Current Archeological Research
Two Hundred Generations: On the Beach of Their Time
Introduction
The University of Washington (UW) and National Park Service (NPS) are currently collaborating on a research project aimed at studying over 4,000 years of dynamic interactions between people and their environment. Cape Krusenstern National Monument is an ideal place to investigate these interactions because the arctic ecosystem is sensitive to environmental change and because the coastal zone of the monument contains an extensive record of human occupation.
This interdisciplinary project is focused on understanding human life ways – specifically material culture, subsistence, and settlement activities – as they relate to changes in the regional and coastal environment. The archeology team is working with paleoenvironmentalists from UW and Antioch University of New England to reconstruct past environments at Cape Krusenstern and to collect new archeological data necessary to address these research questions.
NPS archeologists conducted the initial season of fieldwork in 2006 and the UW-NPS team completed a second field season in the summer of 2008. Two additional field seasons are planned for the summers of 2009 and 2010.
Background
The Cape Krusenstern beach ridge complex is the most extensive in Northwest Alaska, encapsulating over 5,000 years of human occupation and a record of past coastal environments (Giddings and Anderson 1986; Mason and Jordan 1993). Beach ridges began forming at Krusenstern approximately 5,000 years ago when local sea level stabilized. The beach ridges develop during decade- to century-long periods of fair weather and are eroded during periods of coastal storminess. The ridges themselves are a record of past fluctuations in sea levels, wave energy and wave direction. Throughout the formation process, active coastal beaches are impacted by erosion caused by coastal storms.
The approximately 9,000 acre complex contains over 70 distinct beach ridges, which together form a ‘horizontal stratigraphy’ where archeological remains date to progressively older time periods as one moves inland from the active beach towards Krusenstern Lagoon. Human occupation of the Cape spans numerous cultural traditions and documents changes in subsistence, settlement, and socio-economic organization that occurred throughout the region (see Giddings and Anderson 1986; Harritt 1994; Schaaf 1988).
Field Objectives and Methods
Archeological fieldwork activities carried out in 2006 and 2008 included survey, mapping, and testing of both previously recorded and new archeological sites. The purpose of the survey is to collect spatial information about archeological sites, which is critical for reconstructing past settlement patterns. Additionally, the crew gathers site condition and location data necessary for NPS resource management and site protection efforts. Highly precise Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment is used to record spatial data during survey. This technology allows the crew to rapidly map and record information with unprecedented accuracy.
The team will also integrate site data collected in the late 1950s and 60s by archeologists J.Louis Giddings and Douglas D. Anderson, along with local Inupiaq resident Almond Downey who, “was instrumental in helping…locate the Cape Krusenstern archeological sites” during those highly productive years of exploration (Giddings and Anderson 1986).
Site testing is directed toward collecting cultural material from different time periods, analysis of which will contribute to refining current knowledge of the region’s archeological history, along with a better understanding past life ways and adaptations to environmental change over time. Survey and testing data are incorporated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) that will include archeological site location, condition and collections information that will become a useful research and management tool.
Preliminary Results of Fieldwork
2006 Field Season
In 2006, a group of nine NPS archeologists spent approximately three weeks at Cape Krusenstern, conducting fieldwork in the northwest reaches of the beach ridge complex. Over 1,100 acres were surveyed and approximately 1,000 sites and features recorded. Because the 2006 fieldwork focused on determining dates of archeological sites, 71 samples were collected for radiocarbon testing. A total of 19 charcoal and wood samples were submitted for radiocarbon dating, yielding dates ranging from 6,420 years before present (BP) to 280 BP.
2008 Field Season
A smaller crew of six archeologists, led by UW graduate students Shelby Anderson and Adam Freeburg, continued the fieldwork from mid-June to early August 2008. Based at the Anigaaq Ranger Station, the crew spent six weeks examining the eastern and east-central portion of the beach ridge complex. The survey covered over 1,200 acres and resulted in the identification and testing of approximately 285 new and previously recorded archeological features. A total of fourteen 1x1 meter test units were excavated in various features on park and private lands (in cases where permission for testing was obtained). Approximately 423 objects and specimens were recovered during survey and testing.
Highlights of the 2008 field season included the discovery of an intact hearth that may date to the earliest occupation of the beach ridges and linear impressed pottery from several sites across the complex. This pottery is probably between 3,600 and 2,500 years old and dates to a period of change in Northwest Alaska when people began focusing more intensively on marine resources. During this time, new technology, including pottery, was brought to the region from Northeast Asia. Blue glass trade beads found during site testing are evidence of more recent cultural interaction. These beads likely traveled to the region with Russian explorers or traders, or through the extensive native trade networks that crossed the Bering Strait and beyond in the 18th and 19th centuries. Stone tools, stone tool making debris, pottery, bone, ivory and bone tools, samples for radiocarbon dating and soil or bulk sediment samples were collected from across the study area. Many of the sites and features recorded in 2008 were not previously documented and the work conducted in 2008 has added significantly to our knowledge of past settlement patterns at Cape Krusenstern.
Ongoing and Future Work
In the fall of 2008, UW students cleaned, cataloged, and prepared collected materials for further analysis. In winter and spring of 2009, the archeologists will continue to work with the GPS data gathered in the 2006 and 2008 field seasons, integrating this and legacy data from previous work into the project GIS layer. Preliminary analysis of dating results and settlement history are underway, along with analysis of ceramics collected in 2008. In the summer of 2009, researchers plan to conduct testing in the northwest area of the Cape, where 2006 work was carried out, and to survey the central section of the beach ridge complex just south of the Sealing Point tower.
References and Sources of Additional Information
Giddings, J. Louis. Ancient Men of the Arctic. New York: Alfred K. Knopf, 1967.
Giddings, J. Louis and Douglas D. Anderson. Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern: Eskimo and Pre-Eskimo Settlements around Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. Publications in Archeology vol 20. Washington D.C.: National Park Service, 1986.
Harritt, Roger K. Eskimo Prehistory on the Seward Peninsula. Alaska Region Resources Report # 93/212. Anchorage: National Park Service, 1994.
Mason, Owen. K. and Jim W. Jordan. “Heightened North Pacific Storminess and Synchronous late Holocene Erosion of Northwest Alaska Beach Ridge Complexes.” Quaternary Research, vol.40, no.1 (1993):55-69.
Schaaf, Jeanne, editor. The Bering Land Bridge: An Archeological Survey. National Park Service Resources Management Report vol. 14. Anchorage: National Park Service, 1988.
