Archaeological Research

Duration:

3 minutes, 57 seconds

Learn more about archaeology conducted in the National Park Service system by following a team of archaeologists in Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. NPS Archaeologist Adam Freeburg discusses how field surveys are conducted, where they travel to and what artifacts are studied.

 

View the audio-described version of this video

 

Alaska Archaeology Month | Stories | Museum Collections | Subsistence

 

NPS/C. Ciancibelli

Lake Matcharak Archaeology

At a remote lake in the Noatak River valley a recently discovered archaeological site that is 4000 years old has revealed significant findings about the Arctic Small Tool Tradition and the first people to colonize the High Arctic. Read More...

 

NPS

Obsidian Research

Obsidian is volcanic glass used throughout prehistory to fashion tools. It also has special properties that make it useful for reconstructing prehistoric travel and trade. Obsidian artifacts are commonly found in Gates of the Arctic since the major source in Alaska lies not far outside the park. Find out what Park archaeologists have learned by studying these artifacts. Read More...

 

NPS/J. Rasic

Caribou Hunter's Landscape at Agiak Lake

People have hunted caribou in the Brooks Range for thousands of years. One strategy characteristic of the region was to steer the animals into lakes where they were hunted from kayaks. Exceptionally well preserved evidence of this system in the form of stone hunting blinds and hundreds of rock cairns (inuksuit) can be found at Agiak Lake. Read more...