION: Southern and Subarctic Siberia, from Ob'
river basin to Transbaikal between about 50° and 60 0 N
latitude.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRmUTES: Wedge-shaped core
and microb1ade technology, slotted antler and bone
points, transverse burins, small end scrapers, and large
side scrapers are the major diagnostic cultural remains
of the Late Upper Paleolithic. Diagnostic hominid
fossils are anatomically modern.
Chernoozer'e, Kokorevo, Maininskaia,
IMPORTANT SITES:
Novoselovo, Sosnovyi Bor, Studenoe.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic spans the
late glacial period, immediately following the last glacial
maximum up to the end of the Pleistocene, about
17,000-11,000 B.P. Climate generally warmed during
186
this period, but through a series of relatively short
stadials and interstadials, including an early inter-
stadial (16,000-15,000 B.P.), N'iapan stadial (15,000-
12,700 B.P.), Kokorevo interstadial (12,700-12,200 B.P.),
later stadial (12,200-12,000 B.P.), Taimyr intersta-
dial (12,000-10,800 B.P.), and Noril'sk stadial (10,800-
10,300 B.P.). During the major stadials of the late glacial
(i.e., the N'iapan and Noril'sk), glaciers expanded
briefly in the Southern Siberian mountains, and during
major interstadials, soils formed in the Ob', Yenisei, and
Baikal regions.
Topography. Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic sites occur
in the mountainous zone of Southern Siberia, between
about 50° and 55°N latitude, as well as farther north on
the West Siberian plain and Central Siberian plateau,
between about 55° and 65°N latitude. Physiographically
these northern sites are characterized by flatter, more
featureless terrain than Southern Siberia.
Geology. Most Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic sites are
found in the open. Typically these sites occur in alluvial
or colluvial terrace deposits along major river valleys,
but there are exceptions. Sosnovyi Bor and Chernoo-
zer'e II, for example, are multilayered sites that are
situated in fossil sand dunes. Most Late Upper Paleo-
lithic sites show signs of cryoturbation, especially frost
cracks and small ice-wedge pseudomorphs that formed
during the colder stades of the late glacial.

Biota. Early in the late glacial, Siberian vegetation was
characterized by open tundra-steppe. Woody plants
became more common as the Holocene approached, so
that by the end of the period the tundra-steppe had been
broken down and replaced entirely by modern boreal
forest vegetation. Some large herbivores of the Siberian
tundra-steppe appear to have gone extinct relatively
early in the late glacial-woolly rhinoceros by 18,000 B.P.
and woolly mammoth by 13,000 B.P. Bison, red deer, and
reindeer, however, persisted into the Holocene.
Settlements
Settlement System. Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic sites
display a high degree of uniformity in terms of their
location on the landscape and duration of occupation.
Nearly all are situated on terrace edges in finely stratified
alluvial or aeolian deposits. They are characterized by
limited amounts of cultural debris dispersed over small
areas, suggesting that they represent short-term camps
(occupied for weeks or months) of highly mobile
foraging groups. Many of the Siberian Late Upper
Paleolithic sites contain multiple cultural layers or loci,
indicating repeated use of the same places to procure
seasonal resources (i.e., migrating reindeer, waterfowl).
Community Organization. Large-scale excavations have
been conducted at many Late Upper Paleolithic sites,
exposing entire living floors with preserved features and
artifact concentrations. Afontova and Kokorevo sites in
the upper Yenisei basin typically have small hearths and
associated debris accumulations (artifacts and faunal
remains); however, dwelling features and storage pits are
rare. At some of these sites, discernible activity areas
have been identified. For example, excavations at
Kokorevo I (Layer 2) revealed separate lithic workshop
and possible hide-working (with stone perforators and
bone awls and needles) areas associated with a dug-out,
stone-lined hearth. Similarly, Late Upper Paleolithic
sites in the Transbaikal, like Ust'-Menza and Studenoe,
have extensive dwelling complexes, hearths, and work
areas.
Housing. Late Upper Paleolithic dwelling features are
not that common in the Ob', Yenisei, and Angara
regions of Southern Siberia. When they do occur,
however, they appear to represent light surface huts.
They are typically defined by the following characteris-
tics: central hearths, oval-shaped concentrations of
cultural debris (3-5 m in diameter), ash-stained living
floors less than 1 cm thick, and occasionally outlines
marked by large stones. Dwelling features are much
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic 187
more common in the Transbaikal sites (U st' -Menza,
Studenoe, Kosaia Shivera). They display circular to elon-
gate oval stone rings 4--5 m in diameter with central
stone-lined hearths and thin (typically less than 1 cm)
archaeological floors that have a small scattering of
cultural debris. These were surface huts that appear to
have been occupied for very short periods before they
were buried and preserved by overbank flood deposits.
Population, Health, and Disease. Hominid remains dat-
ing to the Late Upper Paleolithic have been found at
Afontova Gora II and Novoselovo VI. The remains
from Afontova Gora II were found during excavations
in the early 1900, and consist of a humerus, radius, ulna,
and phalanx from a modern human adult and an upper
premolar from a modern human juvenile. A few decades
later, a frontal cranial fragment of a juvenile modern
human was found eroding from the exposed strati-
graphic profile of the site. Paleo anthropologists who
have studied these remains consider them to bear
"Mongoloid" characteristics. The Novoselovo VI fossil
is a fragment of a mandible presumed to have come
from a modern human female.
Economy
Subsistence. Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic popula-
tions were hunter gatherers. Few edible plant foods
would have been available on the late glacial tundra-
steppe, so that hunting had to have been the primary
means of subsistence. In most faunal assemblages, a
single mammal species dominates. At the Yenisei sites of
Novoselovo VI and Novoselovo VII, reindeer bones
make up about 98% of the faunal assemblages. Simi-
larly, each cultural layer at Maininskaia (also in the
Yenisei basin) is dominated by a single species, either
bison, red deer, or Siberian mountain goat, and sites in
the Transbaikal are typically dominated by red deer.
Other recurring species include roe deer, argali sheep,
wolf (or dog), polar fox, red fox, wolverine, and hare.
Significantly, woolly mammoth remains are rare, often
showing up in assemblages as possibly scavenged ivory.
Only two Late Upper Paleolithic sites, Kokorevo II and
Afontova Gora II, appear to have remains of killed and
butchered mammoth. Birds occur in several sites, but
fish remains do not appear until the end of the Late
Upper Paleolithic, after 12,000 B.P., in sites like Oshur-
kovo, Ust'-Belaia, and Ust'-Kiakhta-17.
Industrial Arts. Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic lithic
industries are characterized by microblades detached
from either wedge-shaped cores or small end cores.
188 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic
Subprismatic blade core, simply prepared flake core, and
bipolar core technologies also occur. Raw materials are
commonly microcrystalline silicates, presumably from
local sources, but sourcing studies have not been con-
ducted. Stone tools were typically retouched using unifa-
cial or burin techniques, whereas bifacial technologies
were typically employed only in the preparation of wedge-
shaped microblade cores. Bone, antler, and ivory tech-
nologies are also common. Osseous points were slotted
along one or both margins, presumably with a burin or
sharp flake, and microblades were inset in the slots.
Utensils. Lithic tool assemblages include retouched
microblades, blades, and flakes, as well as burins (most
often occurring in the form of transverse burins), large
side scrapers (skreblos), end scrapers made from small
blades or round flakes, and gravers. Osseous tools
include slotted points (discussed above), awls, and
needles, as well as occasional retouchers or billets.
Ornaments. Nonutilitarian objects in the Late Upper
Paleolithic include beads and pendants (many made
from animal teeth), as well as occasional ivory disks
with incisions, which are probably pendant preforms.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Arts. Works of art are rare in the Siberian Late Upper
Paleolithic. There are cases of slotted points and awls
with incised designs from several sites and a clay human
statuette from Maininskaia. Also, Ignatevskaia cave,
located in the Southern Urals, has mammoth, horse, and
human pictographs preserved on its walls.
Suggested Readings
Abramova, Z. A. (1979). Paleolit Eniseia: Afontovskaia Kul'tura
[Paleolithic of the Yenisei: Afontova Culture]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Abramova, Z. A. (1979). Paleolit Eniseia: Kokorevskaia Kul'tura
[Paleolithic of the Yenisei: Kokorevo Culture]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Abramova, Z. A. (1989). "Paleolit Severnoi Azii [paleolithic
of Northern Asia]." In Paleolit Kavkaza i Severnoi Azii [Paleo-
lithic of Caucasus and Northern Asia], Leningrad: Nauka,
143-243.
Abramova, Z. A. (1995). L 'Art Paleolithique d' Europe Orientale et de
Siberie [Paleolithic Art of Eastern Europe and Siberia]. Grenoble:
Jerome Millon.
Abramova, Z. A., S. N. Astakhov, N. M. Ermolova, and N. F.
Lisitsyn (1991). Paleolit Eniseia [Paleolithic of the Yenisel], Lenin-
grad: Nauka.
Derev'anko, A. P. (1998). The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries
and Interpretations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Derevianko, A. P., S. V. Markin, and S. A. Vasil'ev (1994). Paleo-
Iitovedenie: Vvedenie i Osnovy [Paleolithic Affairs: Introduction and
Principles]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Konstantinov, M. V. (1994). Kamennyi Vek Vostochnogo Regi-
ona Baikal'skoi Azii [Stone Age of Eastern Region of Baikal Asia].
Ulan-Ude and Chita: Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian
Division.
Larichev, V. E., U. Khol'ushkin, and I. Laricheva (1988). "The
Upper Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements, Problems, and
Perspectives, I: Western Siberia." Journal of World Prehistory 2:
359-396.
Larichev, V. E., U. Khol'ushkin, and I. Laricheva (1990). "The Upper
Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Per-
spectives, II: Central and Eastern Siberia." Journal of World
Prehistory 4: 347-385.
Tseitlin, S. M. (1979). Geologiia Paleolita Severnoi Azii [Geology of
the Paleolithic of Northern Asia]. Moscow: Nauka.
Vasil'ev, S. A. (1992). "The Late Paleolithic of the Yenisei: A New
Outline." Journal of World Prehistory 6: 337-383.
Vasil'ev, S. A. (1993). "The Upper Paleolithic of Northern Asia."
Current Anthropology 3: 482-92.
SITES
Chernoozer' e
TIME PERIOD: 13,000-10,000 B.P.
LOCATION: At the edge of the village of Chernoozer'e,
140 km north of Omsk, in Omsk Oblast', Russia
(Siberia).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Chernoozer'e II is located in the broad Irtysh river
valley, in the center of the southern basin of the West
Siberian plain. The site is surrounded by forest-steppe
vegetation.
Physical Features
Chernoozer'e II is an open site contained in a
prominent sand dune deposit situated on top of the
second (11-12 m) terrace of the Irtysh river (Tseitlin
1979). Three cultural layers occur in the dune at depths
of 3-3.5 m below the modern surface (Gening and
Petrin 1985; Petrin 1986). Cultural layers are tied to thin
dark bands (0.5-1.5 cm thick) that may represent
preserved living floors, but these have been significantly
deformed by frost cracks that probably formed during a
cold snap at the very end of the Pleistocene. Although a
single radiocarbon date of 14,500 B.P. has been reported
for cultural layer 2, the site investigators (Petrin 1986;
Tseitlin 1979) consider the three cultural layers to be

younger, based on geological and paleontological evi-
dence. Cultural layer 1 is assigned to 11,000-lO,000 B.P.,
cultural layer 2 to 12,000-lO,800 B.P., and cultural layer
3 to just before 12,000 B.P.
Cultural Aspects
Chernoozer'e is one of only several Paleolithic sites
known from the southern West Siberian plain. Excava-
tions in 1968-1971 exposed an area of 2150 sq m,
resulting in a large set of artifacts and faunal remains
from the three cultural layers that are relatively similar
and therefore described together as one set (Petrin
1986). The lithic industry is represented by prismatic
core technology directed at the production of small
bladelets and microblades (wedge-shaped microblade
cores are absent). The tool assemblage includes a series
of small blade tools fashioned into gravers, knives,
wedges, and burins, as well as a set of end scrapers made
from small flakes (Gening and Petrin 1985; Petrin 1986).
Large side scrapers and cobble tools are rare. Osseous
technologies are also well represented in the assemblage
and include bone and antler awls, needles, and punches,
as well as a large bone "dagger" with incised decorations
and two lateral grooves complete with microblade insets
(Gening and Petrin 1985; Petrin 1986). Other bone
artifacts include a diadem fragment and several flat
triangular-shaped pendants. Associated faunal remains
include bones of moose, auroch, horse, saiga, beaver,
fox, and hare, as well as isolated bird bones and fish
bones and scales. Excavations uncovered a number of
discernible activity areas in each cultural layer; among
them are remains of surface dwellings, hearths, small
storage pits, buried tool caches, and lithic workshop
areas (Petrin 1986). The site appears to have been a
temporary hunting camp occupied on several occasions
during the latest Pleistocene. Given the appearance of
the Chernoozer'e artifact inventory, Petrin (1986) sug-
gested that the human occupants of the site were closely
tied to cultures in the southern and central Urals, as
opposed to the well-known Afontova-Kokorevo cul-
tures of the Yenisei basin, South-Central Siberia.
References
Gening, V. F., and V. T. Petrin (1985). Pozdnepaleoliticheskaia Epokha
na luge Zapadnoi Sibiri [Late Paleolithic Epoch in South West
Siberia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Petrin, V. T. (1986). Paleoliticheskie Pamiatniki Zapadno-Sibirskoi
Ravniny [Paleolithic Monuments of the West-Siberian Plain]. Novo-
sibirsk: Nauka.
Tseitiin, S. M. (1979). Geologiia Paleolita Severnoi Azii [Geology of the
Paleolithic of Northern Asia]. Moscow: Nauka.
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic 189
Kokorevo
TIMEPERIon: 17,000-12,000 B.P.
LOCATION: Near the town of Novoselovo in Krasnoiarsk
Krai, Russia (Siberia).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The Kokorevo sites are located along the left bank
of the Yenisei river in the northern foothills of the Saian
mountains. They are submerged under the Krasnoiarsk
reservoir (Abramova et al. 1991).
Physical Features
There are at least 14 recognized Paleolithic sites in
the Kokorevo vicinity (Abramo va et al. 1991). Among
these, five have yielded late Upper Paleolithic cultural
remains in well-stratified, datable contexts-Kokorevo
I, II, III, IVa, and IVb. Cultural layers are deeply buried
(from 1.5-6 m below the modern surface) in alluvial
and/or colluvial sediments of the second terrace of the
Yenisei river. Kokorevo II, III, and IVb have single
major Upper Paleolithic cultural layers that range in age
(according to radiocarbon determinations from hearth
charcoal) from about 15,500-12,700 B.P., whereas Ko-
korevo I and IVa have multiple cultural layers (six and
five, respectively) ranging from about 17,000-12,000 B.P.
(Abramova et al. 1991). Paleolithic "living floors" have
been cryoturbated by formation of frost cracks and
ice wedge pseudomorphs, as well as by solifluction
(Abramova 1979a, 1979b).
Cultural Aspects
The excavated Kokorevo sites document hunter-
gatherer adaptations to late glacial conditions in South-
Central Siberia, 17,000-12,000 B.P. These sites have been
assigned to the Afontova-Kokorevo cultures of the
Siberian late Upper Paleolithic, based on their age and
the character of their artifact assemblages (Abramova
1979a, 1979b). Lithic industries are characterized by
blade-, flake-, and microblade-producing technologies,
with most microblades being detached from wedge-
shaped cores or small end cores made from thick flakes
190 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic
(Abramova et al. 1991). Bipolar core technologies are
also common. Most tools show signs of unifacial re-
touch, whereas bifacial technologies are rare (typically
being employed only in the preparation of cores). Lithic
tool assemblages are characterized by large numbers of
side scrapers, end scrapers, pointed tools, burins, cobble
choppers, and utilized blades, flakes, and microblades.
Bone and antler points, awls, and needles are also
common, with many of the points being unilaterally
or bilaterally slotted for insertion of microblades
(Abramova 1979a, 1979b).
Stone and bone beads, pendants, and other items of
personal adornment recur, but art objects are exceed-
ingly rare (Abramova et al. 1991). Reindeer dominate
faunal assemblages; other species including horse, red
deer, roe deer, bison, hare, wolf (or dog), fox, birds, and
fish occur in lower frequencies (Abramova et al. 1991).
Excavations of the Kokorevo sites have exposed nu-
merous small activity areas represented by concentra-
tions oflithic and faunal debris centered on lined and/or
unlined hearth features filled with charcoal and ash
(Abramova et al. 1991). Perhaps these represent short-
term camps of hunter gatherers who focused on the
hunting of migrating reindeer during certain seasons of
the year.
References
Abramova, z. A. (1979a). Paleolit Eniseia: Afontovskaia Kul'tura
[Paleolithic of the Yenisei: Aftontova Culture]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Abramova, Z. A. (1979b). Paleolit Eniseia: Kokorevskaia Kul'tura
[Paleolithic of the Yenisei: Korkorevo Culture]. Novosibirsk:
Nauka.
Abramova, Z. A., S. N. Astakhov, S. A. Vasil'ev, N. M. Ermolova,
and N. F. Lisitsyn (1991). Paleolit Eniseia [Paleolithic of the Yenisel].
Leningrad: Nauka.
Studenoe
TIMEPERIon: 17,000-2000 B.P.
LOCATION: Near the village of Nizhnyi Narym in
Krasnyichikoi region, Chita Oblast', Russia (Siberia).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Studenoe is located in the narrow Chikoi river
valley, amid the Iablonovyi mountains of the Trans-
baikal. The site is surrounded by boreal forest vege-
tation in mountains grading into forest-steppe in
valleys.
Physical Features
There are two Paleolithic sites located at the
confluence of Studenoe creek and the Chikoi river-
Studenoe I and Studenoe II. Studenoe I is situated in
sediments of the first terrace, 5-6 m above the modern
floodplain (Bazarov et al. 1982). Terrace sediments are
characterized by three sets: river channel sands and
gravels at the base, overbank flood deposits (sands and
silts) reaching 2.5 m thick, and a cap of windblown
loess (Bazarov et al. 1982). Twenty-one stratigraphically
separate cultural layers have been identified from the
surface down to about 3 m; of these, the lowest six are
assigned to the final Paleolithic, the next four to the
Mesolithic, and the upper nine to the Neolithic and
Bronze Ages (Konstantinov 1996). The Paleolithic lay-
ers have been radiocarbon dated to between 13,000-
10,300 B.P. (Konstantinov 1996).
Studenoe II is located about 30 m southeast of
Studenoe I, in deposits assigned to the second, 9-m
terrace of the Chikoi river. Terrace sediments include
alluvial channel gravels at the base, followed by a set of
alluvial sands and silts reaching 3 m thick, mantled by
surface colluvium and the modern soil (Konstantinov
1996). At least five cultural layers have been discerned,
with the lower three (layers 5-3) being assigned to Late
Upper Paleolithic, Layer 2 to Mesolithic, and Layer 1 to
Bronze Age. Paleolithic layers range in age from 17,000-
12,000 B.P. Cultural layers are well preserved and
present themselves as "living floors" that have been
minimally cryoturbated (although there are signs of
deep frost cracking).
Cultural Aspects
Studenoe I was excavated from 1974 to 1987,
exposing more than 1000 sq m; excavations at Studenoe
II are ongoing (Konstantinov 1996). Late Upper
Paleolithic lithic assemblages from both sites are char-
acterized by wedge-shaped core and microblade tech-
nologies, as well as unifacial, bifacial, and burin
retouching techniques. Stone tools include end scrapers
made from small flakes, large side scrapers, transverse
burins, cobble choppers, and a few bifaces. Among the
bone artifacts is a slotted knife from Studenoe I and an
atl-atl-like artifact from Studenoe II. Faunal remains
 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic 191

include Baikal yak, bison, red deer, Siberian goat, References

and antelope (Konstantinov 1996). Both sites have
yielded an interesting series of well-preserved dwelling
features characterized by stone outlines, central stone-
lined hearths, and ashy floor stains typically less
than 1 cm thick and littered with small concentrations
of microdebitage, faunal remains, and stone tools.
These features probably represent small surface huts
occupied for relatively short periods, perhaps on the
order of weeks or months. The lowest cultural layers at
Studenoe II, radiocarbon dated to about 17,000 B.P.,
may contain some of the earliest known wedge-shaped
core and microblade industries yet found in Southern
Siberia.
Bazarov, D.-D. B., M. V. Konstantinov, and A. B. Imetkhenov (1982).
Geologiia i Kul'tura Drevnikh Poselenii Zapadnogo Zabaikal'ia
[Geology and Culture of Ancient Settlements of Western Transbai-
kal]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Konstantinov, M. V. (1996). Kamennyi Vek Vostochnogo Regiona
Baikal'skoi Azii [Stone Age of Eastern Region of Baikal Asia]. Ulan-
Ude Chita:-Izdatel'stvo ChOPI im. N.O. Chemyshevskogo.
TED GOEBEL
Department of Anthropology
University of Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
United States
 Siberian Middle Upper
Paleolithic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 25,000-19,000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows Siberian Early Upper
Paleolithic tradition, precedes Siberian Late Upper
Paleolithic tradition.
LOCATION: Southern and Subarctic Siberia, from the Ob'
river basin to Transbaikal between about 50° and 60 0 N
latitude.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Parallel and sub-
prismatic core and blade technology, small end scrap-
ers, canted gravers, ivory female statuettes and other
works of mobiliary art, and substantial semisubterra-
nean dwelling features are the major diagnostic cultural
remains of the Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic.
Diagnostic hominid fossils are anatomically modern.
IMPORTANT SITES:Achinsk, Buret', Kashtanka I, Mal'ta,
Sannyi Mys, Ust'-Kova.
192
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic spans
the period immediately preceding the last glacial max-
imum, about 25,000-19,000 B.P. This period is referred
to locally as the Gydan stadial. During this time, ice
sheets expanded across the Arctic ocean along the north
shore of Siberia, perhaps damming major rivers like
the lower Ob' and Yenisei. In the south, glaciers ex-
panded from the high Altai, Saian, and Transbaikal
mountains. Throughout most of ice-free Siberia, per-
mafrost became prevalent, and ice wedge polygons
formed across the landscape. In periglacial zones, for
example the upper Lena river basin, Arctic desert-like
conditions prevailed, with high winds deflating loess
deposits and sandblasting exposed terrace surfaces. In
the Transbaikal, Southern Angara, and Southern Yen-
isei regions, conditions were less severe, although still
cold and windswept during full glacial times.
Topography. Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic sites
occur in the mountainous zone of Southern Siberia,
between about 50° and 55°N latitude, as well as farther

north on the West Siberian plain and Central Siberian
plateau, between about 55° and 600 N latitude. Phy-
siographically these areas of Subarctic Siberia are
characterized by flatter, more featureless terrain than
Southern Siberia.
Geology. Most Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic
sites are found in the open. Typically these sites occur
in alluvial or colluvial terrace deposits along major
river valleys and are often associated with a fossil soil
that formed during a relatively warm interval (i.e.,
the Lipovsko-Novoselovo interstadial) just before the
Gydan stade. The Mal'ta and Buret' sites, for example,
occur in the third terrace of the Belaia-Angara river
system, and both have cultural layers lying just above
the Lipovsko-Novoselovo soil. Given that these sites
formed during glacial conditions, it is not surprising that
their cultural occupations have been in some cases ex-
tensively cryoturbated through the formation of frost
cracks and ice wedge pseudomorphs, as well as through
solifluction processes. The U st' -Kova and Igeteiskii Log
sites have been deformed by such processes to the extent
that their cultural remains are considered to be in
secondary contexts, if not secondary sites.
Biota. During the Gydan stadial, Siberian vegetation
was characterized by an open tundra-steppe. Woody
plants became rare as full glacial conditions approached,
so that their distribution may have limited human
settlement during the last glacial maximum. Nonethe-
less, the Siberian tundra-steppe appears to have sup-
ported many large-bodied herd animals, including
woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison,
reindeer, and horse.
Settlements
Settlement System. Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic
sites are variable in size and function. Mal'ta, Buret',
Sannyi Mys, and Achinsk are large sites with substantial
dwellings and other features. These may represent
permanent settlements occupied for many years. Kash-
tanka I and Kunalei are smaller in size and are thought
to have been short-term, seasonal hunting camps,
whereas Tomsk and perhaps Tarachikha were special-
task sites where woolly mammoths were killed and
butchered. These different site types were probably
connected through a complex settlement strategy in
which large base camps were connected to smaller
activity-specific camps and resource extraction sites,
with resources being transported from the smaller to the
larger, more permanent camps.
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic 193
Community Organization. Siberian Middle Upper Pa-
leolithic sites typically have clearly defined features and
activity areas. Large sites have substantial dwelling
features, as well as lined hearths, storage pits, and lithic
workshop areas. The Mal'ta site also yielded a human
burial pit situated under the floor of a dwelling. Small
sites typically have one or two unlined hearths associ-
ated with small concentrations of cultural debris.
Housing. Dwelling features have been found at five
sites: Mal'ta, Buret', Sannyi Mys, Chitkan, and
Achinsk. In each case, these were substantial dwellings,
typically round to oval in shape, with outlines marked
by large slabs of rock or cobbles, with the exception of
the Achinsk dwelling, which reportedly was lined with
mammoth bone. The typical Mal'ta/Buret' hut was
semisubterranean, had a centrally positioned hearth,
and was covered with a roof (made out of hides?) that
was battened down with hundreds of interwoven racks
of reindeer antler. The Sannyi Mys dwelling had an
elongate oval form (8 m by 4 m), three unlined hearths,
and a storage pit filled with woolly rhinoceros and
antelope bones. This structure appears to have been
constructed on the surface of the ground. The Chitkan
dwelling was incomplete, with only a partial ring of
stones enclosing a hearth and thin living floor.
Population, Health, and Disease. It is difficult to esti-
mate the size of Middle Upper Paleolithic communities
because it is not clear whether the multiple dwellings at
sites like Mal'ta were occupied simultaneously. Group
size, though, was probably much fewer than 100 in-
dividuals. Hominid remains dating to the Middle Up-
per Paleolithic have been found only at the Mal'ta site.
These include the remains of two juvenile modern hu-
mans found together in the same burial pit. They are
represented by fragmented cranial, dental, and postcra-
nial remains. Studies of the teeth and skeletons suggest
that they died at the ages of about 3-4 years and 1 year.
Furthermore, signs of hypoplasia are evident on the
teeth of both individuals, suggesting they suffered from
malnutrition before death.
Economy
Subsistence. Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic popula-
tions were hunter gatherers. Few edible plant foods
would have been available on the full glacial tundra-
steppe, so that hunting had to have been the primary
means of subsistence. Faunal assemblages vary by site
type. On the one hand, the larger base camp sites have
produced an array of faunal species, including large
194 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic
mammals (woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, bison,
reindeer, horse, red deer), small mammals (hare),
furbearers (Arctic fox, red fox, wolverine), and even
birds (goose, gull, grouse, ptarmigan, crow). On the
other hand, the smaller spike camps are characterized by
very high proportions of a single species. For example,
at Kashtanka I, reindeer dominates the faunal assem-
blage, and at Tarachikha, woolly mammoth dominates.
Mal'ta and Buret' have an inordinate amount of
reindeer antlers, but these were probably scavenged for
use in the construction of houses.
Industrial Arts. Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic lithic
industries are characterized by subprismatic core and
blade as well as core and flake technologies. Some
assemblages are dominated by bladelets removed from
small prismatic cores; however, wedge-shaped cores and
microblades are absent. Raw materials are commonly
microcrystalline silicates, some obviously procured from
local sources, and others from more exotic sources. At
the Angara valley sites like Mal'ta and Ust'-Kova, there
is evidence of scarcity-induced raw material economiz-
ing behavior, including the use of the block-on-block
anvil technique to reduce small siliceous nodules, the
recycling of wind-polished artifacts presumably col-
lected from exposed surfaces on nearby high terraces,
and the use of ivory to make simple flaked implements.
Most stone tools were retouched unifacially, but bifacial
tools do occur in some assemblages (e.g., Kashtanka I,
Tarachikha, Ust'-Kova). Bone, antler, and ivory tech-
nologies are also common.
Utensils. Lithic tool assemblages include retouched
blades, small end scrapers, side scrapers, canted gravers,
oval and lanceolate bifaces (some perhaps used as
projectile points), and angle and dihedral burins. Osse-
ous tools include bone awls and needles.
Ornaments. Nonutilitarian objects are prevalent in the
Middle Upper Paleolithic. For example, several flat
stone beads and tooth pendants have been found at
Ust'-Kova, and countless beads, pendants, and badges
were recovered in the early excavations at Mal'ta, some
associated with the human burial.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. There is no
unequivocal evidence for differential access of resources
in Middle Upper Paleolithic society; however, the
juveniles' burial at Mal'ta contained many items of
personal adornment including 120 flat beads and seven
ivory pendants, an ivory bracelet, as well as a large oval
plate ornamented by a series of incised wavy lines. Some
of the bones appear to have been stained by pigment.
The occurrence of these items in the Mal'ta juveniles'
burial may be an indication of greater social or religious
complexity than documented in the earlier Paleolithic
traditions of Siberia.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Arts. Many of the Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic
sites have produced mobiliary works of art. An ivory
carving of a woolly mammoth was found at Ust'-Kova,
and a small ivory baton with a series of incisions was
found at Achinsk. The latter artifact is thought by some
to represent a lunar calendar. The most spectacular set
of Paleolithic works of art, though, comes from the
Mal'ta and Buret' sites, where excavations yielded a
number of zoomorphic carvings thought to represent
wolverines, ptarmigans (or loons), and geese or swans,
as well as at least 15 ivory female statuettes (i.e., Venus
figurines). The Mal'ta Venuses, although roughly con-
temporary with those from Central and East European
Paleolithic contexts, are different in morphology and
design. The Siberian Venuses are more linear in shape,
with body parts incised instead of in relief, and with
clear signs of tailored clothing and facial features.
Death and Afterlife. Little can be said about Middle
Upper Paleolithic mortuary behavior, except that at
least at Mal'ta people buried their dead with some
ceremony-given the carefully excavated burial pit,
associated grave goods, and traces of pigment on the
bones themselves.
Suggested Readings
Abramova, Z. A. "1989 Paleolit Severnoi Azii [Paleolithic of Northern
Asia)." In Paleolit Kavkaza i Severnoi Azii [Paleolithic of Caucasus
and Northern Asia). Leningrad: Nauka, 143-243.
Abramova, Z. A. (1995). L'Art Paleolithique d Europe Orientale et de
Siberie [Paleolithic Art of Eastern Europe and Siberia). Grenoble:
Jerome Millon.
Bazarov, D.-D. B., M. V. Konstantinov, A. B. Imetkhenov, L. D.
Bazarova, and V. V. Savinova (1982). Geologiia i Kul'tura Drevnikh
Poselenii Zapadnogo Zabaikal'ia [Geology and Culture of Ancient
Settlements of Western Transbaika~. Ulan-Ude: Nauka.
Derev'anko, A. P. (1998). The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries
and Interpretations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Derevianko, A. P., S. V. Markin, and S. A. Vasil'ev (1994). Paleolito-
vedenie: Vvedenie i Osnovy [Paleolithic Affairs: Introduction and
Principles). Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Ermolova, N. M. (1978). Teriofauna Doliny Angary v Pozdnem
Antropogene [Teriofauna of the Angara Valley in the Late Anthropo-
gene). Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Konstantinov, M. V. (1994). Kamennyi Vek Vostochnogo Regiona
Baikal'skoi Azii [Stone Age of Eastern Region of Baikal Asia). Ulan-
Ude and Chita: Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Division.

Larichev, V. E. (1974). "Dom iz bivnei mamonta [House of tusks of
mammoth]." Znanie-Sila [Knowledge-Strength] 5: 26-27.
Larichev, V. E., U. Khol'ushkin, and 1. Laricheva (1988). "The Upper
Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Perspec-
tives, I: Western Siberia." Journal of World Prehistory 2: 359-396.
Larichev, V. E., U. Khol'ushkin, and I. Laricheva (1990). "The Upper
Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Per-
spectives, II. Central and Eastern Siberia." Journal of World
Prehistory 4: 347-385.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1940). "Buret', novaia paleoliticheskaia stoianka
na Angare [Buret', a new Paleolithic site on the Angara]." Sovetskaia
Arkheologiia [Soviet Archaeology] 5: 290-293.
Okladnikov, A. P., and 1. Kirillov (1980). Iugo-Vostochnoe Zabaikal'e
v Epokhu Kamnia i Rennei Bronzy [South-Eastern Transbaikal in
Stone and Early Bronze Ages]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Tseitlin, S. M. (1979). Geologiia Paleolita Severnoi Azii [Geology of the
Paleolithic of Northern Asia]. Moscow: Nauka.
Turner, C. G. (1990). "Rebenok verkhnepaleoliticheskoi stoianki
Mal'ta (Sibir') [Children of the Upper Paleolithic site Mal'ta
(Siberia)]." Izvestiia Sibirskogo Otdeleniia Akademii Nauk SSSR:
Seriia Istorii, Filologii i Filosofii [News of the Siberian Division of the
Academy of Sciences USSR: Series of history, philology and
philosophy] 2: 70-71.
Vasil'ev, S. A. (1992). "The Late Paleolithic of the Yenisei: A New
Outline." Journal of World Prehistory 6: 337-383.
Vasil'ev, S. A. (1993). "The Upper Palaeolithic of Northern Asia."
Current Anthropology 34: 82-92.
SITE
Mal'ta
TIME PERIOD: 22,000-20,000 B.P.
LOCATION: Near the village of Mal'ta along the Belaia
river, 28 km from the confluence with the Angara river,
Irkutsk Oblast', Russia (Siberia).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Mal'ta is located alongside the Belaia river, in the
broad southern Angara valley of Southeast Siberia.
Today the site is surrounded by agricultural fields;
nearby ridges have boreal forest vegetation.
Physical Features
Mal'ta is an open site situated in the second, 16-m
terrace of the Belaia river, in fine-grained alluvial and
colluvial sediments (Medvedev 1998; Tseitlin 1978). The
site's main cultural layer is associated with a buried soil
that was postdepositionally soliflucted and capped by
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic 195
loess. Stratigraphic assignment of the Paleolithic cultural
layer to immediately before the last glacial maximum
(Medvedev 1983; Tseitlin 1978) is supported by recent ra-
diocarbon determinations of 21,000 B.P. and 20,700 B.P.
(Medvedevet al. 1996). Medvedev (1998) suggested that
during this time the Mal'ta site was situated in a tundra-
steppe environment along the shore of a large lake that
filled this portion of the Belaia river valley.
Cultural Aspects
The Mal'ta site was discovered in 1928 and exca-
vated intermittently during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s
by Gerasimov (1931, 1964), and again during the 1990s
by Medvedev (1998). It continues to be one of the most
intriguing Paleolithic sites in Siberia because of the
uniqueness of its artifacts and features. Over the years,
an area of nearly 1500 sq m has been excavated,
yielding an assemblage of well over 45,000 artifacts
and ecofacts (Medvedev 1983). The lithic industry is
characterized by a core and blade primary technology
and unifacial secondary technology. Stone tools include
retouched blades, points from blades, end scrapers, side
scrapers, burins, and cobble choppers. Wedge-shaped
cores and microblades are absent, and bifaces are rare.
A large assemblage of bone, antler, and ivory tools was
found in Gerasimov's excavations; these are described as
points, awls, needles, chisels or punches, cylindrical
pieces of antler thought to be grinding instruments, as
well as beads, pendants, and badges (Medvedev 1983).
The most unique aspect of the Mal'ta artifact inventory,
though, is the mobiliary art that includes 30 ivory female
statuettes ("Venuses") and some statuettes and engrav-
ings representing various kinds of animals. The asso-
ciated faunal assemblage is dominated by remains of
reindeer (chiefly antler) and Arctic fox, but a wide
variety of taxa are actually represented-woolly rhino-
ceros, mammoth, horse, bison, sheep, cave lion, wolf,
fox, wolverine, rabbit, and various birds (goose, silver
gull, and crow) (Ermolova 1978). Gerasimov identified
41 separate debris concentrations in the site (Medvedev
1998), many of which he interpreted to be the remains of
semisubterranean dwellings. These dwelling features
contained centrally located hearths as well as storage
pits, and their outlines were marked by large slabs of
dolomite (Gerasimov 1931, 1964). One dwelling con-
tained a burial of two modern human children replete
with grave goods (Alekseev 1998). The Mal'ta site
probably represents a permanent hunter-gatherer settle-
ment occupied for more than one season over many
years, but Medvedev (1998) has recently suggested that
it may have been a short-term camp that saw repeated
196 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic
seasonal occupations, chiefly during major waterfowl or
reindeer migrations.
References
Alekseev, V. (1998). "The Physical Specificities of Paleolithic Homi-
nids in Siberia". In The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries and
Interpretations, ed. A. P. Derev'anko. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 329-335.
Ermolova, N. M. (1978). Teriofauna Dolini Angari v Pozdnem
Antropogene [Teriofauna of the Angara Valley in the late Anthrop-
ogene]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Gerasimov, M. M. (1931). Mal'ta-Paleoliticheskaia Stoianka
[Mal'ta-Paleolithic Site]. Irkutsk: Izdanie Kraevogo Muzeia.
Gerasimov, M. M. (1964). "The Paleolithic Site Malta: Excavations of
1956-1957." In The Archaeology and Geomorphology of Northern
Asia: Selected Works, ed. H. N. Michael. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 3-32.
Medvedev, G. I. (1983). "Paleolit Iuzhnogo Priangar'ia: Aftoreferat
[Paleolithic of Southern Priangara: Abstract]." Ph.D. diss., Soviet
Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk.
Medvedev, G. (1998). "Upper Paleolithic Sites in South-Central
Siberia." In The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries and Interpre-
tations, ed. A. P. Derev'anko. Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
122-132.
Medvedev, G., N. Kov, G. Vorob'era, D. Kup, L. Kles, E. Lipnina,
S. Mordi, Sh. Mukharramov, S. Osadchii, P. Petitt, P. Rebrikov,
E. Rogovskoi, V. Sitiivyi, L. sulerzhitskii, and D. Khenzyhenova
(1996). Mal'tinskoe Paleoliticheskoe Mestonakhozhdenie (Po Itogam
Polevykh Rabot 1995 Goda) [Mal'ta Paleolithic Site (According to
Results of Field Work of 1995)]. Irukutsk: Irukutskii Gosudarstven-
nyi U niversitet.
Tseitiin, S. M. (1978). Geologiia Paleolita Severnoi Azii [Geology of the
Paleolithic of Northern Asia]. Moscow: Nauka.
TED GOEBEL
Department of Anthropology
University of Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
United States
Siberian Mousterian
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 130,000-40,000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Precedes Siberian Early Upper
Paleolithic tradition.
LOCATION: Southwest and South-Central Siberia, in
upper Ob' (Altai mountains) and upper Yenisei (Saian
mountains) basins, between 50° and 55°N latitude.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Levallois-prepared
core technology, Mousterian points, side scrapers, and
denticulates are the major diagnostic cultural remains of
the Siberian Mousterian. Associated diagnostic hominid
fossils are commonly attributed to a premodern, Nean-
derthal population.
IMPORTANT SITES:Denisova cave, Dvuglazka Grot,
Kara-Bom, Okladnikov cave, Strashnaia cave.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Siberian Mousterian spans the period
from 130,0000-40,000 B.P., during which many cli-
matic changes occurred. Between 130,000-120,000 B.P.
(Kazantsev Interglacial), Siberia witnessed climatic
conditions perhaps warmer than today. Gradual cooling
occurred after this time, leading up to full glacial
conditions locally between 75,000-60,000 B.P. (Zyrian
Glacial). Ice sheets expanded across the Arctic ocean
north of Siberia, perhaps blocking the flow of the lower
Ob' and Yenisei rivers, and glaciers formed in the high
mountain ranges of Southern Siberia. Climate warmed
considerably between about 60,000-40,000 B.P. (Karga
Interglacial); the extent of this warming, whether of
interstadial or interglacial proportions, is debated by
Siberian paleoecologists. Some proxy records, however,
suggest that interstadial climate during the Karga was as
warm as today.
Topography. Siberian Mousterian sites occur in the
mountainous zone of Southern Siberia, between about
50° and 55°N latitude. Most sites occur in narrow, steep
river valleys, in areas of high vertical relief like the Altai
and Saian mountains.
Geology. Most Siberian Mousterian sites are found
in limestone caves. Artifact-bearing geological strata
are dense and thick, suggesting either repeated or long-
term occupations. Taphonomic studies suggest that
artifacts and faunal remains are not primarily associated.
Lithic raw materials are typically of local origin.
Biota. During the warmer periods of the Upper Pleis-
tocene, environments were similar to those of today.
Mountain tops were ice free and mantled by alpine
197
198 Siberian Mousterian
tundra, and mountain slopes and foothills were mantled
by open forests dominated by pine and sometimes
birch, with an understory containing grasses and herbs.
Forests not only contained boreal species like spruce,
pine, and birch, but also more warm-loving species
like pistachio, elm, and oak. These varied vegetation
zones supported a diverse large mammal community.
During full glacial times, ice free Southern Siberia
was characterized by tundra in alpine areas, pine forest-
steppe in lower mountain slopes and foothills, and
treeless tundra-steppe in valleys. Glacial vegetation was
dominated by an open, treeless tundra-steppe.
Settlements
Settlement System. Siberian Mousterian sites occur in
caves and less frequently in the open. In most sites,
cultural layers are thick and densely packed with
artifacts and animal bones, and it is not clear whether
these represent "mixed strategy" sites occupied for
relatively long periods, or "palimpsests" representing
repeated short-term occupations. A few open sites,
though, have been found to contain small debris
concentrations so that they appear to be remains of
single, short-term occupations. The larger sites suggest
that Mousterian settlement was characterized by the
redundant use of specific locations. From these loca-
tions, many different economic activities were carried
out in the surrounding environments.
Community Organization. Siberian Mousterian sites
typically lack any internal order. Archaeological fea-
tures (i.e., hearths, pits) are absent, and virtually all sites
lack discernible activity areas.
Population, Health, and Disease. Based on the small
sizes of sites, Mousterian hunter-gatherer groups were
probably few in number (consisting of less than 50
individuals). Only a few hominid fossil fragments have
been found. At Okladnikov cave and Denisova cave,
teeth and long-bone fragments appear premodern and
most closely related to Neanderthal populations of
Western Eurasia.
Economy
Subsistence. Siberian Mousterian populations were
hunter gatherers. Like other northern hunter gatherers,
these populations probably relied more heavily on
animals than plants for food. Without taphonomic
studies, however, little can be said about Mousterian
hunting behavior, except that many large- and medium-
sized species (including horse, wooly rhinoceros, bison,
argali sheep, wooly mammoth, red deer, and roe deer)
recur in the sites.
Industrial Arts. Siberian Mousterian lithic industries are
based primarily on Levallois core technologies. Platform
faceting was often used in preparation of cores. Leval-
lois flakes and points, as well as non-Levallois flakes,
served as tools. Systematic raw material sourcing studies
have not been conducted, but there are signs that most
lithic materials were procured in local alluvium or
outcrops. Secondary technologies are almost exclusively
unifacial, although isolated bifaces and burins occur in
several assemblages. Osseous technologies are absent.
Denisova cave has several bone tools, but these appear
to have been redeposited from overlying Late Upper
Paleolithic layers.
Utensils. Lithic tool assemblages are characterized by
varying frequencies of side scrapers, Mousterian points,
denticulates, and notches, and very low frequencies of
knives and end scrapers.
Suggested Readings
Abramova, Z. A. (1985). "Must'erskii grot v Khakasii [Mousterian
grotto in Khakasil}." Kratkie Soobshcheniia Instituta Arkheologii
Akademiia Nauk SSSR [Brief Reports of the Institute of Archaeology
of the Academy of Sciences USSR] 181: 92-98.
Abramova, Z. A. (1989). "Paleolit Severnoi Azii [Paleolithic of
Northern Asia]." In Paleolit Kavkaza i Severnoi Azii [Paleolithic of
Caucasus and Northern Asia]. Leningrad: Nauka, 143-243.
Anisiutkin, N. K., and S. N. Astakhov (1970). "K voprosy drevneis-
hikh pamiatnikakh Altaia [On the question of the most ancient
monuments of the Adair In Sibir' i Ee Sosedi v Drevnosti [Siberia
and its Neighbors in Antiquity]. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 27-33.
Derev'anko, A. P. (1998). The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries
and Interpretations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Derevianko, A. P., and S. V. Markin (1990). "Predvaritel'nye itogi
izucheniia Must'e Altaia [Preliminary results studying Mousterian of
Altm]." In Arkheologicheskie Etnograficheskie i Antropologicheskie
Issledovaniia v Mongolii [Archaeological, Ethnographic, and Anthro-
pological Research in Mongolia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 73-102.
Derevianko, A. P., I. V. Grichan, M. I. Dergacheva, A. N. Zenin,
S. A. Laukhin, G. M. Levkovskaia, A. M. Maloletko, S. V. Markin,
V. I. Molodin, N. D. Ovodov, V. T. Petrin, and M. V. Shun'kkov
(1990). Arkheologiia i Paleoekologiia Paleolita Gornogo Altaia
[Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Paleolithic of the Mountainous
Altm]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Derevianko, A. P., S. V. Markin, and S. A. Vasil'ev (1994). Paleo-
litovedenie: Vvedenie i Osnovy [Paleolithic Affairs: Introduction and
Principles]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Goebel, T. (1993). "The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in
Siberia." Ph.D. diss., University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Okladnikov, A. P., V. M. Muratov, N. V. Ovodov, and E. O.
Fridenberg (1973). "Peshchera Strashnaia-Novyi pamiatnik pa-
leolita Altaia [Strashnaia Cave-New Monument of the Paleolithic
of the Altai]." In Materialy po Arkheologii Sibiri i Da/'nego Vostoka
[On Material of the Archaeology of Siberia and the Far East].
Novosibirsk: Nauka, I-54.
Shun'kov, M. V. (1990). Must'erskie Pamiatniki Mezhgornykh Kotlovin
Tsentral'nogo Altaia [Mousterian Monuments of the Intermountain
Valleys of the Central Altml Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Turner, C. G. (1990). "Paleolithic Teeth of the Central Siberian Altai
Mountains." In Chronostratigraphy of the Paleolithic in North,
Central, East Asia and America. Novosibirsk: Akademiia Nauk
SSSR, 239--243.
SITE
Okladnikov Cave
TIME PERIOD: 45,000-38,000 B.P.(?)
LOCATION: Near the village of Soloneshnoe in Altai Krai,
Russia (Siberia).
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Okladnikov cave is located in a limestone escarp-
ment along the Sibiriachikha river, a small tributary of
the Anui river, in the northern foothills of the Altai
mountains of Southwest Siberia (Derev'anko 1998;
Derevianko and Markin 1990). The site is surrounded
by open forest-steppe vegetation.
Physical Features
Okladnikov cave is formed in a Devonian-age
limestone escarpment dissected by the Sibiriachikha
river. The cave opens to the south and is 14 m above the
modern level of the river (Derevianko and Markin
1990). It contains a complex of interconnected, low-
ceilinged cavities including a rock shelter, grotto, five
galleries, and three unexplored chambers. Paleolithic
cultural remains are chiefly from the shelter, grotto, and
Gallery 1 (Derevianko and Markin 1990). Quaternary
sediments are difficult to characterize because they do
not form a consistent mantle over the entire floor of the
cave. In the shelter area, sediments are shallow, no more
than 0.75 m thick, and divided into three stratigraphic
units described as loams with varying degrees of angular
scree. Inside the grotto and galleries, sediments are
still shallow (0.35-l.8 m thick) but more complex,
Siberian Mousterian 199
with seven strata being described as loams, sandy
loams, and clay loams with variable amounts of lime-
stone scree and detrital organics (Derev'anko 1998;
Derevianko and Markin 1990). Mousterian artifacts are
scattered through all seven strata, but seem to be
concentrated in the middle units. Accelerator radiocar-
bon and uranium-series determinations on bone suggest
an age range of about 45,000-38,000 B.P. for the cave's
various Mousterian occupations (Goebel 1993). Paly-
nological studies of the cave sediments suggest that at
this time the region surrounding the cave was a dry
forest-steppe similar to today (Volkova 1990).
Cultural Aspects
The Mousterian occupations represented in Okla-
dnikov cave probably date to just before the Middle-
to-Upper-Paleolithic transition in Southwest Siberia
(Goebel 1993). The lithic inventory totals nearly 4000
pieces, for the most part manufactured from locally
available cherts, hornfels, and microdiorites. Levallois
cores, flakes, and points occur in low frequencies in all
levels (Derev'anko 1998; Derevianko and Markin 1990).
Platform faceting is common, and tool retouching is
exclusively unifacial (Derevianko and Markin 1990).
The cave's tool assemblage is characterized by high
frequencies of side scrapers, Mousterian points, dentic-
ulates, and retouched flakes. Derevianko et al. (1987)
used standard Bordian typological definitions to de-
scribe this assemblage as "Typical Mousterian." Among
associated faunal remains, 20 species of large mammals
have been identified; these are chiefly steppe and alpine
species. The majority belong to horse, Siberian moun-
tain goat, argali sheep, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison,
red deer, gray wolf, cave hyena, and red fox. Hominid
fossils recovered from the cave's sediments include
three long bone fragments and five teeth (a lower
premolar and four lower molars). The teeth appear to
be premodern and similar to Neanderthal teeth from
Shanidar cave, Iraq, and Europe (Turner 1990). Oklad-
nikov cave, therefore, may contain important informa-
tion about a population of Neanderthals that existed in
Southwest Siberia just before the transition to the Upper
Paleolithic, so that continued studies of this site and its
assemblages may yield critical information about the
emergence of modern humans in this region of Asia.
References
Derev'anko, A. P. (1998). The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries
and Interpretations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Derevianko, A. P., and S. V. Markin (1990). "Predvaritel'nye
itogi izucheniia Must'e altaia [Preliminary results of research of
200 Siberian Mousterian
the Mousterian of the Altai]." In Arkheologicheskie Etnograjicheskie
i Antropologicheskie Issledovaniia v Mongolii [Archaeological, Eth-
nographic, and Anthropological Research in Mongolia]. Novosibirsk:
Nauka,73-102.
Derevianko, A. P., V. 1. Molodin, and S. V. Markin (1987). Arkheo-
logischeskie Issledovaniia na Altae v 1986 g. (Predvaritel'nye Itogi
Sovetsko-Iaponskoi Ekspeditsil) [Archaeological Research in the Altai
in 1986 (Preliminary Results of the Soviet-Japanese Expedition)],
Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Goebel, T. (1993). "The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in
Siberia." Ph.D. diss., Univerisity of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Turner, C. G. (1990). "Paleolithic Teeth of the Central Siberian Altai
Mountains." In Chronostratigraphy of the Paleolithic in North,
Central, East Asia and America. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 239-243.
Volkova, V. S. (1990). "Zakliuchenie po resul'tatam sporovo-
pyl'tsevogo analiza Peshcheru 1m. Okladnikova [Findings accord-
ing to result of spore-pollen analysis of the cave of the name
Okladnikov]." In Kompleksnye Issledovaniia Paleoliticheskikh Ob'ek-
tov Basseina R. Anui [Complex Research of Paleolithic Objects of the
Anui River Basin]. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 62-65.
TED GOEBEL
Department of Anthropology
University of Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
United States
Siberian Neolithic and Bronze
Age
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: c. 8000-2000 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Siberian Upper
Paleolithic traditions and precedes the Siberian Proto-
historic tradition.
LOCATION: Mainly confined to Southwest Siberia, from
the Ural mountains east to the Ob' river, between about
55° and 60 0 N latitude.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Microliths (segmented
blades) inset into bone and antler tools, bone/antler
harpoons, polished lug (trunnion) adzes, polished slate
points and knives, and comb-stamped ceramics are the
major diagnostic cultural remains of the Neolithic.
Copper tools begin to appear in small numbers about
4000 B.P. Bronze itself is very rare and restricted to the
far southwestern portion of the region; hence the term
"Bronze Age" is something of a misnomer.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The Siberia Neolithic and Bronze Age spans the
mid-Holocene, a time of significant warming often
referred to as the climatic optimum or altithermal.
Subarctic conditions, however, would have prevailed,
with long, cold winters and short, cool summers
throughout this period. Sites tend to occur in two
physiographic zones, either in the foothill zone of the
eastern Ural mountains (along the upper tributaries of
the Tobol river), or in the West Siberian lowland, along
the major river arteries including the Irtysh and Ob'
rivers. Sites also tend to occur in the open. The typical
geomorphic context of these sites is on low terraces or
"capes" overlooking river floodplains and nearby river
confluences (e.g., Ches-tyi-iag, Khulium-Sunt). Soils are
typically characterized as forest podzols.
During the mid-Holocene, environments of the
region were similar to those of today. The uplands of
the Ural mountains were mantled by dark coniferous
taiga dominated by spruce and cedar, while the West
Siberian lowland was mantled by a pine-dominated
taiga. These dense boreal forests supported few terres-
trial mammals, primarily moose and woodland caribou.
Rivers and streams supported local as well as ana-
dromous fish populations.
201
202 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age
Settlements
Few sites have been extensively excavated. Camp-
sites like Ches-tyy-yag and Khulyum-sunt are situated
on low terraces alongside rivers. These typically have
5-15 dwelling features. It is not clear whether these
represent fully or partially sedentary populations. The
campsite at Ches-tyy-yag consists of a cluster of closely
spaced pit houses, with no obvious pattern in their
layout or facing. Several, however, are significantly
larger than the others. Dwellings were semisubterranean
and rectangular in shape, typically with one (and
sometimes two) side entrances. There is some variation
in size, with the smallest pit house features being about
10 m2 , and the largest about 25 m2 . Pit house features
contain remains of fish as well as terrestrial mammals,
charcoal, ash, ceramics, and stone tools. These Neolithic
populations probably existed as small hunter-gatherer
bands, consisting of several dozen individuals, given
the relatively small size of their sites. Skeletal remains
have been found at isolated burials, but are not well
described.
Economy
Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples appear to have
been hunter-gatherer-fishers who practiced a broad-
spectrum subsistence strategy. Remains of a variety of
terrestrial mammals, birds, and fish are common, but
specifics of species and quantities have not been well
reported.
Neolithic artifact assemblages contain lithic, osse-
ous, and ceramic materials. A few sites (e.g., the Gor-
bunovo peat bogs) have also yielded wooden artifacts.
Bronze Age assemblages are similar, but include copper
tools in small numbers. Flaked-stone tools are typically
microliths, retouched into the form of unifacial points
and knifes, sometimes with backing. Other small flake
tools include end scrapers from flakes and bifacially
worked projectile points from small blades. Polished-
stone tools include adzes, axes, perforated discs, and
occasionally slate projectile points. Pottery does not
appear to have been well fired and typically occurs as
bowl-shaped vessels. These are finely decorated with
incised lines and dots, forming a variety of patterns on
rims and bodies of vessels. Often these designs were
applied with small paddles or combs through a "stab-
and-drag" method. Several burials have been excavated
that have yielded a few ornamental artifacts, including
perforated and decorated boar tusks, presumably used
as pendants.
Sociopolitical Organization
There is no formal archaeological evidence for
sociopolitical organization in the Siberian Neolithic
and Bronze Age. However, the differences in the sizes of
house pit features at sites like Ches-tyy-yag and the
presence of ornaments in some burials may be indica-
tions of social differentiation.
Religion and Expressive Culture
The Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples
intentionally buried their dead, which may point to a
belief in the afterlife. Art objects are exceedingly rare,
but include polished slate and wooden sculptures or
carvings.
Suggested Readings
Chernetsov, V. N., and W. Moszynska (1974). Prehistory of Western
Siberia. Montreal: Arctic Institute of North America, McGill-
Queen's University Press.
Chernykh, E. N. (1992). Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Sulimurski, T. (1970). Prehistoric Russia: An Outline. London: John
Baker.
TED GOEBEL
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Department of Anthropology
University of Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
United States
Siberian Protohistoric
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: c. 2000-500 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Siberian Neolithic and
Bronze Age tradition, precedes the historic period.
LOCATION: Northern Siberia in what is today the
northern portions of Yakutia.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATIRIBUTES: Iron tools first make
their appearance in Northern Siberia during the Siberian
Protohistoric period. Ceramics are crude, often globular
in form and with rounded bases. Flaked stone arrow
points are present, and projectile points, knives, and
other tools made of bone are common. Late in the
period, horse and cattle appear along with their obvious
accoutrements such as saddles and muzzles.
IMPORTANT SITES: There are few well-reported excava-
tions. Most of the information on the Siberian Proto-
historic period is based on ephemeral and surface finds
and extracted from ethnographic and ethnohistoric
information.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Northern Siberia is an extremely diverse environ-
ment. In the southern portions from roughly 65° lati-
tude to the Arctic circle, the landscape is dominated by
boreal forest. Moving north, marshlands become more
prominent, as does tundra, which comes to dominate the
landscape above roughly 70° latitude. The climate is an
Arctic one, with short, mild summers and long, cold
winters.
Settlements
Settlements of the Siberian Protohistoric peoples
were short term and small. During the spring and
summer, groups of 10 or more families might share a
settlement at a prime fishing location or on reindeer
breeding grounds, but during the rest of the year fam-
ilies would be independent or in groups of only two or
three. Housing consisted of conical tents constructed
with a circular frame of long poles tied together near
the top and covered with skins or bark.
Economy
A division existed between Siberian Proto historic
peoples who used domesticated reindeer for pack
animals and, to some extent, for milk, blood, and meat,
and those who did not. Hunting wild reindeer was the
primary subsistence focus for nonreindeer breeding
groups. Hunting was typically done with bow and
arrow, and animals were frequently hunted by coordi-
nated groups who drove reindeer into corrals or
203
204 Siberian Protohistoric
slaughtered swimming animals at water crossings.
Hunting elk and wild reindeer was also important,
although to a lesser extent, to reindeer-breeding Siberian
Protohistoric peoples, but fish was a basic staple for
both groups. Fish were caught using a variety of
methods, from netting them to spearing them to
catching them using wooden lures attached to metal
fishhooks. Late in the Siberian Protohistoric period, a
further division developed among the fisher and hunter
gatherers, reindeer breeders, and horse and cattle
pastoralists. It is widely believed that the pastoralists,
ancestors of the historic Yakut peoples, migrated into
Northern Siberia from the south sometime after 700 B.P.
Sociopolitical Organization
The family was the basic unit of Siberian Protohis-
toric sociopolitical organization. Communities appear
to have been largely acephalous, although very late in
the Siberian Protohistoric period the pastoralists who
moved into Northern Siberia developed a much more
centralized form of sociopolitical organization, appar-
ently focused around lineage chiefs.
Suggested Readings
Levin, M. G., and L. P. Potapov, eds. (1964). The Peoples of Siberia.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Okladnikov, A. P. (1970). Yakutia before Its Incorporation into the
Russian State. Anthropology of the North, No.8. Montreal:
McGill-Queen's Press.
PETER N. PEREGRINE
Department of Anthropology
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
United States
Tarya Neolithic
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: c. 4000-2500 B.P., although there
are various views of defining the stages of the Tarya
tradition represented in publications.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Kamchatka Meso-
lithic tradition and precedes the Old Itel'men tradition.
LOCATION: Central and southern Kamchatka.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Stone bifacially
worked tools and polished axes, including flat retouched
leaf-shaped, triangular, and stemmed points; scrapers on
flakes and blades; leaf-shaped and stemmed backed
knives; polished and chipped axes of triangular and oval
shape. Fishing gear, including net sinkers and hooks.
Ceramics were made, although they are not well known.
Textiles were made from woven nettles. Light, frame
summer houses and semi subterranean winter houses.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
About 4000 B.P., Kamchatka experienced a slight
warming trend, with the average annual temperatures 10
higher and precipitation 50-75 cm more than today.
However, by the end of the Subboreal period (3400-
2500 B.P.), another cooling trend occurred, with the
average annual temperature 10 and the mean tempera-
ture in January 1.5 0 lower than today; meanwhile, the
mean temperature in July was 0.5-10 higher and precip-
itation 25 mm less than today. Birch and alder forests
with Pinus pumila and Larix open woodlands spread
all over Kamchatka. The vegetation development was
influenced by volcanic activity. Since the early Holo-
cene, numerous breeding grounds of seals had appeared,
and these became important species for hunting. The
principal land game animals were the reindeer and
moose. Numerous Kamchatka rivers had been salmon
spawning areas since at least the late Pleistocene.
Settlements
During this period, for the first time in Kamchatka,
coastal sites of its ancient inhabitants are distinguished.
Southern Kamchatka has older dates (to 5000 B.P.) than
the center of the peninsula, though technologically the
latter is older. The roots of the Tarya tradition are
supposed to be located in the Avacha river valley and
the area of the Avacha inlet. About 3000 B.P., the Tarya
tradition spread northward, along the east coast of
Kamchatka as far as the Kamchatka river valley. The
complexes found on the west coast of Kamchatka also
bear a similarity with the Tarya tradition materials, but
these conclusions are so far preliminary.
205
206 Tarya Neolithic
Two types of Tarya settlements are distinguished:
summer and winter. The former were located at the river
mouths on the coast and along the spawning river
banks. These were light framework structures, probably
on piles, cache-type or surface for summer and autumn
fishing and sea mammal hunting at the breeding
grounds. Winter dwellings were conveniently located
on high terraces, capes, or lake shores. These were
semisubterranean dwellings, subrectangular, to 2.5 min
depth, or circular, to 0.8 m in depth, and reached
6-13 m in cross-section. Some dwellings had one or a
few side exits to the sea, lake, or river. They were
provided with a log roof supported by rectangular
framework covered with soil and with two exits, side
and top, the latter serving as both a chimney and a
source of light. In the center of the dwelling there was a
large hearth with several small ones around it. The
hearths were not contoured with stones. The dwelling
floor was covered with birch bark and grass.
Economy
The Tarya peoples' subsistence was based on hunt-
ing land animals and birds as well as fishing. Most sites
were located on the seashore, in convenient bays and in
mouths and valleys of rivers rich in fish. This allowed
the Tarya peoples the possibility of utilizing rich coastal
food resources, including gathering. So far, a few
suggestions of using the marine resources are available;
these include a small number of bones and shells at the
Kopyto II site; indirect evidence is the oil lamps found at
the sites. Most tools from the sites (small stone points)
imply hunting land animals. Fishing is implied by sink
pebbles, with hollows on sides or with a hole in the
middle, used as fishing net loads (Avacha Level II), and
the fish bone clusters at the sites. At the Avacha Site, in
Level III dated 5200 B.P., a supposed segment of a
compound fishing hook was found.
The Tarya tools are represented exclusively by stone
bifacially worked tools and polished axes, though
bone and wooden tools must have been used there as
well. The tool kits of Central Kamchatka and South
Kamchatka are different. Characteristic for Central
Kamchatka is the moribund Mesolithic technique of
producing microblades from prismatic cores and using
the tools made on the former-microblade burins.
Among other tools, there are flat retouched leaf-shaped,
triangular, and stemmed points; scrapers on flakes and
blades; leaf-shaped and stemmed backed knives; and
polished and chipped axes of triangular and oval shape.
South Kamchatka tools are represented by stemmed,
leaf-shaped, and subtriangular points, 3-8 cm long. The
most characteristic type of knives is stemmed, backed,
and narrow-edged with a bolster in the middle. Axes are
the most common polished tools and have a sharp back
and a triangular cross-section. Scrapers varying in
shapes (end, with a handle) and sizes, perforators, and
burins were made of flakes. There is good evidence of
ceramics appearing with the Tarya people, but its precise
appearance and vessel shape have been unknown. Food
must have been cooked in birch-bark vessels, the
numerous remainders of which were found at the sites,
including those in small household pits inside the
dwellings. For heating water, pebbles were heated in
fire and put into birch-bark or wooden vessels. For
lighting their dwellings, the Tarya people used oil lamps
made of flat pebbles with subtriangular deepenings on
the flat side. This may serve as a proof of sea mammal
hunting that developed, which supplied the necessary fat
for lamps. This explains the finding of a stone figurine of
an orca whale in the level along with a lamp: as soon as
an orca appeared, seals hurried to get on the shore
where they became the trophy of the man armed with a
spear and a bow. The Tarya people knew the method of
making textiles from nettle fibers: a small burnt
fragment of such a textile was found in a burnt dwelling
at the Avacha site.
Sociopolitical Organization
Judging by large dwellings with several hearths
inside, the clan community still existed in the Tarya
period. Its degradation resulted in the separation of
large families is associated with the labrets that had been
the tribal or clan signs, disappearing in the 1st century
A.D.
Religion and Expressive Culture
An expressive feature of the Tarya tradition is the
labrets, which are stone and bone, mostly polished,
sometimes retouched, resembling a pin or a handcuff
clip. They were used as ornaments inserted in specially
made holes in lips, cheeks, or nasal septuli. They were
probably associated with the ritual of boys' and girls'
initiation. The variety of forms and types of pendants is
supposed to reflect the variety of tribal or clan commu-
nities of the Tarya tradition, though it might have
reflected just the variety of ways to wear them. Another
expressive feature of the Tarya tradition are stone
(obsidian or flint) bifacially retouched figurines, human
and orca clearly distinguished while dog and bear are
hypothesized.
 Tarya Neolithic 207

References Stefanovich, E. N., Klimanov, V. A., Borisova, Z. K., and S. N.

Vinogradova (1986). "Holocene Paleogrographic Situation on the
Dikov, N. N. (1977). Archeological Remains in Kamchatka, Chukotka, Northern Coast of Penzhina Bay." Bulletin of the Quarternary
and the Upper Reaches of the Kolyma. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian. Studies Commission 55, pp. 97-102. In Russian.
Dikov, N. N. (1979). Ancient Cultures of Northeastern Asia. Moscow:
Nauka. In Russian.
Dikova, T. M. (1983). South Kamchatka Archaeology in Connection SERGI SLOBODIN
with the Ainu Occupation Problem. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian. Far East Division
Iohelson, W. I. (1928). Archaeological Investigations in Kamchatka. Russian Academy of Sciences
Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 383. Washington,
D.C. Northeastern Interdisciplinary Science Research Institute
Ponomarenko, A. K. (1985). Ancient Cultures of the East Kamchatka Magadan
Itelmen. Moscow: Nauka. Russian. Russia
 Thule
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 2100-100 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Norton cultural tra-
dition and merges into the historic period.
LOCATION: Alaska-Alaska peninsula to Point Barrow;
Chukotka-Anadyr bay to mouth of Kolyma river.
Culture complex expanded eastward out of Alaska to
Greenland beginning by 1000 B.P., established across all
the North American Arctic zone by 700 B.P.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Toggling harpoon
heads, drag floats for harpoon lines, sealing darts used
with throwing board, bird darts, bolas, fish spears.
Single- and double-holed, enclosed men's boats (kayak)
and open, multipassenger women's boats (umiak) were
used in hunting and travel. Ground stone replaced
chipped stone tools throughout the tradition. Pottery in
early phases is corrugated or paddle impressed with
fiber/sand temper, later a plain ware, thick, less well
fired, larger vessel shapes, gravel temper with incised or
punctate designs. Decorative style of engraving, partic-
ularly on ivory harpoon heads, progressed from a
complex interplay of animal forms (Okvik/Old Bering
Sea) to geometric designs (Punuk/Thule). Pit houses
were square to rectangular with entry passage and cold
trap. House-pit villages were located on beach strands
or headlands adjacent to route of whale migrations.
208
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Okvik, Old Bering Sea, Birn-
irk, Punuk, Thule, late prehistoric phases.
IMPORTANT SITES: Gambell sites, Kukulik, Kialegak,
Punuk Island sites, Wales, Cape Krusenstern, Point
Hope, Point Barrow in Alaska; Igloolik, Naujan,
Resolute Bay, Lake Harbour sites in central Arctic
Canada; Thule, Umanaq, Nugdlit, Ruin Island sites in
Greenland; and Bear Islands; Cape Baranov, Cape
Vankarem, Uelen, Ekven, Sirenik, Nunligran, Enmylen
and Kanchalan sites in Chukotka.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The Thule tradition began during the cool
Sub-Atlantic episode (2500-1550 B.P.) (Okvik and Old
Bering Sea phases). The Birnirk and Punuk phases arose
during the Scandic climatic episode (1550-1050 B.P.),
which was transitional between the cooler Sub-Atlantic
and the warmer than present Neo-Atlantic climatic
period (1050-750 B.P.) when the Birnirk and Punuk
cultural phases underwent modifications to become the
Thule phase of the Thule tradition. The Neo-Atlantic
was characterized by minimal pack ice in the Arctic.
Open sea lanes in the Canadian Arctic islands allowed

bowhead whales to extend their migration routes
eastward toward Greenland. Following the warm Neo-
Atlantic episode, which included the medieval warm
period, the climate again became cooler during the
Pacific episode (750-450 B.P.). This episode was charac-
terized by the formation of more extensive pack ice,
which diminished toward the end of the episode. The
Neo-Boreal episode (450-100 B.P.) was a return to
colder climates resulting in the southward movement
of pack ice and the closure of sea lanes. Modern climatic
conditions were achieved between 100 and 50 B.P.
Topography. Sites of the Thule tradition are located
along the open Arctic coasts, in protected embayments
and by 800 B.P. expanded into riparian environments
such as the drainage systems of the Yukon, Kuskokwim,
Nushagak, and Kobuk rivers.
Geology. The Thule region is characterized by rocky
headlands, swampy river deltas, bays protected by
barrier beaches or enclosed by sand and gravel spits
and low coastal plains. The coast is backed by uplands,
which gradually or suddenly give rise to mountain
ranges. Volcanic and extrusive rocks intersect massive
sedimentary deposits throughout the region. Chert,
chalcedony, obsidian, welded tuff, and siltstone are the
primary sources of tool stone.
Biota. Moist to dry tundra conditions prevailed de-
pending on local drainage patterns along the coast.
Sedges were dominant in the marshlands, whereas on
the higher or better drained areas, shrubs and grasses
were more common. Tree forms existed as gallery forests
in protected river valleys, advancing from interior
forests during the mid-Holocene. Caribou, musk ox,
grizzly bear, wolf, Arctic fox, northern hare, and nesting
migratory birds were the major land resources, while
seal, walrus, whale, and fish were the principal marine
resources exploited.
Settlements
Settlement System. Thule settlement types were of three
kinds: (1) base camp or winter villages; (2) established
land hunting, sea mammal hunting, or fishing/bird
gathering camps; and (3) temporary special-purpose
camps. During the spring-summer-fall, family groups
dispersed to hunting and fishing camps. Winter villages
were occupied from October to March. Population
concentrations were found only in winter villages where
major ceremonial events were observed. There is little
archaeological evidence of seasonal resource or special-
Thule 209
purpose camps although these were noted in historical
accounts. The primary reconstruction of the Thule
cultural tradition is based up on data from winter pit-
house villages.
Community Organization. Pit house villages were ar-
ranged along beaches to provide launch access for boats.
Villages were generally small, with two to four houses,
but larger villages up to 15-20 houses did occur as did
extremely large villages of 50-60 houses. Small nuclear
or somewhat larger extended family pit house structures
were often clustered around a large ceremonial or men's
house (kazigi). During the Punuk phase, armor and war
arrows, burials of individuals shot repeatedly with
arrows, and palisaded villages provide evidence of war-
fare. Although there were no differences in individual
house forms or community layouts to indicate ranking,
variation in the amount of associated burial goods
suggests differences in status.
Housing. House structures were created by the excava-
tion of a square to rectangular pit from 30-100 cm in
depth with four posts to support angled side-wall logs
on rafter supports, and the ceiling was formed by crib-
type construction. This framework was covered with
grass mats on which sod and earth were placed to form
a protective seal against the cold. Houses had entry
passageways that in late Thule times dropped below the
floor level to form a cold trap. Entry into the houses was
by way of a raised sill or through a hole in the floor. Fire
pits were generally placed in the center of the floor.
Sitting or sleeping benches were arranged along the
sides of the house or extended entirely across the back
of the house. Pottery or stone lamps filled with sea
mammal oil were used for illumination or for cooking.
A vent was placed in the roof to allow smoke to escape,
but most interiors were blackened with soot. Tepec- like
structures, associated with spring-summer-fall encamp-
ments, were constructed of poles covered with hides or
brush and moss.
House structures during the Okvik/Old Bering Sea
phases were rectangular in plan with short passageways,
and in some instances the floor was paved with stone.
Logs were horizontally placed to support the side walls
of the pit excavation, with corner posts as part of the
support structure. It is unclear whether these houses had
the later four-post construction. Punuk-style houses
were of whalebone and boulder construction with a
covering of skins over the roof supports. House forms in
the Thule phase went back to log construction combined
with skeletal elements of whales. The structure was
covered over with earth. Side chambers either off
210 Thule
the main room or off the entry passageway are common
in the Thule phase of the Thule tradition.
Population, Health, and Disease. Judging from the size
of the archaeological sites, population during the Okvik/
Old Bering Sea phase was small, with villages of perhaps
two to three houses. During the Birnirk and Punuk
phases, there was evidently a population increase as the
middens on which one generation after another built
houses increase materially in size. An autopsy of a
l600-year-old frozen body of a woman found eroding
out of the Kialegak site on St. Lawrence island revealed
that she had suffered from coronary atherosclerosis and
pulmonary anthracosis. Examination of frozen bodies
recovered from the A.D. 1500-1850 house at Utqiagvik
also revealed that the people had suffered from pneu-
monia, pulmonary anthracosis, osteoporosis, and per-
haps trichinosis.
Economy
Subsistence. Basic strategy was hunting and gathering
of terrestrial and marine resources. There was some
division of labor by sex, particularly in regard to net
fishing. Hunting of larger game animals was done chiefly
by men. Seasonal patterns of resource utilization were
evident. Trade was important throughout the Thule
tradition.
Wild Foods. Extensive use of terrestrial and marine
resources. Caribou and musk oxen were the prime
terrestrial prey, while the smaller mammals were also
important sources of food when the herds of migrating
caribou had gone onto their winter ranges. Seal, walrus,
and whale were the primary sea mammals hunted. Polar
bear was also taken but was less important in the food
web. Freshwater fish from rivers and lakes were taken
during peak migration periods. Birds and eggs were
collected during the nesting season. Resources were
seasonal in nature, which required that the people rely
on a subsistence strategy to maximize recovery. Some
use was made of plant resources, principally berries.
Domestic Foods. Domesticated plants were not part of
the aboriginal culture. The only domesticated animal
was the dog, which was used to locate prey but did on
occasion serve as a food resource. The use of the dog
for sled traction was a late innovation that occurred
during the late Thule phase or in the late prehistoric
phase.
Industrial Arts. Implement technology was complex
although the manufacturing procedures were familiar
to everyone. Items needed were manufactured by
members of households.
Utensils. Wood, bone, antler, ivory, ground and
chipped stone, and clay were used to produce imple-
ments and utensils. Hunting and domestic implements
were complex forms with interfitting parts. For example,
the harpoon assemblage consisted of a harpoon head
and a connecting fore shaft that fit into a socket piece
at the end of a wooden shaft. Attached to the harpoon
head was a walrus-hide line to which were attached
drag-line floats. The production of hunting implements
was a major focus of the material culture. Domestic
tools were important in the preparation of hides,
butchery, and so, but were generally simpler in con-
struction. A variety of lithic materials (chert, argillite
[silicified slate], chalcedony, obsidian, nephrite, and
andesite) was used. Most of these tool stones were
obtained locally, but obsidian and nephrite were of-
ten trade items. Other raw materials such as bone,
ivory, antler, and sinew were obtained from the spe-
cies that were hunted. Pottery, which was introduced
from Siberia during the earlier Choris-Norton period
c. 3000 B.P., probably as a trade ware, became increas-
ingly common during the Punuk and Birnirk phases,
suggesting manufacture from local clay sources.
Ornaments. Tool forms as well as items of personal
adornment were highly ornamented during the Okvik
and Old Bering Sea phases of the Thule tradition.
Curvilinear and geometric design patterns as well as
naturalistic or stylized animals were characteristic of the
Okvik and Old Bering Sea phases and have been
subdivided into distinct art styles. During the Birnirk
and Punuk phases, decoration consisted of geometric
forms with circle-dots, Y figures, spurred lines, and
ladder-like designs with some retention of animal forms,
but these became highly stylized. During the Thule
phase, the surface-design elements were either rudimen-
tary or absent. Pendants, hairpieces, brow bands,
earrings, belt buckles, and pieces of decorated ivory
that were attached to clothing were highly decorated
during the earlier phases but became less ornate towards
the end of the Thule phase.
Trade. During the Old Bering Sea phase, there is
evidence of small amounts of iron, which probably
came from Siberia. Additional cultural elements, such as
bone plate armor in sites of the Punuk phase, and
Koryak-style leather armor from historic Bering Strait
Eskimo collections, indicate a continued flow of cultural
elements from Asia into Alaska. Trade with Siberia

during the historic period is well documented before to
Russian contact. In the historic period, trading partners
from different villages arranged for the exchange of
goods, leading to the development of a middle-man
status (Eskimo Big Men).
Division of Labor. Generally, a household produced all
the tools and items required in everyday life. Some
division of labor would have been likely, as women
would have processed hides and manufactured all the
clothing items, while men made most of the hunting and
domestic implements as they did in historic times. Some
craft specialization was likely, as one individual would
have been more skilled than another at producing a
particular item, but all individuals would have been
capable of manufacturing needed items.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. Probably
there was equal access to all plant and animal resources,
but owing to ability and spirit-conferred power some
individuals would have been more successful than
others (historic narratives). There was unequal distribu-
tion of trade goods, as noted by historic accounts, which
describe the rise of entrepreneurs or middle-men whose
status accrued through redistribution. This pattern was
probably established during the Thule tradition as
contact with Siberia for trade items has been demon-
strated. Burials in the Old Bering Sea/Okvik sites of
Ekven and Uelen on the Chukotsk peninsula of Siberia
also indicate differences in the amount of grave goods,
suggesting that there were high-status individuals who
had greater access to goods than others.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. Probable kin-based societies with
local exogamy, but little data are available for the
prehistoric period. Historic data indicate exogamous
kindred with some suggestion of lineal descent in the
pattern of patrilineal inheritance of crest elements
among Yukon Delta Eskimo.
Political Organization. Band level of political organiza-
tion with local headman and possible council of hunters.
Armor and war arrows found in Punuk phase sites
suggest a strong man/warrior status. Presence of whal-
ing implements and extensive whalebone in the Punuk
phase also suggests the presence of whaling crews. Such
crews in historic times would have consisted of kin
members with highest status accorded to the boat owner
(whaling captain) and his wife. In a large village, several
whaling crews could have been present as in the historic
Thule 211
village at Point Hope. Boat owners (captains) would
also have been the prime participants in trade as they
were in historic times.
Social Control. Individual behavior was probably gov-
erned by sanctions imposed by other members of the
society rather than by punitive measures. Ethnographic
accounts reveal that individuals were free to leave a
particular group at any time and join relatives in other
camps or villages when disagreements arose or there
were failures in leadership.
Conflict. Conflict between villages or rival factions has
been noted in Punuk phase sites by the presence of
armor and war arrows, burials of males killed in warfare
(Gambell site on S1. Lawrence island), and the report of
a palisade at the village of Wales on the tip of Seward
peninsula. Possible sources of conflict were due to efforts
to control trade or to gain access to important locations
along the migration route of whales.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Art styles in Okvik and Old Bering
Sea phases indicate animistic belief in animal and plant
spirit forces. Carvings of animal designs on harpoon
heads suggest that this added a spirit power to the
hunting implement. Mask plaques portray bird forms as
well as transformed creatures. The presence of shamans
is indicated by the items associated with the Old Bering
Sea burial at the site of Ekven in Siberia. Raven was
seen as a spirit helper with bird foot designs (Y figures)
frequently appearing in design elements.
Ceremonies. Probable curing rituals are indicated by the
presence of sucking tubes (soul catchers) that were used
by shamans with the assistance of their animal helping
spirits. The transformation of the shaman is illustrated
by a carving on an ivory pottery paddle. The shaman is
shown with the feet of a bear and probably represents
the beginning of his transformation prior to his spirit
journey to find a cure for his patient or to restore the
balance of nature.
Arts. Okvik and Old Bering Sea art styles emphasized
curvilinear forms with split animal motifs. This natu-
ralistic form was changed to a more geometric style
during the Punuk period, but remained well executed as
a balanced art style. A wide variety of objects was
decorated. Art was seen in historic times as a form of
magic; that is, the creation of beautiful or well-made
212 Thule
hunting implements was thought to be pleasing to the
animal spirits.
Death and Afterlife. Death masks placed over the faces
of the deceased were noted in burials. Hunting imple-
ments, domestic tools, and decorated objects were also
placed in graves, indicating concepts of or belief in an
afterlife where these items would be required.
Suggested Readings
Ackerman, Robert (1984). Prehistory: "The Asian Eskimo Zone." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas, 106-118. Handbook of North American
Indians. vol. 5, W. C. Sturtevant, gen. ed. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution press.
Arutiunov, Sergei, and William W. Fitzhugh (1988). "Prehistory of
Siberia and the Bering Sea." In Crossroads of Continents, ed.
W. W. Fitzhugh and A. Crowell, 117-129. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press.
Arutiunov, Sergei A., and Dorian Sergeev (1968). "Two Millennia of
Cultural Evolution of Bering Sea Hunters." Arctic Anthropology 5
(I): 72-75.
Arutiunov, Sergei A., Maxime G. Levin, and Dorian A. Sergeev
(1964). "Ancient Cemeteries of the Chukchi Peninsula." Arctic
Anthropology 2 (I): 143-154.
Bandi, Hans-Georg (1969). Eskimo Prehistory. Fairbanks: University
of Alaska Press.
Bockstoce, John (1979). The Archaeology of Cape Nome, Alaska.
University Museum Monographs, 38. Philadelphia.
Bronstein, Mikhail, and Patrick Plumet (1964). "Ekven: L'Art
prehistorique beringien et l'approche russe de l'origine de la
tradition Culturelle esquimaude." Etudes/Inuit/Studies 19 (2): 5-59.
Collins, Henry B. (1930). "Prehistoric Art of the Alaskan Eskimo."
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 81 (14).
Collins, Henry B. (1937). "Archaeological Excavations of St. Law-
rence Island." Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 96 (I).
Collins, Henry B. (1973). "Eskimo Art." In The Far North, 2000 Years
of American Eskimo and Indian Art, 1-131. Washington, D.C.:
National Gallery of Art.
Dumond, Don E. (1998). The Hillside Site, St. Lawrence Island,
Alaska: An Examination of Collections from the 1930s. Eugene:
University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, No. 55.
Dumond, Don E. (1987). The Eskimos and Aleuts. Rev. paper ed.
Ancient Peoples and Places. New York Thames and Hudson.
Fitzhugh, William W., and Aron Crowell (1988). Crossroads of the
Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press.
Fitzhugh, William W., and Susan A. Kaplan, eds. (1982). Inua: Spirit
World of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press.
Ford, James A. (1959). Eskimo Prehistory in the Vicinity of Point
Barrow, Alaska. New York: Anthropological Papers of the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History 47 (I).
Geist, Otto W., and Froelich G. Rainey (1936). Archaeological
Investigations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Miscellaneous
Publications of the University of Alaska, No.2. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
Giddings, James L. (1960). "The Archaeology of Bering Strait."
Current Anthropology I (2): 121-138.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archaeology of Cape Krusenstern. National Park Service Publica-
tions in Archaeology, No. 20. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department
of the Interior.
Harritt, R. K. (1995). "The Development and Spread of the Whale
Hunting Complex in Bering Strait: Retrospective and Prospects." In
Hunting the largest Animals: Native Whaling In the Western Arctic
and Subarctic, ed. A. P. McCartney, 33-50. Studies in Whaling. No.
3. Occasional Publication. No. 36. University of Alberta, Edmon-
ton: Canadian Circumpolar Institute.
Larsen, Helge E., and Froelich G. Rainey (1948). Ipiutak and the Arctic
Whale Hunting Culture. New York: Anthropological Papers of the
American Museum of Natural History, 42.
Levin, Maxime G., and Dorian A. Sergeev (1965). "The Penetration of
Iron into the Arctic: The First Find of an Iron Implement in a Site of
the Old Bering Sea Culture." In The Archaeology and Geomorpho-
logy of Northern Asia, ed. H. N. Michael, 319-326. Anthropology of
the North: Translations from Russian Sources. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press.
Mason, Owen K. (1998). "The Contest between the Ipiutak, Old
Bering Sea, and Birnirk Polities and the Origin of Whaling during
the First Millennium A.D. along Bering Strait." Journal of Anthro-
pological Archaeology 17: 240-325.
Mathiassen, Therkel (1927). Archaeology of the Central Eskimo, Part 2:
The Thule Culture and its Position within the Eskimo Culture.
Copenhagen: Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921-1924,
vol. 4.
Maxwell, Moreau S. (1985). Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando:
Academic Press.
McCartney, Allen P., Hiroaki Okada, Atsuko Okada, and William
Workman, eds. (1998). "North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime
Societies: The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal
Peoples". Arctic Anthropology 35 (I).
McGhee, Robert (1978). Canadian Arctic Prehistory. Toronto: Van
Nostrand Reinhold.
Rainey, Froelich G. (1941). Eskimo Prehistory: The Okvik Site on the
Punuk Islands. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American
Museum of Natural History, 37 (4).
Rudenko, Sergei I. (1960). The Ancient Culture of the Bering Sea and
the Eskimo Problem. Arctic Institute of North America, Anthropo-
logy of the North: Translations from Russian Sources. No. I.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Stanford, Denis (1976). The Walakpa Site, Alaska: Its Place in
the Birnirk and Thule Cultures. Smithsonian Contributions to
Anthropology. No. 20. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institu-
tion press.
Taylor, William E., Jr. (1963). "Hypotheses on the Origin of Canadian
Thule Culture." American Antiquity 28 (4): 456-464.
Utermohle, Charles. "The Origin of the Inpuiat: The Position of the
Birnirk Culture in Eskimo Prehistory." In The Late Prehistoric
Development of Alaska's Native Peoples, ed. R. D. Shaw, R. K.
Harritt, and D. E. Dumond, 37-46. Aurora Monograph, 4.
Anchorage: Alaska Anthropological Association.
ROBERT E. ACKERMAN
Department of Anthropology
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington
United States
Western Arctic Small Tool
ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 4700-2500 B.P.
RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Northern Archaic
tradition, with terminal portions of which it coexisted;
precedes the Norton tradition, a modified descendant
with portions of which remnant Western Arctic Small
Tool assemblages coexisted. Some researchers in North
Alaska expand the Western Arctic Small Tool tradition
to also include the Norton tradition.
LOCATION: Tundra-covered coastal hinterland of Alaska
from the Alaska peninsula in the southwest to the
present Canadian border in the northeast, with heavy
occupation of the Brooks range. Scattered vestiges
reported south of the Alaska peninsula on the Kenai
peninsula.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Numerous relatively
narrow microblades; bipointed projectile points and side
blades suggesting the presence of the bow and arrow,
indented base points possibly used as harpoon inserts,
delicate burins, and well fashioned scrapers, of chipped
chalcedony, all noted for small size and delicacy of
workmanship with long parallel and narrow flake scars;
some few larger knives of chipped flinty stone; small
chipped adze blades with polished bits; grooving tools
with polished bits, often termed "burin-like" tools.
Houses are known from only a few sites located at rivers
and lakes in the interior portions of the occupation
range; these are usually roughly square, 3-5 m on a side,
and excavated into the contemporary surface up to
0.5 m; more ephemeral campsites are much more
widespread, a small minority of them at coastal
locations.
REGIONAL SUBTRADITIONS: Denbigh Flint complex, South-
ern Small Tool complex.
IMPORTANT SITES: Iyatayet, Cape Krusenstern, Onion
portage, Punyik point, Mosquito lake, Kuzitrin lake,
Brooks river.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Climate. The tradition appears at or nearly at the end of
the climatic optimum, as the temperature is cooling.
Arctic or Arctic-trending regions are characterized on
the winter coast by shore-fast or heavy drift ice,
with much of the zone of occupation above the Arctic
circle.
Topography. Relatively flat and swampy tundra on the
coast and in the near hinterland; sites are common in the
treeless Brooks range of mountains, nearly absent in
boreal forest.
213
214 Western Arctic Small Tool
Geology. Arctic Alaska coastal regions are glacial out-
wash, little consolidated, with river mouths drowned by
post-Pleistocene sea-level rise. Some areas are marked
by prograding beach deposits that postdate 5000 B.P.
Mountains of both sedimentary folding and volcanic
origin rise abruptly from glacial plains; although some
include active volcanoes and both ancient and recent
volcanic deposits, the region for the most part is
tectonically stable.
Biota. The region was characterized by expanding
forests in the interior, migrating caribou, coastal sea
mammals (whales, walrus, migrating seals where salient
points of land stretch toward migration paths, harbor
seals ubiquitous); seabirds, waterfowl. Moose were gen-
erally absent during the period. Fish are plentiful to
rare in lakes; some migratory species (salmon, char)
are plentiful in streams, especially in the south. Use of
plants is unknown, but may have included berries, some
greens in the short summer season.
Settlements
Settlement System. Sites of relatively permanent habi-
tations (semisubterranean) are known in a very few
locations well away from the coast in the interior
portions of the cultural range. Ephemeral campsites,
often with debris concentrated in such a way as to
indicate the use of shelters such as tents, are more
common, occurring especially on lakes or streams in
caribou passes in the Brooks range in the north, but also
along other interior streams and lake shores, suggesting
an interest in fishing (a focus strongest in the south) and
on the seacoast in a limited number of places. The
overall pattern suggests winter dwelling in the interior,
with seasonal movement to coastal locations or streams
or caribou passages in a yearly round.
Community Organization. Semisedentary in part, but
with a larger component regularly migratory. No evi-
dence of special-use structures or sites. No evidence of
special burying grounds. No evidence of larger or more
impressive living arrangements. The implication is of an
egalitarian hunting people.
Housing. In all four to five sites in which evidence of
constructed habitations is reported, some or all known
habitations are semisubterranean, squarish, 3-5 m on a
side, usually with sloping entryway. In one, additional
evidence is of patterned occupation suggestive of a
semipermanent winter tent structure with peripheral
pole supports and internal fire. Campsites include
scatters around campfires with little apparent organiza-
tion, to more concentrated scatters suggestive of the use
of tents that confined activities. No special structures of
any kind appear to be indicated.
Population, Health, and Disease. Information here is
lacking, but the long-term stability of the pattern (more
than a half-millennium) in all areas well represented and
the lack of appreciable change through the period in
tool style or frequency and in habitation pattern imply a
general stability in population size and a concurrent
satisfactory adaptation to subsistence resources.
Economy
Subsistence. Distributional evidence suggests a major
reliance on caribou in much of the region of occupation,
although in few sites is there preserved faunal evidence
to support the conclusion. That lake fishing may have
been important in the more northerly region is suggested
by the common presence of sites at such locations, but in
the south it is clear both from locational and faunal
evidence that salmonid fish, presumably migrating
salmon, were a mainstay. Sites on the coast are few,
but suggestive of some visits for sealing, presumably in
spring when seals along narrow leads in the breaking ice
could be pursued with much the same techniques as used
for terrestrial species.
Industrial Arts. Manufacture of stone implements was
predominantly by carefully controlled pressure chip-
ping, in which great skill is evident. Polishing was
employed in only a few select areas of manufacture.
Organic artifacts are almost nonexistent for reasons of
preservation. Ceramics are lacking in all definitively
identified Western Arctic Small Tool assemblages.
Utensils. Narrow microblades pressed from cores in
which the platforms are generally at an oblique angle
from the blade-producing face are the most common
single artifact in the majority of sites. Their function
however is uncertain; there is no evidence for the
insetting of blade sections in the edges of projections of
organic material, and it is possible that a major use of
the bladelets was in tailoring. Burins, although produced
by well-controlled burin blows, are delicate and appar-
ently suitable for only the lightest of grooving tasks.
Burin spalls, on the other hand, were plentiful and
commonly preserved for use as graver tips. Small
bipointed end and side blades are numerous, suggesting
use in lances, knives, and especially arrows. Of lesser
number are indented-based projectile tips probably used

to arm harpoon heads of organic material. All these
stone utensils tended to be made of high-quality cryp-
tocrystalline silicates. Adze blades are small, chipped
of glassy volcanic or metamorphic rocks with polished
bits, as is a relatively small class of burin-like imple-
ments with polished rather than percussion-formed bits.
The almost total absence of organic remains from the
sites precludes description of this category of industry
that surely existed.
Ornaments. No ornaments are known, the common lip
ornaments or labrets of succeeding times having not yet
appeared in the region. The common preservation and
secondary modification of burin spalls as engraving
tools suggest some engraving art, which has not
survived.
Trade. In general, the level of trade is unknown. With
regard to stone for artifacts, any trading networks
appear to have been small, with stone generally from
relatively local but high-quality sources. Obsidian, for
instance, was generally used only moderate distances
from sources, although in a few cases it appears to have
moved as much as 400 km from the source.
Division of Labor. The organization of labor is un-
known, with no clearly demonstrated gender-related
tool assemblages. The presumption of such division thus
rests on generalized ethnographic information from
hunting peoples about the division of labor by sex, with
the qualification that the lesser availability of vegetal
subsistence foodstuffs in far northern regions suggests a
greater reliance on meat. The tentative conclusions,
therefore, are that men performed most of the basic
hunting tasks, with women the crucial supporting roles
in hide preparation and preparation of foodstuffs for
both consumption and storage.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. House and campsite (tent?) sizes
suggest the predominance of the nuclear family as a
social and productive unit, with total camps or commu-
nities commonly composed of no more than half a
dozen such units. This bespeaks the presence of no more
than small bands at all times of the year.
Political Organization. There is no clear evidence of
political organization, save that the apparently restricted
size of effective social units suggests movements and
decisions by consensus rather than direction.
Western Arctic Small Tool 215
Conflict. Although there is no direct evidence of conflict,
the indication in many sites of a Western Arctic Small
Tool replacement of people of Northern Archaic Tradi-
tion (which evidently continued to exist in some hinter-
lands) suggests the possibility of interethnic conflicts.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Arts. The perfect detail in many of the chipped stone
artifacts suggests both an artistic approach to manufac-
tures and an appreciation for aspects such as the colors
of stone used. The common presence of what are
evidently engraving (as distinct from more grossly
formed grooving) tools is suggestive of an engravers'
art, but the organic materials in which it must have been
realized has not survived.
Suggested Readings
Anderson, Douglas D. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol.5,
ed. W. C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 80-93.
Anderson, Douglas D. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River. Fairbanks: Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Dumond, Don E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960--1975. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, No.2!,
Dumond, Don E. (1984). "Prehistory of the Bering Sea Region." In
Arctic, ed. D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol.5,
ed. W. C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 94--105.
Giddings, James L. (1964). The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. Provi-
dence: Brown University Press.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Harritt, Roger K. (1998). "Paleo-Eskimo Beginnings in North
America: A New Discovery at Kuzitrin Lake, Alaska." Etudes/
Inuit/Studies 22 (2): 61-82.
Irving, William N. (1964). "Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool
Tradition." Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Workman, William (1996). "Human Colonization of the Cook Inlet
Basin before 3000 Years Ago." In Adventures through Time:
Readings in the Anthropology of Cook Inlet, Alaska, ed. N. Y. Davis
and W.E. Davis. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society, 37-48.
SUBTRADITIONS
Denbigh Flint
TIME PERIOD: 4700-2500 B.P.
LOCATION: Tundra-covered coastal hinterland of Alaska
from Seward peninsula in the southwest to the present
216 Western Arctic Small Tool
Canadian border in the northeast, with fairly heavy
occupation in the north Alaskan Brooks range.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Relatively narrow
microblades and remnant cores or core fragments;
chipped, bipointed projectile points and side blades;
indented-base points possibly used to arm harpoons;
delicate burins and the spalls forming them, the latter
used as engraving tools; end scrapers with relatively
broad, steep blades; some small chipped adze blades
with polished bits. Although they include the micro-
blades, burins, burin spalls, and side blades, sites from
the Brooks range are described as manifesting a some-
what greater variety of end blades than those in Western
Alaska (Kunz 1977). Although the difference may be
sufficient to eventually support a separate regional
subtradition, reportage of Brooks range collections is
presently inadequate to support such a separation.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The region extends some 250 km south of the Arctic
circle, including a treeless, tundra area forming the
hinterland of coasts ice fast in winter; in the north, it
stretches from the coast of the Arctic ocean south to the
summit of the Brooks range. Aside from the few coastal
sites apparently situated for pursuit of seals in spring
(Giddings 1964; Giddings and Anderson 1986: 273-291),
locations are in caribou migration areas, favoring passes
and high lakes (see Dumond 1982: Table 1, Fig. I).
Settlements
Elaborated habitations are known from only two
sites in the western interior, one of them concluded to
have had an earlier house of rectangular form excavated
into the ground, giving way to a later or "Classic"
period with a round, surface habitation 2-4 m in
diameter, with central hearth (Anderson 1988: 100-
lOl); the other site revealed a small cluster of houses
roughly square, semisubterraneanean, with sunken
hearths and sloping entrance passages (Irving 1964).
Other sites, including the few on the coast, are charac-
terized by ephemeral campsites in which some artifact
clusters near hearth areas may represent tent locations.
Economy
In the absence of preserved faunal remains at the
type site on Cape Denbigh, relatively broad stone points
were thought to have armed harpoons and were taken
as evidence of sea-mammal hunting, whereas small end
and side blades were concluded to indicate the hunting
of terrestrial animals. The much higher frequency of
the latter supported the conclusion that the site was
chiefly a caribou hunting camp, despite its location, and
that sealing was a brief seasonal activity only (Giddings
1964: 239-243). A similar conclusion was reached for
similar reasons at the other major coastal Denbigh Flint
site on Cape Krusenstern (Giddings and Anderson 1986:
290). This concept is supported by the distribution of
interior sites, which invariably are found in areas of
caribou migration, especially north of the boreal forest in
the Brooks range. At two of these, Onion portage and
Punyik point, the presence of relatively permanent hab-
itation structures in addition to campsites suggests some
winter occupation (Anderson 1988; Irving 1964), and
Punyik point, with one of the few cases of preserved
faunal remains, specifically confirms a heavy reliance on
caribou. Artifactually, such a reliance appears also to be
supported by the consistently high frequencies of burins
and of microblades in Denbigh Flint sites, the former
(even though delicate) considered to have been involved
in the engraving and carving of antler, the latter in
tailoring hides. Evidence for trade is not strong, being
most clearly supported by the presence of obsidian in a
number of the northern sites. Although final results of on-
going research in obsidian distribution have not been pre-
sented, some of the material appears to have been traded
400 km or more from its Alaskan sources (Cook 1995).
Sociopolitical Organization
Evidence is for largely transitory occupations sug-
gestive of fairly constant migratory movements by small
groups, with some groups possibly maintaining fairly
permanent winter habitations. There is no evidence for
specialized structures of any kind, of special burial
areas, of individual elaboration of habitations, of spe-
cialized practitioners of any sort, including with reli-
gious focus. These indications support the presumption
of a family and band organization among egalitarian
hunting people.
Religion and Expressive Culture
No burial or ceremonial sites are known. The
absence of preserved objects of organic materials rules
out most evidence of artistic elaboration, although the
delicacy of work in chipped stone, often featuring
chalcedony of striking colors, suggests a developed
aesthetic cannon with regard to utilitarian objects.

References
Anderson, Douglas D. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska. Fairbanks:
Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 22 (1-2).
Cook, John P. (1995). "Characterization and Distribution of Obsidian
in Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 32 (1): 92-100.
Dumond, Don E. (1982). "Trends and Traditions in Alaskan
Prehistory: The Place of Norton Culture." Arctic Anthropology 19
(2): 39-52.
Giddings, James L. (1964). The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. Provi-
dence: Brown University Press.
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Irving, William N. (1964). "Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool
Tradition." Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Kunz, Michael L. (1977). "Mosquito Lake Site (PSM-049)." In
Pipeline Archeology, ed. J. P. Cook. Fairbanks: University of Alaska
Institute of Arctic Biology, 747-982.
Southern Small Tool
TIME PERIOD: 4200-3100 B.P.
LOCATION: Alaska and Kenai peninsulas. Ephemeral
traces of possibly related occupations have also been
reported for the uppermost Susitna river drainage
(Irving 1957) as well as from the valleys of the Goodness
and Eek rivers (Ackerman 1980), both of the latter of
which debouch into the southern Bering sea south of the
mouth of the Kuskokwim river, but the identifications
are incompletely documented.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Small end blades,
usually bipointed, but some with set-off stems; broader
side blades; well-fashioned end and side scrapers; small
chipped adze blades with polished bits; a small number
of struck burins; grooving tools with polished bits often
called "burin-like" tools; a very small number of
microblades. The limited microblades and burins, as
well as the apparent heavy reliance on migrating fish in
addition to caribou, set this group apart from the
Denbigh Flint complex to the north.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
On the Bering sea slope of the Alaska peninsula, the
coast is ice bound, the coastal hinterland a modified
Arctic tundra. The Southwestern Kenai peninsula is less
Western Arctic Small Tool 217
open, an area into which spruce forests spread long
before the appearance of Western Arctic Small Tool-
related people (Ager and Sims 1982). Rivers in both
areas receive substantial runs of salmon of various
species (Kessler 1985). Both areas presently, as anciently,
are home to caribou herds that migrate seasonally
through the territory (Hemming 1971).
Settlements
The only well-sampled site, Brooks river on the
Alaska peninsula, has the largest concentration of rela-
tively permanent habitations yet reported, with more
than 100 (semisubterranean, roughly square, c. 4 m on a
side) believed to be present along the 2-km-long river
(Dumond 1981), although few of these would have been
occupied at anyone time. Apparently similar individual
houses have been sampled in the Ugashik river drainage
(Henn 1978) and at the head of the K vichak river
(Holmes and McMahan 1996) on the same peninsula.
Related artifact assemblages are reported from Kache-
mak bay on the Kenai peninsula (Workman 1996),
but without habitation features, suggesting ephemeral
campsites such as those also known from well-explored
regions such as Brooks river that contain houses
(Dumond 1981).
Economy
The three sites in which semi subterranean habita-
tions are known (Dumond 1981; Henn 1978; Holmes
and McMahan 1996) lie on the banks of Alaska
peninsula streams that receive massive yearly runs of
Pacific salmon, as well as within zones through which
caribou migrate. In the only one of the locations with
preserved faunal remains (albeit there in only small
amounts), the evidence is chiefly for the taking of
salmonid fish (Dumond 1981: 121). Although both the
location and the high frequency of small bipointed end
and side blades (indicating bow and arrow) imply that
the hunting of caribou was not slighted, these circum-
stances, together with the relative rarity of chipped
burins and microblades, suggest that the caribou staple
of the Denbigh Flint sub tradition was significantly
modified in the south by at least an equal reliance on
salmon. Whether sites of the southwestern Kenai
peninsula (Workman 1996) represent seasonal pursuit
of sea mammals is not determinable with the sample
available. Evidence for trade in the Southern Small Tool
subtradition is even poorer than in the Denbigh Flint
region, with no obsidian reported from the southern
sites.
218 Western Arctic Small Tool
Sociopolitical Organization
Despite the relatively large number of houses (14)
sampled at the single Brooks river locality, there is no
significant indication of differences in size or content,
suggesting an egalitarian fishing and hunting society,
living in semi sedentary base camps as well as other more
ephemeral camping sites, with status differences limited
to age, sex, and individual ability.
Religion and Expressive Culture
No burial or ceremonial sites are known. The
absence of preserved objects of organic materials rules
out most evidence of artistic elaboration, although the
delicacy of work in chipped stone, often featuring
chalcedony of striking colors, suggests a developed
aesthetic cannon with regard to utilitarian objects.
References
Ackerman, Robert E. (1980). Southwestern Alaska Archeological Survey
1978: Akhlun-Eek Mountains Region. Pullman: Washington State
University, Laboratory of Anthropology, Arctic Research Section.
Ager, Thomas A., and John D. Sims (1982). "Late Quaternary Pollen
Record from Hidden Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska." Palynology 6:
271-272.
Dumond, Don E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960-1975. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, No. 21.
Irving, William N. (1957). "An Archaeological Survey of the Susitna
Valley."Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 6 (1):
37-52.
Hemming, James E. (1971). The Distribution Movement Patterns of
Caribou in Alaska. n.p.: Alaska Department of Fish and Game,
Game Technical Bulletin, No. 1.
Henn, Winfield (1978). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Ugashik Drainage, 1973-1975. Eugene: University of Oregon
Anthropological Papers, No. 14.
Holmes, Charles E., and J. David McMahan (1996). 1994 Archaeo-
logical Investigations at the Igiugig Airport Site (ILI-002). Anchor-
age: Office of History and Archaeology Report, No. 57.
Kessler, Doyne W. (1985). Alaska's Saltwater Fishes and Other Sea
Life. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing Company.
Workman, William (1996). "Human Colonizations of the Cook Inlet
Basin before 3000 Years Ago." In Adventures through Time:
Realdings in the Anthropology of Cook Inlet, Alaska, ed. N. Y. Davis
and W. E. Davis. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society, 37-48.
SITES
Brooks River
TIME PERIOD: 3600-3100 B.P.
LOCATION: Upper portion of the Naknek river system,
in the geographical center-but on the Bering sea
slope-of the northern Alaska peninsula, which forms
the southern shore of the Bering sea.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Two-km-Iong Brooks river drains Brooks lake into
Naknek lake, which in turn flows into the Naknek river
and the Bering sea, forming part of a system that
receives massive runs of Pacific salmon from midsum-
mer to fall. It is now fringed by spruce forest, which
invaded the region within the past 500 years; earlier the
cover was birch, alder, and willow interspersed with
grass (Heusser 1963) and is near the northern limit of
winter migration of the Alaska peninsula caribou herd
in decades in which the herd is of substantial size
(Hemming 1971). The modified Arctic climate of the
northwestern side of the peninsula is dominated by the
winter-icebound Bering sea, while blocked from medi-
ating influences of the North Pacific by the Aleutian
range of mountains. Bering sea and Pacific coasts are
equidistant at 80 km, the former reached by down-
stream river journey, the latter by passes through the
mountains, some less than 500 m elevation.
Physical Features
Short Brooks river evolved over the past 8000 years
as the Naknek river downcut through end moraines of
terminal Pleistocene glaciers, leaving a complex system
of fossil lake and river terraces that have been divided
into 22 localities for recording purposes. Of 12 terraces
believed to have formed by 3500 B.P., 9 have yielded
remains of the southern facies of the Western Arctic
Small Tool tradition. Individual occupation zones
are both single occupation and stratified, Western
Arctic Small Tool (locally, Brooks River Gravels
phase) material appearing below deposits of material
of the Norton or later Thule traditions (Dumond 1981:
15-27). Volcanism has been recurrent, as indicated by
more than 10 sequential deposits recognized in the area
(Dumond 1979, 1981: 11-13).
Cultural Aspects
Occupation during the Western Arctic Small Tool
period was substantial. In addition to campsites con-
sisting of campfires and scattered artifacts, square
habitations about 4 m on a side, excavated up to
0.5 m into the contemporary surface, with central

fireplace, entered by a sloping passageway, and with
evidence of at least some sod blocks having been on the
roof, are plentiful (more than 100 have been estimated
as present) and suggest winter occupation. Faunal de-
bris is little preserved, but has included fragments of
smashed mammal bone, calcined bones apparently
identifiable as trout and salmon, and plentiful teeth of
salmonids presumed to also represent salmon (Dumond
1981: 120-131); the latter attests a summer occupation.
Indirect evidence against the possible exploitation of
caribou may rest in the very small number of burins and
of microblades recovered from the various sites, which
appear to indicate a lack of heavy attention to antler or
skin working. Although this might suggest occupation
was largely confined to summer, when salmon were
running, the nature of the houses argues against it, and
evidence for use of the bow and arrow implies terrestrial
hunting.
Although some variations in artifact raw material as
well as slight differences in artifact form once suggested
the possibility of dividing the Small Tool occupations
into sequential phases (e.g., Dumond 1963), enlarge-
ment of the sample of both artifacts and radiocarbon
dates makes it clear that the variation was within a
single temporal unit that resisted division. Aspects of
food preparation are implied by a common feature, both
within and outside houses, in which box-like structures
of stone slabs or river rocks 40-50 cm in diameter are
associated with both charcoal remains and fire-cracked
rocks, which invariably lie outside, rather than inside,
the stone enclosures. The evidence for consistent stone
boiling as a cooking technique is clear. Portable artifacts
include especially small end blades apparently for
insertion into arrows, side blades, well-made small end
and side scrapers (not unlike those called "flake knives"
farther north), small chipped adzes with polished bits, a
very few burin-like groovers with polished bits, as well
as a similarly small number of both chipped burins and
microblades.
References
Dumond, Don E. (1963). "Two Early Phases from the Naknek
Drainage." Arctic Anthropology I (2): 93~I04.
Dumond, Don E. (1979). "People and Pumice on the Alaska
Peninsula." In Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology, ed.
P. D. Sheets and D. K. Grayson. New York: Academic Press
373~392.
Dumond, Don E. (1981). Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Naknek Region, 1960-1975. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthro-
pological Papers, 21.
Hemming, James E. (1971). The Distribution Movement Patterns of
Caribou in Alaska. n.p.: Alaska Department of Fish and Game,
Wildlife Technical Bulletin, 1.
Western Arctic Small Tool 219
Heusser, Calvin J. (1963). "Postglacial Palynology and Archaeology in
the Naknek River Drainage Area, Alaska." American Antiquity 29
(I): 74-81.
Cape Krusenstern
TIME PERIOD: 4200-3500 B.P.
LOCATION: Northern shore of Kotzebue sound, north-
western Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
A complex of sequentially formed ocean beach
ridges that border the sea for more than 12 km was
numbered by the chief investigators at 114 (Giddings
and Anderson 1986: 15-18), but described by others as
composed of about 70 principal ridges and as many as
44 ridge fragments (Mason et al. 1995). Behind the
complex of beaches, against higher ground of the
mainland was the so-called Lower Bench locality.
Formed before the beaches themselves, at the post-
Pleistocene rise of sea to approximately its present
relative level, the bench abutting the shore cliffs would
have provided access to shore-haunting sea mammals as
well as to nesting areas of shore birds. Cape Krusenstern
is a short distance north of the Arctic circle. Seaward
ridges are exposed gravel and sand, which landward are
covered with herbacious vegetation.
Physical Features
The sequence of ridges was used to infer chronology
for the scattering of sites on them. Counting from the
sea edge, some ridges among those numbered 80 to 83,
90, and 102 to 104 contained remains assigned to an
aspect of the Denbigh Flint sub tradition (Giddings and
Anderson 1986). Sites do not include evidence of
constructed habitations, but consist of scattered hearths
surrounded by a scatter of artifacts or simple chipping
' stations. On Beaches 84-89, no sites were located.
Material from Beaches 80-83 and 90 was assigned to a
late aspect (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 273-283; that
on Beaches 102-104 was considered "classic," that is,
comparable to material from the Iyatayet type site.
Although material was collected from the Lower Bench
220 Western Arctic Small Tool
site, much of it was lost in transit (Giddings and
Anderson 1986: 273-283, 290-291, 301-302).
Cultural Aspects
The Denbigh Flint complex materials at Cape
Krusenstern were divided into early and more nearly
"classic" artifact sets corresponding to ridge prove-
nience as indicated above. Although a relation between
them was unquestionable, the later group differed from
the earlier in forms of microbiade cores, of burins, of the
steeply retouched unifaces termed "flake knives", and
material often of poorer quality. Some side blades were
larger, approaching those of the Norton Tradition in
size and form. Bifaces identified as harpoon end-blade
insets were also larger (Giddings and Anderson 1986:
290-291). Apparently still earlier, the small collection
from the Lower Bench locality included chiefly micro-
blades, a side blade, an end blade, and a pair of core
tablets (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 301-303). The
relation of this to the later material clearly of Denbigh
Flint complex affinity is in the final analysis unclear.
No faunal evidence was preserved. Occupations
were predominantly artifact scatters within I m of fire-
reddened areas representing ancient campfires, con-
cluded to have represented tent sites. Location of these
at favorable spring sealing stations, and with the ab-
sence of any trace of constructed (i.e., winter) habita-
tions, leads to the conclusion that all occupations here
are the remains of late spring and early summer seal-
hunting camps. This is also supported by the presence of
triangular end-blade insets, although small end and side
blades suggestive of arrows or spears, implying the
taking of terrestrial game such as caribou, were also
present (Giddings and Anderson 1986: 290). Signifi-
cant evidence of trade relations of any kind is lacking.
Like the Denbigh Flint site at Iyatayet, the deposits
at Cape Krusenstern represented camps occupied for
only a portion of the year, spring, as the ice broke up
and seals could be hunted along the margins of
developing leads. As at Iyatayet, however, there was
no direct evidence for boats or, for that matter, dog
transportation.
References
Giddings, James L., and Douglas D. Anderson (1986). Beach Ridge
Archaeology o/Cape Krusenstern. Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Publications in Archeology, 20.
Mason, Owen K., James W. Jordan, and Lawrence Plug (1995). "Late
Holocene Storm and Sea-Level History in the Chukchi Sea." In
Holocene Cycles: Climate, Sea Levels, and Sedimentation, Fort
Lauderdale, FL: Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 17.
Iyatayet
TIME PERIOD: 4000-3500 B.P.
LOCATION:At Cape Denbigh on Norton bay of Norton
sound, Western Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The stratified site that first yielded the Denbigh Flint
complex is located on two sides of Iyatayet creek at the
northwest edge of Cape Denbigh, in a major bay of
Norton sound south of the Seward peninsula. Grass and
alder thickets now cover the site, from which could be
obtained seals, waterfowl, and shore birds to seaward,
migrating caribou to the landward side.
Physical Features
The grassy areas on both sides of Iyatayet creek
defined the limits of the later (Thule Tradition) Nukleet
occupation, which was marked by surface depressions,
with earlier deposits (Norton and Western Arctic Small
Tool Traditions) located on the north side of the creek
(Giddings 1964: 197), partly covered by alder and
undetected from the surface. Denbigh Flint sub tradition
material underlay both Norton and Nukleet deposits on
that side of the creek (Giddings 1964: 197), in many
places separated from them by sterile silty sand, lying
directly on denser clay (podsol) which gave evidence of
some folding by solifluction (Giddings 1964: 191). In a
small part of the site, the Denbigh Flint layer was
covered directly by a line of peaty sod (Giddings 1964:
197). There was no evidence of excavations conducted
by these earliest occupants of the site, but rather the
deposit was concluded to have been left on the contem-
porary surface, probably on a dense organic layer now
completely dissolved. Seven hearth areas were identified
by soil discoloration, beach pebbles, and charcoal flecks.
Organic materials were not preserved in the Western
Arctic Small Tool deposit (Giddings 1964: 195-198).
Cultural Aspects
In this, the earliest discovery of a site of the Alaskan
Western Arctic Small Tool Tradition, no indications of
habitations were recognized other than the campfire

areas, nor were cache pits, leading to the conclusion that
the site was of other than winter occupation. Portable
artifacts for the most part were made of high-quality
cherts, most prominently including delicately chipped
and leaf-shaped side or end blades, of a size suitable for
arming arrows; some slightly broader and roughly
triangular bifaces tentatively thought to have armed
harpoons; rather delicate burins and small artifacts
(engraving tips?) made from burin spalls; microblades,
but few (two) cores; steeply retouched unifacial scraper-
like artifacts termed "flake knives"; some burin-like
grooving tools with polished bits, of basalt or slate,
termed "creasers" (Giddings 1964: 201-238). No lamps,
notched sinkers, or polished adze blades were recognized
in the in situ layer, although more recent research has
amply demonstrated the use of small chipped adze
blades, often with polished bits (e.g., Anderson 1984: 84).
In the absence of preserved faunal remains, supposed
harpoon points were taken as evidence of sea-mammal
hunting, small end and side blades of the hunting of
caribou and smaller game. The quantity of the latter led
to the proposal that the site was primarily a caribou-
hunting camp, despite its coastal location, and that its
people visited Iyatayet only seasonally, which included
some sealing. The chert raw materials used for the
majority of the implements were deemed to be nonlocal,
suggesting either trade or, more likely, transport to the
site by the people themselves, whose territory included
additional sources of stone (Giddings 1964: 239-243).
References
Anderson. (1984). "Prehistory of North Alaska." In Arctic, ed.
D. Damas. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, ed. W. C.
Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 80-93.
Giddings, James L. (1964). The Archeology of Cape Denbigh.
Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Kuzitrin Lake
TIME PERIOD: 4700--3700 B.P.
LOCATION: Kuzitrin lake, in almost the geographical
center of Seward peninsula, Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
The shallow lake is almost 5 km in length, 1 km in
width, situated at an elevation a little over 400 m in a
Western Arctic Small Tool 221
basalt-fringed upland of ancient volcanic activity. Veg-
etation is generally open, although with thickets of
willow and alder along streams; dwarf shrub tundra
covers uplands and ridge crests, with grass in lowlands.
A local population of musk oxen and a regional caribou
herd are believed to have been eliminated by hunting
with firearms in historic times. Earlier, caribou were
numerous in the region, one reconstruction suggesting
they had calved on the northern section of the peninsula,
moving south into elevated regions in the summer.
Three species of salmon could be found in summer
migrations into the interior of the area (Rarritt 1994:
16--23).
Physical Features
The Denbigh Flint complex site lies at the west of
the lake, near and among more than 30 late prehistoric
house depressions, and believed to cover an area
estimated to be 100 by 150 m in extent (Rarritt 1994:
210). Features explored included a partially buried oval
of cobble-sized rocks about 4 m in maximum dimension
and an area of apparent living floor or midden.
Cultural Aspects
Surface collections amounted to nearly 300 artifacts,
including debitage, with 37 Denbigh Flint implements
identified, including burins, burin spalls, microblades,
and microblade cores (Rarritt 1998). The features
together yielded about 150 implements. Excavation of
the second feature mentioned revealed a charcoal
concentration identified as portions of a hearth. Such
caribou bone as was encountered was thought to pertain
to upper, post-Denbigh, layers. Although no additional
functional interpretations of the Denbigh Flint deposit
could be made, implements included burins, burins
spalls, portions of end and side blades, microblades,
land cores, a burin-like groover (Rarritt 1994: 476--477).
Presumably, the temporary occupations at Kuzitrin lake
represented seasonal caribou hunters, although the
excavator presumed that evidence of more substantial
structures will ultimately be revealed in the area (Rarritt
1994: 239).
Although excavation was confined to a brief test as a
part of an extensive areal survey, the site is of interest
because of the radiocarbon results, two of which
combine to constitute the earliest specific evidence for
Denbigh Flint and Western Arctic Small Tool occupa-
tion in Alaska, at about 4700 B.P. Two others suggest a
second and later occupation, at 3700 B.P. (Rarritt 1994:
239, 308-309, 1998). The excavator also argued that
222 Western Arctic Small Tool
the evidence suggests a migration into the New World
from Asia of people of so-called "classic" Denbigh
culture, this on the basis of comparisons between the
Kuzitrin assemblage and the Denbigh Flint complex
materials from Iyatayet and Onion portage. With regard
to the latter site, he argues that the Proto-Denbigh, for
which there is an inverted date sequence when compared
with the presumably later "classic" Denbigh (e.g.,
Anderson 1988: 48), should be conceptualized not as
pertaining to the Denbigh Flint complex of the Western
Arctic Small Tool Tradition, but rather as a later group
acculturated in the direction of people of the Northern
Archaic Tradition (Rarritt 1998).
References
Anderson, Douglas E. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska. Fairbanks:
Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 22 (1-2).
Rarritt, Roger K. (1994). Eskimo Prehistory on the Seward Peninsula,
Alaska. Anchorage: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park
Service, Alaska Region, Resources Report NPS/ARORCR/CRR-
93/21.
Rarritt, Roger K. (1998). "Paleo-Eskimo Beginnings in North
America: A New Discovery at Kuzitrin Lake, Alaska." Etudes/
Inuit/Studies 22 (2): 61-82.
Mosquito Lake
TIME PERIOD: 2700-2500 B.P.
LOCATION: Three km southeast of Galbraith lake in
the valley of the Atigun river, an upper tributary of the
Sagavanirktok river high on the north slope of the
Brooks range in North-Central Alaska.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
About 250 km north of the Arctic circle, the
multilocality site is spread over the slope of a bedrock
hill immediately southeast of Mosquito lake and a few
meters above the level of the Atigun river. The site is
crossed by a major path of caribou migrating through
the Atigun valley, which is also home to a resident
population of Dall sheep. Lakes and ponds support lake
trout and grayling, and some Arctic char migrate into
the river (Kunz 1977: 747).
Physical Features
The site is above limestone bedrock that is mantled
with glacial till, which is covered in turn by a typical
northern tundra mat and sparse patches of dwarf birch
and willow; it provides a wide view of the Atigun valley
and Galbraith lake area. Thirteen of the 17 separate
localities of the site yielded material assigned to the
Denbigh Flint complex or subtradition of the Western
Arctic Small Tool Tradition. Eight of the localities
produced charcoal of presumed hearths, in addition to
artifact clusters, the majority of which were within the
top 20 cm of the relatively thin soil (Kunz 1977).
Cultural Aspects
Artifacts of the site characteristic of the Denbigh
Flint sub tradition include microblades, burin spallS'
burins, side blades, end blades or projectile points,
microblade core fragments in order of abundance, with
some larger bifaces, knives, and end scrapers. No
organic materials survived. Five of the Denbigh Flint
localities are interpreted as campsites, one of them
including a tool-making area, a second with minor
evidence of butchering and hide working. One additional
locality was presumed to relate to stone tool manufac-
ture; the remaining seven had no function inferred (Kunz
1977). Obsidian for tools was evidently traded into the
area, presumably from a region south of the Brooks
range nearly 400 km to the southeast (Cook 1995: 95).
The site appears particularly important because of the
radiocarbon evidence, which indicates a temporal place-
ment of major portions of the site at least 1 millennium
later than most Denbigh Flint sites farther west in
Alaska, while tending to confirm the similar late dating
of the Denbigh Flint site at Punyik point on Itivlik lake.
References
Cook, John P. (1995). "Characterization and Distribution of Obsidian
in Alaska." Arctic Anthropology 32 (I) 92-100.
Kunz, Michael L. (1977). "Mosquito Lake Site (PSM-049).'· In
Pipeline Archeology, ed. J. P. Cook. Fairbanks: University of Alaska
Institute of Arctic Biology, 747-982.
Onion Portage
TIME PERIOD: 4100-3500 B.P.
LOCATION: On the right bank of the Kobuk river, about
200 river km upstream from its mouth on Kotzebue
sound.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
A long-time river-bank resting place for travelers on
the Kobuk, at one end of a portage to avoid a great
meander in the channel where a ridge of Jade mountain
thrusts to the river. Thickets of alder and willow,
discontinuous spruce forest, and spongy herbaceous
tundra along portions of the river bank characterize the
area that lies about 60 km north of the Arctic circle
(Anderson 1988: 12; Giddings 1962).
Physical Features
This major stratified site of the riverine interior was
divided by the excavators into eight major bands or
culturallayers, of which Band 4 (counted from the top)
yielded material assigned to the Denbigh Flint complex
or subtradition, with the uppermost level of Band 4
called "Late Denbigh", the bulk of Band 4 designated
"Classic Denbigh", and the uppermost of Band 5
assigned to a unit termed "Proto-Denbigh" (Anderson
1988). Resources of the region include spawning runs of
chum salmon as well as resident fish; migrating caribou
that, although varying significantly from year to year
and decade to decade, are usually heavier in fall;
waterfowl in spring. Distance from the coast has not
prohibited seasonal movements by recent peoples to
obtain sea mammals, either by hunt or by trade.
Cultural Aspects
So-called Classic Denbigh was remarked to be a
rather typical representative of the very homogeneous
Alaskan Western Arctic Small Tool tradition, with the
standard end- and side-blade insets of chipped stone, as
well as some larger bifacially flaked knife blades,
microblades derived from relatively blocky cores with
steep platforms, "mitt-shaped" burins, burin spalls
apparently used for engravings, the unifacially flaked
scraping or cutting implements commonly called "flake-
knives," small chipped adzes with polished bits, and
polished, burin-like groovers (Anderson 1988: 90-100).
Proto-Denbigh material was distinguished by the ab-
sence of the very finely controlled pressure flaking of so-
called Classic Denbigh, as well as of ground burins and
of burin spalls, and the presence of chipped end scrapers
with set-off stems and some large semilunar chipped
bifaces. Comparably, Late Denbigh was noted to have
introduced certain chipping techniques said to charac-
terize the later Choris assemblages of the Norton
Tradition (Anderson 1988: 89). It may be noted that
Western Arctic Small Tool 223
one commentator suggests that Proto-Denbigh should
not be included with the Denbigh Flint complex at all,
but relates more closely to assemblages of the Northern
Archaic Tradition (Harritt 1998).
Identifiable faunal material was absent, but imple-
ments were chiefly those associated with hunting,
butchering, and hide preparation. Three notched stones
were presumed to relate to fishing. Onion portage was
deemed as both a winter dwelling and nonwinter
camping site, with camps of the latter placed in areas
protected from the damp, chilling river breezes now
especially strong in fall (Anderson 1988: 89-102). Houses
of the Classic form were round and 3 to 4 m in diameter,
with a stone-ringed hearth in the center, the habitation
evidently laid out on the surface of the ground; the
nature of the structure has not been described. The
single Proto-Denbigh house, on the other hand, was
rectangular, some 4 m wide, with a square central
hearth; it had been excavated into the ground surface an
estimated 20 cm or more; the entrance was not posi-
tively determined. Internally, the floor was sectioned by
horizontal poles that may have edged a sleeping
platform. The structure was speculated to have been a
tentlike structure constructed of flexible poles set around
the periphery, bent together in the center, and covered
by skins (Anderson 1988: 100-101).
References
Anderson, Douglas E. (1988). Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a
Stratified Site from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska. Fairbanks:
Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 22 (1-2).
Giddings, James L. (1962). "Onion Portage and Other Flint Sites of
the Kobuk River." Arctic Anthropology 1 (1): 6--27.
Harritt, Roger K. (1998). "Paleo-Eskimo beginnings in North Amer-
ica: A New Discovery at Kuzitrin Lake, Alaska." Etudes/Inuit/
Studies 22 (2): 61-82.
Punyik Point
TIME PERIOD: 4000-3000 B.P.
LOCATION:Itivlik lake, near Howard pass in the Western
Brooks range.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Local Environment
Itivlik lake lies at the divide formed by the summit of
the Brooks range, an area of rolling uplands, low but
224 Western Arctic Small Tool
steep mountains, winding valleys, and small cirque
glaciers. Located north of the boreal forest and more
than 200 km north of the Arctic circle, much of the
region is without vegetation save for herbacious tundra
and scattered willow and birch.
Physical Features
Twice a year, the Brooks range is crossed by
migrating sections of the Arctic herd of Alaskan
caribou. In this strategic region for hunters, Itivlik lake
lies at a major divide through which caribou frequently,
although by no means always, pass (Hemming 1971: 7-
11). The largest of nine sites located on the lake, Punyik
point displayed numerous visible depressions, eight of
which were excavated to yield remains of late prehistoric
houses. Three of them were found to have been built
above earlier dwellings, of which one of the Western
Arctic Small Tool Tradition was well enough preserved
to be reasonably salvaged, and another of apparently
similar age was found in more isolated condition.
Middens surrounding several of the later houses pro-
duced Western Arctic Small Tool types of implements
mixed with those of later age. Two midden deposits
produced only Western Arctic Small Tool stone tools
types as well as preserved caribou bones and a few fish
scales (Irving 1962).
Cultural Aspects
The local Western Arctic Small Tool assemblage at
the time of reportage (Irving 1964) was referred to as the
Punyik complex and conceived as a separable aspect
(another being the Denbigh Flint complex of Iyatayet)
of the Small Tool Tradition. In later discussions,
however, and following the terminology in use by most
of the archaeologists working in Northern Alaska, the
Punyik assemblage was simply referred to as a member
of the Denbigh Flint complex (e.g., Irving 1969-70).
In the collections, narrow microblades predominated.
Other implements were primarily bifacially chipped,
with long, parallel, and very narrow flake scars pre-
dominating on end blades, side blades, and burins. The
very few organic artifacts from middens attributable to
the Western Arctic Small Tool occupation included a
slender antler arrowhead and notched root picks of
antler. Houses were roughly square, semisubterranean,
with sunken hearths and sloping entrance passages,
supporting the conclusion that occupation included the
winter season (Irving 1964). This site, excavated in 1954
and 1961, was the first to reveal houses of the tradition.
It was also one of the only sites of the tradition to reveal
through faunal evidence the heavy reliance on caribou,
supporting the conclusion from, for instance, the Iyat-
ayet site, that the subsistence of Denbigh Flint complex
people was oriented especially to caribou procurement.
With a pair of early technology carbon dates suggesting
an occupation date later than 4000 B.P. or even after
3000 B.P. the excavator declared them unbelievably
young (Irving 1964: 320). Later research in other Brooks
range sites, however, tends to support such a place-
ment-as, for instance, at Mosquito Lake to the east
(Kunz 1977).
References
Hemming, James E. (1971). The Distribution Movement Patterns of
Caribou in Alaska. n.p.: Alaska Department of Fish and Game,
Wildlife Technical Bulletin, I.
Irving, William N. (1962). "1961 Field Work in the Western Brooks
Range, Alaska: Preliminary Report." Arctic Anthropology I (I): 76-
83.
Irving, William N. (1964). "Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool
Tradition." Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Irving, William N. (1969-70). "The Arctic Small Tool Tradition."
In Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Anthropologi-
cal and Ethnological Sciences, 1968, Vol. 3. Tokyo and Kyoto:
340-342.
Kunz, Michael L. (1977). "Mosquito Lake Site (PSM-049)." In
Pipeline Archeology, ed. J. P. Cook. Fairbanks: University of Alaska
Institute of Arctic Biology, 747-982.
DON E. DUMOND
Department of Anthropology
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
United States
Index

Achinsk site, Siberia, 193 Aleutian tradition (COlli.) Antler technology (CO/II.)
Afognak Slate site, Alaska, 160-161 location, I Norton, 135, 136-137
Afontova culture, 189 ornaments, 3 Proto-Athapaskan, 169, 172, 175, 176-177
Afontova Gora II site, Siberia, 187 popUlations, 2 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 186, 188, 189
Afterlife, belief in regional subtraditions, I Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 193. 195
of Aleutian people, 4 Central Aleutian, 4-6 Thule, 210
of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people, Eastern Aleutian, 6-7 Western Arctic Small Tool, 216
21 Western Aleutian, 7-9 Arctic Small Tool tradition, interaction with
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 64 religion, 4, 5, 7, 8 Ocean Bay tradition, 155-156. 160. 162
of Late Northwest Coast people, 94, 100 settlements, 2, 5, 6, 8 Annor
of Middle Northwest Coast people, 120 sociopolitical organization, 3-4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 55
of N orton people, 138 subsistence strategies, 2-3 Middle Northwest Coast, 119
of Proto- Athapaskan people, 173 topography. 1-2 Thule, 211
of Thule people, 212 trade. 3 Arthritis
Agattu site, Aleutian islands, 9 utensils. 3 among Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age
Ainu, 165, 166 Alutiiq people. 84 people, 19
Alaska Amaknak D site. Aleutian islands. 9-10 among Late Northwest Coast people, 89
Aleutian tradition, 1-13 Amber. as trade item, of Aleutian people, 3 Assassination, as social control mechanism, 30
Late Tundra tradition, 111-115 Amur Neolithic tradition, 16-17 Athapaskan Indians, 130. 133
Norton tradition, 135-151 Amur Paleolithic tradition, 14-15 Atherosclerosis. among Thule people, 210
Ocean Bay tradition, 152-164 Animism
Aleutian islands, Aleutian tradition, 1-13 of Aleutian people, 4, 5 Badger, as food resource, of Amur Paleolithic peo-
Aleutian tradition, 1-13 of Thule people, 211 pIe. 14
absolute and relative time periods, I Antelope, as food resource Ballynacree site, Ontario, 61, 62, 65
biota, 2 of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 184 Basketry
climate, 1,4-5,6 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 190- Aleutian, 2, 3, 7
community organization, 2 191 Late Northwest Coast. 106
control of resources, 3 of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people. 193 Norton, 138
cultural summary, 1-4 Anthracosis. pulmonary, among Thule people. 210 Proto-Athapaskan, 177
diagnostic material attributes, I Antler technology Beads
division of labor, 3 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18. 20 Aleutian, 3
economy, 2-3, 5, 7, 8 Dorset, 24 Amur Neolithic. 17
environment, 1-2,4-5,6,8,9,10, II, 12, 13 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 29, 33, 35 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 21
expressive culture, 4, 5, 7, 8 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 57 Initial Shield Woodland, 59, 62, 63, 66
geology, 2 Initial Shield Woodland, 59, 62 Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70
housing, 2, 6 Kodiak. 73 Late Northwest Coast, 98, 105
important sites, I, 9-13 Late Northwest Coast, 87, 91, 95, 96, 98, 10 I Middle Northwest Coast, 118
industrial arts, 3 Middle Northwest Coast, 116, 120, 123 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 188

225
226 Index
Bear
as Aleutian species, 2
as food resource
of Amur Neolithic people, 16
of Amur Paleolithic people, 14
of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
people, 48,50,52,53,55
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 6~ I
of Kodiak people, 74
of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90
of Late Tundra people, 113
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133
of Ocean Bay people, 155
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 172,
176
of Thule people, 209
Beaver, as food resource
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 60-61
of Kodiak people, 74
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 172, 176
of Shield Archaic people, 179
Beaver incisor knives, 66
Bel' kachi subtradition, of Holocene Stone Age of
Northeastern Asia tradition, 48, 49-51,
56
Berelekh site, Northeastern Asia, 47
Bettison Point site, Canada, 39-40
Biota
Aleutian, 2
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 19
Dorset, 23
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 28, 32
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 50,
51,53,55
Initial Shield Woodland, 6~1, 65, 66
Kodiak, 72-73
Late Northwest Coast, 88, 98
Late Tundra, 112
Middle Northwest Coast, 117
Northwest Microblade, 130
Norton, 135-136
Ocean Bay, 153-154, 157, 159
Proto-Athapaskan, 170, 174, 176
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 181-182
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 187
Siberian Mousterian, 197-198
Tarya Neolithic, 205
Thule, 209
Western Arctic Small Tool, 214
Bird-bone implements, Aleutian, I
Birds, as food resource
of Aleutian people, 3
of Amur Paleolithic people, 14
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 30, 34, 37,
38,41
of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
people, 47, 48, 50, 55
of Kodiak people, 72, 74
of Proto- Athapaskan people, 170
of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187,
190
of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people,
193-194
of Thule people, 209, 210
Bison, as food resource
of Amur Paleolithic people, 14
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 61
of Late Tundra people, I 13
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170
of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 182
of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187,
190-191
of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people,
193-194
of Siberian Mousterian people, 198
Bloodletting, medicinal, among Kodiak people, 73
Boar, as food resource, of Amur Neolithic people,
16
Boats, see also Canoes; Kayaks
of Thule tradition women, 208
Body painting, see also Ocher, red
by Late Tundra people, 114
Bone cancer, among Middle Northwest Coast peo-
pie, 117
Bone technology
Aleutian, 1,3,4,6,7,8,9, II, 13
Amur Neolithic, 17
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18, 20
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 29, 33, 35, 40, 44
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 53,
57
Initial Shield Woodland, 59, 62, 65-66
Kodiak,71
Late Northwest Coast, 87, 90, 91, 95, 98, 101
Middle Northwest Coast, I 16, 120, 123
Norton, 136-137
Ocean Bay, 155, 159, 161, 163-164
Old !tel'men, 165,166
Proto-Athapaskan, 169, 173, 175, 176-177
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 186, 188, 189,
190
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 195
Siberian Protohistoric, 203
Tarya Neolithic, 206
Thule, 210
Boundary Waters Laurel tradition: see Initial
Shield Woodland tradition
Bow and arrows
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 30, 33, 35, 36
Late Neolithic Coast people, 101
Norton, 136-137, 140, 141
Proto-Athapaskan, 176-177
Western Arctic Small Tool, 219
Bronze Age tradition, in Manchuria, 16-17
Bronze technology, Holocene Stone Age of North-
eastern Asia, 55
Brooks River site, Alaska, 144-145,217,218-219
Brooks River subtradition, of the Norton tradition,
144-145
Buret' site, Siberia, 193
Burial sites, see also Cemeteries; Mortuary prac-
tices
Aleutian, 4, 5, 7, 9-10, I I
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 20, 21-
22
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 48-
49,50,53,54,55
Initial Shield Woodland, 62, 66
Burial sites (COIIf.)
Late Northwest Coast, 88, 94
Middle Northwest Coast, 117, 120, 122, 124
Norton, 140, 141, 143, 151
Ocean Bay, 156
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 193, 194
Thule, 21 I
Cahn, Alvin, 9-10
Campus site, Alaska, 13 I
Canada, Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition, 27-
45
Cannibalism, among Kodiak people, 77, 78
Canoes
Initial Shield Woodland, 62
Late Northwest Coast, 9 I
Cape Krusenstern site, Alaska, 145-146, 2 I 6,
219-220
Cape Nome site, Alaska, 146-147
Caribou
as food resource
of Aleutian people, 2, 6
of Dorset tradition people, 24
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 34,
37
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 60-61
of Kodiak people, 73, 74, 83
of Late Tundra people, 113
of Northwest Microblade people, 130-131,
133,134
of Norton people, 136, 140-141, 143, 145-
146, 147-148, 149, 150-151
of Ocean Bay people, 157, 158
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 17 I -172,
174-175
of Shield Archaic people, 179
of Thule people, 209
of Western Arctic Small Tool people, 217
as Holocene species, 47
as material resource, of Proto-Athapaskan peo-
pie, 174-175
migration of, 32
Cataracts, among Kodiak people, 73
Cattle, domestication of, by Siberian Protohistoric
people, 203, 204
Cave burials, Late Northwest Coast, 98
Cemeteries, Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age,
18,20
Central Aleutian subtradition, of the Aleutian tra-
dition, 4-6
Central Northwest Coast subtradition, of the Late
Northwest Coast tradition, 94-98
Ceramic figurines, see also Clay figurines
Late Northwest Coast, 90, 94
Ceremonial housing
Norton, 136, 137, 140, 143
Thule, 209
Ceremonies
Kodiak,76-77
Late Northwest Coast, 91, 93-94, 100, 102
Middle Northwest Coast, 119-120
Norton, 138
Thule, 21 I
Chernoozer' e site, Siberia, 188-I 89
Chertov Ovrag site, Wrangell Island, 56
 Index 227

Chiefdoms Community organization (collt.) Division of labor (l'(Jllt.)

Middle Northwest Coast, 119 Siberian Mousterian, 198 among Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 30,
Proto-Athapaskan, 173 Thule, 209 33
Choris Peninsula site, Alaska, 147-148 Western Arctic Small Tool, 214 among Late Northwest Coast people, 90, 91
Choris subtradition, of the Norton tradition, 136, Conflict among Late Tundra people, 114
137,138-139,223 among Aleutian people, 3-4, 5 among Middle Northwest Coast people, 118-
Christianity, of Late Northwest Coast people, 93 among Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age 119
Chugach Alutiiq, 83 people, 19, 21 among Northwest Microblade people, 132
Chulka site, Aleutian islands, 10-11 among in Late Northwest Coast people, 100 among Norton people, 137
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age tradition, among Kodiak people, 76 among Ocean Bay people, 156
18-22 among Late Northwest Coast people, 89, 92, 93 among Proto-Athapaskan people, 172
biota, 19 among Middle Northwest Coast people, 119 among Thule people, 210, 211
economy, 20-21 among Norton people, 137 among Western Arctic Small Tool people, 215
environment, 18-19 among Ocean Bay people, 156 Dog
expressive culture, 21-22 among Proto-Athapaskan people, 171, 173 domestication of
populations, 19 among Thule people, 211 by Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age peo-
religion, 21-22 among Western Arctic Small Tool people, 215 pIe, 20
settlements, 19-20 Copper technology by Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 29, 33,
sociopolitical organization, 21 Initial Shield Woodland, 63, 65-66 35, 38
topography, 19 Kodiak,73 by Kodiak people, 74
Clans, Late Northwest Coast, 100 Late Northwest Coast, 87, 90, 91 by Late Northwest Coast people, 90
Climate Middle Northwest Coast, 123 by Late Tundra people, 113
Aleutian, I Proto-Athaspaskan, 169, 170, 175, 177 by Middle Northwest Coast people, 118
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18-19 Shield Archaic, 179, 180 by Thule people, 210
Dorset, 23 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age, 20 I as food resource
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 27, 31, 34, 37 Cranial deformation of Amur Neolithic people, 16-17
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 46- among Late Northwest Coast people, 91, 95, 96 of Late Northwest Coast people, 90, 96
47,50,51,53,55 among Middle Northwest Coast people, 118 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people,
Initial Shield Woodland, 60 Cree, 64, 172 187
Kamchatka Mesolithic, 69 Cremation burials Dog sleds, use by Old !tel'men people, 166
Kodiak, 71-72 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18 Doll, ivory, 147-148
Late Northwest Coast, 87-88 Kodiak,77 Dorset tradition, 23-24, 31
Late Tundra, 112 Late Northwest Coast, 98
Middle Northwest Coast, 1166 Proto-Athapaskan, 173 Early Northwest Coast tradition, 25-26
Northwest Microblade, 129 Crescent Beach site, British Columbia, 125 Eastern Aleutian subtradition, of Aleutian tradi-
Norton, 135 Crest symbols, Late Northwest Coast, 91, 94 tion,6-7
Ocean Bay, 152-153 Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition, 27-45
Proto-Athapaskan, 169-170 Deer, as food resource absolute and relative time periods, 27
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 181 of Amur Neolithic people, 16 biota, 28
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 186 of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people, climate, 27, 31, 34, 37
Siberian Mousterian, 197 19 community organization, 28
Tarya Neolithic, 205 of Early Northwest Coast people, 69 cultural summary, 27-31
Thule, 208-209 of Initial Shield Woodland people, 61 diagnostic material attributes, 27
Western Arctic Small Tool, 213 of Late Northwest Coast people, 90, 95, 96 division of labor, 30
Clothing of Middle Northwest Coast people, 118, 121, economy, 29-30, 32-33,35,38
ceremonial, Late Northwest Coast, 91 123 environment, 27, 31-32, 34, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42,
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 43 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187, 43
Initial Shield Woodland, 62 190-191 expressive culture, 31, 36, 38, 44
Late Northwest Coast, 91,106 of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people, geology, 28
Proto-Athapaskan, 173 193-194 housing, 28-29
Coffins, Proto-Athapaskan, 173 of Siberian Mousterian people, 198 important sites, 27, 39-45
Community organization Deltaterrasserne site, Greenland, 40-41 industrial arts, 29-30
Aleutian, 2 Denali Complex lithic technology, 131 ornaments, 30
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 28 Denbigh Flint subtradition, 216 populations, 29
Initial Shield Woodland, 61 Dene people, 130, 133 regional subtraditions, 27
Kodiak,73 Denisova site, Siberia, 198 Independence I, 31-34
Late Northwest Coast, 89 Developed Northwest Coast tradition: see Late Pre-Dorset, 34-37
Late Tundra, I 13 Northwest Coast tradition Saqqaq (Sarqaq), 37-39
Middle Northwest Coast, 117 Disease, .'ee also spel'ifk diseases religion, 31, 36, 38
Northwest Microblade, 130 among Late Northwest Coast people, 89 settlements, 28-29, 32, 35, 37-38
Norton, 136 among Thule people, 210 sociopolitical organization, 30, 33, 35-36, 38
Ocean Bay, 154 Division of labor subsistence strategies, 29
Proto-Athapaskan, 171 among Aleutian people, 3 topography, 27-28
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182 among Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age trade, 30
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 187 people, 20-21 utensils, 30
228 Index

Economy Environment (cOlli.) Fish, as food resource (cont.)

Aleutian, 2-3 Northwest Microblade, 129-130 of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90, 95, 96,
Amur Neolithic, 16-17 Norton, 135-136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 145, 146, 98, 99, 102, 107
Amur Paleolithic, 14-15 147, 149, 150 of Middle Northwest Coast people, 118, 121
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 20-21 Ocean Bay, 152-153, 157, 158-159, 161, 162, of Northwest Microblade people, 130-131, 133,
Dorset, 24 163 134
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 29-30, 32-33, 35, Old !tel' men, 165 of Norton people, 149
38 Paleo- Arctic, 167 of Ocean Bay people, 153, 154, ISS, 159
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 47- Proto-Athapaskan, 169-170, 174, 176 of Old !tel 'men people, 165
48,50,52,53,55 Shield Archaic, 179 of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 172, 175,
Initial Shield Woodland, 62-63 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 181-182 176
Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 186-187, 188, of Shield Archaic people, 179
Kodiak, 74-75, 80-81 189,190 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187,
Late Northwest Coast, 89-92, 99, 102-103 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 192-193, 190
Late Tundra, 113-114 195 of Siberian Protohistoric people, 204
Middle Northwest Coast, 118, 121, 123 Siberian Mousterian, 197-198 of Thule people, 209, 210
Northern Archaic, 127-128 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age, 20 I of Western Arctic Small Tool people, 214, 217,
Northwest Microblade, 130-131 Tarya Neolithic, 205 219
Norton, 136-137, 139, 140-141, 142-143 Thule, 208-209 Fishing
Ocean Bay, 154-156, 158, 159-160 Western Arctic Small Tool, 213-214, 216, 217, by Aleutian people, 2
Old !tel'men, 166 218,219,220,221,222,223-224 by Amur Neolithic people, 16
Paleo-Arctic, 167 Eskimos, 3-4, 56, 172 by Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age peo-
Proto-Athapaskan, 171-173, 174-175, 176- Exogamy pie, 20
177 among Late Northwest Coast people, 92 by Dorset tradition people, 24
Shield Archaic, 179-180 among Thule people, 21 I by Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182 Expressive culture people, 48
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 187-188 Aleutian, 4 by Kodiak people, 80, 81
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 193-194 Amur Neolithic, 17 by Late Northwest Coast people, 89-90, 96,
Siberian Mousterian, 198 Dorset, 24 110
Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age, 202 Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 30, 31, 36, 38 by Norton people, 136, 138, 145
Siberian Protohistoric, 203-204 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 48- by Proto-Athapaskan people, 171
Tarya Neolithic, 206 49,50-51,52,54,55-56 Food
Thule, 210-211 Initial Shield Woodland, 64 domestic
Western Arctic Small Tool, 214-215, 216, 217 Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70 of Amur Neolithic people, 16-17
Elk Late Northwest Coast, 94, 97, 100, 103 of Late Tundra people, 113
as food resource Late Tundra, 114 wild
of Early Northwest Coast people, 69 Middle Northwest Coast, 120, 122, 124 of Aleutian people, 3, 5, 7
of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia Norton, 135, 138, 140 of Amur Paleolithic people, 14
people,47,48,51,53,55 Ocean Bay, 156 of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age peo-
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 61 Proto-Athapaskan, 173, 175, 177 ple, 19,20
of Late Northwest Coast people, 90, 95, 96, Scytho-Siberian, 141, 151 of Dorset tradition people, 24
107 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182-183 of Early Northwest Coast people, 25
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 188 of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 29, 34,
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 195 37,38
of Siberian Protohistoric people, 204 Tarya Neolithic, 206 of Initial Shield Woodland people, 62
as Holocene species, 47 Thule, 211-212 of Kodiak people, 72, 74, 80
Environment Western Arctic Small Tool, 215, 216, 218 of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90, 95,
Aleutian, 1-2 96, 107
Amur Neolithic, 16 Facial ornaments, Aleutian, 3 of Late Tundra people, 113
Amur Paleolithic, 14 Figurines of Middle Northwest Coast people, 118, 121
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18-19 Aleutian, 4 of Northwest Microblade people, 130-131,
Dorset, 23 Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70 133, 134
Early Northwest Coast, 25 Late Northwest Coast, 94, 96 of Norton people, 136, 140-141, 145
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 27, 31-32, 34, 37, Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 188 of Ocean Bay people, 154-155
39,40,41,42,43 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 195 of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 171-172
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 46- Fish, as food resource of Shield Archaic people, 179-180
47,50,51-52,53,55-56 of Aleutian people, 3, 5 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people,
Kamchatka Mesolithic, 69 of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people, 187,189,190-191
Kodiak, 71-72, 79, 82, 83, 85 19 of Siberian Mousterian people, 198, 199
Late Northwest Coast, 87-88, 95, 98, 101-102, of Early Northwest Coast people, 69 Thule, 209, 210
104, 105, 107, 108, 109 of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 35, 41 Food preservation methods, of Late Northwest
Late Tundra, 112 of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia Coast people, 90, 99
Middle Northwest Coast, 116-117, 120-121, people,47,48,50,51,55 Foraging, .vee al.vo Hunting-gathering
122-123,125 of Initial Shield Woodland people, 61 by Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 28
Northern Archaic, 127 of Kodiak people, 72, 73, 74, 80, 83 Forts, Late Northwest Coast, 95

Fox
as Aleutian species. 2. 6
as Amur Paleolithic species. 14
as food resource
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people. 34
of Kodiak people. 74. 83
of Northwest Microblade people. 130. 133
of Proto-Athapaskan people. 170
of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people.
187.190
of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people.
193-194
of Thule people. 209
Fractures
among Late Northwest Coast people. 93. 100
among Middle Northwest Coast people. 117
Gazelle. as food resource. of Siberian Early Upper
Paleolithic people. 182
Genetic anomalies. among Proto-Athapaskan peo-
pie. 171
Geographic Cave Society site. Manchuria. 14-15
Geology
Aleutian. 2
Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 28
Initial Shield Woodland. 60
Kodiak. 72
Late Northwest Coast. 88
Late Tundra. 112
Middle Northwest Coast. 116-117
Northwest Microblade. 129-130
Norton. 135
Ocean Bay .153
Proto-Athapaskan. 170
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. 181
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. 186
Siberian Mousterian. 197
Thule. 209
Western Arctic Small Tool. 214
Ghost cult. Norton. 138. 141
Ginadoik people. 108
Goat. Siberian. see also Mountain goat
as food resource. of Siberian Late Upper
Paleolithic people. 190-191
Greenland
Dorset tradition. 23-24
Eastern Arctic Small Tool tradition. 27-45
Ground squirrel. as food resource
of Northwest Microblade people. 130. 133
of Proto-Athapaskan people. 170. 172
Growth arrest lines. among Kodiak people. 74
Hare. as food resource
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people. 34. 37
of Initial Shield Woodland people. 60-61
of Kodiak people. 74
of Northwest Microblade people. 130
of Proto-Athapaskan people. 172. 176
of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people.
184
of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people. 187.
190
of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people.
193-194
of Thule people. 209
Index 229
Harpoons Housing
antler. Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age. 20 Aleutian. 2. 5. II. 13
bone Amur Neolithic. 17
Aleutian. I. 10 ceremonial
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age. 20-21 Norton. 136. 137. 140. 143
Early Northwest Coast. 26 Thule. 209
Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 30. 33. 35. 36. 37. Dorset. 23-24
38.43 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 28-29. 32. 40. 42
Initial Shield Woodland. 65-66 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 47
Late Northwest Coast. 91. 95.107.110 Initial Shield Woodland. 61. 65
Middle NOlthwest Coast. 120 Kodiak. 71. 73. 76. 79-80
Ocean Bay. 152. 155 Late Northwest Coast. 89. 90. 95
Old [tel·men. 166 Late Tundra. 113
Western Arctic Small Tool. 214-215 men·s. 136. 137. 140. 143.209
Initial Shield Woodland. 59-60 Middle Northwest Coast. 117
ivory Norton. 136
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 56 Ocean Bay. 152. 154. 159. 160-161
Norton. 135 Old !tel·men. 165-166
Thule. 208 Proto-Athapaskan. 169. 171. 174. 176
Kodiak. 71 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. 182. 184
Norton. 136-137. 140. 142. 143. 146. 147. 148 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. 187. 189
Thule. 210 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic. 193. 195
Harris's lines. among Kodiak people. 74 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age. 202
Herbal medicine. of Kodiak people. 73 Tarya Neolithic. 205. 206
Heron Bay site. Canada. 65-66 Thule. 209-210
Hibernation. 32 Western Arctic Small. 213. 214. 215. 216. 217.
Hide-working implements. Proto-Athapaskan. 218-219.221.223.224
172.177 women·s.171
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia tradi- Human remains
tion.46-58 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 29. 31. 38. 43
absolute and relative time periods. 46 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. 187
biota. 47 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age. 202
climate. 46-47. 50. 51. 53. 55 Hunting
cultural summary. 46-49 by Amur Neolithic people. 16-17
diagnostic material attributes. 46. 49-50. 51. by Amur Paleolithic people. 14
53.54-55 by Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age peo-
economy. 47-48. 50. 52. 53. 55 pie. 20
environment. 46-47. 50. 51-52. 53. 55-56 by Dorset tradition people, 24
expressive culture. 48-49. 50-51. 52. 54. 55-56 by Early Northwest Coast people. 25-26
housing. 47 by Eastern Arctic Small Tool people. 29. 30.
important sites. 56-58 32-33.35.37
industrial arts. 48 by Late Northwest Coast people. 89-90
location. 46 by Northwest Microblade people. 130-131.
regional subtraditions 133.134
Bel·kachi.49-51 by Norton people. 136
Sumnagin.51-52 open-sea. see also Marine mammals. as food re-
Syalakh. 52-54 source
Ymyyakhtakh.54-56 by Aleutian people. 2. 5. 7
religion. 48-49. 50-51. 52. 54. 55-56 by Kodiak people. 72
settlements. 47. 50. 52. 53. 55 by Late Northwest Coast people. 102
sociopolitical organization. 48. 50. 51. 53. 55 by Norton people. 142-143
subsistence strategies. 47-48 by Ocean Bay people. 153
topography. 47 by Paleo-Arctic people. 167-168
Hook Point site. Alaska. 161 by Proto-Athapaskan people. 170. 171-172.
Horse 174.176
domestication of. by Siberian Protohistoric peo- by Siberian Protohistoric people. 203-204
ple. 203. 204 by Tarya Neolithic people. 206
as food resource Hunting-gathering
of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people. by Aleutian people. 2. 5
182.184 by Amur Neolithic people. 16
of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people. by Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age peo-
190 pie. 19
of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people. by Late Northwest Coast people. 89-90
193-194 by Northwest Microblade people. 130-133. 134
of Siberian Mousterian people. 198 by Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people. 187
230 Index

Hunting-gathering «('0/11.) Iron deficiency. among Late Northwest Coast peo- Kodiak tradition (COlli.)
by Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people. pie. 89 religion. 76-78
193-194-195 Iron-deficiency anemia. among Middle Northwest settlements. 73-74. 79-80.
Hyena. as food resource Coast people. 117 sociopolitical organization. 75-76. 81
of Amur Paleolithic people. 14 Iron metallurgy subsistence strategies, 74. 80-81
of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people. Late Northwest Coast. 106 topography. 72
184 Norton. 141 trade. 75
Siberian Protohistoric. 203 Kokorevo culture. 51. 189
Independence I subtradition. of Eastern Arctic Ivory technology Kokorevo site. Siberia. 189-190
Small Tool tradition. 31-34 Aleutian. 3. 4 Koniag tradition. 71. 73. 75, 76. 80. 81. 83-84
Industrial arts Amur Neolithic. 17 Kopyto II site. Kamchatka. 206
Aleutian. 3 Dorset. 24 Korovinski site. Aleutian islands. 11-12
Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 29-30 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 48, Kunalei site. Siberia. 193
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 48 56.57 Kuzitrin Lake site, Alaska. 221-222
Initial Shield Woodland. 62 Kodiak,73
Kodiak. 74-75 Norton, 136-136. 139, 141. 148 Labrets: see Lip plugs
Late Northwest Coast, 90 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. 188 Lagomorphs. see also Hare; Rabbit
Late Tundra. 113 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic. 194 as food resource, of Late Northwest Coast peo-
Middle Northwest Coast. 118 Thule. 210 pIe, 90
Northwest Microblade. 131-132 Iyatayet site. Alaska. 148. 220-221 Lake Baikal. 18. 19
Norton, 136 Lamps
Ocean Bay. 155 Jade objects. Norton. 136. 137 Dorset, 24
Proto-Athapaskan. 172 Jewitt. John. 110 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 35. 38
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. 182 Kodiak. 76-77. 80-81. 84
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 187-188 Kachemak Bay subtradition. of Ocean Bay tradi- Late Tundra. I 14
Siberian Mousterian. 198 tion. 157-158 Norton. 135.137.142.146-147
Thule. 210 Kachemak subtradition. of Kodiak tradition, 75. Ocean Bay. 152
Western Arctic Small. 214 76. 79-82 Old Itel'men. 166
Infant mortality Kamchatka culture. 165 Tarya Neolithic. 206
among Kodiak people. 74 Kamchatka Mesolithic tradition. 69-70 Thule. 209
among Late Northwest Coast people. 89 Kapuivik (lem Mw,k) site. Canada. 41-42 Languages
Infectious disease, .''ee also .'pecitic types of iI~le('­ Kara-Bom site. Russia. 183-184 Salishan.95
tiou.\' diseuse Karigi, 136 Wakashan. 95
among Kodiak people. 73 Kashim, 136 Late Marine tradition: see Late Northwest Coast
Initial Shield Woodland tradition, 59-68 Kashtanka I site. Siberia. 193 tradition
absolute and relative time periods. 59 Kayaks Late Northwest Coast tradition. 87-110
biota. 60-61 Aleutian. 2. 5. 7 absolute and relative time period. 87
climate, 60 Dorset. 24 biota. 88. 95
community organization. 61 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 29. 38 climate. 87-88
cultural summary. 60-65 Thule. 208 community organization. 89
diagnostic material attributes. 59-60 Kazigi. 136. 209 conflict. 92
economy, 62-63 Kelly Creek site. Yukon. 131-132 control of resources, 91-92
environment, 60-61, 65, 66, 67 Khuzhir site. Siberia. 21 cultural summary, 87-94
expressive culture. 64 Kidnapping, among Late Northwest Coast people, 100 diagnostic material attributes, 87, 95, 98. 101
geology, 60 Kitoi people, 19-20, 21-22 division of labor. 91
housing, 61 Kodiak tradition. 71-86 economy. 89-92.99.102-103
important sites, 60. 65-68 absolute and relative time periods. 71 environment. 87-88. 95. 98. 101-102. 104. 105.
industrial arts. 62 biota. 72-73 107. 108. 109
location. 59 climate, 71-72 expressive culture. 94. 97. 100. 103
ornaments, 63 community organization. 73 geology. 88
populations. 61-62 conflict. 76. 81 health and disease. 89
regional subtraditions. 60 control of resources. 75 housing. 89. 95. 102. 103. 104-105. 106. 107. 108
religion. 64 cultural summary, 71-79 important sites. 87. 104-110
settlements. 61-62 diagnostic material attributes. 71 industrial arts. 90
sociopolitical organization. 63-64 economy. 74-75. 80-81 location. 87
subsistence strategies. 62 environment. 71-72. 79. 82. 83. 85 ornaments. 91
topography, 60 expressive culture. 76-78. 81-82 populations. 89. 95
trade. 63 geology. 72 regional subtraditions. 87, 94
utensils, 62-63 health, 73-74 Central Northwest Coast. 94-98
Inland Alaska Peninsula (Brooks River Strand housing. 73. 84 Northern Northwest Coast. 98-101
Phase) subtradition. of Ocean Bay tradi- important sites. 71. 82-6 Southern Northwest Coast. 10 1-104
tion. 156-157 industrial arts. 74-75 religion. 93-94. 97. 100. 103
Inuit. 29. 30. 33. 172 populations. 73-74 settlements. 88-89. 95-96. 98-99. 102
Inupiat. 172 regional subtraditions. 71 sociopolitical organization. 92-93. 96. 100.
Ipiutak subtradition. 136. 137 Kachemak (on Kodiak). 79-2 103. 106
 Index 231

Late Northwest Coast tradition (COIlt.) Lithic technology (collt.) Maritime Archaic tradition, 30
subsistence strategies, 89-90 Northern Archaic, 127 Marmot, as food resource
topography, 88 Northwest Microblade, 129, 131-132, 133 of Kodiak people, 74
tmde, 88-89, 91, 99,102 Norton, 138, 139, 142, 146--147, 148, 149, lSI, of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133
utensils, 91 223 of Ocean Bay people, 155
Late Pacific tradition: see Late Northwest Coast Ocean Bay, 152, 155, 156, 157, 158-159, 160, of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170
tradition 161,162,163,164 of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people,
Late Prehistoric tmdition: see Late Northwest Old Itel'men, 165,166 184
Coast tradition Paleo-Arctic, 167 Marpole culture, 120-122
Late Tundra tradition, 111-115 Proto-Athaspaskan, 169, 170, 172, 174, 175, 176 Masks
absolute and relative time periods, III Shield Archaic, 179, 180 Late Northwest Coast, 94
biota, 112 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 181, 182, Norton, 138
climate, 112 183-184 Thule, 211, 21
community organization, 113 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 186, 187-188, Mastoiditis, among Kodiak people, 74
control of resources, 114 189-190 Matrilineal lineages
cultural summary, 112-115 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 192, 194, 195 Aleutian, 5
diagnostic material attributes, 111-112 Siberian Mousterian, 197, 198, 199 Amur Neolithic, 17
division of labor, 114 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age, 20 I, 202 Late Northwest Coast, 92, 100
economy, 113-114 Siberian Protohistoric, 203 Middle Northwest Coast, 119
environment, 112 Tarya Neolithic, 205, 206 McKinstry Mound I site, Minnesota, 66-67
expressive culture, 114 Thule, 208, 210 Meier site, 104--105
geology, I 12 Western Arctic Small Tool, 213, 214-215, 216, Men's houses, 136, 137, 140, 143,209
housing, I 13 217,219,220,221-222,223,224 Metallurgy
important sites, 112 Little Ann site, Yukon, 131 Late Northwest Coast, 90
industrial arts, 113 Locarno Beach culture, 121-122 Old Itel'men, 166
location, I II Longhouses, Aleutian, 2, 6, 12 Midden mounds
ornaments, 114 Lynx, as food resource Aleutian, 9, 10, II
popUlations, 113 of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133 of Late Northwest Coast settlements, 89, 95
regional subtraditions, 112 of Proto- Athapaskan people, 170 Middle Northwest Coast tradition, 116-126
religion, I 14 absolute and relative time periods, 116
settlements, 112-113 Malaia Syia site, Russia, 182-183 biota, 117, 123
sociopolitical organization, 114 Malmo culture, 63 climate, 116
subsistence strategies, 113 Malnutrition, see also Nutritional stress community organization, 117
topography, 112 among Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic peo- conflict, 119, 124
utensils, 113-114 pie, 193 control of resources, 119
Laurel tradition: see Initial Shield Woodland tradi- Malta-Afontovo tradition, 51 cultural summary, 116-120
tion Mal'ta site, Siberia, 193, 194, 195-196 division of labor, I 18-1 19
Lion, as food resource, of Amur Paleolithic peo- Mammoth, woolly, as food resource economy, 118, 121, 123
pie, 14 of Amur Paleolithic people, 14 environment, 116-117, 120-121, 122-123,
Lip plugs of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187 125
Late Northwest Coast, 91, 100 of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people, expressive culture, 120, 122, 124
Middle Northwest Coast, 118, 124 193-194 geology, 116-117
Norton, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 142, 143, 147 of Siberian Mousterian people, 198 health and disease, 117
Ocean Bay, 155 "Mammoth Graveyard," 47 housing, 116, 117, 119-120, 121, 125-126
Lithic technology Manchuria important sites, 116, 125-126
Aleutian, 1,3,4,6,7,8,9,10, II, 13 Amur Neolithic tmdition, 14--15 industrial arts, 118
Amur Neolithic, 16, 17 Amur Paleolithic tradition, 14-15 location, 116
Amur Paleolithic, 14 Bronze Age tmdition, 14-15 ornaments, 118, 123
Anangula, 13 Manitoba Lakes Laurel tradition: see Initial Shield populations, 117
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18,20- Woodland tradition regional subtraditions, 116
21 Maquinna, 110 Central Northwest Coast, 120-122
Denali Complex, 131 Marine invertebrates, see also Mollusks; Shellfish Northern Northwest Coast, 122-124
Dorset, 23, 24 as food resource, of Aleutian people, 3, 5 religion, 119-120, 122, 124
Early Northwest Coast, 25, 26 Marine mammals settlements, 117, 121, 123
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 27, 29-30, 31, 33, of Aleutian islands, 2 sociopolitical organization, 119, 121-122, 123-
34,35,37-38,40-41,42,43,44 as food resource 124
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 46, of Aleutian people, 3, 5, 7 subsistence strategies, 118
48,49-50,51,53,54-55,56,57 of Early Northwest Coast people, 69 topography, 116
Initial Shield Woodland, 59, 62, 63, 65-66, 67 of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 29, 33, trade, 118, 123
Kamchatka Mesolithic, 69, 70 34,37,38 utensils, 118, 123
Kodiak, 71, 74--75 of Kodiak people, 72, 74 Midewiwin birch bark scrolls, 64
Late Northwest Coast, 87, 90, 91, 95, 98, 99, of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90, 99, Mollusks, see also Shellfish
101, lOS, 106, 109 102 as food resource
Late Tundra, 111-112, 113-114 of Norton people, 142-143, 145-146 of Aleutian people, 3, 5
Middle Northwest Coast, 116, 118, 120, 123 of Ocean Bay people, 154 of Ocean Bay people, 154, 155
232 Index

Moose, as food resource North Kamchtaka culture, 165 Nutritional stress

of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people, Northwest Microblade tradition, 129-134 among Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age
19 absolute and relative time periods, 129 people, 19
of Initial Shield Woodland people, 60-61 biota, 130 among Kodiak people, 74
of Kamchatka Mesolithic people, 69 climate, 129
of Kodiak people, 74 community organization, 130 Obsidian, as trade item
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133 control of resources, 132 of Aleutian people, 3
of Ocean Bay people, 155 cultural summary, 129-133 of Northwest Microblade people, 132, 134
of Old !tel'men people, 165 diagnostic material attributes, 129 of Western Arctic Small Tool people, 222
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 172, 176 division of labor, 132 Obsidian objects
of Shield Archaic people, 179 economy, 130-131 Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70
Mortality rate, see also Infant mortality rate environment, 129-130 Late Northwest Coast, 87, 96, 98
among Kodiak people, 73-74 geology, 129-130 Middle Northwest Coast, 118
Mortuary practices important sites, 129 Norton, 136, 137
Aleutian, 4, 5, 7 industrial arts, 131-132 Proto-Athapaskan, 170
Initial Shield Woodland, 62, 64 location, 129 Western Arctic Small Tool, 215, 216
Kodiak, 71, 77-78, 81-82, 84 populations, 130 Ocean Bay I and II subtraditions, of Ocean Bay
Norton, 138 regional subtraditions, 129, 133-134 tradition, 158-160
Old Itel'men, 166 settlements, 130 Ocean Bay tradition, 152-164
Proto-Athapaskan, 173 subsistence strategies, 130-131 absolute and relative time periods, 152
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 194 topography, 129 biota, 153-154, 157, 159
Mosquito Lake site, Alaska, 222 trade, 130, 132, 134 climate, 152-153
Mother-of-pearl ornaments, Amur Neolithic, 17 Norton (Near Ipiutak) subtradition, of the Norton community organization, 154
Mountain goat, as food resource tradition, 142-144 conflict, 156
of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90 Norton tradition, 135-151 control of resources, 156
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133 absolute and relative time periods, 135 cultural summary, 152-156
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170 biota, 135-136 diagnostic material attributes, 152
of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 182 climate, 135 division of labor, 156
of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187 community organization, 136 economy, 154-156, 158, 159-160
Mountain sheep, as food resource conflict, 137, 141 environment, 152-153, 157, 158-159, 161, 162,
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133, control of resources, 137 163
134 cultural summary, 135-139 expressive culture, 156
of Proto-Athapaskan people, 170, 176 diagnostic material attributes, 135, 140, 142 geology, 153
Mousterian tradition, Siberian, 197-200 division of labor, 137 housing, 152, 154, 159, 160-161
Mowachaht people, 110 economy, 136-137, 139, 140-141, 142-143 important sites, 152, 160-164
Mummification, among Aleutian people, 4, 7 environment, 135-136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 145, industrial arts, 155
Musk deer, as food resource 146, 147, 149, 150 location, 152
of Amur Paleolithic people, 14 expressive culture, 138 populations, 154
of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people, geology, 135 regional subtraditions, 152
19 hoo~~I~I~I~IUIUI~I~ Inland Alaska Peninsula (Brooks River
Musk ox, as food resource 148, 149, 150 Strand Phase), 156-157
of Dorset people, 24 important sites, 144-151 Kachemak Bay, 157--158
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 33, 37,41, Brooks River, 144-145 Ocean Bay I and II, 158-160
44 Cape Krusenstern, 145-146 religion, 156
of Late Tundra people, 113 Cape Nome, 146-147 settlements, 154, 157, 159
of Northwest Microblade people, 130 Choris Peninsula, 147-148 sociopolitical organization, 156, 160
of Proto- Athapaskan people, 170, 176 Iyatayet, 148 subsistence strategies, 154-155
of Thule people, 209, 210 Onion Portage, 149 topography, 153
Muskrat, as fond resource Point Hope (Ipiutak), 150-151 trade, 155-156
of Kodiak people, 74 industrial arts, 136 Ocher, red
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133 location, 135 use by Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age
of Proto- Athapaskan people, 170, 176 ornaments, 137 people, 21
populations, 136 use by Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 38, 43
Naomikong Point site, Michigan, 67-68 regional subtraditions, 135 use by Intitial Shield Woodland people, 61
Needles Choris, 138-139 use by Kodiak people, 75
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 18 Ipiutak, 139-142 use by Ocean Bay people, 152, 155, 156, 158,
Dorset, 24 Norton (Near Ipiutak), 142-144 162,163
Nisga people, 99 religion, 137-138 Ojibwa, cosmology of, 64
Nokomis culture, 63 settlements, 136, 138-139, 140, 142 Okladnikov Cave site, Siberia, 199-200
North Bay culture, 63 sociopolitical organization, 137, 139, 141-143 Old !tel'men tradition, 165-166
Northern Archaic tradition, 127-128 subsistence strategies, 136 Onion Portage site, Alaska, 149,216,222-223
Northern Northwest Coast subtradition, of Late topography, 135 Ornaments
Northwest Coast tradition, 98-101 trade, 137, 141 Aleutian, 3
Northern Northwest Coast subtradition, of Middle utensils, 136-137 Amur Neolithic, 17
Northwest Coast tradition, 122-124 Novoselovo VI site, Siberia, 187 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 21
 Index 233

Ornaments (1'11111.) Polynyas, 28, 32, 35 Proto-Athapaskan tradition «(,Ollt.)

Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 30
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 55
Initial Shield Woodland, 63
Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70
Kodiak, 75, 77, 81
Late Northwest Coast, 91
Late Tundra, 114
Middle Northwest Coast, I 18
Norton, 136, 137, 139
Ocean Bay, 155
Proto-Athapaskan, 173, 177
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 188, 189, 190
Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 194, 195
Thule, 210
Western Arctic Small, 215
Osteoporosis, among Thule people, 210
Ostracism, as social control method, 30
Otter, see al.Wl Sea otter
as food resource
of Late Northwest Coast people, 88
of Northwest Microblade people, 130
Otter Falls site, Yukon, 132
Ozette site, Washington State, 105-107
Paint, see also Body painting
use by Late Northwest Coast people, 90
Paleo-Arctic tradition, 167-168
Palugvik site, Prince William Sound, 82-83
Pastoralism, of Siberian Protohistoric people,
204
Paul Mason site, British Columbia, 125-126
Pedro Bay site, Alaska, 161-162
Petroforms
Initial Sheild Woodland, 64
Proto-Athapaskan, 173
Petroglyphs
Amur Neolithic, 17
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 48-
49,50-51,52,54,55-56
Proto-Athapaskan, 173
Pictographs
Initial Shield Woodland, 64
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 188
Pig, as food resource, of Amur Neolithic people,
16-17
Pigments, see also Body painting; Paint; Ocher,
red
use by Late Tundra people. 114
Pisanitsy. 50, 52. 54, 55
Plants, medicinal, use by Kodiak people, 73
Pneumonia, among Thule people. 210
Pointed Mountain site, North West Territories,
131,132
Point Hope site. Alaska, 140, 141, 142, 150-151,
211
Point SI. George site, California, 107-108
Polar bear. as food resource
of Dorset people, 24
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 33, 34, 37
of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
people, 48, 57
of Thule people, 210
Poles, ceremonial, Late Northwest Coast, 94
Populations industrial arts, 172
Aleutian, 2, 5 location, 169
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 19-20 popUlations, 171
Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 29, 32 regional subtraditions, 169
Initial Shield Woodland, 61-62 Taltheilei (Taltheilei Shale tradition), 174-
Kodiak. 73-74 175
Late Northwest Coast, 89, 96 Yukon Dene, 175-178
Late Tundra, 113 religion, 173, 175, 177
Middle Northwest Coast, 117 settlements, 170-171, 174, 176
Northwest Microblade, 130 sociopolitical organization, 173, 175
Norton, 136 subsistence strategies, 171-172
Ocean Bay, 154 topography, 170
Proto-Athapaskan, 171 trade, 172
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182 Psacelay (Clay Creek) site, British Columbia,
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic, 187 108-109
Siberian Mousterian, 198 Punyik Point site, Alaska, 216, 223-224
Thule. 210
Western Arctic Small Tool. 214 Qeqertasusuk site, Greenland, 43-44
Porcupine. as food resource
of Initial Shield Woodland people. 60-61 Rabbit, as food resource, of Shield Archaic peo-
of Kodiak people, 74 ple, 179
of Northwest Microblade people, 130, 133 Raven (trickster figure), 93. 211
of Proto- Athapaskan people, 170 Reese Bay site, Aleutian islands, 12
Porpoise, as food resource Reincarnation, belief in, among Late Northwest
of Kodiak people. 74, 85 Coast people, 94
of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90 Reindeer
of Ocean Bay people, 154-155, 159 domestication of. by Siberian Protohistoric peo-
Port Refuge site, Canada. 32. 42-43 pie. 203
Potlatch, 91. 93-94, 96,118,119-120,173 as food resource
Pottery of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
Amur Neolithic, 16, 17 people,48,52,53,55,57
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 20 of Kamchatka Mesolithic people, 69
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 46, of Old !tel'men people, 165
49,53,55 of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people,
Initial Shield Woodland, 59-60, 61, 62-63, 65- 182
66,67 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people,
Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70 187,190
Kodiak. 75 of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people,
Norton, 135, 138. 142, 145, 147, 148, 149, 151 193-194,195
Old !tel'men, 166 of Siberian Protohistoric people, 203-204
Proto-Athaspaskan, 169, 172 Religion
Siberian Neolithic aod Bronze Age, 20 I, 202 Aleutian, 4
Siberian Protohistoric, 203 Amur Neolithic, 17
Tarya Neolithic, 205 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 21-22
Thule, 208, 210 Cree, 64
Pre-Dorset subtradition. of Eastern Arctic Small Dorset, 24
Tool tradition. 34-37 Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 31, 36, 38
Promyshlelllliks. 12 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 48-
Proto-Athapaskan tradition, 169-178 49,50-51,52,54,55-56
absolute and relative time periods. 169 Initial Shield Woodland, 64
biota, 170, 174, 176 Kamchatka Mesolithic, 70
climate, 169-170 Late Northwest Coast, 93-94, 97. 100. 103
community organization. 171 Late Tundra. 114
conflict. 171. 173 Middle Northwest Coast. 119-120, 122, 124
control ofresources, 173 Norton, 137-138
cultural summary, 169-174 Ocean Bay. 156
diagnostic material attributes, 169 Ojibwa, 64
division of labor, 172 Old !teJ'men, 166
economy, 171-173,174-175,176-177 Proto-Athapaskao, 173. 175, 177
environment, 169-170, 174, 176 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182-183
expressive culture. 173, 175, 177 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic. 194
geology, 170 Tarya Neolithic. 206
housing, 169, 171, 174, 176 Thule. 211-212
important sites, 169 Western Arctic Small Tool. 215, 216. 218
234 Index

Resources, control of Sea otter, as food resource Shell middens

among Aleutian people, 3 of Kodiak people. 74. 83 Amur Neolithic, 16
among Kodiak people, 75 of Late Northwest Coast people, 90 Kodiak, 74. 82
among Late Northwest Coast people, 91-92 of Ocean Bay people. 154-155, 159 Late Northwest Coast, 99, 106
among Northwest Microblade people, 132 Secret societies, Late Northwest Coast, 93 Middle Northwest Coast. 116. 123
among Norton people, 137 Serovo-Glazkovo people, 19-22 Shield Archaic tradition, 179-180
among Ocean Bay people 156 Settlements Siberia
among Proto-Athapaskan people, 173 Aleutian. 2 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age traditions,
among Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic peo- Amur Neolithic, 16 18-22
pie, 194 Amur Paleolithic, 14 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic tradition, 181-
among Thule people, 211 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age, 19-20 185
Revenge, as social control method, 173 Dorset. 23-24 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic tradition, 186-
Rhinoceros, woolly Early Northwest Coast. 25 191
bones of, as mobiliary art, 182-183 Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 28-29, 32. 35. 37- Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic tradition.
as food resource 38 192-196
of Amur Paleolithic people, 14 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 47. Siberian Mousterian tradition, 197-200
of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 50,52,53.55 Siberian Protohistoric tradition, 203-204
182,184 Initial Shield Woodland. 61-62 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic tradition. 181-
of Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic people, Kamchatka Mesolithic. 69-70 185
193-194 Kodiak, 73-74, 79-80, environment. 181-182
of Siberian Mousterian people, 198 Late Northwest Coast, 88-89. 95-96. 98-99. important sites. 181. 183-185
Rice, wild, as food resource, of Initial Shield 102 religion. 182-183
Woodland people, 61 Late Tundra, 112-113 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic tradition. 186-
Rice Ridge (49KOD 363) site, Alaska, 162 Middle Northwest Coast. 117.121, 123 191
Ridicule, as social control method, 30, 173 Northern Archaic. 127 cultural summary, 186-188
Rock art, see also Petroglyphs; Pictographs Northwest Microblade, 130 important sites, 188-181
Initial Sheild Woodland, 64 Norton, 136, 138-139. 140, 142 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic tradition,. 192-
Proto-Athapaskan, 173, 175 Ocean Bay. 154, 157, 159 196
Rock shelters, Kodiak, 76 Old Itel'men. 165-166 economy, 193-194
Rodents, as food resource Paleo-Arctic, 167 environment, 192-193, 195
of Amur Paleolithic people, 14 Proto-Athapaskan, 170-171, 174. 176 Mal'ta site. 195-196
of Late Northwest Coast people, 90 Shield Archaic. 179 religion, 194
Russian-American Company, II Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic, 182 settlements. 193
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. 187 Siberian Mousterian tradition, 197-200
Saddles, Siberian Protohistoric, 203 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic, 193 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age tradition, 201-
Salishan-speaking peoples, 95 Siberian Mousterian, 198 202
Sandy Beach Bay site, Aleutian islands, 12-13 Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age. 202 Siberian Protohistoric tradition, 203-204
Sannyi Mys site, Siberia, 193 Siberian Protohistoric, 203 Sitkalidak Roadcut site. Alaska. 162-163
Saqqaq (Sarqaq) subtradition, of Eastern Arctic Tarya Neolithic, 205-206 Skull fractures. among Cis-Baikal Neolithic and
Small Tool tradition, 37-39 Thule, 209-210 Bronze Age people, 21
Saskatchewan Laurel tradition: .,.ee Initial Shield Western Arctic Small Tool, 214, 216, 217 Slavery
Woodland tradition Severochukotskaya culture, 56 among Aleutian people, 7
Saugeen culture, 63, 66 Shamans among Late Northwest Coast people. 89. 96.
Sculptures, see also Figurines Aleutian. 4, 7 99
Dorset, 24 female. 48. 50. 53, 55 among Middle Northwest Coast people, 117.
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia, 55 Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 48- 119.124
Kodiak,71 49,50,53,55 Sledges, Dorset, 24
Seal, as food resource Late Northwest Coast. 93, 97, 103 Social control
of Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people, Middle Northwest Coast, 119 among Aleutian people. 3
19 Norton, 137-138, 141 among Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 30
of Dorset people. 24 Proto-Athapaskan. 173 among Late Northwest Coast people, 92-93
of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people, 34. 35, 37 Thule, 211 among Proto-Athapaskan people, 173
of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia Sheep (wild), as food resource among Thule people, 211
people, 48 of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia Social status, see also Sociopolitical organization
of Kamchatka Mesolithic people, 69 people.48,50,52.53,55 among Late Northwest Coast people. 100
of Kodiak people, 74, 85 of Kodiak people. 74 symbols of. 91, 92, 93-94.99
of Late Northwest Coast people, 88. 90, 102, 107 of Proto-Athapaskan people, 172 Sociopolitical organization
of Norton people, 136, 145-146. 147-148 of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 182, Aleutian, 3-4
of Ocean Bay people, 154-155, 158, 159 184 Amur Neolithic. 17
of Old Itel'men people, 165 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 187 Dorset, 24
of Thule people, 209. 210 of Siberian Mousterian people, 198 Eastern Arctic Small Tool, 30, 33, 35-36, 38
Sea lion, as food resource Shellfish. as food resource Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 48,
of Kodiak people, 74. 85 of Kodiak people, 72-73. 74. 80, 83 50.51,53,55
of Late Northwest Coast people. 90, 102 of Late Northwest Coast people, 88, 90, 106 Initial Shield Woodland, 63-64
of Ocean Bay people, 154-155, 159 of Ocean Bay people, 158, 159 Kamchatka Mesolithic. 70
 Index 235

Sociopolitical organization (cont.) Takli site. Alaska. 163-164 Ust-Belaua culture. 56

Kodiak. 75-76. SI Taltheilei (Taltheilei Shale) subtradition. of the Ust' -Kova site. Siberia. 194
Late Northwest Coast. S9. 91-93. 96. 100. 103. Proto-Athapaskan tradition. 174-175 Utensils
106. lOS Tarya Neolithic tradition. 205-207 Aleutian. 3
Late Tundra. 114 Tattooing Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age. 20-21
Middle Northwest Coast. 119. 121-122. 123- by Aleutian people. 3 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 30
124 by Eastern Arctic Small Tool people. 31. 36 Initial Shield Woodland. 62-63
Northern Archaic. 12S Teepees Late Northwest Coast. 91
Norton. 137. 139. 141-143 Proto-Athapaskan. 171. 174 Late Tundra. 113-114
Ocean Bay. 156. 160 Thule. 209 Middle Northwest Coast. 118. 123
Old Itel'men. 166 Tents. Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 28-29. 35. 37 Norton. 136-137
Proto-Athapaskan. 173. 175 Thule tradition. 20S-212 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. 182
Shield Archaic. ISO Tlingit people. 117. 172 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. IS8
Siberian Protohistoric. 204 Tolbaga site. Russia. IS4-IS5 Siberian Middle Upper Paleolithic. 194
Tarya Neolithic. 206 Tolowa people. lOS Siberian Mousterian. 198
Thule. 211 Topography Thule. 210
Western Arctic Small Tool. 215. 216. 21S Aleutian. 1-2 Western Arctic Small Tool. 214-215
Southern Northwest Coast subtradition. of Late Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age. 19 Uyak site. Alaska. 75. 77-78
Northwest Coast tradition. 101-104 Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 27-28
Southern Small Tool subtradition. of Western Arc- Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 47 Varvarina Gora site. Russia. 182
tic Small Tool tradition. 217-21S Initial Shield Woodland. 60 Venereal disease. among Kodiak people. 73
South Kamchatka culture. 165 Kodiak. 72 Vermilion. use in Proto-Athapaskan mortuary
Spouses. violence toward. among Late Northwest Coast. 88 practices. 173
Proto-Athapaskan people. 173 Late Tundra. I 12 Villages
Starvation Middle Northwest Coast. 116 Aleutian. 2. 5
among Late Northwest Coast people. 89 Northwest Microblade. 129 Late Northwest Coast. 88-89. 92. 95. 96. 98-
among Proto-Athapaskan people. l71 Norton. 135 99. 102. 108-109
Studenoe site. Siberia. 190-191 Ocean Bay. 153 Middle Northwest Coast. 117. 121
Subsistence strategies Proto-Athapaskan. 170 Thule. 208. 109
Aleutian. 2-3 Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. lSI Vision quests. 119
Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age. 20 Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. IS6
Early Northwest Coast. 25-26 Siberian Mousterian. 197 Wakashan-speaking peoples. 95
Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 29 Thule. 209 Walrus. as food resource
Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia. 47- Western Arctic Small Tool. 213 of Dorset people. 24
48 Totem poles: see Poles. ceremonial of Eastern Arctic Small Tool people. 34
petroglypic depiction of. 49. 51. 52. 54. 56 Trade of Holocene Stone Age of Northeastern Asia
Initial Shield Woodland. 62 Aleutian. 3. 12 people. 48
Kamchatka Mesolithic. 70 Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age. 21 of Norton people. 145-146
Kodiak. 74. SO-SI Eastern Arctic Small Tool. 30 of Thule people. 209. 210
Late Northwest Coast. 89-90 Initial Shield Woodland. 63 Walrus ivory. 141
Late Tundra. 113 Kodiak. 73. 75. 79 Warfare
Middle Northwest Coast. liS Late Northwest Coast. 88-S9. 91 among Aleutian people. 3-4. 5
Northern Archaic. 127-128 Late Northwest Coast. 96 among Late Northwest Coast people. 89. 92.
Northwest Microblade. 130-131 Middle Northwest Coast. 118 93.95.99
Norton. 136 Northwest Microblade. 132 among Middle Northwest Coast people. 117
Ocean Bay. 154-155 Norton. 137 among Proto-Athapaskan people. 173
Old Itel'men. 166 Ocean Bay.155-156 among Thule people. 211
Proto-Athapaskan. l71-172 Proto-Athapaskan. 172 Waterfowl. as food resource
Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic. 182 Thule. 210-211 of Aleutian people. 3. 5. 7
Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic. 187 Western Arctic Small Tool. 215 of Kodiak people. 72. 74
Siberian Mousterian. 19S Trapping of Late Northwest Coast people. 90. 107
Siberian Neolithic and Bronze Age. 202 by Dorset people. 24 of Northwest Microblade people. 130. 133
Thule. 210 by Proto-Athapaskan people. 171 of Ocean Bay people. 155
Western Arctic Small Tool. 214 Traumatic injuries. see also Fractures of Proto-Athapaskan people. 172
Sumnagin subtradition. of Holocene Stone Age of in Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age people. Weaning age. among Cis-Baikal Neolithic and
Northeastern Asia. 51-52 19.21 Bronze Age people. 19-20
Superior Laurel tradition: see Initial Shield Wood- Trichinosis. among Thule people. 2 I 0 Weaving. Late Northwest Coast. 91. 99
land tradition Tsimshian people. 99. 108 Western Aleutian subtradtion. of Aleutian tradi-
Sweatbaths. 171 Tuberculosis tion.7-9
Syalakh subtradition. of Holocene Stone Age of among Late Northwest Coast people. S9 Western Arctic Small Tool tradition. 213-224
Northeastern Asia. 52-54. 56 among Middle Northwest Coast people. 117 absolute and relative time periods. 213
Syalakh subrraditioll. 49-50Pisallitsy. 4S-49 biota. 214
Syphilis Ulcers. among Kodiak people. 73 climate. 213
among Late Northwest Coast people. S9 Umiak.20S community organization. 214
among Middle Northwest Coast people. 117 Umingmak site. Canada. 44 conflict. 215
236 Index

Western Arctic Small Tool tradition (COllt.) Western Arctic Small Tool tradition (COllI.) Woodworking «,Ollt.)
cultural summary, 213-215 subsistence strategies, 214 Middle Northwest Coast, 118, 120, 123
diagnostic material attributes, 213 topography, 213 Tarya Neolithic, 206
division of labor, 215 trade, 215 Thule, 210
economy, 214-215, 216, 217 utensils, 214-215
environment, 213-214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, Whale, as food resource Xatacxan: see Amaknak D site
221,222,223-224 of Dorset people, 24
expressive culture, 215, 216, 218 of Kodiak people, 74, 75 Yak, as food resource
geology, 214 of Late Northwest Coast people, 90, 96, 106 of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 184
housing, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218-219, of Norton people, 136, 146 of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 190-
221, 223, 224 of Ocean Bay people, 154 191
important sites, 213, 218-224 of Thule people, 208-209, 210 Ymyaktakh subtradition, 50
industrial arts, 214 Whaling crews, social status of, among Thule peo- Ymyyakhtakh subtradition, of Holocene Stone
location, 213 ple,211 Age of Northeastern Asia, 54-56
ornaments, 215 Wolf, as food resource Yugagirs, 48, 50, 53, 55
populations, 214 of Siberian Early Upper Paleolithic people, 184 Yukon Dene subtradition, of the Proto-Athapaskan
regional subtraditions of Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic people, 190 tradition, 175-178
Denbigh Flint, 215-217 of Thule people, 209 Yukon Island (West Beach or Main Site) site,
Southern Small Tool, 217-218 Wolverine, 187, 194 Kachemak Bay, 85-86
regional subtraditions, 213 Woodworking Yupik Eskimos, 172
religion, 215, 216, 218 Dorset, 24 Yuquot site, British Columbia, 109-110
settlements, 214, 216, 217 Late Northwest Coast, 90, 91, 95, 98, 99,101,
sociopolitical organization, 215, 216, 218 105, 106, 109 Zhokhov site, Siberian Arctic, 57-58
, o

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