Islands of Four Mountains Artifact Analysis, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, 2013

• Main Author: Virginia Hatfield
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2017
• Subjects: Archaeology, Aleutian Islands, Islands of Four Mountains, artifacts, lithics, bone tools; Bering Sea; Pacific; Subarctic; Unangan; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A2DZ9Z

This international and interdisciplinary project investigated connections among geological, ecological, and human systems in the Islands of the Four Mountains, Aleutian Islands. Extending 1800 km between the North American and Asian continents, the Aleutian Islands divide the northern Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea. Given their unique subpolar location, their genesis on a volcanically- and seismically-active plate boundary, and their gradual colonization by humans during the past 9000 years, the Aleutian Islands are an excellent natural archaeological laboratory for tracking past: (1) human ecology, (2) subarctic human-environmental reciprocal relationships and, (3) geological influences, sometimes catastrophic, on human society. Host to some of the world's most active volcanoes, the Four Mountains provided a superlative opportunity to assess the development of prehistoric human risk management of, and adaptations to, environmental instability (climate change, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, sea level fluctuations) through deep time. Four Mountain prehistoric sites are highly significant in light of new geologic data indicating volcanic activity during human migration and societal development in the Aleutians. Extensive new radiocarbon, paleoenvironmental, and cultural data extracted from these sites yielded novel insights into North Pacific Rim regional interactions, Unangan coping mechanisms, changing subsistence, and adaptations during the prehistoric and European contact periods. The primary research goals in the Four Mountains region was understanding: (1) how human cultures and behavior have been shaped by Holocene climatic, biotic and geologic change; and (2) how human cultures have used and impacted biotic environments. Researchers tested and documented: a) relationships of and interactions among human groups who peopled the Aleutians, b) long-term change in Holocene environments and consequent change in terrestrial and marine animal populations and diversity, much of which constituted human resources; c) human responses to shifts in the distribution, diversity, and abundance of resources and, d) human coping mechanisms and resilience in the face of potentially catastrophic climatic and geological forces.