Holocene Maritime Hunter-Gatherer Lithic Assemblage Variability in the Eastern Aleutians, Alaska: Planning, Provisioning, and Predictability

• Main Author: Bruner, Kale
• Other Authors: Mandel, Rolfe, Hofman, Jack, Sellet, Frederic, Hatfield, Virginia, Egbert, Stephen
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Kansas 2019
• Subjects: Archaeology; Aleutian Islands; Hunter-Gatherer; Lithic Technology; Provisioining; Toolstone Availability; Bering Sea; glaciers; Sea ice; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/31368; http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:16695

This dissertation investigates toolstone provisioning and lithic production employed by the maritime hunter-gatherers of Unalaska Bay in the southern Bering Sea during the early and middle Holocene. Lithic assemblage variability in the Holocene archaeological record of the eastern Aleutian Islands has been documented for decades but little attempt has been made to understand the underlying causes affecting hunter-gatherer technological strategies and how they contribute to variability. Early and middle Holocene hunter-gatherers were faced with a great deal of uncertainty and shifting coastal landscapes as a result of post-glacial sea-level rise, isostatic rebound, retreating and advances glaciers and variable sea ice conditions affecting the spatial and temporal distribution of key prey species. As an adaptive response to environmental conditions lithic technological systems, that is lithic production and its organization in space and time, reflect future-oriented strategies employed to offset risks associated with unpredictable environments. In this study I use lithic data from three assemblages in Unalaska Bay, Unalaska Island to compare toolstone provisioning and lithic production between the early and middle Holocene. Reconstruction of technological systems at the middle Holocene Margaret Bay (UNL-048) and early Holocene Russian Spruce (UNL-115) occupations is done using Minimum Analytical Nodule Analysis providing a line of evidence with which to assess toolstone procurement and transport. As a specialized form of transported toolkit, microblade technology and variation in production techniques across time in Unalaska Bay are also documented. Finally, this study employs quantitative techniques to characterize the lithic landscape of Unalaska Bay and to systematically distinguish between the material economies of local and non-local toolstone.