Bering Strait socio-economic organization, ca.2000 to 200 BP: A view from Port Clarence, Alaska, 2013-2017

• Main Author: Shelby Anderson
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Bering Strait; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A2PC2T98R

The goals of the Port Clarence project were to investigate changing subsistence practices and related settlement patterns in the Bering Strait region over the last 1000 years, during a period of significant socio-economic and environmental change. To achieve these goals we conducted two years of fieldwork at Point Spencer, excavating one previously reported village site (TEL-8) and surveying to identify and investigate several other sites in the surrounding area. We collected and analyzed animal bones, tools, and radiocarbon data to reconstruct past diet, season of site occupation, and settlement patterns at TEL-8 and across the local area. We also conducted a geoarchaeological study focused primarily on establishing local coastal landscape evolution. Prior research conducted in the 1940s suggested that we would encounter pre-1000 year old occupations at TEL-8, but excavation at the site did not locate any cultural materials dating before the Thule period (ca. 1000-250 years ago). The other sites in the surrounding area all date to the Thule period. Despite these challenges, our work makes several important contributions to Arctic archaeological research and to research on maritime hunter-gatherers. Specifically, this project contributes new data on hunting and fishing activities over an approximately 1000 year period; zooarchaeological research in this region is limited so our new analysis provides important insights into past subsistence activities. Settlement data suggests that local occupation intensified during the late pre-contact period, over the last 500 years, although additional research is needed to further evaluate the patterns we identified. These findings differ from what is currently known about late pre-contact settlement patterns in northwest Alaska. Lastly, geoarchaeological research established the potential of other regional landforms for archaeological sites dating both before and after the Neoeskimo transition beginning around 1000 years ago.