Excavating Shamanic Objects at the Nunalleq Site Near the Village of Quinhagak, Alaska
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-04-26

Yup’ik belief systems are well known in the ethnographic record, reflected in collections of masks and other objects and in oral histories that describe aspects of shamanistic practice. Precontact Yup’ik culture was poorly known until excavations at the Nunalleq site near the village of Quinhagak, Alaska, dating from around AD 1400- 1670. Until recently the site had been locked in permafrost, resulting in extraordinary preservation of organic artefacts made from wood, leather, grass, and other rarely recovered materials. Objects relating to shamanism and cosmology are abundant among more than 60,000 pieces found in the last seven field seasons at the site. Here we discuss the time depth, continuity, and change in these material expressions of Yup’ik world view and shamanism. 

Rick Knecht (University of Aberdeen) and Anna Mossolova (Tallin University)