Chapter IX Analysis of Archaeological Types

• Published in: Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology
• Main Author: De Laguna, Frederica
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1947
• Subjects: Yukon; Bering Strait; Pacific; aleut; eskimo*; Kachemak
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0081130000004020; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0081130000004020

Although the material from the middle and lower Yukon is for the most part so modern that it might with some justice be called ethnological rather than archaeological, and although it is a somewhat haphazard collection rather than a set of specimens from systematically excavated sites, it can illustrate in part the material culture of the Tena just prior to white contact. Typologically it lies between the culture of the Pacific Eskimo and Aleut (of the Kachemak Bay III horizon) and of the modern Bering Strait Eskimo on the one hand, and the culture of the interior Athabaskans of the upper Yukon, Mackenzie and Copper rivers, on the other hand. It seems to be a blending of old and new elements of diverse origins: some are from the ancient Icehunting horizon of the northern Eskimo; some, from the interior Snowshoe hunting complex of the northern Indians and Siberians; some seem to stem from an ancient North Pacific cultural continuum, others, from a recent circum- Pacific culture drift. It does not seem to be a particularly rich blend, however, even though we make due allowances for the scantiness of our collections. But because Tena culture is such a composite product, it will be interesting to take the various types which we found and attempt to trace their distribution and their relationships to similar types in the surrounding areas. In this way we may gain some insight into the building of Tena material culture.