Jeff Rasic
Archaeologist and Program Manager
Natural and Cultural Resources
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve
4175 Geist Road
Fairbanks, AK 99709
907-750-7356
Jeff_Rasic@nps.gov
Interest Areas
My professional training is in archaeology and from 2003-2013 I was the Archaeologist for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. I have a strong interest in museum studies and research based on archaeological collections. I served as the Curator of Archaeology at the University of Alaska Museum from 2008-2012. I have long running research interests in the analysis of stone tools, the early human settlement of the Arctic, and geochemical analysis and sourcing of stone raw materials.
April is Alaska Archaeology Month!
Learn more about Alaska's ancient history and rich cultural traditions at a series of public events, and watch for the annual archaeology month poster in a thousand schools, libraries, and museums across Alaska and beyond. Since 2014 the poster has focused on a different region and period of prehistory of Alaska, ranging from the Arctic coast to the interior mountains and reaching back 6,000 years.
Education
Ph.D., 2008, Anthropology, Washington State University
M.A., 2000, Anthropology, Washington State University
B.A., 1993, Anthropology, Wake Forest University
Recent Publications
White, J. T., A. Henry, S. Kuehn, M. G. Loso, and J. T. Rasic. 2022. Terminal Pleistocene human occupation of the upper Copper River basin, southern Alaska: Results of test excavations at Nataeł Na’. Quaternary International.
Schmuck, N., R. J. Carlson, J. Reuther, J. F. Baichtal, D. H. Butler, E. Carlson, and J. T. Rasic. 2022. Obsidian source classification and defining “local” in early Holocene Southeast Alaska. Geoarchaeology 1-20.
Wooller, M. J., C. Bataille, P. Druckenmiller, G. M. Erickson, P. Groves, N. Haubenstock, T. Howe, J. Irrgeher, D. Mann, K. Moon, B. A. Potter, T. Prohaska, J. Rasic, J. Reuther, B. Shapiro, K. J. Spaleta, and A. D. Willis. 2021. Lifetime mobility of an Arctic woolly mammoth. Science 373(6556): 806-808.
Mason, O. K. and J. T. Rasic. 2020. Walrusing, whaling and the origins of the Old Bering Sea culture. World Archaeology 51(3): 454-483.
Urban, Thomas M., Jeffrey T. Rasic, Claire Alix, Douglas D. Anderson, Linda Chisholm, Robert W. Jacob, Stuart W. Manning, Owen K.Mason, Andrew H. Tremayne, Dale Vinson. 2019. Magnetic detection of archaeological hearths in Alaska: A tool for investigating the full span of human presence at the gateway to North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 211: 73-92.
Tremayne, A. H., C. M. Darwent, J. Darwent, K. A. Eldridge, and J. T. Rasic. 2018. Iyateyet revisited: A report on renewed investigations of a stratified Middle-to-Late Holocene coastal campsite in Norton Sound, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 55 (1): 1-23.
Moreno-Mayar, J. V., L. Vinner, P. de Barros Damgaard, [et al. incl. J.T. Rasic] 2018. Early human dispersals within the Americas. Science 362(6419): eaav2621.
Joly, K., J. Rasic, R. Mason, and M. Lukin. 2018. History, purpose, and status of caribou movements in northwest Alaska. Alaska Park Science 17 (1) 47-50.
Buvit, I., Rasic, J.T., Keuhn, S. R., and W.H. Hedman. 2018. Fluted Projectile Points in a Stratified Context at the Raven Bluff Site Document a Late Arrival of Paleoindian Technology in Northwest Alaska. Geoarchaeology 33(5):1-12.
Urban, Thomas M., Rasic, J. T., Alix, C., Anderson, D. D., Manning, S. W., Mason, O. K., Tremayne, A. H., and C. B. Wolff. 2016. Frozen: The Potential and Pitfalls of Ground-Penetrating Radar for Archaeology in the Alaskan Arctic. Remote Sensing 8(12): 1007.; doi:10.3390/rs8121007
Rasic, J. T. 2016. Archaeological Evidence for Transport, Trade and Exchange in the North American Arctic. In Oxford Handbook of Arctic Archaeology, edited by Owen Mason and T. Max Friesen, Oxford University Press, New York.
Tremayne, A. H. and J. T. Rasic. 2016. The Denbigh Flint Complex in the Western Arctic. In Oxford Handbook of Arctic Archaeology, edited by Owen Mason and T. Max Friesen, Oxford University Press, New York.