As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has 

responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and 

cultural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water 

resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and 

cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and providing for 

enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. 

The Cultural Resource Programs of the National Park Service have responsibilities that include 

stewardship of historic buildings, museum collections, archeological sites, cultural landscapes, oral 

and written histories, and ethnographic resources. 

Our mission is to identify, evaluate and preserve the cultural resources of the park areas and to bring 

an understanding of these resources to the public. Congress has mandated that we preserve these 

resources because they are important components of our national and personal identity. 

Published by the United States Department of the Interior through the Government Printing Office 

with the assistance of Debra A. Mingeaud 

National Park Service 

Shared Beringian Heritage Program 

Arrows and Atl Atls:
 

A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia
 

ISBN-10: 098539482X and
 

ISBN-13: 978-0-9853948-2-0 

2013 

This project was funded by the National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program. 

Front cover figures by Amalia Kenward. 

Back cover photograph courtesy the author. 
2013

E. James Dixon

Arrows and Atl Atls

A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Acknowledgements iii

Acknowledgements

Completion of this project would not have been possible without the support of 

the National Park Service, Bob Gerhard, former chief of the Shared Beringian 

Heritage program, along with the staff of the Alaska Regional Office of the National 

Park Service. I especially wish to express my appreciation to Ted Birkedal for his 

patience and unwavering confidence in the completion of this project. Peter Richter, 

formerly of the Shared Beringian Heritage program, provided timely and professional 

administrative support. I also thank Becky Saleeby for sharing unpublished transcripts 

and archival material and providing helpful review and editing. Funding for travel and 

other support was provided under Cooperative Agreement CA9910-99-046.

I wish to thank my colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution, William 

Fitzhugh, Dennis Stanford, and Pegi Jodry, for their hospitality and help accessing 

the Museum of Natural History’s Anthropological Archives. Doug and Wanni 

Anderson were gracious hosts during my examination of collections at Brown 

University’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. David Hurst Thomas 

facilitated my use of the photo archives at the American Museum of Natural 

History. The staff of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and 

Art also provided assistance. 

 This book could not have been written without the cooperation of my many 

colleagues in Western Beringia. I particularly wish to thank Aleksey Ponomarenko 

for sharing his knowledge of the Kamchatka Peninsula, permitting me to examine 

and photograph collections, and taking me to key archeological sites in the vicinity 

of Petropavlovsk. My friends Sergei Slobodin and Alexander Lebedentsev took me 

to several sites in the Magadan region, including Uptar and Ol’skaia. They extended 

their hospitality during our stay in Magadan, and along with Margarita Kirijak-Dikova 

and Igor Vorobey, patiently shared their knowledge and facilitated studying and 

photographing collections. I also thank Aleksandr Orekhov for sharing his knowledge 

of Lakhtina culture and our stimulating conversations during his visit to our excavations 

at On Your Knees Cave in 2004. Natasha and Alexander Slobodin voluntarily served as 

translators in Magadan and their help was greatly appreciated. 
iv Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

I express my sincere thanks to all those who provided biographical information 

and photographs for the appendix of biographies accompanying this book. Particularly 

helpful in this endeavor were James VanStone, Thomas Hamilton, Frederica de Laguna, 

Bob Sattler, and Fred Kirsteatter. Some people who were contacted declined to have 

their biographies included and I have respected their wishes even though it creates some 

significant omissions.

Many colleagues working in Eastern Beringia have generously shared their 

knowledge and permitted me to examine important collections. I thank Charles Holmes, 

David Yesner, Greg Hare, Norm Easton, Jeff Rasic, and Ben Potter for taking time to 

share their data and allowing me to examine artifacts and visit their excavations. Tom 

Ager generously shared his research and views regarding the Holocene and the last Ice 

Age vegetation and climatic events of Beringia. 

The thoughtful reviews of earlier drafts of this manuscript by National Park 

Service archeologists Ted Birkedal, Jeremy Karchut, Becky Saleeby, and Ken Schoenberg 

were extremely valuable. In addition, Sergei Slobodin and Robert Ackerman contributed 

their time and professional expertise to provide insightful comments of that same draft. 

All these reviewers were professional and constructive and significantly improved the 

quality of this work. However, I take responsibility for its contents including those 

interpretations that may be considered controversial or outside the mainstream.

I thank Eric Parrish, who accompanied me on our trip to Western Beringia, and 

prepared many of the maps, photographs, and drawings for this book. His work, along 

with the design and layout by Francis Broderick, helped bring life to the manuscript. 

Craig Lee generously contributed his time to help with many details and accurately 

converted many of the radiocarbon dates to calendar years. Kelly Monteleone, Mark 

Williams, Nick Jarman, Michael Grooms and William Taylor all provided graphic and 

technical support. I am especially grateful to my wife, Mim Dixon, for her patience and 

thoughtful and constructive editing, comments, and encouragement throughout this 

fifteen-year undertaking.
Dedication v

Dedication

To the Alaska Native people, 

and all indigenous people of Beringia, 

who have shared their knowledge and helped pioneer Beringian archeology. 

To my teachers and mentors, 

Douglas Anderson, David M. Hopkins, and Helge Larsen. 

Each in his unique way honed my passion for Beringian archeology.
vi Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia
Preface vii

Preface

My hope is to share the excitement of discovery with all types of readers —

students, avocational archeologists, indigenous people, Alaskan, Russian, and 

Canadian cultural resource managers, and people with a general interest in archeology, 

the arctic, and Beringia. Beringia is a fascinating place and the archeologists who have 

tried to unravel its past are a colorful and extraordinary assortment of pioneers. 

It is challenging and humbling to try to communicate both the scientific 

process and culture history spanning more than 25,000 years for this huge area. This 

synthesis required making decisions about what are the most important archeological 

sites, their significant characteristics, the most reasonable estimates of their age based 

on the dating methods, the significance of their ecological settings, their context 

in relationship to climate change, and a variety of other factors. This necessitated 

omitting much of the detail and condensing enormous amounts of important work and 

complex concepts. In so doing, I have left out deserving sites and abbreviated the work 

of many dedicated scientists. 

The literature describing Beringia’s culture history is extensive. Archeological 

surveys and excavations to preserve and conserve cultural resources have created a vast 

“gray literature,” a myriad of unpublished reports, manuscripts, and papers presented at 

professional meetings. In addition, large archeological collections, many of which have 

only been partially analyzed, are housed in museums, cultural centers, and universities 

all over the world. The sheer volume of the published literature, technical reports, gray 

literature, and unpublished collections makes it incredibly difficult to understand the 

archeology of Beringia. 

The goal of this book is to take this complex information and reduce it to an 

understandable overview of the development of Beringia’s culture history. To make 

it more readable, I have omitted specific references within the body of the text and 

have tried to keep technical terminology to a minimum. I have defined or explained 

terms and concepts in the text when necessary and provided a short glossary of select 

archeological and geological terms as they are applied in Beringian archeology. Each 

chapter is followed by suggestions for additional reading for those who may wish to 
viii Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

learn more about chapter topics. The bibliography contains the references from which 

the book was derived. 

Since the late 1800s, many people have contributed to the archeology of 

Beringia. It has been my pleasure to know and work with many of these remarkable 

people. The Pioneers in Beringian Archeology section at the end of this book describes 

the lives and careers of many of the robust and colorful characters that came before me 

and helped shape Beringian archeology. Some living individuals who were contacted 

declined to be included. 

In writing this book I have been able to look at patterns, reflect on problems 

in archeology, and suggest some different ways of looking at cultural development and 

interaction in Beringia. Some of these ideas, hopefully, will provoke discussion among 

colleagues and stimulate future research by a new generation of Beringian archeologists. 
Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................... iii

Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... v

Preface ............................................................................................................................................vii

List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. x

Technical Notes on Dates and Dating .....................................................................................xv

Chapter 1: Introduction...............................................................................................................1

Chapter 2: Beringian Archeology ..............................................................................................7

Chapter 3: The Last Ice Age and the First Americans......................................................... 19

Chapter 4: Western Beringia ................................................................................................... 33

Chapter 5: Central Beringia..................................................................................................... 59

Chapter 6: Eastern Beringia: Interior ................................................................................... 99

Chapter 7: Eastern Beringia: The Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska.......................125

Chapter 8: Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast ........................................................149

Chapter 9: Summary ................................................................................................................167

Pioneers of Beringian Archeology..........................................................................................183

Glossary........................................................................................................................................262

Guide to the Pronunciation of Russian Names...................................................................267

Bibliography................................................................................................................................268

Table of Contents
x Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

List of Figures

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1 North polar projection illustrating the location of Beringia.

Figure 1.2 Map depicting three sectors of Beringia: Western, Central and Eastern. 

Chapter 2

Figure 2.1 Paleontologist Ove Kisen collecting the bones of Ice Age animals at a 

hydraulic mining operation in interior Alaska (American Museum of Natural 

History, Photo Archives). 

Figure 2.2 Map depicting the major language groups of Beringia’s indigenous people 

(Adapted from Fitzhugh and Crowell 1988, Osgood 1936).

Figure 2.3 Marine mammal hunting using an atl atl from Aleut skin boats (baidarkas) 

1790 - 1792 (Sarychev 1802, Alaska State Library Archives).

Figure 2.4 Idealized presentation illustrating how microblades were manufactured 

from wedge shaped cores and used as insets along the sides of bone or antler 

projectile points: 1 microblade was struck from prepared core; 2 microblade 

was segmented; 3 blade inset was inserted into slotted projectile paint; 4 

cross section of projectile point showing mounting of blade insets into slots 

(modified from University of New Mexico Press, Dixon 1999: 159).

Figure 2.5 Examples of how microblades may have been hafted in handles like razor 

knives for use in fine craft work.

Figure 2.6 Hafted microblades may have been excellent tools for delicate tasks such as 

making tailored skin clothing.

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1 Map showing distribution of glacial ice circa 18,000 BP (Manley 2002, 

Ehlers and Gibbard 2004 a and b).

Figure 3.2 Ice Age animal bones from the Bering Land Bridge (Quaternary Research, 

Dixon 1983: 116–117).

Figure 3.3 Digital elevation model of Beringia depicting flooding of the Bering Land 

Bridge at 2,000 year intervals from 15,000 B.P. to 5,000 years ago (Manley, W. 

F. Postglacial Flooding of the Bering Land Bridge: A Geospatial Animation: 

INSTAAR, University of Colorado, v1, http://instaar.colorado.edu/QGISL/ 

bering_land_bridge).

Figure 3.4 Glaciated North America showing possible coastal route about 19,000 

years ago. A land route through the interior is blocked by glacial ice at this 

time. 

Figure 3.5 Midden depths accumulated in 1,000 – 3,000 years in Central Beringia. The 

lower portions of such deeply buried sites could survive marine transgression 

and ice gouging.
List of Figures xi

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 Map of Western Beringia illustrating geographic features and site locations. 

Figure 4.2 Nikolai Dikov’s archeological excavations at Ushki Lake. 

Figure 4.3 Artifacts from Ushki I, Horizon VII. 1-9 stemmed projectile points; 10-12 

projectile point bases; 13-21 beads; 22-25 pendants; 26-28 microblade like 

flakes.

Figure 4.4 Artifacts from Ushki Lake, Horizon VI. 1-4 labrets; 5-9 leaf-shaped 

projectile points; 10-15 and 23, 24 microblades; 16-19 pendants; 20-22 and 

25-29 microblade cores.

Figure 4.5 Artifacts from the Zhokhov site: 1-5 bone points with microblades (tinted 

gray) inset in the side slots. 

Figure 4.6 Artifacts from the Avacha 1 site: 1-14 chipped stone projectile points; 15 

chipped stone projectile point bases. 

Figure 4.7 Artifacts from the Avacha 1 site: 1 microblade core; 2-9 microblades; 10- 

13 chipped stone scrapers; 14-16 adze blades.

Figure 4.8 Reconstructed ceramic flat bottomed pot characteristic of Tokareva culture.

Figure 4.9 Tokareva artifacts: 1-6 barbed and toggling harpoon heads; 7, 8 bone

projectile points; 9-13 chipped stone projectile points; 14, 15 chipped stone 

knives; 16 knife with bone handle and copper blade.

Figure 4.10 Tokaeva artifacts: 1-8 pendants; 9-11 etched pebbles, 11 perforated 

canine; 12 awl; 13 comb; 14 ivory effigy; 15 chipped stone effigy; 16 

human head carved from stone.

Figure 4.11 Artifacts from the Lopatka site: 1, 3, and 4 bone awls; 2 bone spoon-like 

object; 5-7 adze heads. 

Figure 4.12 Artifacts from the Lopatka site: 1 chipped stone knife blade; 2-4 chipped

stone projectile points; chipped stone scrapers; 11, 12 flake cores; 13-15 adze 

blades. 

Figure 4.13 Artifacts from the Bolshoy Kamen, or Big Stone site: 1 chipped stone 

animal effigy; 2 wisker labret; 3-10 chipped stone projectile points; 

11 chipped stone knife; 12-15 scrapers; 16, 17 gravers; 18 chipped and ground 

stone adze blades. 

Figure 4.14 Artifacts documenting the Ainu incursion into Kamchatka: 1 

ceramic fragment; 2 harpoon head fragment with iron end blade; 3 Japanese 

coin; 4 blue glass trade bead; 5 iron fish hook.

Figure 4.15 Interior of an Itle’men winter house as recorded by S.P. Krasheninnikov 

circa 1740 (Krasheninnikov 1964).

Figure 4.16 Cultural chronology of Western Beringia (Icons from Dikov 1979; 

Lebedintsev 1990, Slobodin 2005).

Chapter 5

Figure 5.1 Map of Central Beringia. 

Figure 5.2 Map depicting the location of key archeological sites in Central Beringia.

Figure 5.3 Slotted bone projectile points, Central Beringia: 1 atl atl dart head 

Canadian ice patch; 2-8 arrow heads Trail Creek Caves; arrow head from Lime 

Hills, Cave 1. 
xii Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 5.4 Maps depicting the northward movement of the Northern Paleoindian 

tradition and the limits of the melting continental glacier 13,000 and 12,500 

years ago. 

Figure 5.5 Exquisitely flaked stone artifacts from the Denbigh Flint complex, Alaska:

1–3 end blades; 4 unfinished end blade; 5-8 end blades; 9-11 side blades; 12, 

13 drills or lancets; 14–17 side blades (Giddings 1964, plate 71-b).

Figure 5.6 Microblades and other artifacts of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, Denbigh 

Flint complex: 1 core scraper; 2 microblade core; 3 burin struck on a 

microblade; 4–20 microblades (Giddings 1964, plate 65). 

Figure 5.7 Central Beringia house plans from Cape Krusenstern, Alaska: 1 Old 

Whaling house; 2 Ipiutak house types; 3 Birnirk house; 4 early western Thule 

House; 5 fifteenth-century house, Kotzebue Sound (Anderson 1984:81). 

Figure 5.8 Types of harpoons: 1 simple barbed harpoon with detachable 

head with line to “neck” or line hole; 2 (center three images) compound 

toggle-head harpoon; 3 throwing lance (Modified from Jochelson 1925). 

Figure 5.9 The principle of a toggling harpoon; 1 tip pierces hide enabling entry; 2 

socket and foreshaft detach; 3 resistance forces the spur to turn sideways 

decreasing the chances for the animal to escape. 

Figure 5.10 Attributes of a toggling harpoon head: 1 end blade; 2 surface decoration; 3

side blade; 4 barb; 5 line hole; 6 lashing slot; 7 lashing grove; 8 socket (open 

or closed); 9 spur(s) (modified from Bandi 1969 and Schledermann 1996).

Figure 5.11 Old Whaling artifacts from Devils Log site, Wrangell Island, Siberia: 1-7. 

Old Whaling artifacts, Cape Krusenstern, Alaska: 8-17. 

Figure 5.12 Examples of Ipiutak art: 1 a decoration on mask-like set of ivory carvings 

once attached by lashing through drilled holes; 2 engraving tools; 3 openwork 

ivory carving; 4 carved ivory chain links; 5 engraved composite ivory “comb” 

or “rake”; 6 ivory carving of young walrus; 7 decorated band (Larsen and 

Rainey 1948, Giddings 1964).

Figure 5.13 Examples of Old Bering Sea Art from the Ekven site, Chukchi Penninsula, 

Russia: 1 harpoon foreshaft; 2-5 harpoon heads; 6 kayak model; 7 socket 

piece; 8-10 harpoon heads; 11 harpoon socketpiece,; 12 winged object; 13, 14 

decorated ladles; 15 bucket handle; 16 bow drill; 17 decorated masquette; 18 

chain of walrus ivory; 19 bear’s head, 20 handle for a burin. Length of 2 is circa 

19 cm. All others are the same scale (Ackerman 1984:110–111).

Figure 5.14 Okvik female figure carved from walrus ivory (redrawn from 

Wardwell 1986: 52–53).

Figure 5.15 Froelich Rainey (left) and Helge Larsen (right) at Point Hope,

Alaska, 1941 (American Museum of Natural History, Photo Archives). 

Figure 5.16 Cultural chronology of Central Beringia (Icons from Anderson 1968a, 

1988; Bandi 1969; Dikov 1979; Dumond 1977; Giddings 1964, 1967; 

Orekhov 1999; Slobodin 2005, Stanford 1976).

Chapter 6

Figure 6.1 Map depicting archeological locations, interior Eastern Beringia.

Figure 6.2 Line drawings of Denali complex artifacts from Component II at the Dry 

Creek site: 1-5 burins; 6, 7 wedge-shaped microblade cores and core tablet; 
List of Figures xiii

8-11 microblades; 12-14 knifes;15 projectile point; 16 projectile point base; 

(Powers and Hoffecker 1989).

Figure 6.3 Line drawings of Denali complex artifacts from Component II at the Dry 

Creek Site: 1, 2 blades; 3 lanceolate biface; 4, 5 side scrapers ; 6 spokeshave 

(Powers and Hoffecker 1989).

Figure 6.4 Line drawings of Nenana complex artifacts from Dry Creek, Moose Creek, 

and Walker Road Sites: 1-6 top row: bifacially chipped projectile points and 

knives; 6-8 perforators; 9, 10 utilized blades; 11, 12 scrapers; 13 burin; 

14 wedge like artifact; 15-17 scrapers; 18, 19 scraper planes (Powers and 

Hoffecker 1989). 

Figure 6.5 Antler arrow heads and a copper end blade found melting from the Bonanza 

Ice Patch, Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska: 1 Green 

staining at the tip indicates that this arrow head once held a copper end blade; 2 

Antler arrow head with copper end blade; 3 Antler arrow head with broken tip.

Figure 6.6 Athapaskan traditional artifacts from the Dixthada site: 1 bone scraper; 

2-5 blunt and barbed antler projectile points; 6 stone projectile point; 7 

bone projectile point; 8 copper projectile point; 9, 10 copper awls; 10 stitched 

birch bark; 11 fire cracked rock (Dixon 1985: 62).

Figure 6.7 Hudson Bay post at Fort Yukon (drawing by Fredereick Wymper 1866). 

Figure 6.8 Cultural chronology of interior Eastern Beringia (Icons from Anderson 

1988, 1968a, Mobley 1991; Powers and Hoffecker 1989; West 1967, 

Dixon 1985).

Chapter 7

Figure 7.1 Map of the Aleutian Islands and important archeological sites.

Figure 7.2 Microblade cores form the 9,000 year old Hog Island Site, near Unalaska, 

Alaska (Photo courtesy of Richard Knecht).

Figure 7.3 Nine thousand year old stone lamp from the Hog Island Site (Photo 

courtesy of Richard Knecht).

Figure 7.4 An excavated slab-lined house at the Margaret Bay Site, Unalaska, Alaska 

(Photo courtesy of Richard Knecht).

Figure 7.5 A large multi-room slab-lined house approximately 3,000 years old excavated 

at the Amaknak Bridge Site, Unalaska, Alaska. Note the v-shaped, dual smoke 

ventilation system leading to the chimney in the foreground. The two rooms 

in the upper right are the remains of a second house (Photo courtesy of 

Richard Knecht).

Figure 7.6 An eagle on top of the cross of the Russian Orthodox Church, Unalaska. 

Figure 7.7 World War II military pillbox, Amaknak Island.

Figure 7.8 Map of the Alaska Peninsula and Gulf of Alaska depicting key archeological 

sites. 

Figure 7.9 Aerial photograph of Takli Island. For thousands of years this rugged island 

served as home to maritime people (Photo courtesy of Becky Saleeby, 

National Park Service).

Figure 7.10 Cultural chronology of the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of 

Alaska (Icons from Clark 1984, Dumond 1987, Dumond and Knecht 2001, 

Fitzhugh 2004, McCartney 1984, and Jochelson 1925).
xiv Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Chapter 8 

Figure 8.1 Map of the northern Northwest Coast and the location of archeological 

sites. Figure 8.2 Robert Ackerman’s archeological excavations at Ground Hog 

Bay (Photo courtesy of Myra Gilliam, United States Forest Service). 

Figure 8.3 Archeological excavations at Hidden Falls, 1978, area A (Photo 

courtesy of Jeremy Karchut, United States Forest Service).

Figure 8.4 Thorne River basket: 1 replica of the original discovery woven by Dolores 

Churchill; 2 Technical drawing by Margaret Davidson of the original 

discovery.

Figure 8.5 Northwest Coast wood working tools: 1 D shaped Adze; 2 antler wedge; 

3 nipple maul; 4 stone hammer; 5 planks were removed from logs by splitting 

with hammer and wedges. 

Figure 8.6 Cultural chronology of the Northwest Coast (Icons from Carlson 1990; 

Davis 1990).

Chapter 9

Figure 9.1 Table correlating the expansion and contraction of Asian (white) and 

American (gray) cultural traditions in Beringia. 

Figure 9.2 Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) used to search for submerged 

archeological sites on the continental shelf of Southeast Alaska in 2010: 1 On 

deck; 2 Deployed on surface prior to dive to conduct underwater survey. 

Figure 9.3 The Bonanza Ice Patch in Alaska. Caribou are attracted to ice patches in the

summer to cool down and escape insects. People have hunted them at these 

sites for thousands of years. 
Technical Notes on Dates and Dating xv

Technical Notes on Dates and Dating

There are many different ways to determine the age of archeological sites and the 

artifacts they contain. For example, sites can be dated using records such as historic 

journals or census records that document when people were living at specific places in 

the past. Sites can also be dated using a variety of other methods such as tree ring dating 

(dendrochronology), comparing artifacts with those from sites that are reliably dated 

elsewhere, using the layers of dirt within a site to determine which artifacts are older or 

younger than others, and a wide variety of other methods. However, the most common 

method used to date the sites discussed in this book is radiocarbon (14C) dating. 

Radiocarbon dating can be complex and few people realize that radiocarbon 

years are different than calendar years. Consequently, all the radiocarbon dates in 

this book have been converted to calendar dates employing Radiocarbon Calibration 

Program (CALIB 4.3) using the mean, or mean of means, at one standard deviation. 

For example, if the text says a site has been radiocarbon dated to 1,000 years ago, 

it tells the reader the site was dated using the radiocarbon method. Frequently, the 

calibrated dates have been rounded to the nearest 50 or 100 years for clarity and 

simplicity. However, for the sake of consistency, the date is presented in calendar 

years, not radiocarbon years. This book uses the term “years ago” in describing time 

throughout this book. This means calendar years prior to A.D. 2000. This was done to 

simplify the conflicting and confusing ways various researchers have chosen to describe 

the chronology of Beringia, such as B.P. (Before Present — actually meaning before 

A.D.1950), A.D. (after the beginning of the Christian era), B.C. (before the Christian 

era), and complicated phrases such as “late in the third millennium before Christ.” 

While the ability to convert radiocarbon years to calendar years is limited 

to approximately the last 24,000 years, there are radiocarbon dates that are older. 

These dates cannot be converted to calendar years and are reported as uncorrected 

radiocarbon years before present. Radiocarbon dates can be distorted if they are based 

on samples from marine organisms, which may have absorbed carbon from the air at 

a delayed rate. For example, this delay can result in radiocarbon dates derived from 

seal or whale bone being hundreds of years different than from animals or plants of 
xvi Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

the same age living on land. This is called the marine reservoir effect and it has been 

applied to the dates in this book when appropriate. 

Readers should be aware of the limitations of radiocarbon dating that make 

all dates approximate. Scientific literature acknowledges this by placing prior to a date 

“circa” or “c.” which means approximately, or qualifiers such as “about.” This book has 

dropped that convention to make it more readable. All radiocarbon dates should be 

regarded as approximations. At times it has been necessary to make judgments about 

which dates are most accurate when several dates have been reported for a site, site 

component, or stratigraphic levels that are not consistent or when there are reasons to 

believe that some samples are problematic. When bracketing the beginning and ends 

of archeological traditions and complexes, maximum and minimum limiting dates have 

been rounded to the nearest 50 or 100 years. The historic dates drawn from written 

records, such as the purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia in 1867, are 

reported according to the standard calendar.
The Bering Sea was named for Vitus Bering, an intrepid Scandinavian navigator 

hired by the Russian crown to explore Russia’s Pacific frontier. After traveling 

overland from Europe, he founded the settlement of Petropavlovsk (Peter and Paul) 

on the Pacific coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. With European shipbuilders, 

he established a shipyard, harvested timber, constructed vessels, and launched his 

exploration of the northern seas. On the return from his second voyage he died on 

the largest of the Komandorskie (Commander) Islands that now bears his name. His 

incredible feats are commemorated in names - Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and the Bering 

Land Bridge.

The geographic region known as Beringia received its name from botanist 

Eric Hultén. In the 1930s he determined from studying the plants on both sides of the 

Bering Sea that the vast areas of extreme northwest North America and northeast Asia 

had been connected by a land bridge in the past. Geologists had already suggested this 

based on the shallow depth of the Bering Sea and the fact that much of the region had 

not been covered by glacial ice during the last Ice Age. Hultén named this vast region 

Beringia after the Bering Sea that now separates the two continents. 

During the height of the last Ice Age, the ocean floor lying beneath the Bering 

Sea was exposed as dry land stretching between Alaska and Siberia. This occurred 

because sea level was lower while much of the earth’s water was trapped in massive 

continental glaciers. This land connection between Asia and North America is called 

the Bering Land Bridge and when the land bridge connected the two continents large 

glaciers covered much of the adjacent land (Figure 1.1). 

It was geologist David Hopkins who most fully realized the importance of

the Bering Land Bridge in shaping the modern world. Expanding our understanding 

of the Bering Land Bridge, he emphasized that it was part of a larger region referred to 

as Beringia. He divided Beringia into two parts: Western Beringia in Asia, and Eastern 

Beringia in Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.

Based upon the environments, resources, archeology, and contemporary 

cultures, this book divides Beringia into three regions instead of two. The three 

regions are Western, Central, and Eastern Beringia (Figure 1.2). Western Beringia 

extends from Russia’s Verkhoyansk Range to the Bering Strait, and from the Arctic 

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
2 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Ocean in the north to the Sea of Okhotsk in the south, including Kamchatka. Central 

Beringia includes the Bering and Chukchi Seas and adjacent parts of Asia and North 

America. During the Ice Age, the Bering Land Bridge was the core of Central Beringia. 

Eastern Beringia encompasses interior Alaska and adjacent areas of Canada that were 

not covered by the massive continental glaciers during the Ice Age. Eastern Beringia 

has been subdivided into three areas: 1) the interior, 2) Aleutian Islands and Gulf of 

Alaska, and 3) the northern Northwest Coast of North America extending south to 

the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 

The boundaries between these areas are sometimes difficult to define, because 

over long periods of time the climate and environment has changed and cultural 

boundaries have shifted. However, each area typically shares common features in 

cultural development. Beringia is the only part of the Americas adjacent to Asia and 

connected to it in the past by a land bridge. 

Figure 1.1 North polar projection illustrating the location of Beringia.
Introduction 3

The Aleutian Island chain is composed of approximately 100 islands. It 

extends more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the end of the Alaska Peninsula 

westward into the North Pacific. While this may look like it is on the southern 

boundary of Central Beringia, it is actually a westward extension of Eastern Beringia. 

The archeological evidence indicates that the Aleutian Islands were colonized 

from the east and subsequent cultural interaction was with people living in North 

America, not Asia. The treeless islands are the peaks of volcanic mountains rising 

from the deep waters of the north Pacific. This deep water separated the Aleutians 

from the Bering Land Bridge during the Ice Age and they were not part of the Bering 

Land Bridge. When sea level was lower, the islands would have been larger and easier 

to see from a distance. 

The Northwest Coast of North America forms a southern boundary of 

Beringia. Although traditionally it has not been considered part of Beringia, 

recent research has demonstrated that much of the coast was ice-free during the 

last Ice Age. These ice-free areas supported animals, such as caribou, brown bear, 

and ringed seals that are now regionally extinct. The Northwest Coast served as a 

corridor along which people may have first been able to colonize the southern areas 

of North America. In later times it served as a conduit for the exchange of ideas and 

technological innovations between Eastern and Central Beringia and southern areas 

of North America. 

Beringia played an important role in the human colonization of the American 

continents. Most archeologists believe that humans first came to Beringia from Asia. 

Subsequently people settled the heart of Central Beringia and the Bering Land Bridge. 

They eventually colonized Eastern Beringia sometime between 17,000 – 14,000 years 

ago. There is good reason to believe that archeological sites await discovery on the 

continental shelf beneath the Bering and Chukchi Seas. 

In the past, some scientists believed that an “ice free corridor” might have 

existed through Canada from Eastern Beringia during the height of the last Ice Age 

Figure 1.2 Map depicting three sectors of Beringia: Western, Central and Eastern.
4 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

about 18,000 years ago. They thought this may have been a relatively narrow passage, 

perhaps only a few miles wide in places, that may have enabled people to move 

south from Alaska without having to attempt a dangerous crossing over the rugged 

continental glaciers. However, recent studies suggest that this passage did not exist 

until the end of the last Ice Age, about 13,000 – 14,000 years ago when glaciers melted 

sufficiently to expose enough land to sustain life and permit people to move south from 

Eastern Beringia to colonize the rest of the Americas. 

It is possible that with the use of watercraft, people were able to move south 

along the Northwest Coast of North America possibly as early as 17,000 years ago. 

This coastal route may have enabled people to move southward a few thousand years 

earlier than the inland one. However, it is probable that once the continental glaciers 

had melted sufficiently both routes were important to humans moving south from 

Eastern Beringia. 

People on both sides of Bering Strait maintained contact with one another 

for more than 14,000 years following the initial settlement of North America. It was 

through Beringia that people continued to exchange ideas and goods between the two 

great hemispheres of the earth, the Americas and the Old World. For thousands of 

years to come, it would be through Beringia that people obtained important resources 

such as iron from Asia and furs from North America. When ancient Beringians met, 

they exchanged news and advances in technology such as metallurgy, pottery making, 

and the invention of the bow and arrow. Until Europeans “discovered” America more 

than 10,000 years later, Beringia was the primary route for the exchange of knowledge 

between the Americas and the Old World. 

The study of Beringian archeology has a rich history beginning more than 

a hundred years ago. Many individuals, academic institutions, and state and federal 

agencies have made contributions important to understanding the archeology of 

Beringia. Native people continue to take an active role in interpreting and presenting 

their cultures through the establishment of museums and cultural centers and as 

partners in archeological excavations. National and regional governments have had an 

important impact on archeology in Beringia and have introduced measures to protect 

and conserve archeological sites and other cultural resources. New discoveries provide 

new insights into the lives, art, beliefs, and economy of ancient Beringia. New research 

frontiers are providing amazing discoveries that continue to expand our knowledge, 

understanding, and respect for the people of Beringia. 

Recent History of Beringia 

The modern political character of Beringia is complex. For example, Alaska 

is a state of the United States of America, with boundaries defined largely on political 

considerations rather than natural physical features, environmental criteria, or even 

cultural boundaries. It is the largest state in the United States and the only one that 

shares its borders with two foreign nations, Russia and Canada. However, these 

political boundaries do not reflect the geographic distribution of past or present 

cultures. The Bering Sea region was ecologically and culturally a relatively cohesive area 

until the political divisions created by the United States and Russia divided the resident 

population. Athapaskan peoples living in the Interior also were divided by an arbitrary 

international boundary and became citizens of two nations, the United States and 
Introduction 5

Canada. The modern political boundaries are familiar to us and they create a point of 

reference that helps us communicate the location of archeological sites. However, these 

political boundaries were meaningless for the early inhabitants of Beringia. 

Beringia has continued to be the source for materials that have influenced 

international economics. In historic times these have included furs, whale oil, gold, 

fish, and most recently oil and natural gas. These links to the international economic 

system brought rapid and irreversible change to the people of Beringia. 

During the height of the international market for furs, the British Hudson Bay 

Company expanded from east to west overland across North America. At the same 

time the Russian American Company spread eastward from Asia into Alaska until the 

two economic giants met on Alaska’s Yukon River. This type of interaction is typical of 

Beringia, creating a unique blend of Asian and European industrial goods and customs. 

In the 1800s whalers from around the world were drawn to Beringia, bringing 

with them new technology and concepts, and returning with knowledge of the rich 

environment and diverse people. They also introduced diseases. Many of the people in 

Beringia had no immunity, and this contact resulted in large-scale epidemics and death.

By the late 1800s prospectors had begun looking for gold and other precious 

metals farther north because the mining boom that had occurred in the American west 

was declining. This led to the discovery of gold in Canada’s Yukon Territory, which 

precipitated the Klondike gold rush of 1897–1898. This and subsequent discoveries 

brought a larger population of non-Native people deep into the interior of Eastern 

Beringia and to the coasts and river valleys of Central Beringia. In the early 1900s 

gold discoveries in Western Beringia led to large-scale mining largely directed by the 

Soviet government where political and criminal prisoners provided much of the labor. 

These events not only brought many non-Native immigrants to Beringia but also led 

to development of large-scale transportation along many of Beringia’s rivers, road 

construction, and increased infrastructure including telegraph and later telephone 

communications. 

The introduction of aircraft in the 1930s and the events of World War II had a 

major impact on Beringia. Aircraft were introduced in Alaska, Canada, and Northeast 

Asia prior to World War II. However, it wasn’t until the onset of the war that they 

became common. Prior to that time, travel in summer was by boat along rivers and 

along the coasts of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. In the winter, it was by dog sled on 

the frozen rivers and trails or by wagon or horse-drawn sleds on rough roads. Later 

automobiles traveled on the very limited road systems. 

During World War II, Canada and Alaska became a back door to Russia. 

Aircraft and other equipment built in the United States were flown through Canada 

and turned over to Russian pilots in Alaska. From there the planes were flown across 

Asia for service in the war in Europe. Following World War II, aircraft were more 

common and affordable, bringing vast areas of rural Beringia not connected to road 

systems into regular and dependable contact with the outside world. 

The invasion of Alaska by the Japanese in World War II forced the United 

States and Canada to construct a road from Eastern Beringia to the larger population 

centers to the south. The Alaska Highway connected remote parts of British Columbia, 

the Yukon Territory and Alaska with the rest of North America. The 1,500 mile (2,400 

km) road forever altered the lives of people living in interior Eastern Beringia.
6 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

With the onset of the Cold War in the late 1940s, North America and Asia 

were separated by an impenetrable political barrier, named the Iron Curtain by British 

Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The governments of the Soviet Union and United 

States forbade travel and communication between Eastern and Western Beringia. For 

the first time in thousands of years, it became virtually impossible to communicate 

across Bering Strait. The traditional contacts that existed between Asia and North 

America were severed more effectively than any glacier or ocean could have done. The 

Cold War divided the Native people who were related and shared a common language 

and history. Dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s reopened relationships 

between Russia and the United States. Once again Native people and archeologists 

are free to travel, study archeological collections, and even conduct field research on 

both sides of Bering Strait. These research opportunities strengthen knowledge of early 

human interactions and relationships between Asia and North America.

Beringia is the geographic and cultural hinge between Asia and North 

America. For thousands of years, it was the avenue through which ideas and technology 

were exchanged between the Old and New Worlds. This book is the story of the 

culture history of the resilient people who have inhabited Beringia for more than 

10,000 years and the archeologists and Native people who have worked together for 

more than 100 years to unearth and share their rich past. 
Archeologists in northern regions face many challenges. Severe winters limit field 

work to three or four months during the summer, while long daylight hours in 

summer often allow work for 12 to 16 hours a day. It sometimes rains for days and 

even weeks without stopping in some areas. At times swarms of ferocious mosquitoes, 

black flies, and “no-see-ums” surround excavators, requiring them to use head nets and 

copious amounts of “bug dope.” Field camps are occasionally damaged or destroyed by 

curious or hungry bears. Many excavations are in remote areas accessible only by boat, 

small plane, or helicopter. Field camps are sometimes primitive. Mail and supplies are 

delivered infrequently. Field work can be difficult and dangerous, so archeologists must 

be resourceful and careful.

 Permafrost is both a blessing and a curse. Vast areas of Beringia contain 

permafrost, which is permanently frozen ground. Permafrost can result in 

excellent preservation of artifacts. For example, when gold miners in interior 

Alaska sprayed water on the frozen silts to help melt the permafrost and wash 

away the “muck” (Figure 2.1), they discovered artifacts and the remains of Ice Age 

animals including woolly mammoths. Some were preserved with the flesh, hide 

and even “wool” intact. 

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to conduct satisfactory archeological 

excavations in permafrost. When the ground is frozen, only about two inches 

(approximately 5 cm) of earth near the surface can be removed at a time. Excavators 

must wait for the sun to slowly melt the newly exposed layer and then remove 

a few more inches. As excavations in permafrost progress, the sides, or walls, of 

the excavation begin to melt. This creates a slurry of mud, which flows into the 

excavation, making work a nightmare in this slippery ooze. It is extremely difficult to 

locate artifacts and accurately record where they were found. Frequently, the exposed 

area will continue to enlarge as melting progresses, ultimately forcing the excavations 

to be abandoned.

Despite the difficulties and hardships, Beringian archeology has rewards. 

Early Beringians lived in places that have magnificent views. Consequently, many 

archeological sites are located on hills with panoramic vistas. Archeological sites are 

commonly located where the hunting and fishing is excellent, so excavators frequently 

CHAPTER 2

BERINGIAN ARCHEOLOGY
8 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

enjoy fresh salmon or caribou. Spending prolonged periods of time camping in remote 

areas provides archeologists with deep appreciation and respect for Beringia’s people and 

their environments. This connection is stronger for Arctic archeologists than their more 

cosmopolitan colleagues who sleep in motels, eat in restaurants, and excavate near freeways. 

Beringian Archeology Begins 

The earliest documented historic preservation effort in Beringia occurred in 

1869, when Chief Shakes moved four house posts and other important cultural objects 

from Old Wrangell to Shakes Island in Southeast Alaska to preserve them. Two years 

later in 1871, William Healy Dall began scientific excavations at several sites in Alaska’s 

Aleutian Islands. Native people shared their knowledge with early scientists such 

as Edward W. Nelson, who worked in the Bering Sea region from 1877–1881, and 

John Murdoch, who worked in the Point Barrow area in 1877 and 1888. These early 

scholars drew and photographed artifacts and recorded how they were used based on 

the knowledge shared with them by Native people. Classic works such as these enable 

archeologists to identify artifacts and understand how they have been used for the past 

several thousand years. 

As archeology began in Beringia, indigenous people were still making many of the 

tools used before the arrival of Euroamericans. When archeologists first began working in 

Figure 2.1 Paleontologist Ove Kisen collecting the bones of Ice Age animals at a hydraulic 

mining operation in interior Alaska (American Museum of Natural History, Photo Archives).
Beringian Archeology 9

Beringia, they recognized that these resourceful people were the descendants of those who 

left collapsed houses, household refuse, and other artifacts that they were finding. In fact, it 

was Alaska’s Native people who often taught the archeologists and anthropologists what the 

artifacts were and how they had been used. 

Some archeologists and historians use the term prehistory to refer to the time prior 

to written records. However, some Native people argue that this implies that they had no 

history until Europeans began recording events. History clearly does not have to be written; 

it can be passed verbally from one generation to another, as was done throughout the world 

by people who did not have a written language. 

When Europeans first arrived in Beringia they learned that the indigenous people 

were not all the same. The cultures of Beringia are diverse and people speak many different 

languages (Figure 2.2). Iñupiaq and Yupik-speaking people occupied the Bering, Chukchi 

and Beaufort Sea coasts, adjacent inland areas, and some areas in the Gulf of Alaska. In the 

interior of Alaska, Athapaskan-speaking people lived in small groups in the boreal forest and 

generally moved each season in a subsistence lifestyle. Along the Northwest Coast of North 

America, the Tlingit and Haida carved magnificent totem poles and canoes, and largely relied 

on salmon fishing. In the Aleutian Islands, the Aleuts (or Unangan people) depended almost 

entirely upon the sea for their needs. In Asia the Chukchi herded reindeer, while the Koryak 

and Itelmen hunted and fished along the shores of the Okhotsk Sea. Each group spoke a 

distinctive language and had its own social organization. This rich cultural and ecological 

diversity had a long history that was preserved in the earth, soon to be revealed through 

excavations by archeologists. 

Native people freely shared their knowledge with scientists who carefully recorded, 

sketched and described tools, and how they were made and used. Because the functions 

Figure 2.2 Map depicting the major language groups of Beringia’s indigenous people 

(Adapted from Fitzhugh and Crowell 1988, Osgood 1936).
10 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

of these tools were clearly understood, archeologists immediately began naming them 

according to their use. For example, an ivory harpoon head used to hunt seals was simply 

called an ivory “sealing harpoon head”. This way of describing artifacts became known as 

functional typology. Typology is the method by which archeologists classify, or group, 

artifacts and cultural traits. Functional typologies classify or lump various artifacts into 

groups based on how they were used. For example, all the tools used for fishing might be 

lumped into one group. This larger group of fishing implements might then be subdivided 

into smaller sub-groups, such as tools used for net fishing versus tools used for spear fishing.

By working with Native people and beginning excavations at the most 

recently abandoned village sites, archeologists quickly gained an understanding of 

the artifacts they were finding. Native people were still using tools virtually identical 

to the ones archeologists found buried in the ground. This was a starting point from 

which to unravel the mysteries of the past. By excavating archeological sites that 

could be ascribed to modern groups, it was possible to trace specific cultures back 

through time. This approach was subsequently called the direct historical approach by 

archeologists working in southern regions of North America. However, in the north 

this method was used long before it was given this formal name elsewhere. These two 

concepts, functional typologies and the direct historical approach, were applied early 

in Beringian archeology. They are used today by archeologists all over the world and 

remain important contributions to the foundations of modern archeological science. 

How Archeologists View the Past

Most indigenous people refer to themselves as the “real” or “true” people in 

their own language. The names used today were often given to them by Europeans 

and frequently borrowed from their neighbors. The names given by Europeans refer 

to both the culture group and the language they speak. On the Asian side of Beringia, 

the predominant Native people are Even, Itel’ men, Chukchi, Koryak, and Yupik 

(southern Eskimo). In North America they are the Yupik (southern Eskimo), Iñupiaq 

(northern Eskimo), Aleut, Athapaskan, Tlingit, Haida, and others. These names are 

useful in identifying modern groups of people, but it is difficult, perhaps impossible, for 

archeologists to trace unwritten languages back in time. Archeologists must rely on what 

has been preserved in the earth and, unfortunately, spoken language is not preserved.

 Consequently, archeologists tend not to use the current names of groups of 

indigenous people that are related to their language. Instead, the term tradition is used 

to describe groups of artifacts that are similar over a large geographic area and persist for 

long periods of time. The concept of an archeological tradition implies that a common 

way of life and economic pattern was passed from generation to generation throughout 

long periods during the past. This implies a cultural group, but normally archeologists 

do not label these traditions in a way that links them to contemporary cultural groups 

and their languages. For example, archeologists might use the term American Paleoarctic 

tradition to refer to certain types of artifacts and tools found in archeological sites in an 

area that is today occupied by Iñupiaq-speaking people, but this does not necessarily mean 

that the peoples who made and used these tools spoke the Iñupiaq language. 

The beginning and end of a tradition is marked by a major change in the types 

of artifacts used by early people, as well as a change in their economy. For example, 

one tradition might end and another begins when people who primarily hunted seals 
Beringian Archeology 11

and caribou begin to hunt whales. When this occurs, there is a dramatic change in the 

types of tools that are used. Much larger harpoon heads and cutting implements are 

required to kill and butcher whales compared to seals. At the same time, the size of 

villages might be larger because this new economy would be able to support a larger 

population. People might also choose new places to live where whales pass close to the 

shore, rather than locations where seals and caribou might be more readily hunted. If 

these types of changes occur at about the same time over large regions, such as much of 

coastal Alaska, and persist for several hundred years or more, archeologists would call 

it a new tradition. Cultural transformation can result from a variety of causes such as 

adapting to environmental change, adopting technological innovations, social change, 

or learning new concepts from other people.

When archeologists use the term tradition, they make an assumption that the 

people who made and used similar artifacts were part of a larger population that shared 

a similar way of life and economic system. Archeologists also use the terms complex 

and phase to express a concept similar to that of tradition, but which is more restricted 

geographically and persists for shorter periods of time. Complexes or phases can be 

part of a tradition and may be used to subdivide traditions. The term culture is rather 

carelessly used interchangeably with any of the above terms. 

Different types of artifacts are used to define different traditions. At any given 

time, people tend to make and decorate their pottery, tools, and houses in a similar way in 

the same region. When archeologists find sites that contain these similar types of artifacts 

in the same region, they generally consider them to be from the same tradition, or culture. 

The indigenous people of Beringia lived close to the land and sea. They 

depended on hunting and fishing for a living. Understanding the distribution of 

animals and fish at different periods of time is important because the distribution of 

these resources largely determined where people were most likely to live in the past. 

Knowing how the environment has changed is essential to understanding how these 

sophisticated cultures adjusted their ways of life to cope with these changes. The 

importance of the environment and its effects on culture has been a traditional focus in 

interpreting the archeology of Beringia. This approach to understanding the past has 

involved scientists from a variety of disciplines, including geology and biology. These 

specialists assist archeologists in their attempts to determine how old archeological sites 

are, what past environments were like, and how and when they changed. 

Dating

Today archeologists rely on radiocarbon dating to determine the age of 

archeological sites and artifacts. This sophisticated way of measuring the ratio of 

carbon molecules was not invented until 1948. Prior to that time, archeologists used 

different methods to estimate how old things were. 

In the 1870s William Healy Dall was the first to apply the principle of 

stratigraphic superposition in Beringian archeology. This fundamental geologic 

principle states that the artifacts and sediments deposited at the bottom of an 

archeological site will be older than the ones on top. This is like placing one sheet of 

paper on top of another — by looking at the pile you can tell which piece of paper was 

set down first and which one was last. When archeologists recognize that one group of 

artifacts is found above another in an archeological site, they can tell that the artifacts 
12 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

near the surface are younger than the ones below. Of course, nature is not as controlled 

as a pile of paper. There are many things that can jumble the layers in an archeological 

site, such as burrowing animals or disturbances caused by the wind and sea. 

While working on St. Lawrence Island during the 1920s, Henry Collins observed 

that storm surges and waves pile up beach gravel and sand along the coast when the water 

is high. Over time these accumulations of sand, gravel, and drift wood would form a ridge 

along the shore. He recognized that successive beach ridges provided a means of relative 

dating of the archeological sites. Relative dating does not tell archeologists how old the 

artifacts or settlements are. However, like the principle of stratigraphic superposition, it 

enables them to determine which ones are older, or younger, relative to each other. 

People living on the coast would move to new land, or a beach ridge, to live 

closer to the ocean where they could fish, hunt marine mammals, and be close to their 

boats. Each time a new beach ridge formed, people would move on to it and abandon 

the old beach ridge where they used to live. In areas where beach ridges formed, such as 

St. Lawrence Island, the archeological sites that were younger were located closer to the 

ocean and the sites that were oldest were located the furthest inland. 

With the help of his friend and boatman, Almond Downey, J. Louis Giddings 

applied the concept of beach ridge dating to a spectacular series of sites along the shores of 

the Chukchi Sea in northwest Alaska in 1956. At first they surveyed the Choris Peninsula 

where they discovered large oval houses and the earliest pottery known from Alaska. They 

then focused on Cape Krusenstern, north of Kotzebue Sound, where an enormous sequence 

of beach ridges has been accumulating for thousands of years. Cape Krusenstern provided 

the time depth to outline cultural development along the coast of northwest Alaska from the 

time sea level had stabilized about 4,500 – 6,000 years ago until the present time. 

J. Louis Giddings had also applied tree ring dating, or dendrochronology, to 

a series of archeological sites along the Kobuk River in northwest Alaska in the late 

1940s. Each year a tree grows a new layer of wood. When a log is cut and viewed in 

cross-section, the annual growth over the life of the tree can be seen as a series of rings. 

The oldest is in the center and the youngest on the outside. The growth of trees within 

a region varies every year depending on the weather. During a year when the weather is 

warm and there is abundant water, most of the trees within an area will have large rings. 

During exceptionally cold or dry years, they may have narrow rings. By overlapping 

these patterns of growth from old living trees to logs and wood found in archeological 

sites, scientists can determine, or closely estimate, when a tree was cut to build a house 

or when a piece of wood was used to make a tool. In the Kobuk river area, Giddings 

was able to provide the first absolute dates for the last 1,000 years of Eskimo culture. 

Archeological sites can also be dated using volcanic ash. When a volcano 

erupts, it frequently spews volcanic ash, called tephra, into the atmosphere. The tephra 

ultimately falls to the earth and forms a layer of ash that may eventually become buried 

by other sediments. This provides the record of an event (volcanic eruption) that 

occurred at one point in time. By radiocarbon dating organic remains, such as wood, 

above and below the ash, archeologists can tell when an ancient ash was deposited. 

Once the age of an ash is known, it can be used to help date artifacts buried in the earth. 

For example, if artifacts are found below a tephra that is 500 years old it is reasoned 

that the artifacts are older than 500 years. If the artifacts are above the ash, then they 

were probably deposited less than 500 years ago. These tephras have been used to date 
Beringian Archeology 13

archeological sites over large regions. This method of dating is called tephrochronology 

and has proven particularly useful in Western Beringia where volcanoes are common. 

Atl Atl

A fascinating and unusual weapon used by ancient hunters was the atl atl. The 

term atl atl is an Aztec word that has been adopted by North American archeologists. 

It means spear thrower and was used widely in Central America for warfare when the 

Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World. An atl atl is an artificial extension of 

the human arm, which utilizes the simple principle of the lever to increase the ability of 

a person to throw a spear. It allows a hunter to throw a spear, or slightly smaller atl atl 

“dart,” several times farther and with greater force than the human arm alone. 

Spear throwers are generally made from pieces of wood about the length of the 

user’s forearm. Typically they have a hand grip at one end and a shallow grove running 

their length to the opposite end in which the shaft of a dart, or harpoon, can rest. A 

peg is sometimes inserted near the end opposite the hand grip. The base of the dart 

or harpoon rests against the peg so that when the dart is thrown the full force of the 

throw will be transferred to the dart or harpoon. Darts will frequently have a dimple 

at their base that fits into the peg. The atl atl was a major innovation in hunter-gather 

societies and was probably invented more than 40,000 years ago. The spear thrower 

increases the distance and force with which a dart or harpoon can be thrown. These 

factors increase safety and success for hunters. It also has other advantages. Because it 

can be used to propel darts with one hand, it frees the other hand for other tasks such 

as holding a paddle to stabilize a kayak or holding a shield during combat (Figure 2.3). 

Figure 2.3 Marine mammal hunting using an atl atl from Aleut skin boats (baidarkas) 1790 - 

1792 (Sarychev 1802, Alaska State Library: P20-056, Alaska Purchase Centennial Commission 

Photograph Collection).
14 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

The atl atl came to the New World from Asia with the first people to colonize 

the Americas. After colonizing regions south of the continental glaciers near the end 

of the last Ice Age, these first Americans developed distinctive types of stone points 

different from the ones used in Beringia. These points were attached to the ends of 

atl atl darts and archeologists call these types of stone artifacts Paleoindian projectile 

points. These distinctive and uniquely American stone tools invented south of the ice 

sheets did not appear in Beringia until after the end of the last Ice Age. The atl atl was 

the premier weapon used to propel projectiles in North America until the bow and 

arrow was adopted. Even after the bow and arrow was in use, the atl atl continued to be 

used in specialized hunting situations and in warfare.

The Genius of Microblade Technology 

Unlike other animals, people must make and use tools because they lack 

claws and teeth suitable for killing, dismembering, processing, and consuming large 

mammals. During the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, people solved this problem by 

using tools made of stone and bone to meet their cutting needs. However, in high 

latitudes access to stone is greatly restricted because it is frozen in the ground beneath 

the snow during winter. Consequently stone is inaccessible much of the year. Without 

an adequate supply of sharp stone necessary to make clothing, weapons, and other 

tools, people could not survive. 

Microblades are tiny stone blades, usually less than a quarter of an inch (.5 cm) 

wide. They are parallel sided flakes that have been struck from a stone core especially 

prepared to produce them. Microblades appear to have been used in a variety of ways, 

and in some cases they were inset in slots carved in the sides of bone or antler projectile 

points. The projectile points were then lashed to the end of spear or arrow shafts. Inset 

in a line, they formed tiny razor-like rows of stone to create a continuous cutting edge 

(Figure 2.4). 

Microblade technology originated in Eurasia possibly as early as 40,000 years 

ago as a miniaturization of larger parallel sided stone blades commonly used during the 

Upper Paleolithic (later stage of the old stone age). Although there is some evidence 

to suggest that it may first appear in Western Beringia as early as 35,000 years ago, 

their use does not become wide spread until the last Ice Age sometime around 20,000 

years ago. People stopped making microblades in most parts of the world shortly after 

the end of the last Ice Age. However, they continued to be made and used in Eastern 

Beringia until possibly as late as a thousand years ago, because they were an essential 

solution to year round survival in the far North. 

Gutorm Gjessing, a Swedish anthropologist and archeologist, recognized 

the importance of what he called “cultural conservatism” among circumpolar people. 

He believed that this conservatism resulted from the fact northern people were very 

closely linked to the land and environment. People living in circumpolar regions were 

reluctant to give up traditional ways of doing things until new methods or materials 

could be reliably counted upon to replace them. In other words, they were reluctant 

to abandon one thing until they were absolutely certain it could be reliably replaced 

by something else. Consequently, the use of microblades in Beringia was longed-lived 

because they could not be abandoned completely until a reliable alternative could fully 

replace them. 
Beringian Archeology 15

The ability to harvest large mammals for clothing and food is key to survival 

in the Arctic. The development of microblade technology was an ideal solution to 

the lack of access to stone during the winter months. It enabled people to easily carry 

a small compact stone core. The core could be struck repeatedly to produce long 

sharp slivers of stone that could be inserted into antler projectile points or hafted into 

handles. This multiplied the cutting edge of a small amount of rock. This invention 

was a critical technological breakthrough enabling people to permanently colonize the 

circumpolar north.

Unlike temperate environments where loose-fitting clothing and footwear 

such as robes and sandals are adequate for survival, the Arctic requires tailored clothing 

that must be warm and strong. Microblades hafted in handles are excellent tools for 

Figure 2.4 Idealized presentation illustrating how microblades were manufactured from 

wedge shaped cores and used as insets along the sides of bone or antler projectile points: 1 

microblade was struck from prepared core; 2 microblade was segmented; 3 blade inset was 

inserted into slotted projectile paint; 4 cross section of projectile point showing mounting of 

blade insets into slots (modified from University of New Mexico Press, Dixon 1999: 159).

2

3

1

4
16 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 2.6 Hafted microblades may have been excellent tools for delicate tasks such as 

making tailored skin clothing.

Figure 2.5 Examples of how microblades may have been hafted in handles like razor knives 

for use in fine craft work.

making fine accurate cuts in hide and other materials (Figure 2.5). Used like Exacto 

knives or scalpels, they are exceptional tools for delicate craft work. They were probably 

used to make the precision cuts necessary to match seams and custom fit garments such 

as parkas, mittens, and muckluks (calf-high skin boots made of animal hide and fur). 

Along with bone needles and sinew used as thread, microblades would have provided 

a large supply of sharp-edged precision cutting tools necessary to make and mend the 

clothing (Figure 2.6) essential for survival through long severe winters. 
Beringian Archeology 17

Microblade insets along the sides of bone or antler arrow heads also improved 

the success of hunters. The sharp stone cutting edge created by microblades makes 

arrows more deadly because they enlarge a wound and increase bleeding by internally 

severing organs, arteries, and veins. When a wounded animal runs or moves, the sharp 

microblades continue to lacerate tissue. This makes a projectile point armed with 

microblades, or chipped stone side blades, more effective than one without them.

In other situations, microblades may have been hafted in handles, simply held 

in the hand, or possibly set in handles and used like modern razor knives. Microblades 

are commonly found in association with microblade cores (the larger pieces of rock 

from which they are struck) and burins. Burins are generally made on a thick stone 

flake or blade by removing a distinctive chip to create a tool useful to cut and shape 

bone, antler, and ivory. This is another remarkable adaptation that enabled people to 

permanently occupy the high latitudes of North America and Eurasia for the first time 

in human history.

Some archeologists believe that the presence or absence of microblades is not 

related to use by a particular groups of people, but may result from other factors such 

as the specific activities at the site or the season during which an archeological site was

occupied. For example, some have suggested that microblades may have only been 

used in the winter when it was difficult to obtain stone for making stone tools. 

Others believe that microblades may have only been used for specialized activities, 

such as fine craft work, and are only found at sites where these types of activity took 

place. In either case, they may not have been made and used at all sites. At many sites 

hundreds of microblades have been found. In these cases they appear to have been 

mass produced, because the sheer numbers far exceed what would be needed for use 

in composite projectile points or other tools associated with hunting sites. People 

continued to make microblades until there were adequate and reliable sources of metal 

to fully replace them. They continued to be used in some areas of Beringia as late as 

1,000 years ago. 

Bow and Arrow

It is not clear when the bow and arrow were first invented. The earliest 

evidence suggests that they may have been in use in northern Africa by at least 14,000 

years ago. The oldest bow that has been found, called the Stellmoor bow, is about 

11,000 years old and was discovered in a bog in northern Germany. 

The bow is essentially a spring. When the bow string is drawn, energy is stored 

in the spring, or bow. When the bow string is released, energy is also released. It is 

focused at the base of a light weight arrow where a notch (called a nock) is made to 

receive the bow string. The bow and arrow has greater range and accuracy than the atl 

atl, but less shock on impact than an atl atl dart.

As early as the 1940s and 50s archeologists Helge Larsen and Louis Giddings 

recognized distinctive antler artifacts in Beringia as arrow heads. They were able 

to identify them as arrow heads because of their striking similarity to similar arrow 

heads used by people in the Bering Sea region at the time they came in contact with 

Europeans. Some of these artifacts had been preserved for thousands of years. The 

earliest examples had carved grooves, into which sharp microblades had been inset on 

the side of the arrow head. 
18 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Archeological evidence suggests that the people who made microblades used 

both the atl atl and the bow and arrow. They introduced the bow and arrow into 

Eastern Beringia very early, possibly some time near the end of the last Ice Age. The 

earliest antler arrow heads are dated to about 11,500 years ago. Stone shaft smoothers 

sized to shape arrows have been found at numerous sites throughout Beringia dating 

from the end of the last Ice Age until the people of Beringia came in contact with 

Europeans. The earliest preserved wooden arrow shafts found in the Bering Sea region 

are at least 3,000 years old. These discoveries suggest that the bow and arrow was used 

in Beringia for a very long time. However, this sophisticated weapon appears to have 

remained restricted to the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas of North America until about 

1,500 years ago, when people living farther south finally adopted the bow and arrow. 

Summary

The practice of archeology in Beringia is different than archeology in other 

areas of the world because of the remoteness of many archeological sites, the occurrence 

of permafrost, short field seasons and long daylight hours. Beringia spans three nations: 

Russia, the United States, and Canada. These political divisions have split some Native 

groups into citizens of different countries and led scientists from many nations to share 

a common interest in Beringia’s history. 

Beringian archeology began at the time when archeology was an emerging 

science and indigenous people lived in traditional ways. Native people shared their 

knowledge with early archeologists, teaching them how various artifacts were made and 

used. Based on this knowledge, archeologists have been able to trace Beringia’s past 

back more than 14,000 years to reveal its role in world archeology. 

Additional Reading:

Damas, David (editor)

1984 Arctic. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W.C. Sturtevant, general 

editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
There have been many ice ages, during which the earth’s temperature becomes 

very cold. Instead of rain, there is more snow accumulating in areas of high 

elevations, resulting in the formation of glaciers. Glaciers are powerful geologic 

forces that change the face of the earth. At the end of an ice age, global warming 

melts most of the glaciers. By looking at the patterns of the landscape, scientists 

can tell where the glaciers have been in the past. Geologists call the last series of 

glacial advances and retreats the Pleistocene Epoch. It began 1.8 million years 

ago and ended about 12,000 years ago. The last major advance or ice age has been 

called the Wisconsin after the state in which it was first clearly identified and 

described. It began sometime before 25,000 years ago and ended about 12,000 

years ago.

Bering Land Bridge

As early as the late 1500s it was believed that there must have been a land 

connection between Asia and North America in the high northern latitudes. However, 

it wasn’t until the 1890s that enough factual information had accumulated for scientists 

to show that the Bering and Chukchi Seas were relatively shallow, less than 600 ft (180 

m) deep. This fact demonstrated that the ocean floor between Alaska and Siberia was 

physically part of the continental plateau stretching between Asia and North America 

and not part of the deep ocean basins. It was an important observation because it 

meant that during times in the past when sea level was much lower that it is today, a 

wide terrestrial plain connected North America and Asia. This has become known as 

the Bering Land Bridge. 

The broad land connection between Alaska and Asia came into existence 

and disappeared during the Pleistocene. During the Pleistocene vast amounts of 

snow fell on the continents. The snow was derived from water evaporating from the 

oceans and caused sea level around the world to drop almost 400 ft (about 120 m). 

The snow gradually accumulated as glacial ice in the northern regions of the Northern 

Hemisphere (Figure 3.1). When the continental glaciers melted, due to warming 

climate at the end of an ice age, the water was transported back to the oceans by the 

earth’s rivers, and sea level rose.

CHAPTER 3

THE LAST ICE AGE

AND THE FIRST AMERICANS
20 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

 Some people think of the Bering Land Bridge as a narrow strip of land connecting 

Alaska and Siberia in the area that is now Bering Strait. However, this is not true. It is now 

known that the Land Bridge was more than 620 miles (1,000 km) from north to south. At 

the height of the last ice age about 21,000 years ago, it was a vast region of low topography 

stretching between North America and Asia. A few mountains, which are today islands in 

the Bering Sea, were widely spaced across the land and rose abruptly above the flat landscape. 

The unique and complex Beringian environment of the last ice age was cooler 

and probably drier than today. Vast areas of the land were grassier and mixed with 

tundra plants. In general there was probably less vegetative cover, and windswept sand 

dunes formed in some areas. It is believed that plants and animals moved across the 

Bering Land Bridge in the early ice ages, but human migration from Asia to North 

America came much later. There is abundant evidence that proves the existence of the 

former land bridge. The remains of extinct animals have been dredged from the ocean 

floor (Figure 3.2). Ancient river channels that could only have formed by water flowing 

across the surface of the land have been documented on the sea floor. Sediments 

beneath the Bering and Chukchi seas contain peat and insects, which could only have 

been present when the continental shelf was exposed as dry land. 

The climate of the last ice age began to change about 17,000 years ago and 

grassy tundra was replaced by a shrub tundra dominated by dwarf birch. The climate 

and environment during this period of time, called the Birch Interval (17,000 – 9,500 

years ago), was different from Alaska’s modern climate. The first firmly documented 

evidence of human occupation in Beringia occurs during this time. The interval 

between 17,000 – 9,500 years ago marks a period of dramatic climatic change that 

irreversibly altered the geography and environment of Eastern Beringia. During this 

time glaciers receded rapidly and sea level rose, severing the land bridge connection 

between Asia and North America for the last time shortly before 11,500 years ago.

Figure 3.1 Map showing distribution of glacial ice circa 18,000 BP. (Manley 2002, Ehlers and 

Gibbard 2004 a and b).

Ice
The Last Ice Age and the First Americans 21

Figure 3.2 Ice Age animal bones from the Bering Land Bridge (Quaternary Research, Dixon 

1983: 116-117).

1 cm 5 cm

1 cm 5 cm

1 cm 5 cm

1 cm 5 cm
22 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Last Ice Age in Eastern Beringia

People living on the Bering Land Bridge would have found Eastern Beringia to 

be a cul de sac blocked to the east and south by the continental glacier. However, much 

of Alaska was not covered by glaciers during the last ice age. The Laurentide ice sheet 

formed in eastern Canada and flowed westward. Cordillera glaciers in the areas that 

are today Alberta and northern British Columbia grew toward the east and met the 

Laurentide glacier moving west. The merged Cordilleran and Laurentide ice created an 

impenetrable barrier stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Canadian Rockies and 

Alaska Range. From north to south it was more than 500 mi (800 km), stretching from 

the Canadian Yukon (Eastern Beringia) to southern Alberta. For people who survived 

by hunting, gathering, and fishing, the rough and steep continental glaciers would have 

formed a lifeless and dangerous barrier so severe that it would have been impossible for 

humans to cross. 

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the time at which the glaciers of 

the last ice age reached their maximum extent (24,000 – 17,000 years ago), the climate 

of Beringia was colder and drier than it is today. Eastern Beringia was an environmental 

mosaic of diverse environmental zones influenced by elevation, moisture, temperature, 

and topography. Local and regional environments included wetland meadows and 

ponds on river floodplains, mixed grasslands and tundra occupying river terraces, 

tundra on pediments and foothills of mountain ranges, and unvegetated mountain 

tops. These may have been the types of environments encountered by the first people 

to settle Eastern Beringia.

Several species of very large animals, called megafauna, that were characteristic 

of the Pleistocene became extinct at or near the end of the LGM. Large elephant-like 

creatures called mammoths and smaller Ice Age horses appear to have been extinct by 

about 13,000 years ago. However, isolated groups of mammoths persisted on Wrangel 

Island, the Pribilof Islands, and possibly other islands as late as 5,700 – 5,000 years 

ago. Bison, elk, caribou, musk ox, moose, mountain sheep, mountain goats, and bears 

occupied Beringia throughout the Pleistocene. Marine mammals along the coast of 

the Arctic Ocean were probably limited to a few species such as polar bear and ringed 

seal, because the sea ice was more extensive. However, the southern Beringian coast was 

warmer and probably supported large populations of seals, whales, sea cows, fish, and 

marine birds. 

By 14,000 – 13,000 years ago rising sea level greatly reduced the area of the 

Bering Land Bridge. The connection between Asia and North America was completely 

severed sometime shortly before 11,500 years ago. However, extensive regions of the 

continental shelves remained above sea level. The climate began warming again about 

11,500 years ago and flooding of the continental shelf continued between 11,500 and 

9,500 years ago. Vast areas of the continental shelf between about 200 ft below sea level 

(–60 m) and 130 ft below sea level (–40 m) were rapidly flooded as sea level rose. The 

Bering Strait enlarged and St. Lawrence Island became separated from Eastern Beringia.

Computer modeling of rising sea level in relation to the depth of the ocean 

floor at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation by geologist William Manley provides 

a series of “snap shots” approximating the dramatic changes in geography and 

ecology that occurred between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago (Figure 3.3). This digital 

reconstruction suggests there may have been an island archipelago along the southern 
The Last Ice Age and the First Americans 23

Figure 3.3 Digital elevation model of Beringia depicting flooding of the Bering Land Bridge at 

2,000 year intervals from 15,000 B.P. to 5,000 years ago (Manley, W. F. Postglacial Flooding of 

the Bering Land Bridge: A Geospatial Animation: INSTAAR, University of Colorado, v1, http://

instaar.colorado.edu/QGISL/bering_land bridge
24 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

coast of the Land Bridge that may have existed for several thousand years. This was 

a challenging time for people to adapt to new environments because the changing 

distribution of resources presented dangers and opportunities for people making their 

living by hunting and gathering from the land and sea. 

Human Migration to the Americas 

Physical anthropologists who study people’s biological characteristics tell us 

that Native Americans began their migration to the Americas from Asia. They believe 

this because Native Americans share many traits, such as blood types and other physical 

and genetic features, with northern Asian peoples. Many languages were spoken 

in North America prior the arrival of the Europeans and some linguists (scholars 

who study languages) believe that the last group of people to move from Asia to the 

Americas spoke a language similar to that spoken by Eskimos and Aleuts today. They 

also believe that the Athapaskan-speaking people who today live in various areas of 

northern and western North America arrived before the Eskimos and Aleuts. They 

think the first to arrive were the ancestral speakers of all the other American languages, 

called Amerinds. This, coupled with the many diverse Native American cultures, 

indicates that Native peoples must have resided in the Americas for a very long time 

prior to the arrival of Europeans. 

Most archeologists agree that the first people to enter the Americas came via the 

Bering Land Bridge more than 14,000 years ago. They theorize that people from Asia 

gradually moved along the southern coast of the land bridge with the use of watercraft 

and over land into new territory. Eastern Beringia, including what is now much of 

Alaska, was ice-free during the Pleistocene, but glaciers formed a barrier that prevented 

people from moving south to colonize the rest of the Americas. One of the most 

controversial issues in North American archeology is the debate over when people first 

colonized the continent south of the continental glaciers. A variety of migration theories 

have been suggested, but the archeological evidence is not conclusive. To resolve the 

issue of when the first people came to the Americas, scientists draw on data from several 

disciplines, including archeology, geology and biology. Beringia is center stage in this 

ongoing debate. Two routes have been suggested – one over land through Canada and 

the other by sea along the coast. These routes were not mutually exclusive and people 

probably began moving along both these corridors soon after they were deglaciated. 

Interior Route

During the last Ice Age, the Cordilleran ice sheet joined the massive 

Laurentide glacier to form a barrier so severe that it would have been impossible for 

humans to cross it. By about 13,000 – 14,000 years ago these glaciers had melted 

enough to form a “deglaciation corridor.” About 13,000 years ago plants and animals 

had colonized this corridor to support people and enable them to move through the 

corridor. Some archeologists believe that humans first entered the southern areas 

of North America by moving south from Beringia through this new environment. 

Their gradual movement would ultimately have allowed them to emerge south of the 

continental glaciers. If this scenario is correct, the North American continent south 

of Eastern Beringia could not have been occupied until after the glaciers had melted 

enough to permit people to pass between them sometime after about 13,000 years ago. 
The Last Ice Age and the First Americans 25

However, evidence from archeological sites south of the ice sheets indicate that people 

were living there much earlier than 13,000 years ago.

The term “ice-free corridor” is confusing. It is commonly used to refer to a 

hypothetical narrow strip of land between the Laurentide and Cordilleran glaciers that 

some scientists believed might not have been covered by glaciers during the last Ice Age. 

If this were correct, there would have been an overland route between Eastern Beringia 

and the southern regions of North America during the last Ice Age. Theoretically, the 

existence of an “ice-free corridor” would allow people to migrate to the more southern 

parts of the Americas prior to 13,000 years ago. Although the “ice-free corridor” was 

a popular concept throughout most of the 1900s, it is now clear that it did not exist 

until a deglaciation corridor formed about 13,000 – 14,000 years ago. Some scientists 

incorrectly use the term “ice free corridor” when they are actually referring to a 

biologically viable deglaciation corridor that did not exist until about 13,000 years ago.

Paleontologists are scientists who study fossil animals and plants. Their work 

in central Canada has revealed no animal bones that date between about 25,000 to 

13,500 years ago in the region formerly believed to be the ice-free corridor. Along with 

the geological studies, this demonstrates fairly conclusively that glaciers prevented the 

area from being inhabited by animals during the last Ice Age. A land route for human 

entry into southern regions of North America from Eastern Beringia was not possible 

before about 13,500 – 13,000 years ago.

It is clear that by 13,000 years ago the continental glaciers had withdrawn 

sufficiently to create a wide ice-free passage extending from Eastern Beringia to interior 

North America. The importance of this event for Beringian archeology is not only 

about the southward movement of people from Beringia into the Americas. From 

13,000 years ago onward, cultural developments that occurred in more southern North 

America could be transmitted over land northward. Many of these developments had 

profound impacts on the people of Beringia. 

Coastal Route

A number of well dated archeological sites indicate that people were living 

south of the continental glaciers prior to the opening of the deglaciation corridor 

in interior Canada. This has led many archeologists to conclude that people using 

water craft, possibly skin boats, may have moved southward from the southern coast 

of Beringia along the Gulf of Alaska and the Northwest Coast of North America 

possibly as early as 16,000 or 17,000 years ago (Figure 3.4). Until the early 1970s, most 

archeologists did not consider the Northwest Coast a possible migration route into 

the Americas because geologists originally believed that the entire Northwest Coast 

was covered by glacial ice during the last Ice Age. It had been assumed that the ice 

had extended westward from the Alaskan and Canadian mountains to the edge of the 

continental shelf. 

During the 1970s, Canadian archeologist Knut Fladmark championed 

the idea that the first human colonization of America occurred by boat along the 

Northwest Coast during the late Pleistocene. He further theorized that with the use 

of watercraft, people gradually colonized pockets of land not covered by glacial ice and 

parts of the continental shelf exposed by lower sea level. Research now indicates that 

sizable areas of the continental shelf along the Northwest Coast were not covered by 
26 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

ice during and toward the end of the last Ice Age. Vast areas along the coast may have been 

deglaciated beginning about 19,000 years ago, possibly providing a coastal corridor for the 

movement of plants, animals and humans. Subsequent work by geologists suggest that except 

for a 250 mile (400 km) coastal area between southwest British Columbia and Washington 

State, the Northwest Coast was largely free of ice by 17,000 years ago. 

The southern coast of Beringia probably supported large populations of seals, 

walrus, whales, sea cows, fish, and marine birds because it was warmed by the Pacific Ocean. 

Many islands may have existed along the Pacific coast of the Land Bridge during the period 

between about 16,500 – 11,500 years ago, providing a rich habitat for fish, marine mammals, 

and possibly people. Jon Erlandson and his colleagues have called the zone of productivity 

along the north Pacific Rim the “kelp highway.” They persuasively argue that it could have 

facilitated early migration from Asia to North America along the southern Bering Sea coast.

Figure 3.4 Glaciated North America showing possible coastal route about 19,000 years ago. 

A land route through the interior is blocked by glacial ice at this time. 

Ice
The Last Ice Age and the First Americans 27

The coastal theory has gained increased support in recent years because the 

remains of large land animals, such as caribou and brown bear, have been found in 

Southeast Alaska dating to more than 30,000 years ago. The brown bear appears to 

have survived until about 14,500—11,500 years ago when the species was replaced by 

black bear. Caribou persisted until about 8,000 years ago in many areas along the coast 

and until the time of contact with Euroamericans on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte 

Islands). This is the time period that most scientists formerly believed the area to be 

inhospitable for humans. It has been suggested that if the environment was capable of 

supporting bears, there would have been enough food and other resources to support 

humans. Many archeologists now believe that the first human colonization of America 

may have occurred by boat along the Northwest Coast during the late stages of the last 

Ice Age, possibly as early as 17,000 years ago. Geological evidence indicates that it may 

have been possible for people to colonize ice-free regions along the continental shelf, 

which were still exposed by lower sea level as early as 19,000 years ago.

Archeological Sites on the Land Bridge?

It is likely that people camped and left archeological remains on the Bering 

Land Bridge before it was flooded at the end of the last Ice Age. The evidence is clear 

that people occupied Alaska at least 14,000 years ago, about 2,500 years before rising 

sea level separated Asia and North America. It is possible that the earliest evidence of 

humans in Central Beringia is now under water. There is debate about whether that 

evidence has been preserved or destroyed by geologic forces. 

In high latitudes sea ice is an important agent in moving sediments and causing 

erosion on the continental shelf. As sea ice driven by wind comes in contact with 

shallow areas, the submerged ice keels appear to “bulldoze” the ocean floor, annually 

gouging between 2 per cent and 6 per cent of the upper 3–6 ft (1–2 m) of the surface of 

the sea floor. Some scientists argue that theoretically the entire 3–6 ft (1–2 m) of the 

ocean surface on the continental shelf could be homogenized in less than 50 years. The 

result would be that any archeological sites related to former human occupation of the 

Bering Land Bridge and adjacent submerged coastlines would be destroyed by sea ice. 

There are other lines of evidence that suggest that artifacts and archeological 

sites are preserved on the continental shelf. For example, even if sites were gouged and 

plowed by sea ice, artifacts might be moved around and redistributed on the ocean floor, 

as supported by the discovery of the animal remains found there (Figure 3.2). Submerged 

valleys, visible on the ocean floor, also suggest that not all surface features have been 

obliterated. Furthermore, if sea level rose rapidly, only a narrow shallow coastal zone 

would be exposed to this type of erosion for a relatively short period of time. 

Some archeological sites on the continental shelf could be deeply buried 

and protected from erosion by overlying sediments. Some village and camp sites on 

land have been occupied for thousands of years. Accumulated debris from human 

occupation results in thick archeological deposits, or middens. These middens contain 

the remains of abandoned structures, food refuse, broken and discarded tools, and all 

the other types of materials transported to a site and ultimately discarded by human 

beings. Over long periods of time archeological sites in Beringia can be as deep as 14 ft 

(4.25 m) (Figure 3.5). Although ice gouging may have altered the upper meter or two, 

it is probable that the more deeply buried portions of the sites may not be disturbed. 
28 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

There are also sites that are not middens and have been deeply buried by 

geological processes. The Onion Portage site on Alaska’s Kobuk River contains 

evidence of more than 9,000 years of cultural development buried within more than 14 

ft (4 m) of sediment. This site is not a midden like those listed in Figure 3.5. Sediments 

deposited by the Kobuk River separate a series of cultural layers. Sites with deposition 

similar to Onion Portage but situated on Alaska’s continental shelf could likely protect 

the lower levels of deeply buried archeological remains from ice gouging.

Oldest Archeological Sites in Beringia 

In 1928 Taylor Moto and Alfred Karmun from the Alaskan Eskimo village 

of Deering sought refuge from a January snow storm in a “bear hole” on the Seward 

Peninsula. The fierce storm kept them trapped in the cave for four days. As they 

explored their surroundings, they discovered several antler arrow heads that were later 

sent to the University of Alaska. Although it took many years for the significance of 

their discovery to be fully appreciated, it ultimately led to excavations at Trail Creek 

Caves by Danish archeologist Helge Larsen in 1949-1950. 

The Trail Creek Caves contained fractured animal bones and teeth that were 

once interpreted as evidence of human occupation between 15,300 and 18,300 years 

ago. Subsequent analyses of the Pleistocene bones indicate that they were probably 

not butchered or modified by people. The two excavated caves contained what 

Larsen thought were fractured dog canines. It was assumed that they represented 

teeth from domesticated dogs whose canines had been broken from their jaw by 

their human handlers to prevent them from gnawing their traces. Therefore, it was 

presumed that people had used the caves and that the canines were the same age as 

the bones of the Ice Age animals found in the caves. However, reanalysis of the teeth 

proved that they were actually deciduous bear canines shed by juvenile bears just like 

human children shed their baby teeth. Although the caves provided rare examples of 

stone and antler projectile points, none of the artifacts could be proven to date to the 

Ice Age.

In North America there are a number of intriguing sites that suggest that 

humans occupied Eastern Beringia during, or prior to, the Last Glacial Maximum 

(LGM). Dates for some of these sites have been refuted by subsequent research. 

Others sites are considered equivocal because it cannot be satisfactorily determined 

whether humans or geologic or biological processes produced the “artifacts.” These 

Figure 3.5 Midden depths accumulated in 1,000 – 3,000 years in Central Beringia. The lower 

portions of such deeply buried sites could survive marine transgression and ice gouging.
The Last Ice Age and the First Americans 29

controversial sites include the Fairbanks muck deposits, Old Crow, the lower levels of 

Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9, and Bluefish Caves. 

In two separate placer mining incidents, mammoth remains and artifacts 

were found at the same locale in the Pleistocene-age silts (called muck) near 

Fairbanks, Alaska. In 1940 a mammoth calf foot was found on Fairbanks Creek, and 

the following day a chert biface was discovered at the same locale. In 1948 a chert 

scraper was found approximately 50 ft (15 m) from an exposure where the partial 

carcass of a mammoth calf was found the next day. Because of the circumstances 

surrounding these discoveries, it is impossible to establish a direct association 

between the artifacts and mammoth remains. An early human occupation associated 

with mammoth remains was also reported along the shore of Chinitna Bay, 

Alaska. However, reinvestigation of this locale demonstrated that this was not an 

archeological site. As it turned out, the deposits were only a few thousand years old 

and what had originally been identified as mammoth bone may actually have been 

whale bone.

Pleistocene-age animal bones eroded from the Old Crow, Bluefish, and 

Bell basins and subsequently were redeposited along the Old Crow and Porcupine 

Rivers near the Athapaskan village of Old Crow in Canada’s northern Yukon. The 

specimens include bone artifacts and flaked, polished, striated, faceted, and altered 

bones suggesting human modification. These modifications may be explained by 

non-cultural processes such as carnivore fracture, rodent gnawing, trampling by 

large mammals, geologic pressure, and modifications resulting from the actions of 

rivers and river ice. The types of artifacts found with the Ice Age animal bones were 

originally believed to be Pleistocene in age; however, subsequent radiocarbon dating 

indicated that they were no more than a few thousand years old. 

Bluefish Cave 1 is located approximately 34 mi (55 km) southwest of Old

Crow. Excavations by Jacques Cinq-Mars discovered microblades, microblade cores, 

and burins in the upper two cultural levels. In the lower levels of the cave, he found 

a split caribou tibia, interpreted to be a fleshing tool dated to about 24,800 years 

ago, and a mammoth bone flake and core dated to 23,500 years ago. Cinq-Mars 

suggested that people had modified them. However, other bones from Bluefish Cave 

1 suggest long use of the cave by carnivores, so some archeologists think the bones 

could have been modified by animals rather than people. The breakage patterns on 

many of the bones appear to be characteristic of gnawing by wolves and foxes, or 

possibly the result of rocks falling from the roof of the cave and limestone hill above. 

Scratch marks on bones that look like cut marks made by people using stone tools 

can be created by the movement of rocks and sediment against the bones, rather than 

human activity. 

The Swan Point archeological site is located in central Alaska and was 

excavated by Charles Holmes. It was occupied about 14,000 years ago on a low rise 

where people had a camp fire and left stone and bone tools. It is possible that the 

microblades from Bluefish Cave 1 could be about the same age. The Little John site, 

also known as KdVo-6, excavated under the direction of Norman Easton is located 

in the Canadian Yukon. It is about the same age as Swan Point and contains similar 

types artifacts. Most archeologists think that if people were living in central Alaska 

by this time, there are older sites yet to been found.
30 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

After the Last Ice Age

The last Ice Age came to an end about 12,000 years ago. It was a time of 

global warming that brought about dramatic change in the climate, plants, animals, 

and geography of the world. Although there is evidence that the change in climate 

may have happened quite rapidly, it took some time for the environment to respond. 

The transition from the Ice Age to the environment in which we live in today took 

thousands of years. This new climatic period, called the Holocene, is the geologic 

period in which we currently live.

As the climate warmed, the vast continental glaciers melted. The water 

they discharged was carried by rivers to the oceans. As a result sea level began to rise 

rapidly. In the Bering Sea region it rose about 400 ft (120 m). Low-lying coastal 

areas, including the Bering Land Bridge, were flooded. Rising sea level also opened 

connections between oceans. When the Bering Land Bridge flooded, it permitted 

marine mammals, fish, and other marine organisms to pass between the Atlantic and 

Pacific Oceans via the Arctic Ocean. Mixing the nutrients from the warm Pacific and 

cold Arctic waters created a new and productive environment in which sea life thrived 

in the shallow waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Most cultural groups, including 

people living in Beringia, have oral histories relating to a great flood (or floods). These 

histories may be cultural legacies of the dramatic sea level rise that took place at the end 

of the last Ice Age.

The rising sea forced people living along the coasts to move inland to escape 

the encroaching water. Large land areas were being exposed as glacial ice disappeared, 

creating new areas for people to live. As archeologist Donald Clark recognized, these 

forces created a “push–pull” effect on people. Those who were living along the coast 

were pushed inland by rising water, while those living in areas adjacent to glaciers were 

drawn, or pulled, toward land newly exposed by the melting ice. 

This was also a time of dramatic change for plants and animals. Colonizing 

plants such as grasses took root in recently deglaciated terrain. As climate continued 

to warm, the vast forests of spruce, larch, aspen and birch spread northward to regions 

that had previously been tundra or covered by ice. Large Ice Age giants became extinct, 

including mammoth and mastodon, woolly rhinoceros, and short-faced bear. Many of 

the smaller animals, such as caribou, moose, and bison appear to have increased their 

range and numbers. 

Climate continued to fluctuate during the Holocene. In the past 14,000 years, 

the earth has experienced periods of alternating warming and cooling. Although there 

was a brief cooling period about 12,000 years ago, climate continued to warm until 

about 8,000 years ago. About 5,000 years ago, sea level began to stabilize and intertidal 

zones productive in shellfish and other resources began to develop and mature. About 

this time there was another period of climate cooling during which there were minor 

glacial advances and expansion of tundra. The climate warmed again until about 1,250 

years ago when there was a brief cold period known as the Little Ice Age. Afterward, 

the climate became warmer, followed by another cold snap between the 1500s and 

1700s. As a consequence of the industrial revolution and increased atmospheric 

greenhouse gasses, the earth is experiencing another period of pronounced warming that 

is causing glaciers once again to melt and sea levels to rise. People living in Beringia have 

continuously adjusted their life ways to these types of changes for thousands of years.
The Last Ice Age and the First Americans 31

Additional Reading:

Dixon, E. James 

1999 Bones Boats and Bison: Archeology and the First Colonization of Western North 

America. University of New Mexico Press. Albuquerque. 

Hoffecker, J. F and S. A. Elias

2007 Human Ecology of Beringia. Columbia University Press, New York.

Elias, Scott A.

1995 The Ice-Age History of Alaska National Parks. Smithsonian Institution Press, 

Washington and London.

O’Neill, Dan

2004 The Last Giant of Beringia: The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge. Westview 

Press, Boulder. 

Parfit, Michael

2000 Hunt for the First Americans. National Geographic. December. Washington. 

D.C.

Western Beringia is a geographic term used to describe an enormous area 

encompassing western Chukotka, Magadan, Koryakia, Kamchatka, and Sakha 

provinces extending west to the Verkhoyansk Range (Figure 4.1). It is the western 

portion of a huge peninsula protruding eastward from Asia and surrounded by ocean 

on two sides. The Arctic Ocean is on the north and the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of 

Okhotsk are to the south. Culturally it is sandwiched between central Asia to the west, 

China and Japan to the south, and the cultures of the Bering Sea to the east. 

Western Beringia is the coldest region in the northern hemisphere with 

temperatures recorded as cold as -95.8° F (-71° C). Despite the extreme cold winter 

temperatures, the summers are frequently hot. It is a diverse geographic region with 

plains, plateaus, and mountain ranges. Taiga is the Russian term for the immense 

forest consisting primarily of larch, birch, pine, and other species that blanket lower 

elevations. Shrub tundra grows along the coastline of the Arctic Ocean southward, 

covering much of Chukotka and northern areas of Sakha. Alpine tundra predominates 

in areas of high elevation to the south. 

Human skeletal remains found in Africa, Europe and Asia are more than 

100,000 years old. However, the earliest reliably dated human remains in the Americas 

are less than 14,000 years old. This indicates that modern humans evolved in the Old 

World and subsequently migrated to the Americas. Although they do not contain 

human skeletal material, the oldest archeological sites containing artifacts found in 

Western Beringia are between 35,000 and 27,000 years old. This suggests that humans 

were established in the far western areas of Beringia long before moving eastward into 

Central Beringia and the Americas. 

The oldest reliably dated human remains from Western Beringia are about 

13,000 years old. They are from the Kamchatka Peninsula. Like the remains from 

North America, they date to the end of the last Ice Age, when human migration to the 

Americas most likely occurred. Based on this evidence it is logical that archeological 

sites in Western Beringia would be older than those in Central and Eastern Beringia. 

From Western Beringia, people were able to travel by foot over the Bering Land Bridge 

and by boat along the southern coast of the Land Bridge to North America sometime 

during the last Ice Age.

CHAPTER 4

WESTERN BERINGIA
34 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Russian scholars generally use Old World terms when classifying archeological 

sites and artifacts. They commonly classify Russian sites into three periods: the 

Paleolithic (sites older than about 12,500 years), Mesolithic (sites between about 

12,500 and 7,000 years), and Neolithic (7,000 years and younger). Paleolithic means 

old Stone Age and is a term used to describe stone tools characterized by long parallelsided stone blades, bifacially flaked tools (chipped on both sides, or “faces”), and other 

types of artifacts that were in wide use until the end of the last Ice Age about 12,500 

years ago. 

The Mesolithic Period (middle Stone Age) spans the time between about 

12,500 – 7,000 years ago. It is characterized by blades that have often been shaped 

for use as various types of tools, leaf-shaped points or knives, and scrapers. Stone 

adzes probably used for working wood are also common. Bone and antler arrow 

Figure 4.1 Map of Western Beringia illustrating geographic features and site locations. 
Western Beringia 35

heads slotted to hold microblades were used along with a variety of other tools. The 

Mesolithic stone artifacts are characterized by blades struck from conical and irregular 

shaped stone cores. Other types of artifacts include scrapers, blades, and a variety of 

other stone tools. Sites dating to the Mesolithic period are commonly ascribed to 

Sumnagin culture (12,500 – 10,500 to 7,500 years ago). These sites are associated with 

Holocene fauna. People seem to have made and used fewer bifacially flaked stone tools 

than they did during preceding Paleolithic times. The Mesolithic period, transitional 

between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, was a time of dramatic environmental 

change between the end of the last Ice Age and environmental conditions that are 

similar to those of today. 

The Neolithic Period (new Stone Age) is characterized by the introduction of 

ground stone tools, ceramics, metal, and other types of artifacts that were in use when the 

Native people of the Russian Far East first encountered Europeans. Copper and bronze 

received in trade from central Asia reached the region possibly as early as 2,500 years 

ago. The Neolithic Period spans the time between about 7,000 years ago to contact with 

central and east Asian cultures, which brought about a dramatic change in the economy 

and types of tools used by Native people. The Neolithic period is divided into several 

cultures some of which can be traced to Native groups who still occupy the region. 

Archeologists frequently assign sites to these periods based on the types of artifacts 

they contain. However, it may be incorrect to assume one site is the same age as another 

based on similar types of stone tools at both sites. In the formative years of archeology, such 

comparisons were often the only way to estimate the age of artifacts. Artifact styles did not 

change at the same time in all regions of Western Beringia. For example, people in one region 

may have begun making pottery before people in another region. 

While radiocarbon dating is useful, it can only be applied to organic material 

—plants and animals that were once alive. Once an organism dies, the radiocarbon 

“clock” begins. Consequently, when radiocarbon dating is applied to material found 

in an archeological site, it is necessary to determine if the plant or animal died at the 

same time as the artifacts were deposited. For example, an early hunter may have found 

piece of mammoth ivory or collected wood from a tree that may have died hundreds or 

thousands of years before he brought it back to his campsite. A radiocarbon date on that 

material would not date the time he camped there, but instead it would date the time 

the mammoth or tree died. However, fresh grass collected to start the camp fire would 

provide an accurate date for the camp because it died at the same time the fire was built. 

Great volcanoes dominate some mountainous areas of Beringia, particularly 

the region around the Sea of Okhotsk and along the Alaska Peninsula. Many of these 

volcanoes have deposited volcanic ash, or tephra, over enormous areas. This enables 

archeologists to date sites throughout the region using tephrochronology. Just as 

every person is unique, so is the tephra from every volcanic eruption. By examining 

the color, texture, and the type and amount of minerals in each deposit of volcanic 

ash, archeologists can tell one from another. Volcanic eruptions have also provided 

abundant sources of obsidian and basalt, which are prized materials for making sharp 

stone tools. Like tephra, obsidian can be traced based on its color and mineral content 

to a specific volcanic eruption. By analyzing the obsidian found in archeological site, 

archeologists can often tell from which volcano it came. This information is useful for 

identifying ancient networks of trade and possibly social interaction. 
36 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Paleolithic Period (before 12,500 Years Ago)

Using tephrochronology along with radiocarbon dating, archeologists have 

been able to determine the age of many sites. Only the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site 

(Yana RHS), Dyuktai Cave, Berelekh, and the lowest level at Ushki I (Figure 4.1) 

have been reliably dated to 12,500 years old or older. The ages of these sites have been 

established by radiocarbon dating. They provide insights into the lives of some of the 

earliest people to occupy Western Beringia. These sites were occupied during the last 

Ice Age, a time when there were few trees and tundra, grasses and shrubs coved most 

of the land. Sea level was lower than it is today and the continental margins that are 

now underwater were exposed as dry land. Animals that are now extinct still roamed 

the landscape including mammoths, mastodons, short-faced bears, woolly rhinoceros, 

lions, and huge wolves. 

The earliest evidence of human occupation of the Arctic is from a site called 

Yana RHS, named because it is located on the banks of the Yana River in central 

Siberia. The research of Vladamir Pitul’ko and his colleagues indicate that this amazing 

site demonstrates that humans occupied high latitudes in central Asia, probably during 

a period of warmer climate between the last two major glacial periods. Located in 

central Siberia west of the Verkhoyansk Range, the site lies in an exposed bank of the 

Yana River at 72° N latitude. It has been reliably dated to about 27,000 years ago. 

Artifacts from Yana RHS include a unique beveled foreshaft made from the horn of 

a woolly rhinoceros, two similar foreshafts made from mammoth ivory, bifacially and 

unifacially flaked stone tools, cores and core tools, and red ochre. Animal remains 

associated with the human occupation include not only the extinct mammoth and 

wooly rhino, but also Ice Age caribou, horse, and birds. Although the region was 

occupied during this interval of warmer climate, the climate cooled rapidly beginning 

about 23,000 years ago. This may have caused people living in the Yana-Indigirka 

lowlands to move southward toward warmer environments.

The Dyuktai (pronounced “duke-tie”) culture is named for Dyuktai Cave, 

where distinctive types of artifacts were first firmly documented by pioneering 

archeologist Yuri Mochanov. Although Dyuktai Cave lies on the western side of 

the Verkhoyansk Range, outside the area defined as Western Beringia, it is the type 

site for artifacts found at many sites throughout Beringia. Dyuktai culture generally 

refers to Upper Paleolithic (late Ice Age) stone tools, characterized by wedge-shaped 

microblade cores, microblades, blades, blade cores, bifaces, and burins. Today, the 

term Dyuktai culture is used widely to describe and classify Paleolithic sites that are 

frequently characterized by microblades that are struck from distinctive wedge-shaped 

cores. The microblades and cores are commonly associated with leaf-shaped bifacially 

flaked knives or spear points. Where there is good preservation of bones, these sites 

frequently are associated with remains of Ice Age animals and generally date as early as 

35,000 until about 12,500 – 10,500 years ago. 

Berelekh is located on a tributary of the Indigirka River near the Arctic Ocean 

and consists of two localities. One locality is a Pleistocene bone assemblage sometimes 

referred to as the Mammoth Cemetery, which probably results from the accumulation of 

animal bone deposited by the river. The other locality is an archeological site 330 – 650 

ft (100 – 200 m) from the bone accumulation created by the river. The archeological site 

contains the remains of animals dating to the Ice Age, including mammoth, horse, bison, 
Western Beringia 37

caribou, hare, bird, and fish. Some researchers believe that the archeological site may 

be younger than the Cemetery. They suggest that it only appears to be as old because 

the early people who camped there carried the bones at the site to it from the nearby 

Mammoth Cemetery. 

Some researchers have suggested that the artifacts from Berelekh should be 

classified with those from Dyuktai culture. However, others have cautiously suggested 

that there may be two occupations at the site. Three radiocarbon dates run on wood 

suggest there may be a 15,350-year-old occupation that does not contain microblades 

and a later one with microblades, dating to about 11,500 years ago. However, 

conflicting reports and interpretations make it difficult to assess Berelekh’s significance 

and its relationship to other archeological sites. 

Several other sites found in Western Beringia suggest that Dyuktai culture had 

spread throughout the region by the end of the last Ice Age. The Kheta site is located 

near the divide between the Kolyma and Okhotsk watersheds. The site has not been 

dated by the radiocarbon method, but the lower level contains distinctive Dyuktai 

artifacts including wedge-shaped microblade cores and bifaces. These artifacts are from 

below a layer of volcanic ash (the Elikchan tephra), which was deposited about 9,350 

years ago. In addition to the Kheta site, there are several other sites reported from 

Western Beringia that contain similar types of artifacts characteristic of the Paleolithic, 

but that have not been datable using radiocarbon or other methods. This suggests that 

human occupation of Western Beringia was widespread near the end of the last Ice Age.

The Uptar site excavated by Sergei Slobodin is located approximately 25 miles 

(40 km) north of Magadan and the Sea of Okhotsk. Although the Uptar site has not 

been firmly dated, it lies beneath the same tephra as the Kheta Site, and consequently 

it is also older than 9,350 years. Some of the artifacts appear to have been heavily 

weathered prior to deposition of the volcanic ash that indicates that the site could be 

considerably older. A few microblades were recovered from the site, but the assemblage 

apparently does not contain microblade cores or core tablets. Core tablets, also 

called platform flakes, are flakes removed from the top, or platform, of the core from 

which the microblades were struck. The bifaces, possibly knives or projectile points, 

in the Uptar collection are lanceolate (lance-like) in outline. Some archeologists 

have suggested that they may be similar, or possibly even related in some way, to some 

types of projectile points found in North America. One specimen in particular has a 

large flake, or flute, removed from the base toward its point. This is similar to fluted 

projectile points of the Paleoindian tradition found in some areas of North America 

that date between 13,300 and 11,500 years ago. However, most archeologists believe 

that the flute may have been produced accidentally and resulted from an impact or 

that the artifact may not be a projectile point at all. They believe it has little, if any, 

relationship to fluted projectile points found in North America. 

Another site, Druchak-Vetreniy, is located at the foot of the Okhotsk-Kolyma 

uplands inland about 100 km inland from the north coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. 

One radiocarbon date of 7,850 years ago stratigraphically above the cultural material 

suggests the site was occupied earlier. The artifacts include wedge-shaped microblade 

cores and bifaces similar to those from other Paleolithic sites in Western Beringia. 

Russian archeologist Margarita Kiryak considers two sites (Bolshoy 

Elgakhchan 1 and 2) Paleolithic in age because they contain wedge-shaped 
38 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

microblade cores and bifacially flaked projectile points similar to other sites 

considered to have been left by people of the Dyuktai culture. Comparison of the 

artifacts to several sites located at Ushki Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula suggest 

that the Bolshoy Elgakhchan sites are similar, and possibly slightly older, than several 

well documented Paleolithic sites discovered to the south on the shores of Ushki 

Lake in central Kamchatka.

The multiple sites at Ushki Lake were occupied during a number of different 

time periods, called horizons, which correspond to stratigraphic layers of sediment that 

have enabled archeologists to chronologically order the periods of human occupation at 

the sites. The archeological site named Ushki I contains a stratigraphic level (VII) that 

was radiocarbon dated in the 1970s to circa 16,700 years ago by the dynamic Russian 

archeologist Nikolai Dikov (Figure 4.2). The site has subsequently been reinvestigated 

and this level has been redated to 13,000 years ago. Level VII contains bifacial stone 

tools and stemmed projectile points (Figure 4.3). This spectacular excavation also 

revealed three large two-chambered dwellings, each more than 1,075 sq ft(100 m2

) 

in area. The houses had several hearths suggesting they may have been multi-family 

dwellings. Nearby were the remains of seven smaller houses. 

The oldest known human burial from Western Beringia is also from Level 

VII at Ushki I. The burial pit had been sprinkled with red ochre (hematite), which 

Dikov described “as bright as fire and as scarlet as blood.” The grave was interpreted 

to be that of a tribal chief or leader. It contained a large number of stone beads and 

pendants that probably ornamented the deceased’s clothing. Level VII contained 

stemmed stone projectile points, but lacked microblades. These finds have led some 

archeologists to suggest relationships with early sites in western North America, where 

Figure 4.2 Nikolai Dikov’s archeological excavations at Ushki Lake. 
Western Beringia 39

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 

13

22 23 24 

14

15

16

17

18

19

20 21

26 27 28

 25

10 11 12 

Figure 4.3 Artifacts from Ushki I, Horizon VII. 1-9 stemmed projectile points; 10-12 projectile 

point bases; 13-21 beads; 22-25 pendants; 26-28 microblade-like flakes.
40 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

red ochre is commonly associated with early burials and stemmed projectile points 

have been found. Although it is not certain that all the dwellings in Level VII were 

occupied at the same time, this early archeological site documents that people were 

organized in small settlements, or villages, in places where the resources were sufficient 

to support them. 

Level VI at Ushki Lake is above Level VII and is clearly younger. There are 

several sites associated with these levels but the largest is the Ushki I site where Dikov 

excavated a huge area containing more than 40 different dwellings. They had entrance 

corridors, or passages, and were constructed using a framework of poles that were 

probably covered with animal skins. These were smaller than the double-chambered 

houses found in Level VII. The remains of a dog that had been buried in a shallow 

pit were also discovered in Level VI. This is the earliest evidence for domestication 

of the dog in Beringia. Level VI contained microblades, and leaf-shaped projectile 

points or knives, and stone labrets (Figure 4.4). These are the earliest known labrets 

from Beringia, about 12,500 years old. The differences between Level VI and Level 

VII suggest that dramatic technological and cultural changes took place in central 

Kamchatka between 13,000 and 12,500 years ago. 

Ushki Lake is located in northern Kamchatka. There are no known 

Paleolithic sites from southern Kamchatka. This has led some archeologists to 

speculate that the Peninsula was originally colonized from the north by hunters 

who may have been discouraged from settling further south when they encountered 

more temperate environmental conditions. Kamchatka is a huge peninsula extending 

south from Chukotka to the Kuril Islands and Japan. It has massive volcanoes and 

a rugged coastline. The remains of extinct Ice Age animals, such as mammoth and 

woolly rhinoceros, have only been found along the Kamchatka River valley and 

northward, suggesting that the southern half of the peninsula had a more temperate 

climate during the last Ice Age. These findings appear to show that climate may have 

prevented cold-adapted animals, such as the woolly mammoth from occupying the 

southern regions. However, comparatively little archeological research has been 

conducted in southern Kamchatka and future research could lead to the discovery of 

Paleolithic sites there as well. 

Mesolithic Period (12,500 – 7,000 Years Ago)

The term Sumnagin culture was introduced by the energetic Russian 

archeologist Yuri Mochanov to describe sites dating between about 10,500 – 6,000 

years ago from the Lena River valley west of the Verkhoyansk Mountain Range. The 

term has subsequently been applied to sites in Western Beringia. Sumnagin is seen 

as transitional between Dyuktai culture and later economically and technologically 

complex Neolithic cultures. Sumnagin culture describes the type of tools and lifestyle 

of people living in Western Beringia during a time of dramatic environmental change 

following the end of the last Ice Age and the extinction of several species of large 

mammals, such as the woolly mammoth. Glaciers melted as the climate warmed 

and sea level rose rapidly flooding coastal areas. The boreal forest (taiga) expanded 

northward beyond its present limits into areas that are tundra today. 

During this time of environmental transition, people stopped making 

the characteristic wedge-shaped microblade cores of the Paleolithic and produced 
Western Beringia 41

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3 4 

10 11 

 7 8 9

 12

13

14 15

5 

6

16

17 18

19

20 21 22

23

24

25 26 27 28 29

Figure 4.4 Artifacts from Ushki Lake, Horizon VI. 1-4 labrets; 5-9 leaf-shaped projectile points; 

10-15 and 23, 24 microblades; 16-19 pendants; 20-22 and 25-29 microblade cores.
42 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

blades and microblades from a wider variety of prismatic cores (stone cores with 

faceted sides). During Sumnagin times the use of bifacial stone tools became less 

common. Unifacially chipped stone tools (flaked on only one side, or face) were 

commonly made from blades, which were also used to create end scrapers, burins, and 

knives. Microblade insets for bone and antler points continued to be used during the 

Mesolithic period. Chipped stone adze blades were made for the first time, and this 

probably indicates that wood had become more readily available as the taiga expanded. 

The sketchy archeological evidence from this time suggests that people hunted large 

land mammals, including moose, caribou, and bears. The location of some sites 

suggests that fishing and hunting waterfowl may also have been important. There is 

some evidence that walrus and seal may have been hunted occasionally along the coast. 

 People probably moved frequently during Mesolithic times, depending 

on the availability of food and other resources. There is little evidence for houses or 

settlements from this time period. At Buyunda III, an archeological site located in 

the upper Kolyma River valley, the remains of what was probably a tipi-like dwelling 

have been excavated. Birch bark from a circular stone hearth was radiocarbon dated to 

about 8,900 years ago. Other sites in the region suggest that people hunted caribou by 

intercepting them as they migrated through mountain passes. 

The Zhokhov site, excavated under the direction of Vladimir Piltko, lies far to 

the north and contains spectacular examples of frozen artifacts. It is located at latitude 

76° N on Zhokhov Island in the New Siberian Island chain. Because the site is in 

permafrost, there is exceptional preservation of bones, tools, and wood. Twenty-one 

consistent radiocarbon dates indicate the site was occupied 8,600 – 8,700 years ago. 

Approximately half of the individual animals identified from the animal bones at the 

site are those of polar bear and the other half are caribou. The site is important because 

it clearly demonstrates how microblades were used as insets to form razor-like cutting 

edges in bone tools (Figure 4.5). Polar bears are perhaps the most aggressive of all bears 

and are known to commonly hunt people. The Zhokhov site may provide very early 

evidence for a dangerous economic specialization — harvesting polar bears. The warm 

and beautiful white hides from these animals were probably highly prized and valuable. 

There is little evidence of maritime adaptations at sites ascribed to Sumnagin 

culture. Igor Vorobey, an archeologist with the State Museum in Magadan, has 

excavated a site located on the shores of a narrow inlet known as Astronomicheskaya 

(Astronomical) Inlet where the artifacts suggest it may be about 7,000 years old. The 

site is adjacent to the coast where early people camped for short periods of time, 

possibly hunting marine mammals or fishing. 

Russian archeologist Aleksey Ponomarenko and his colleagues have recorded 

spectacular artifacts on the Kamchatka Peninsula probably dating to the Mesolithic. 

The site is located on the flood plain of the Avacha River about 40 km inland from the 

coast. It contains large blade cores made from volcanic glass and large unifacial spear 

points, or knives, chipped from large blades. These dramatic artifacts were found at 

the location of an abandoned World War II airfield that is now a potato field. The 

artifacts are buried beneath three distinct layers of volcanic ash. The oldest tephra is 

from an eruption of Ksudach Volcano about 6,850 years ago. The artifacts occur above 

the sand and gravel deposited by the Avacha River and below the tephra. This suggests 

that the people who manufactured the stone tools lived on the flat plain adjacent to the 
Western Beringia 43

1 2

3

4

5

1 cm 5 cm

Figure 4.5 Artifacts from the Zhokhov site: 1-5 bone points with microblades inset in the side 

slots.
44 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

river about 8,000 years ago. The most significant technological characteristics are large 

obsidian blades and large blade cores. Similar artifacts have been found farther north 

in the Kolyma River drainage where they have been dated to about 7,800 years old at 

the Zima site. 

Several sites have been documented along the Avacha River. An important 

Mesolithic site near the mouth of the Avacha River was excavated under the overall 

direction of Tamara Dikova. Named Avacha 1, it may be as much as 8,000 years old 

based on one radiocarbon date run on charcoal. The site contains blades and blade 

cores, chipped and partly ground stone adzes with tanged bases presumably for hafting, 

and grinding slabs (Figures 4.6 and 4.7). Delicately flaked notched tools and burins 

made on obsidian blades are present, as well as oval-shaped scrapers. 

Neolithic Period (7,000 years ago to Historic Contact)

Literally hundreds of Neolithic sites have been excavated in both interior and 

coastal regions throughout Western Beringia. Excavations at many of these sites reveal 

the rich material and spiritual culture of the people living in Western Beringia. Their 

life ways and insights into their spiritual culture are known from the complex material 

culture they left behind including tools, dwellings, ornaments, pottery, and burials. 

About 7,000 years ago the people began to adopt a new way of life. They 

began making and using pottery and started to manufacture stone tools by grinding 

and polishing stones, rather than chipping. People also became more sedentary, living 

for longer periods of time in camps and villages. The early Neolithic is probably best 

known from interior regions of Yakutia where these early cultures (Syalakh, Bel’kachi, 

and Ymyakhtakh) have be defined. Even though the Neolithic people of Western 

Beringia made stone tools by grinding, they tenaciously continued the practice of 

flaking stone. However, during the Neolithic they preferred to make “flake tools” 

primarily by removing stone chips from one side of large stone blades or flakes. 

It is during the Neolithic that metal (copper, bronze and later iron) first 

appears. At first this valuable material was used sparingly to make knife blades and 

other cutting implements, but over time it filled a wider array of needs as it became 

increasingly available. However, metal did not entirely replace stone tools, which 

continued to be made and used for thousands of years after metal was introduced. The 

Neolithic is the period during which contemporary cultures developed and the cultural 

patterns and artifacts from this time can be traced to the people who occupied Western 

Beringia at the time the first European explorers reached the region. 

The Sea of Okhotsk lies tucked between Kamchatka and the mainland. It 

is one of the world’s richest fisheries. Russian scholars have proposed that maritime 

adaptations began as a result of people employing their land mammal hunting and river 

fishing skills to hunting marine mammals and fishing along the coast between 6,000 – 

3,000 years ago. If this theory is true, there should be archeological evidence showing 

a transition from these land-based to ocean-based economies. However, there is little 

evidence to demonstrate this transition, perhaps because rising sea level has inundated 

sites of this age. 

On the west and north coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk and the northwest 

coast of Kamchatka, Russian archeologists have excavated several large prehistoric 

settlements. Tokareva culture is documented at numerous sites along the coast 
Western Beringia 45

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16

1 cm 2 cm

Figure 4.6 Artifacts from the Avacha 1 site: 1-14 chipped stone projectile points; 15, 16 

chipped stone projectile point bases. 
46 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 cm 2 cm

1 cm 5 cm

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12 13

14 15 16

Figure 4.7 Artifacts from the Avacha 1 site: 1 microblade core; 2-9 microblades; 10–13 

chipped stone scrapers; 14-16 adze blades.
Western Beringia 47

1 cm 5 cm

and from extensive excavations at the Ol’skaia sites south of Magadan. Alexander 

Lebedintsev has defined the artifacts, houses, and other cultural traits discovered at 

these sites as belonging to the Tokareva culture, which spans the interval between 

2,500 – 2,000 years ago. The Tokareva culture first appears on the coast as full-blown 

maritime adaptation beginning about 2,500 years ago, although there is some evidence 

to suggest it might be as early as 3,000 years old. 

Artifacts associated with Tokareva culture include flat-bottomed ceramics 

(Figure 4.8) believed to be derived from the Amur River area to the south where 

similar styles are older. The pottery is decorated with incised lines and designs made 

by impressing the soft clay with objects, such as bird bones, fingernails, and small 

stamps. Hunting implements include arrows and weapons to hunt marine mammals 

Figure 4.8 Reconstructed ceramic flat bottomed pot characteristic of Tokareva culture.
48 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

such as double and single-spurred toggling harpoon heads, sockets (some with stone 

end blades, others with carved barbed bone points), and barbed dart heads with 

line holes and tapering rectangular bases (Figure 4.9). Toggling harpoon heads were 

attached to a line and cleverly engineered to turn sideways in the wound to prevent an 

animal from escaping. Fish were caught using composite fish hooks and fish spears. 

Sites also contain decorated bone needles and needle cases, awls, and combs (Figure 

4.10). Decorative objects include decorated pendants, perforated canines, large beads, 

chipped stone and ivory effigies, etched pebbles, and a magnificent human head carved 

from a pebble. 

Some sites are located on islands and indicate the use of boats. Groups of 

people, possibly extended families, may have lived together in circular houses that were 

54 – 97 ft (16.5 – 48.5 m) in diameter. Houses were clustered in small villages near the 

sea and some sites contain whale bone. This has led some archeologists to suggest that 

Tokareva people may have hunted whales or possibly scavenged whales that died from 

natural causes. As many as 20 – 30 house depressions have been recorded at several 

sites in the region, however, it is not clear if all of these were occupied at the same time. 

Some metal was being used, such as copper awls and knives with copper blades. Small 

amounts of iron, probably used as blades for knives and engraving tools, also have been 

recovered from Tokareva sites.

Some archeologists believe that the Tokareva culture developed when bands 

of inland hunters from the Kolyma River region settled on the coast and developed a 

new economy based primarily on harvesting ocean resources. However, there is little 

archeological evidence documenting this transition and the Tokareva culture seems 

to appear rather suddenly along the north and west shores of the Okhotsk Sea. It is 

possible that ancient archeological sites that had been located along the coast are now 

under water, or have been destroyed by rising sea level, or have not been discovered.

Russian archeologists frequently use the term Old to define the groups of 

artifacts that appear to be ancestral to contemporary cultures. For example, the term 

Old Koryak Culture is applied to the artifacts left by people who were believed to have 

been the ancestors of the Koryak people. The Koryak occupied the northern coast of 

the Sea of Okhotsk in the area between Magadan and the Okhotsk and Pacific coasts 

of northern Kamchatka. Most archeologists think Old Koryak culture developed from 

the Tokareva culture, possibly beginning as early as 2,300 years ago. Vladimir Jochelson 

undertook the first archeological research in this area in 1901, followed almost 60 years 

later by Ruslan Vasil ́evskii. Based on their work, Old Koryak culture has been divided 

into several stages of cultural development that can be traced to modern times. 

A major trend in this sequence of Old Koryak cultural development was 

the continued refinement and sophistication in marine mammal hunting. Over time 

economic activities increasingly emphasized marine mammal hunting over hunting 

reindeer and mountain sheep. Both nets and spears were used to harvest fish. Large 

piles of sea shells indicate that collecting shellfish also was an important economic 

activity in many areas. The older types of harpoons made from two or more pieces, 

called composite harpoons, used for marine mammal hunting evolved into toggling 

harpoons with metal end blades. By about 1,000 – 900 years ago Old Koryak people 

began regularly hunting whales, the largest of all marine mammals. Whale bone was 

used in constructing houses and for other utilitarian purposes. Iron reached the area 
Western Beringia 49

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3 4 5

6

7

8

9

10 

 11

12

13

14 15

16

Figure 4.9 Tokareva artifacts: 1-6 barbed and toggling harpoon heads; 7, 8 bone projectile 

points; 9-13 chipped stone projectile points; 14, 15 chipped stone knives; 16 knife with bone 

handle and copper blade.
50 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3 4 

5 6 7 8

9 10

11

12

13

14 15 16

Figure 4.10 Tokareva artifacts: 1-8 pendants; 9-11 etched pebbles, 11 perforated canine; 12 

awl; 13 comb; 14 ivory effigy; 15 chipped stone effigy; 16 human head carved from stone.
Western Beringia 51

primarily through trade, possibly as early as 1,500 years ago and it largely replaced 

stone by 500 years ago. European Russians arrived in the early 1600s, and by the 1700s 

stone tools and locally made pottery had almost completely disappeared and had been 

replaced by iron tools and pots. 

Along the southern coasts of Kamchatka, events took a different course. 

Several sites younger than Avacha 1 have been excavated along the Avacha River under 

the overall direction of Tamara Dikova. Her research in this region helped define Tarya 

culture, which was documented by excavations in the areas around Avacha Inlet, the 

Kamchatka River valley, and possibly at Ushki Lake. Tarya culture is believed to be the 

forerunner, or the first stage of Old Itel ́men culture. There appear to be two variants 

of this culture, a northern one that used microblades and a southern one that did not. 

The Tarya culture spans the time from roughly 6,000 to 2,000 years ago. 

During this time people manufactured large stone adzes by grinding and also had an 

emphasis on wood working. Common tools were stone scrapers, bifacially flaked 

stone knives, and gravers. During this time people chipped stone animal effigies, wore 

labrets, and used obsidian and fine-grained flint to manufacture prismatic blades struck 

from prepared cores. People lived in sod-covered semi-subterranean houses that were 

entered through a hole in the roof, probably using a log notched to serve as a ladder. 

The Lopatka Site is located on Kamchatka’s Lopatka Peninsula and is 

radiocarbon dated between 3,200 – 3,500 years ago. The site contains caribou antler 

and marine mammal bone. It exhibits a well-developed bone technology including 

awls, small spoon-like objects, bone adz-like objects (picks) probably used for digging, 

bone wedges, and bone projectile points (Figure 4.11). Stone tools include flake cores, 

stemmed projectile points, chipped stone knives, and stone adze blades made by both 

chipping and grinding (Figure 4.12).

Another important site for Old Itle ́men culture is the Bolshoy Kamen Site or 

“Big Stone Site.” The site is located at the mouth of the Paratunka River and has been 

radiocarbon dated to about 2,400 years old. The level containing artifacts is capped by 

a tephra derived from a later eruption of Ksudach Volcano that has been dated to 1,700 

years ago. This site contains animal and possibly human effigies of chipped stone, thin 

polished whisker-like labrets, polished stone adzes, end scrapers, tanged chipped stone 

knives, gravers, side blades, stemmed projectile points, and adze blades (Figure 4.13).

Between 2,000 – 1,000 years ago, people continued to use semi-subterranean 

houses, and also began building houses on piers, or stilts. The semi-subterranean form 

was entered two different ways: either through a ground-level opening or a hole in the 

roof which led to a notched log or plank with ridges or boards used as steps. Birch bark 

was used for a variety of tasks, even to make quivers to hold arrows. People made their 

living primarily from the sea by hunting marine mammals, using non-toggling barbed 

bone darts with a line hole. Other tools included burnishing stones, borers, scrapers, 

drills, along with line and net weights. Extensive reliance on fishing is indicated by 

the large amount of fish remains recovered from archeological sites dating to this 

time. Fish were caught using composite and single piece fish hooks and probably nets. 

Bows and arrows armed with stone points were used to hunt land mammals and also 

probably in warfare. 

The last stage of Old Itle ́men culture began about 1,000 years ago and 

continued until the time of Russian contact and colonization. About this time the 
52 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 cm 2 cm

5 6 7

1

2

3

4

Figure 4.11 Artifacts from the Lopatka site: 1, 3, and 4 bone awls; 2 bone spoon-like object; 

5-7 adze heads. 
Western Beringia 53

1 2 3 4

 8 10

11 12 13 14 15

1 cm 2 cm

5

7 9

6

Figure 4.12 Artifacts from the Lopatka site: 1 chipped stone knife blade; 2-4 chipped

stone projectile points; 5-10 chipped stone scrapers; 11, 12 flake cores; 13-15 adze blades. 
54 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 2

3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

11

12 13 14 15

16 17

18 19

20

1 cm 2 cm

Figure 4.13 Artifacts from the Bolshoy Kamen, or Big Stone site: 1 chipped stone animal effigy; 

2 whisker labret; 3-10 chipped stone projectile points; 11 chipped stone knife; 12-15 scrapers; 

16, 17 gravers; 18-20 chipped and ground stone adze blades.
Western Beringia 55

1 2 5

 3

4

1 cm 2 cm

Old Koryak people appear to have pressed southward into Old Itle ́men territory from 

the area of Tymlat Bay. This appears to be a time of increased conflict in southern 

Kamchatka and Old Itle ́men settlements are often found in strategic defensive 

locations surrounded by palisaded fortifications. During this time dog traction and 

sleds were introduced from the north, and the use of iron acquired by trade became 

common. Two different types of houses, semi-subterranean and one constructed on 

piers, continued to be used during this time. Bone and antler arrow points with ground 

stone end blades, and non-toggling harpoon heads with and without ground stone 

end blades were used to hunt land and sea mammals. Projectile points, borers or awls, 

and adzes continued to be made from stone. Fishing continued to be an important 

economic pursuit and fish were caught using fish spears, nets, and hooks. 

During the latter part of this period, the Ainu came north, seasonally 

occupying the southernmost tip of Kamchatka. The Ainu are native people who 

occupied northern Japan and the Kuril Islands. They were under pressure from 

the Japanese who were expanding northward into their territory. Evidence of their 

occupation includes Ainu and Japanese artifacts, such as coins, are commonly found 

in archeological sites dating to this time period (Figure 4.14). By about 1700 AD 

some Ainu had reached as far north as the Zupanova site, located approximately 

200 km (125 mi) north of Petropavolsk on the Pacific coast of Kamchatka (Figure 

4.1). Following the Russian colonization of Kamchatka, the Ainu withdrew to the 

Kuril Islands. The Ainu incursion into southern Kamchatka provides an example of 

the “forcing effect” that may have operated in the prehistoric past. Perhaps as the 

populations grew in regions adjacent to Western Beringia, such as China and Japan, 

pressure was exerted on their neighbors who were forced to move ever northward 

from population centers. This type of population pressure may have been a factor in 

producing a domino effect resulting in the movement and exchange of people, objects, 

and ideas throughout Beringia. 

Figure 4.14 Artifacts documenting the Ainu incursion into Kamchatka: 1 

ceramic fragment; 2 harpoon head fragment with iron end blade; 3 Japanese 

coin; 4 blue glass trade bead; 5 iron fish hook.
56 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

 The Old Itle ́men Culture was the last prehistoric culture to occupy central 

and southern Kamchatka. By the 1600s, Russian explorers and fur traders entered the 

region from the west and trading posts were established to trade in furs, for which there 

was strong demand in China and Europe. Between 1737 and 1741, Stepan Petrovich 

Krasheninnikov, a Russian scholar and historian, recorded the life ways of the Itle ́men 

and Koryak, the descendants of Western Beringia’s early settlers (Figure 4.15). Thirty 

years later (1768–1769) a smallpox epidemic swept Kamchatka and decimated the 

indigenous population. The Russian expansion to Kamchatka laid the foundation 

for subsequent voyages and colonization of Alaska. The Russians were soon followed 

by European and American whalers, who intensively hunted whales off the coast of 

Kamchatka and in the Sea of Okhotsk during the mid-1800s, bringing with them new 

types of trade goods and new diseases. 

During the Soviet era, the economy of the region was dominated by statecontrolled industries for the extraction of raw materials. In various places in Western 

Beringia, entire cities were constructed around deposits of coal and other resources. 

However, the infrastructure was poorly developed. The primary economic base of the 

region today is mining for metals (primarily gold, silver, and platinum) and fisheries.

Summary

The early cultural history of Western Beringia is divided into three time 

periods: the Paleolithic (sites older than about 12,500 years), Mesolithic (sites between 

about 12,500 and 7,000 years), and Neolithic (7,000 years and younger) (Figure 4.16). 

People first settled Western Beringia during the Paleolithic. The earliest Paleolithic 

Figure 4.15 Interior of an Itel’ men winter house as recorded by S.P. Krasheninnikov circa 

1740 (Krasheninnikov 1964).
Western Beringia 57

Figure 4.16 Cultural chronology of Western Beringia (Icons from Dikov 1979; Lebedintsev 1990, 

Slobodin 2005).
58 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

site is more than 25,000 years old, and was occupied during a brief period of warmer 

climate prior to the last Ice Age. It is possible that people moved southward during the 

last Ice Age as the climate became colder and perhaps did not occupy the region again 

until the climate began to warm up about 15,000 years ago. 

Evidence from Ushki Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula suggests that by 

13,000 years ago people were living in settlements, or small villages, at locations where 

food and other resources were abundant. They hunted large land mammals and water 

fowl, and fished along inland lakes and rivers. At Ushki Lake the use of microblades 

was adopted by 12,500 years ago. These were used as razor-like insets in the sides 

of bone and antler spears and arrow points and may also have been used as cutting 

instruments for precision tasks such as cutting hides to make tailored clothing. The 

microblades were struck from wedge-shaped stone cores. These late Paleolithic people 

also used knives, spear points, and possibly arrow heads made by chipping stone. The 

term Dyuktai culture is used to describe these distinctive types of artifacts. 

The Mesolithic was a time of dramatic climate change when the last of the 

glaciers were melting, sea level was rising rapidly, and the boreal forest advanced 

northward replacing shrub tundra throughout much of Western Beringia. People 

began to diversify their economy. While fewer bifacially flaked stone tools were used 

during the Mesolithic, a greater variety of tools were made on larger blades struck from 

stone cores. 

During Neolithic times, people made pottery and lived in larger and more 

permanent settlements where resources such as fish, shellfish, and marine mammals were 

abundant. Their tools were made more often by grinding stone rather than chipping it. 

About 2,000 years ago people began using copper and iron obtained from neighboring 

groups to the west and south. By the 1600s, Russians began to colonize the region. 

European and American traders, explorers and whalers introduced devastating epidemics 

and forever changed the economy and cultures of Western Beringia.

Additional Reading:

Dikov, N. N.

1993 Asia at the Juncture with America in Antiquity. Richard L. Bland, translator. 

Nauka, St. Petersburg.

Lebedintsev, Aleksandr L.

1990 Early Maritime Cultures of Northwestern Priokhot’e. Richard L. Bland, 

translator. National Park Service. Shared Beringian Heritage Program 

translation. Anchorage.

West, Frederick Hadleigh (ed.)

1996 American Beginnings. University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 
Central Beringia is the birthplace of Iñupiaq and Yupik Eskimo cultures and 

home of one of mankind’s most remarkable adaptations to the environment. 

This geographic area includes the islands and coastal areas where Eskimos live today in 

Russia and Alaska (Figure 5.1). During the last Ice Age, it was all a vast plain bordered 

on the north and south by oceans. Over several thousand years it was transformed 

by rising sea level into a shallow sea dotted with islands and bordered by a land with 

plentiful caribou. These hardy people made their living primarily by fishing, hunting 

sea mammals along the coast, and hunting caribou in adjacent areas of the interior. 

As the marine environment matured following the last Ice Age, the sea mammal 

population in Central Beringia flourished and supported large communities.

The development of Eskimo culture is preserved in many spectacular sites 

throughout Central Beringia. In North America there is a sequence of traditions that 

are similar to the cultural developments that took place at the same time, or slightly 

earlier, in Russia. In Alaska these are the American Paleoarctic, Northern Archaic, 

Choris, Norton, Old Bering Sea, and Western Thule traditions. With each successive 

tradition, new inventions were introduced to the ever-evolving technology. Over 

thousands of years this process of innovation and cultural development ultimately 

resulted in a suite of cultural traits that is commonly associated with Eskimo culture 

at the time of European contact: semi-subterranean house types, kashims, toggling 

harpoons, oil lamps, kayaks, crampons, snow goggles, the dog sled, and many more. 

Many innovations were fashioned from bone or walrus ivory. 

At the end of the last Ice Age, the Bering Land Bridge was submerged by rising 

sea level. As extensive shallow areas of the continental shelf continued to be flooded, 

large regions of Central Beringia that had experienced drier interior climates became 

increasingly maritime. At this time people living in Beringia became separated by 

Bering Strait. People living in the east became residents of North America and those in 

the west were living in Asia. Between about 10,000 and 9,000 years ago sea level rose 

rapidly and began approaching the modern shoreline. People living on the coast would 

have been forced gradually to relocate landward in response to the rising water and 

changing environment. However, large shallow areas such as Norton Sound continued 

to remain above water until about 6,000 – 5,500 years ago. 

CHAPTER 5

CENTRAL BERINGIA
60 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

The distance across Bering Strait is only about 58 miles (92 km) and on a clear 

day one can see across the Strait to land on the other side. When the weather was good 

people could easily travel by boat between the islands and the mainlands and from one 

continent to the other. Consequently, after the Bering Land Bridge had flooded, trade 

and social contact continued throughout the region.

Although rising sea level severed the land connection between Asia and North 

America, it created a connection between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. For the first 

time in 65,000 years, fish and marine mammals were able to move through the Arctic 

Ocean and narrow Bering Strait connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the 

northern hemisphere. Bordered by the coastal regions of two continents, the relatively 

shallow Bering Sea south of Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea north of Bering Strait 

became rich in wildlife as sea level continued to rise. The types and abundance of 

marine mammals, fish, shellfish, and seabirds varies greatly throughout the region, 

depending on underwater habitats, currents, ice conditions, the configuration of the 

coastline, and a variety of other factors. People living along its shores soon learned 

which areas were most productive and when and where different types of marine 

resources could be harvested. People settled on the shore and islands where resources 

were abundant, or camped at locations where resources were temporarily concentrated. 

Figure 5.1 Map of Central Beringia.
Central Beringia 61

The Bering Sea is home to more than 450 species of fish and shellfish. This 

rich environment supports at least seven species of whales, as well as sea lions, sea 

otters, many types of seals, and walrus that in turn support a large population of polar 

bears. These animals could be hunted at specific locations where they came ashore to 

bear their young, at sea from boats, and from sea ice near open leads and breathing 

holes. Sea ice hunting became what is perhaps the most sophisticated subsistence 

adaptation that has ever been developed. It involves an elaborate suite of technological 

innovations including tools, clothing, and transportation methods combined with a 

sophisticated knowledge of ocean currents, weather, sea ice, and animal behavior.

In the more southern areas, particularly favorable locations for human 

settlements were near streams and rivers that were rich in salmon. Fishing was an 

important economic activity everywhere fish were plentiful. Marine mammal hunting 

was also an important part of survival in northern regions and large permanent or semipermanent villages developed where marine mammals or fish could be harvested and 

stored for later use. By harvesting whales, seals, and walrus, people were able to store 

large amounts of food, fuel, and materials for making tools and houses. The rich oil 

rendered from marine mammals provided fuel for stone and ceramic lamps, generating 

heat and light through the long winter months in areas where wood was scarce. These 

products from the sea and adjacent inland areas enabled people to live together in large 

settlements for long periods of time. 

In a sense, Central Beringia can be compared to the Mediterranean Sea 

because it is a shallow body of water dotted with islands and bordered by land and 

settlements. People living around its margins tended to be more familiar with each 

other than with their neighbors farther inland. They harvested similar resources, 

traveled the same waters, socialized and intermarried, shared the same technology and 

innovations, and sometimes were in conflict with each other. 

American Paleo-arctic and Dyuktai Traditions 

Artifacts and camp sites left by the earliest Central Beringians indicate that 

their way of life was similar and they shared a similar technology. On the Asian side 

it is called Dyuktai culture and on the American side it is called the American Paleoarctic tradition. Archeologist Fredrick Hadleigh West grouped these traditions 

together, calling them the Beringian tradition, while other North American 

archeologists refer to the American Paleo-arctic tradition as the Eastern Beringian 

tradition and Dyuktai culture as the Western Beringian tradition. 

The American Paleo-arctic tradition was originally defined by Douglas 

Anderson based on the artifacts from the oldest occupations at the Onion Portage 

site on Alaska’s Kobuk River, microblades from the Trail Creek Caves located on the 

Seward Peninsula, and similar sites from the Brooks Range (Figure 5.2). These sites all 

contained microblades that had been struck from wedge-shaped microblade cores that 

were virtually identical to those of the Dyuktai culture in Siberia. The stone artifacts 

included wedge-shaped microblade cores, microblades, blades and blade cores, core 

bifaces, antler arrow points slotted to receive microblades, and grooved stone abraders. 

Subsequent research has demonstrated that these types of artifacts are found along 

the coastal areas and adjacent inland environments on both sides of the Bering and 

Chukchi Seas. 
62 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

The people who made and used these types of artifacts were probably living 

on the Bering Land Bridge when sea level began to rise and flood the land joining Asia 

and North America at the end of the last Ice Age. As sea level continued to rise, regions 

adjacent to the coasts became increasingly maritime. Many important inland sites have 

been discovered and excavated in North America from Alaska’s Brooks Range in the 

north to the Alaska Peninsula in the south. Several similar sites in Chukotka have also 

been documented. Based on their ecological settings and preserved faunal remains, 

it appears that caribou hunting, possibly supplemented by fishing, were the most 

important economic activity at these inland locations in both Asia and North America. 

In Russia, wedge- shaped microblades cores and microblades typical of 

Dyuktai culture have been reported from several sites in Central Beringia (Chel ́kun 

2 and 4, Chaatam ́e 1, Kurupka 1, Ul ́ khum 1, and possibly Inas ́ kvaam, Taliain, and 

Marich 2). All but two of these sites appear to be located on river terraces and many are 

in ecological settings that suggest caribou hunting. Although the bone at most of these 

sites has decomposed, caribou bone was found at Kurupka 1 near what appeared to be 

hearth. It did not contain sufficient charcoal for radiocarbon dating. Two sites (Inas ́ 

kvaam and Taliain) are located along the Bering Sea coast south of the city of Anadyr, 

but because sea level was probably still rising at the time the sites were occupied, their 

Figure 5.2 Map depicting the location of key archeological sites in Central Beringia.
Central Beringia 63

relative distance from the coast is not clear. Unfortunately, it has proven difficult to 

firmly date these sites, but based on the types of artifacts they contain — wedge-shaped 

cores and microblades — most archeologists believe they suggest the wide geographic 

range of the Dyuktai culture.

American Paleo-arctic tradition artifact types include distinctive antler arrow 

points slotted to receive microblade insets (Figure 5.3). These points provide rare 

insights into the use of microblades as insets to create cutting edges in bone and antler 

tools. The few bone points that have been preserved in Dyuktai and American Paleoarctic tradition sites appear to be arrow heads. These distinctive projectile points armed 

with microblades are composite tools. In other words, they were made by combining 

several parts. First bone, antler, or ivory was carved into the shape of a long slender 

pencil-like arrow head or spear point. Antler carving was probably done using a special 

stone tool called a burin. Stone microblades were then inset in a slot(s) carved into the 

side of the point, forming a scalpel-sharp cutting edge.

Level III at Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9 and Lime Hill Cave 1 contain antler 

projectile points slotted to receive microblade insets. These points closely resemble 

antler arrow heads that were widely used by Eskimo hunters when Europeans first 

arrived in Central Beringia. Archeologists Helge Larsen and Robert Ackerman, who 

analyzed them, believed they were used as arrow heads. If this interpretation is correct, 

American Paleo-arctic tradition people introduced the bow and arrow into North 

America from Asia possibly as early as 14,000 years ago. In a layer designated as Band 

8 at the Onion Portage site, microblades appear to have been used as insets in slotted 

points that have been reliably dated to 9,100 years ago. 

The Alaska Peninsula is the interface between the people living in Eastern 

Beringia along the Gulf of Alaska (Pacific Ocean) and those living along the Bering 

Sea and non-coastal areas of Central Beringia. On the northwestern side of the 

Peninsula, the archeological record is essentially that of Central Beringia, while the 

southeast (Pacific) side of the Peninsula is more closely associated with the cultures 

that developed in the Gulf of Alaska. Important American Paleo-arctic tradition 

occupations are documented by Don Dumond from the lowest levels at the Ugashik 

Narrows site and at Kvichak Bay. The Ugashik Narrows site is adjacent to a river with a 

major salmon run, where large mammals such as caribou and moose may easily cross the 

river. This setting suggests that the people who camped at this site fished and probably 

hunted caribou. Similar undated sites have been found in other areas of the peninsula. 

Most archeologists believe that American Paleo-arctic people may have been the first to 

colonize the peninsula and that they occupied it until sometime about 7,500 years ago. 

Numerous undated sites throughout Beringia have been ascribed to the 

American Paleo-arctic tradition and Dyuktai culture, based on their similarity 

with Dyuktai and American Paleo-arctic artifacts. These artifacts include burins, 

microblades, and core tablets associated with wedge-shaped microblade cores. The 

environmental settings of many of these sites suggest that one reason people were 

making and using microblades was to arm arrows for hunting caribou. 

Most archeologists believe that in Asia there was gradual change from 

Dyuktai to the Sumnagin culture and that the Sumnagin culture gradually developed 

into the maritime Neolithic cultures that later flourished on the islands and coasts of 

Central Beringia. Although the evidence is not clear, the most popular idea among 
64 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1

2

3

4

5

8

9

1 cm 3 cm

Figure 5.3 Slotted bone projectile points, Central Beringia: 1 atl atl dart head 

Canadian ice patch; 2-8 arrow heads Trail Creek Caves; 9 arrow head from Lime 

Hills, Cave 1. 

6 7
Central Beringia 65

Russian scholars is that Sumnagin people descended river valleys to the coasts where 

they settled and learned to make their living primarily from the sea. This migration is 

believed to have happened during the Mesolithic period (12,500 and 7,000 years ago). 

If people living in northeast Asia did make their living from the sea at an earlier time, 

the artifacts and remains of their settlements may be submerged beneath the sea as a 

result of rising sea level. 

New People from the South (12,500 – 7,000 years ago) 

Beginning about 12,500 years ago, distinctive types of artifacts, such as large 

lance-shaped (lanceolate) points, began to appear in Central and Eastern Beringia 

that clearly originated south of the continental glaciers. From the time they were first 

discovered and reported, scientists recognized their similarity to what archeologists 

call Paleoindian projectile points used to arm atl atl darts. These types of stone points 

are typically lanceolate in form. The earliest forms have a characteristic flute, or long 

narrow flake removed from around the midline of the point, extending from the base 

toward the tip. The flute allowed the maker of the point to securely bind it to a dart 

shaft. These types of stone artifacts are well known from southern regions of North 

America where they were made beginning about 13,000 years ago. They continued 

to be made until about 9,000 years ago. While some Paleoindian sites contain large 

blades and blade-like flakes, microblades were not manufactured or used as side blade 

insets by Paleoindians.

Most archeologists believe there are historical relationships between 

Paleoindian tradition projectile points from Central and Eastern Beringia and those 

from the Great Plains of western North America based on the fact that they are so 

similar. Over the years several theories have been offered to explain the relationships 

between the northern and southern Paleoindian assemblages, including: 1) the 

northern specimens were left by the first humans to reach Alaska from Asia, who 

subsequently spread south from Beringia when the continental glacier melted; 2) 

Paleoindian projectile points developed in the more southern regions of North 

America and spread northward to Central and Eastern Beringia after the glaciers 

melted; 3) Paleoindian projectile points were independently developed in Central and 

Eastern Beringia thousands of years after those to the south were no longer being made.

Marie Wormington, a pioneer in synthesizing Paleoindian archeology in the 

United States, was the first person to realize that this technology spread northward 

from the Great Plains following deglaciation. For many years this was an unpopular 

point of view because most archeologists believed that this way of making projectile 

points had originated in Asia and was used by mammoth hunters who crossed the 

Bering Land Bridge and were the first to colonize North America. A specific type of 

fluted projectile point, called a Clovis point, was frequently found with the remains of 

mammoths in western North America south of the glacial barrier. 

However, Wormington and her colleague Richard Forbis recognized that the 

Northern Paleoindian points were stylistically similar to fluted projectile points from 

the American West and suggested that they were not as old in Central and Eastern 

Beringia as they were in the Great Plains. Subsequent excavations and radiocarbon 

dating in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrated that they were correct. Furthermore, 

this distinctive technology has not been discovered in Asia and appears to be a unique 
66 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

New World innovation, indicating that it developed independently in the Americas 

south of the continental glaciers. After the last Ice Age, melting ice exposed land 

between the Coridlleran and Laurentide glaciers in the form of a deglaciation corridor 

that previously had not been occupied by people. It connected Eastern Beringia in 

the north and areas south of the continental glaciers. Settlement of this deglaciated 

corridor occurred primarily from south to north. The presence of Paleoindian points 

suggests the people who colonized this corridor brought Paleoindian technology to 

Eastern Beringia as they moved northward (Figure 5.4). 

These types of points were first found in Alaska’s Brooks Range, and later 

found at other sites throughout the Central and Eastern Beringia. They include the 

Utukok River site, the Putu site, and the Mesa site. The earliest Northern Paleoindian 

points in Beringia have multiple flutes, concave bases, and edge grinding. However, 

later lanceolate and stemmed forms are common and similar to points from the Plains 

called Agate Basin and Hell Gap points. While some Paleoindian sites in the Lower 48 

states are known to contain large blades and blade-like flakes, both the southern and 

Northern Paleoindian traditions lack microblades. Numerous fluted points also were 

found at the Batza Tena obsidian source south of the Brooks Range on the Koyukuk 

River by archeologist Donald Clark. Unfortunately, many of these sites were surface 

sites or sites with very shallow deposits with little organic preservation, which made 

dating difficult. However, enough dates now exist to determine that these sites range in 

age between roughly 12,500 and 11,500 year old. 

One of the better documented Paleoindian sites is the Mesa site, located 

on the north flank of Alaska’s Brooks Range and excavated by Mike Kunz. It is 

11,500 years old and contains lanceolate projectile points with edge-ground, straight, 

constricting, and concave bases, as well as large thin bifaces. It also has spurred gravers 

made on flakes, unifacially flaked lithic tools, scrapers, retouched flakes, hammer and 

anvil stones using stream cobbles, waste flakes from tool production, quartz crystals, 

and possibly hematite. No faunal remains were recovered; however, the ecological 

Figure 5.4 Maps depicting the northward movement of the Northern Paleoindian tradition 

and the limits of the melting continental glacier 13,000 and 12,500 years ago. 
Central Beringia 67

setting suggests that the site was used as a lookout for large mammals where waiting 

hunters manufactured and repaired their projectiles and tools.

Spein Mountain is another Paleoindian site, excavated by Robert Ackerman 

and located about 37 miles (60 km) east of Bethel in southwestern Alaska. A single 

radiocarbon date from a hearth-like depression containing charcoal and burned 

bone suggests the site is about 11,560 years old. By studying the pollen found in 

the sediments, scientists can tell that there were no trees in the region when the 

site’s inhabitants lived there. Grasses were the predominant plants growing near the 

site at the time of occupation. The site lacks microblades or evidence of microblade 

technology. The stone artifacts include flakes, bifacial adz blades, ovate (oval-shaped) 

bifaces, biface preforms, gravers, flake knives, scrapers, a whetstone/abrader, a notched 

flake, cobble spall scrapers, choppers, hammer stones, split cobbles, and bifacially flaked 

lanceolate projectile points with constricting bases. 

Some of the earliest archeological evidence for lanceolate points in 

northwestern Alaska is from a series of sites with similar types of tools in the Noatak 

River region. They are characterized by comparatively thick constricting (sides 

tapering, or narrowing, toward the base) lanceolate projectile points and a variety of 

similar cutting and scraping tools. The projectile point bases from these sites were 

manufactured by regular flaking along their margins and grinding on their edges. Sites 

containing these types of artifacts have been ascribed to the Sluiceway complex, named 

after the Irwin Sluiceway site where artifacts of this type were first recognized. The 

Irwin Sluiceway site and a site MIS-495 have been radiocarbon dated between 10,200 

and 11,500 years ago contain artifacts that share similarities in manufacturing methods 

with other Northern Paleoindian tradition sites. Based on the ecological setting of 

these sites, it is presumed that they were used primarily for caribou hunting or possibly 

bison. Tuluaq Hill, another Sluiceway complex site, has seven radiocarbon dates that 

suggest it was occupied between 13,100 – 13,000 years ago, and therefore older than 

other Sluiceway sites. The distinctive projectile points and absence of microblade 

technology at Tuluaq Hill and the Irwin Sluiceway site are further proof to some 

archeologists that they are related to a broadly defined Northern Paleoindian tradition. 

Another site in northwest Alaska, simply called NR-5, is reliably dated to 

circa 10,900 years ago and its setting suggests that it was probably also used for caribou 

hunting. At this site, however, Sluiceway complex projectile points are found along 

with microblades. Sites such as NR-5 with Paleoindian-like projectile points associated 

with microblades are not typical. Presuming the artifacts are not mixed, there are 

several possible explanations for the association: 1) that these types of projectile points 

became incorporated into the American Paleo-arctic tradition about this time in 

northwest Alaska; 2) that the Northern Paleoindian tradition began to incorporate 

microblade technology in its tool kit; or 3) there is a functional or seasonal reason that 

microblades were used at this site and not the others.

Stone projectile points typical of the Northern Paleoindian tradition (fluted 

and related lanceolate forms) have been found throughout Central and Eastern 

Beringia. By including the northern examples within the larger tradition as defined 

for the rest of North America, it is assumed that people who made and used these 

tools in Beringia were part of a larger population, sharing a similar way of life and 

economic system. Some archeologists have suggested that initially this may have 
68 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

been predominantly bison hunting. As the environment gradually changed, bison 

populations appear to have declined and caribou populations probably increased in the 

interior of Alaska. Northern Paleoindians may have had to place increasing emphasis 

on caribou hunting to cope with these changing conditions. 

The radiocarbon dates from Spein Mountain, Putu, and Mesa sites suggest that 

the Paleoindian tradition arrived in Central Beringia 12,500 years ago, shortly after the 

partition of the continental ice and the establishment of biological resources essential to 

sustain human subsistence in the newly deglaciated region. The southern origin of the 

Northern Paleoindian tradition is supported by the discovery of similar Paleoindian 

artifacts at a site called Charlie Lake Cave in northeastern British Columbia dated to 

about 12,600 years ago and another Paleoindian occupation at Vermilion Lake in Banff 

National Park in Alberta, Canada, probably about 12,800 years ago.

In the North American sector of Central Beringia, the archeological evidence 

is confusing during this time period. It appears that the region first was settled by 

people from Asia who made and used microblades and other tools similar to those 

ascribed to the Dyuktai culture in Russia. On the American side of Bering Strait 

this tool making tradition is called the American Paleo-arctic (or Eastern Beringian) 

tradition. The evidence also suggests that about 12,500 years ago a new group of 

people, called Paleoindians, arrived in Central and Eastern Beringia from the south. 

Apparently they did not occupy the Asian side of Central Beringia, because the 

distinctive types Paleoindian artifacts have not been found in Asia. 

Most archeologists believe that the artifacts from these sites represent two 

distinct groups of people — one that used microblades and another that did not. The 

Northern Paleoindian tradition is best characterized by distinctive fluted and other 

types of lanceolate stone projectile points used to tip atl atl darts, while the artifacts 

used by the Dyuktai and American Paleo-arctic traditions relied more heavily on the 

manufacture of microblades set in projectile points made from bone, antler, and ivory. 

These technological differences should enable archeologists to define the geographic 

boundaries of these traditions based on the age and location of the archeological 

sites that contain these distinctive types of artifacts, but such an analysis has proven 

problematic because of the difficulty in interpreting the age of many sites. 

Because microblade technology is older in Asia, archeologists can tell that the 

American Paleo-arctic tradition originated there and later spread to northwestern North 

America. On the other hand, the origin of the Northern Paleoindian tradition lies in 

southern areas North America, with the tradition spreading northward and reaching 

Eastern and Central Beringia about 10,500 years ago. It is possible that people of the 

American Paleo-arctic and Paleoindian traditions may have lived side-by-side, perhaps 

peacefully or in conflict, practicing different ways of life and possibly speaking different 

languages. It is also possible that Paleoindian people may have occupied interior regions 

of Alaska as they pushed northward, forcing Paleo-arctic people to focus more of their 

economic activities along the coast. If this were the case, most Paleo-arctic tradition 

sites would now be destroyed or underwater because the coast lay further seaward before 

it was flooded by rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age. Some archeologists 

suggest that the boundaries between these people may have overlapped, or perhaps were 

shared during different seasons of the year or periods of time. Although much remains 

to be learned about the character of these interactions, the northward movement of 
Central Beringia 69

Paleoindian people may document the first large-scale contact between Asian and 

uniquely developed North American cultural traditions.

Northern Archaic Tradition (7,000 – 4,500 years ago)

By about 7,000 years ago, people who lived along the shores of the Bering Sea 

began to manufacture their stone tools in a new way. On the North American side, 

microblade manufacture and use seems to disappear, being replaced by a different and 

uniquely American style of making stone tools. Stone projectile points with notches 

chipped into their sides and bases seem to replace bone or antler points armed with 

microblades. Like the earlier projectile points of the Northern Paleoindian tradition, 

these distinctive stone projectile points appear to have been used to tip the shafts 

of darts propelled with the use of a spear thrower (atl atl), rather than to tip arrows. 

It is difficult to tell whether late Paleoindian people living in Eastern and Central 

Beringia adopted this new technology or if it actually marks the arrival of new people 

in Beringia. The notched stone projectile points that characterize this tradition are 

commonly found along with other types of artifacts including end scrapers, elongated 

and semi-lunar bifaces, boulder-chip scrapers, large unifaces (large flakes chipped on 

one face), notched pebbles, hammer stones and choppers. In the southern regions of 

North America these types of artifacts signify the Archaic tradition. When similar 

types of tools were excavated at the Onion Portage site in Central Beringia, Douglas 

Anderson assigned them to the Northern Archaic tradition. 

At some sites notched projectile points have been found with microblades. 

However, many archeologists believe that at the beginning of the Northern Archaic 

tradition people did not make or use microblades and that they may have added 

microblades to their tool kit later in time, possibly after prolonged contact with people 

who continued to make and use them. The uniquely different stone tools of the 

Northern Archaic tradition appear to have their origins in the more southern regions 

of North America where similar and older types of artifacts have been found. Some 

archeologists believe the Northern Archaic tradition may indicate an actual migration 

of people into Central and Eastern Beringia from the south. It is difficult to determine 

if the presence of these Archaic tools is actually a migration of people or the spread, 

or diffusion, of new ideas and technology from people already living in Central and 

Eastern Beringia. 

During this time the boreal forest expanded beyond its present limits. Some 

archeologists have suggested the Northern Archaic people may have lived along the 

forest edge, or within the zone of transition, or ecotone, between the tundra and forest. 

In some cases Northern Archaic sites have been discovered in areas that were tundra 

at the time the site was occupied. There is some evidence suggesting people may have 

built shallow semi-subterranean tent-like houses. They also camped in circular tents 

with small fires in the center. 

Alaskan archeologist William Workman suggested that people carrying the 

tradition spread northward from the southern areas of North America and entered 

Alaska along the Brooks Range where these types of artifacts have been dated to about 

6,800 years old. They have been found on Alaska’s North Slope and on the arctic 

coastal plain north of the Brooks Range. The Northern Archaic tradition extends to 

Central Beringia where it is well dated at the Onion Portage site and along the coasts of 
70 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Subsequently groups spread south into central interior 

Alaska as indicated by a series of later radiocarbon dates. 

Northern Archaic people camped next to the coast of the Bering Sea about 

7,000 years ago. At least two Northern Archaic sites have been found on the coast, one 

at Security Cove near Kuskokwim Bay and the other at the upland Palisades region 

of Cape Krusenstern. They probably date to about 7,000 years ago. Even though 

they are located on the coast, there is little evidence that these were marine mammal 

hunting sites. However, at Security Cove, a number of notched pebbles were found 

that may have been used as net or line weights for fishing. The evidence suggests that 

the economic emphasis of Northern Archaic people was hunting large land mammals, 

primarily caribou, and probably fishing along lakes, rivers and possibly along the 

coast. Although the Northern Archaic tradition reached the shores of the Bering and 

Chukchi Seas, it does not appear that this distinctive North American lifestyle crossed 

to the islands of the Bering and Chukchi Seas or the Asian mainland. 

By at least 6,000 years ago Northern Archaic tradition hunters using notched 

stone projectile points occupied the northern side of the Alaska Peninsula. Local 

names have been given to the phases of this cultural tradition to help define the types 

of artifacts as they changed over time. They are clearly similar to Northern Archaic 

artifacts found elsewhere and correspond to the larger Northern Archaic tradition 

recognized widely throughout Central and Eastern Beringia. By about 5,000 – 4,500 

years ago, there is a transition from side-notched to corner-notched stemmed stone 

projectile points in this region. 

Central Beringia Neolithic in Asia (7,000 years ago – present)

Although the Northern Archaic tradition entered Central Beringia from the 

south and east on the American side of Bering Strait, Northern Archaic artifacts have 

not been found on the Asian side of Bering Strait. It appears that the northwestward 

movement of this distinctive technology did not cross Bering Strait and remained 

restricted to North America. The archeological record on the Asia side of Central 

Beringia suggests a gradual transition from Dyuktai to Sumnagin culture. The 

Sumnagin people appear to have migrated along river valleys to the coast where 

they learned to make their living from the sea between 12,500 and 7,000 years ago. 

However, in Western Beringia the evidence for maritime economies does not become 

evident until sea level stabilized about 4,500 – 6,000 years ago. 

Archeological evidence suggests that the Sumnagin adaptations developed 

from Asian Mesolithic cultures, possibly represented at such sites like Tytyl ́-1 and 

Puturak Pass that emphasized the use of large blades and occasionally bifacially flaked 

stone artifacts. Beyond the western border of Central Beringia, Yuri Mochanov defined 

Syalakh culture, which flourished between about 7,100 and 5,900 years ago in the Lena 

and Aldan River valleys. The influences of the riverine adapted Syalakh culture extended 

as far east as western Chukotka. Syalakh culture contains microblades and slotted bone 

points to receive them, multifaceted (or polyhedral) burins, barbed (not toggling) 

harpoons, polished adze blades, and egg-shaped ceramic pots with round bases. 

It appears that Syalakh culture influenced the development of the Neolithic 

cultures of Chukota and Western Beringia in both Asia and North America. The 

early evidence of ceramics and stone grinding suggests to some Russian archeologists 
Central Beringia 71

that Syalakh culture could be a forerunner of the later maritime-adapted cultures 

that develop in Central Beringia. According to Yuri Mochanov, the Syalakh culture 

develops into the Bel’kachi culture in the same region. The Bel’kachi culture lasts from 

about 5,200 to 4,100 years ago during which time microblades continue to be used as 

side blade insets. There are also leaf-shaped and triangular bifacial projectile points, 

notched stone line weights, composite fish hooks, large steep-angled ground stone 

adze blades. The Bel’kachi culture had ceramic pots with distinctive round and pointed 

bases, decorated with a lineal stamp produced by a pottery paddle wrapped in cord. 

Farther west along the Lena and adjacent river valleys in Yakutia, the 

Ymyakhtakh culture flourished. It was defined by Aleksyey Okladnikov and 

dated between 4,800 – 3,400 years ago. This complex, further defined by Svetlana 

Fedoseyeva, contains microblade cores, microblades, and bifacially flaked side blades, 

ground adze blades, and burins similar to the Arctic Small Tool tradition in America. 

The Ymyakhtakh culture is believed to have had a strong influence on cultures to the 

east in Chukotka. In addition to stone tools, Ymyakhtakh sites typically contain tools 

made from copper and bronze. 

Nikolai Dikov has reported several undated sites from Chukotka that contain 

comparable types of tools, some associated with early ceramics. These sites indicate 

that a similar transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic cultures occurred 

throughout northeast Asia. In particular, Dikov speculates about possible relationships 

between the Okvik site at Chini with earlier artifacts from the Ust’-Bel’skaia cultural 

complex, located on the Belaia River at a caribou crossing on the Chukchi Peninsula. 

Ust’-Bel’skaia is estimated to have been occupied between 4,000 and 2,000 years 

ago and has been divided into two periods, or components. The early component 

apparently contains an open-socket toggling harpoon head with a line hole and linear 

cord-stamped ceramics. The later component, dating to about 2,000 years ago, contains 

copper or bronze engraving tools. Dikov suggested that the artifacts are similar to the 

well-documented Arctic Small Tool tradition and the later Norton complex on the 

Alaska side of Central Beringia. The Ust’-Bel’skaia cultural complex could possibly be a 

predecessor to the elaborate “Neo-Eskimo” cultures of Central Beringia. 

In the southwest area of the Bering Sea along the Asian coast, Russian 

researchers have excavated and documented the remains of Old Kerek, or Lakhtina 

Culture. Russian archeologist Aleksandr Orekhov has explored the coastal and 

adjacent inland areas from the Gulf of Anadyr south to Cape Olyutorskiy. This 

research led Orekhov to propose that Lakhtina culture originated from a migration of 

Mesolithic hunters who settled on the coast and developed the distinctive Lakhtina 

adaptation of making a living primarily from the sea. The culture is divided into two 

periods, the earliest dating possibly as early as 4,500 years ago and continuing until 

about 2,350 years ago. The later period dates between about 2,350 until approximately 

300 – 200 years ago, when the Kerek people living along the coast were in regular 

contact with Europeans. The first stage is characterized by the use of blades, blade cores 

and chipped stone tools, but most sites lack bone preservation. By about 3,800 years 

ago people began to make and use ceramics and artifacts made of polished slate become 

more common. 

The second period of Lakhtina culture (2,300 – 200 years ago) is still poorly 

known. During this time people lived in circular semi-subterranean dwellings with 
72 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

interior hearths with upright slabs of stone and entrance passages. Some of the later 

houses appear to be connected to form multi-room structures. The soft clay of 

spherical-shaped ceramics was marked with comb-like striations, linear stamps, or cord. 

Some sites are described as shrines or altars where elaborately carved ritual wooden 

arrows and darts have been left, sometimes in association with animal bones or skulls.

Lakhtina artifacts made from antler, ivory, and bone are very distinctive. 

People did not use, or only rarely used, the toggling harpoons that were so 

successfully employed for marine mammal hunting in other regions of Beringia. 

Many of the weapons were armed with arrow and dart points elaborately carved from 

antler and ivory. They had sockets drilled in the base into which the wooden shafts 

were secured. The quantity and quality of the decoration on a variety of objects 

suggests a period of artistic development that occurs about the same time as it does 

in other areas in the Bering/Chukchi Seas region. Some of these types of Lakhtina 

artifacts have been found on St. Lawrence Island and suggest interaction with 

cultures to the north. 

Arctic Small Tool Tradition in North America (5,000 – 4,000 years ago)

Beginning about 5,000 years ago and continuing until about 4,000 years 

ago along the North American coasts of the Bering and Chukchi Seas and adjacent 

inland areas, there is a resurgence of archeological sites characterized by the use 

of microblades and oriented toward marine mammal hunting and exploitation of 

adjacent interior regions, primarily for caribou hunting. Archeologist William Irving 

coined the term Arctic Small Tool tradition (abbreviated ASTt) to encompass a 

variety of archeological sites that contained microblades, blocky microblade cores, 

burins, and flake knives. Other artifacts include antler arrow points and grooved 

shaft smoothers for making arrows, indicating the continued use of the bow and 

arrow. ASTt sites are found on the North American side of the Bering and Chukchi 

Seas from the Alaska Peninsula north to the Arctic Ocean. The best dating for this 

tradition comes from the Onion Portage site, located in Northwest Alaska and 

excavated by Douglas Anderson and Louis Giddings. 

At this time in northern Alaska, sea level had stabilized and people living along 

the coast of the Arctic Ocean began moving eastward across arctic North America. 

Beginning shortly before 5,000 years ago, early ASTt people rapidly colonized the 

recently deglaciated land of the eastern Arctic. The earliest tools they left in Canada 

and Greenland are very similar to those of the early ASTt that were in use in Alaska. 

However, in the eastern arctic they have been given different names; there they are 

called Independence I or pre-Dorset. They made and used microblades and other tools 

similar to those of their relatives in Alaska. The term Paleo-Eskimo is commonly used 

to describe the artifacts left behind by people of the Arctic Small Tool tradition. Most 

archeologists believe that these hunters and explorers were ancestors who laid the 

foundations for later cultures in the continuum of Eskimo cultural development that 

became fully developed in Central Beringia by about 2,000 years ago.

The Denbigh Flint complex is the classic period that defines the types of 

artifacts associated with the ASTt. A type site is the site of the original discovery to 

which all subsequent discoveries are compared. For the Denbigh Flint complex the 

type site is at Iyatayet on Cape Denbigh in Norton Sound. Louis Giddings excavated at 
Central Beringia 73

Iyatayet for four field seasons between 1948 and 1952 and called the unique artifacts he 

found there the Denbigh Flint complex. The Iyatayet site provides a fascinating glimpse 

into the evolution of the use of microblades.

The beautiful chipped stone artifacts from the Denbigh Flint complex are 

exquisitely crafted. Commonly made from obsidian and other exotic types of stone, 

they are delicately flaked by removing parallel chips that angle obliquely across the 

surface of the artifacts (Figure 5.5). Some of the artifacts include small scrapers, 

blocky microblade cores, microblades (Figure 5.6), distinctive “mitten-shaped” burins, 

ground stone adze blades, finely-flaked triangular end and side blades used to arm 

antler arrow heads. Some of the flaked side blades are so thin they appear to have been 

chipped from microblades. Many archeologists view this as a time of transition, when 

microblades are being replaced by bifacially chipped side blades. 

The ASTt occupation at Iyatayet appears to have been a camp. There is 

no evidence of houses or semi-permanent dwellings. The site is a good location for 

caribou hunting and sealing. At Onion Portage, the remains of several relatively small, 

round houses with central stone-lined hearths were excavated. They all appear to have 

entrance passages below the sod to make them warmer. At other sites on the north side 

of the Alaska Peninsula, Don Dumond has excavated similar structures. In the Brooks 

Range, Denbigh Flint complex artifacts have also been found associated with similar 

structures that are square, rather than round. 

An ASTt site located at Matcharak Lake in Alaska’s Brooks Range contains 

well preserved organic remains. Excavated by Andrew Tremayne, the site provides 

exceptional evidence of the diet of ASTt people living in the interior. The site appears 

to have been occupied primarily in the fall and more than 81,000 bones were recovered 

from the excavations. Their analysis revealed that caribou were by far the most 

important animals hunted and probably comprised more than 90% of the diet. People 

also harvested other mammals including Dall sheep, porcupine, marmot, ptarmigan, 

and ground squirrel. Fish (burbot, grayling, northern pike) and a few migratory ducks 

were also recovered from the site. Based on animal bones and fish remains and the 

ecological setting of ASTt sites, it appears that people during this time probably hunted 

caribou using the bow and arrow, fished along streams and lakes, and hunted marine 

mammals, possibly with the use of boats. 

Most archeologists see a historical relationship between the American Paleoarctic and Dyuktai traditions and the later Arctic Small Tool tradition. While in some 

parts of Central and Eastern Beringia they are separated by the intervening Northern 

Paleoindian and Northern Archaic traditions, in Asia they are not. However, little 

is known about this time period on the Asian side of Central Beringia. Russian 

archeologist Nikolai Dikov suggested that these early cultures developed from the 

Mesolithic cultures of Northeast Asia. 

Other archeologists have speculated that perhaps early proto-Denbigh 

developed from the Dyuktai culture on the Asian side. According to this theory, 

people from Asia may have crossed the Bering Strait and settled on the American side 

as the Northern Archaic tradition was abandoned on the North American coast. If 

these people were primarily oriented toward making their living from the sea, many 

sites dating to this period of transition may have been destroyed or flooded by the 

ocean that was rising rapidly at this time. 
74 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 cm 5 cm

1

2

3

4

5 6

7 8

9

10 11

12 13

14 15 16 17

Figure 5.5 Exquisitely flaked stone artifacts from the Denbigh Flint complex, Alaska:

1–3 end blades; 4 unfinished end blade; 5–8 end blades; 9-11 side blades; 12, 13 drills or 

lancets; 14–17 side blades (Giddings 1964, plate 71-b).
Central Beringia 75

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20

Figure 5.6 Microblades and other artifacts of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, Denbigh 

Flint complex: 1 core scraper; 2 microblade core; 3 burin struck on a microblade; 4–20 

microblades (Giddings 1964, plate 65). 
76 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

There is a surprising similarity among the archeological sites known from the 

ASTt extending from the Bering Sea drainage of the Alaska Peninsula northward along 

the coastal margin and eastward all the way to Greenland. These resilient people appear 

to have been able to move seamlessly between the coast and interior to make their living 

and were the very first humans to enter the vast regions of arctic Canada and Greenland. 

Once they settled there, they lived in relative isolation from the rest of the world. Over 

time they gradually developed their own unique customs and ways of making tools. 

Their way of life continued in northeastern Canada and Greenland until another wave of 

immigrants would come from Central Beringia thousands of years later. 

Choris, Old Whaling, and Lakhtina (3,800 – 2,600 years ago)

At the end of the Arctic Small Tool tradition in Central Beringia, people 

stopped making microblades. Although they continued to be used elsewhere, the 

microblade technology that had served people well in Central Beringia for thousands 

of years was abandoned. Microblade insets were replaced with insets made by bifacially 

chipping stone. Other technological innovations were introduced at this time, 

including pottery.

In Central Beringia the Choris period spans the interval between about 3,800 

and 2,600 years ago and is roughly contemporaneous with the early stage of Lakhtina 

culture in Asia. Choris culture is named after Alaska’s Choris Peninsula, where the first 

artifacts of this type were found by Louis Giddings. Choris has been documented only 

on the North American shores of the Bering/Chukchi Seas. It occurs during a time 

of dramatic transition in the Bering Sea region. Although some archeologists regard 

Choris culture as the last stage of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, in many respects it is 

a watershed in cultural development. Although some of the fine craftsmanship used to 

make stone tools during ASTt times is evident, there is greater variability and possibly 

experimentation in making stone projectile points that include large lanceolate, 

stemmed, and notched forms. Other technological innovations appear for the first 

time, including fiber-tempered pottery with round or conical bases decorated with 

linear and checked stamped designs. 

People lived in large semi-subterranean oval structures that probably housed 

more than one family. The preservation of bone and wood is better at Choris sites than 

at older sites and includes the remains of waterfowl, seals, and most commonly caribou. 

Some houses have central hearths where wood was burned, but others appear to have 

been heated using stone lamps that probably burned seal oil. Some Choris sites are 

situated along the coast where they appear to have been occupied year-round. Choris 

houses and tent-like structures have also been found in inland areas where they probably 

hunted caribou. People pierced their cheeks and lips, probably with sharp pointed 

lancets chipped from stone, and inserted labrets in the piercings. Drills were common 

and burins were made on bifacially chipped and sometimes notched stone tools and even 

projectile points. The trend to increasingly make stone tools by grinding, rather than 

chipping, continued. For instance, slate knives and ulu blades were made by grinding. 

The ulu is a semicircular “woman’s knife” widely used by Eskimo people and 

typically associated with Eskimo culture. The blades of the earliest forms were chipped 

from large stone flakes that were presumably hafted in a handle. Later types are made 

using ground stone, most commonly slate, to form the blade. When metal became 
Central Beringia 77

common, the blades were made from iron. This type of knife is still popular and widely 

used by Eskimo and non-Eskimo people throughout much of Beringia. 

At Onion Portage the remains of several tent-like features were discovered 

near a distinctive larger oval structure. The oval structure had a large square, stonelined hearth located in the center and contained artifacts it that were mostly those 

traditionally associated with men’s activities, such as making tools and weapons. The 

smaller tent-like features contained tools associated with domestic activities, such as 

hide and food preparation, and appear to be family dwellings. The larger structure has 

been interpreted to be the remains of a men’s house, or kashim. Occupied by men, 

kashims were used for community activities by some Eskimo groups until historic 

times. In situations in which there was more than one kashim per community, they 

marked social factions and gender-linked divisions of society.

At Alaska’s Cape Krusenstern, Giddings excavated several large oval houses 

with smaller attached rooms and entrance passages (Figure 5.7). Among the stone 

artifacts were large lance blades and projectile points. Based on the size of the artifacts 

and the presence of whale bone, Giddings suggested that the people who had occupied 

the site had hunted and butchered whales. He named the houses and associated 

artifacts the Old Whaling Culture. Other types of stone artifacts include small 

chipped stone arrow points, chipped stone side-blade knives, chipped sealing harpoon 

side blade, stone lamps, chipped stone ulus, and some ground slate implements. 

Organic artifacts include part of an arrow shaft, a shaft for thrusting or throwing spears, 

and eyed and notched sewing needles. Another important discovery was a toggling 

sealing harpoon that had a carved pointed tip rather than a stone blade. It also had 

a single spur, a gouged line hole, a square shallow open socket, a lashing grove and 

an opposing lashing slot. This type of harpoon head would continue to be used for 

another 2,000 years. 

Just as the styles of stone projectile points and other tools can be classified 

based on their shape and how they were made, so too can toggling harpoon heads made 

from bone, ivory, or antler. A barbed spear (dart or harpoon) holds the animal by the 

barb catching in the flesh (Figure 5.8). However, a toggling harpoon works by the 

harpoon head detaching from the shaft and then turning sideways in the wound. The 

spur forces the harpoon head to turn sideways, or toggle, when it is pulled backward 

by the line that is attached to a drag, float, or hunter (Figure 5.9). By examining the 

various characteristics that go into making a toggling harpoon (Figure 5.10) and how 

they are decorated, archeologists can determine how old they are and how they have 

changed over time. 

In Asia, Nikolai Dikov excavated several sites in the area of the middle Anadyr 

River that flows eastward into the Bering Sea. He recognized the similarity of the artifacts 

that were all about the same age and named them the Ust’Belskaia culture after one of the 

sites that best typified this time period. Artifacts included burins made of chipped stone 

as well as bronze, thin-walled ceramics marked with a linear stamp, stemmed and leaf 

shaped projectile points, and chipped side blades. Microblades and microblade cores are 

present, but they are irregular and less common than during earlier times. Although not 

well dated, the Ust’Belskaia culture is estimated to be between 3,500 – 2,500 years ago, 

and possibly slightly older. Most archeologists believe that it gave rise to technological 

innovations that appeared slightly later during the Choris period in North America.
78 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 5.7 Central Beringia house plans from Cape Krusenstern, Alaska: 1) Old 

Whaling house; 2) Ipiutak house types; 3) Birnirk house; 4) early western Thule 

House; 5) fifteenth-century house, Kotzebue Sound (Anderson 1984:81).

1

2

3 

4

5

1 m 2 m
Central Beringia 79

1

2

3

Figure 5.8 Types of harpoons: 1 simple barbed harpoon with detachable 

head with line to “neck” or line hole; 2 (center three images) compound toggle-head 

harpoon; 3 throwing lance (Modified from Jochelson 1925).
80 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1

2

3

Figure 5.9 The principle of a toggling harpoon; 1 tip pierces hide enabling entry; 

2 socket and foreshaft detach; 3 resistance forces the spur to turn sideways 

decreasing the chances for the animal to escape. 
Central Beringia 81

Figure 5.10 Attributes of a toggling harpoon head: 1 end blade; 2 surface decoration; 

3 side blade; 4 barb; 5 line hole; 6 lashing slot; 7 lashing grove; 8 socket (open 

or closed); 9 spur(s) (modified from Bandi 1969 and Schledermann 1996).

1 end blade

2 surface decoration

3 side blade

4 barb

5 line hole

6 lashing slot 7 lashing groove

8 socket (open)

 9 spurs
82 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

In 1975 the energetic Nikolai Dikov discovered the Devil’s Log site on 

Wrangel Island, and long-term excavations were undertaken by Tasyan Tein. The 

site is located on the south coast near abandoned walrus rookeries and contains 

numerous stone tools that are strikingly similar to those from the Old Whaling site on 

Cape Krusenstern (Figure 5.11). Several radiocarbon dates between about 3,600 and 

3,000 years ago indicate that the Devil’s Log site is approximately the same age as Old 

Whaling at Cape Krusenstern in Alaska. Evidence for sea ice hunting is suggested by 

several ivory ice picks and trash pits at the site containing the bones of animals that 

live around sea ice including walrus, seals, birds, and polar bears. A toggling sealing 

harpoon head was found that is strikingly similar to the one from the Old Whaling 

site. However, the Russian specimen is not self-pointed (carved to a point) and has 

a concavity, or bed, to receive a stone end blade. The finds on Wrangel Island are 

regarded by most Russian archeologists as the oldest evidence for a life-way similar to 

that of later Eskimo people and interpret it to be the earliest known Asiatic evidence of 

“Paleoeskimo” culture. 

Archeologists can’t help but wonder if the mammoths that had been trapped 

on Wrangel Island by rising sea level at the end of the last Ice Age may have survived 

until humans arrived. These elephant-like animals gradually became smaller to adapt 

to the ever-decreasing food supply and small size of the island. The last of these pigmy 

mammoths are believed to have died out about 6,000 – 4,500 years ago. Based on the 

work that has been done thus far, there is no archeological evidence to indicate that 

humans who lived at the Devil’s Log site saw or hunted these unique small woolly 

animals, the last of the species. 

Because the Old Whaling stone tools and houses were so distinctive and 

appeared to be unlike anything that had been found until that time, the origins 

and cultural relationships of the Old Whaling culture have been a mystery to many 

archeologists. Looking at it from the larger perspective of Beringian prehistory, the 

Old Whaling and Devil’s Log sites share similarities with other sites from the Choris 

period. Throughout this time period there are similarities between sites, such as oval 

houses, chipped side blade insets, and stone lamps. Although the “small” disappeared 

from the tradition of making stone tools during Choris times, many of the concepts 

such as the use of the bow and arrow and side blade insets suggest cultural continuity. 

The Choris period may also mark a time of social experimentation. The earliest 

archeological evidence for the social institution of the men’s house, or kashim, can 

be traced to this time at Onion Portage. Perhaps Old Whaling represents a unique 

interval of experimentation, and perhaps exploration, during the Choris period when 

people broke with some traditions while maintaining others. 

Norton Complex (2,400 – 1,900 years ago)

In the Bering Sea region Norton culture became widespread during the 

period between about 2,400 and 1,900 years ago. The Norton complex is defined by 

excavations on Norton Sound by Louis Giddings. The original site was Iyatayet in 

Norton Sound. The Norton complex was found stratigraphically above artifacts that 

defined the Denbigh Flint complex at Iyatayet. In contrast to the earlier oval Choris 

houses, Norton houses were rectangular semi-subterranean houses with entrance 

passages sloping from the surface outside the house downward to the floor inside. The 
Central Beringia 83

1 cm 2 cm

1 cm 2 cm

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10

11

12 13 14 15

16

17

Figure 5.11 Old Whaling artifacts from Devils Log site, Wrangell Island, Siberia: 1-7. 

Old Whaling artifacts, Cape Krusenstern, Alaska: 8-17. 
84 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

use of pottery during Norton times becomes more common and the wet clay is most 

commonly impressed with a checked pattern stamp. Bifacially chipped disc-shaped 

scrapers, end blades and triangular side blades are common. Labrets are made from 

stone and are larger and more numerous than those used during Choris times. Chipped 

stone drill bits, chipped and polished adze blades, and stone oil lamps are associated 

with the Norton tradition. Ground stone burins for working bone, ivory and antler 

are common. Although many Norton cultural traits can be traced from Choris times, 

Norton also reflects influence from cultures to the south along the North Pacific rim, 

such as an increased emphasis on salmon fishing and slate grinding. Norton may have 

developed when the long technological tradition of the ASTt adopted influences and 

innovations from the North Pacific.

Norton period sites tend to be relatively large and have been found along 

the coast and adjacent inland areas from the north side of the Alaska Peninsula to the 

Chukchi Sea. Norton sites are frequently located on relative low coastlines backed by 

regions of expansive low tundra coastal plain. The economic base for Norton period 

sites located along the coast is seal hunting using toggling harpoons, and fishing along 

rivers primarily for salmon. In non-coastal areas, caribou hunting with the bow and 

arrow was important. During Norton times, fishing takes on increased importance 

and frequently sites contain relatively large numbers of notched pebbles that were 

used as weights for fish nets. Although the transition is not clear, most archeologists 

believe that the subsequent development of Old Bering Sea life ways and art probably 

developed from Norton culture.

Metal Age (2,500 – 1,000 years ago)

Metal (bronze and copper) was probably introduced into the Bering Sea 

region from Asia by 2,500 years ago or possibly earlier. Russian archeologists call this 

period the “paleometal epoch” and the period marks what many archeologist consider 

to be the beginning of Neo-Eskimo culture, or the time from which the same cultural 

patterns and life ways can be traced to modern Yupik and Iñupiaq people. 

The use of microblades appears to be abandoned in most places when people 

began to use metal. Like stone, metal provided a sharp cutting edge needed to make 

clothing, weapons, and tools. Since metal is more durable than stone, small metal 

blades may have lasted for long periods of time, possibly even generations. Metal 

eliminated the need for finding suitable stone for tool making in winter and made the 

production of microblades no longer necessary. However, small pieces of oxidized and 

decomposed metal are difficult to recognize in archeological sites, so it is consequently 

difficult to determine when metal was first introduced into a specific area. 

There are at least two sources for copper in Beringia, one in Asia south 

of Western Beringia and the other in Eastern Beringia along the Copper River in 

the Wrangell St-Elias region. At Cape Espenberg on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula 

archeologists John Hoffecker and Owen Mason excavated two bronze artifacts, one of 

which appears to be a fragment of a buckle manufactured in Asia. A piece of leather 

attached to the object was dated to approximately 1,400 years ago, however the cast 

bronze artifact could be older. Although meteoritic iron and iron obtained from the 

Viking colony in Greenland (circa 1,000 years ago) was in wide use throughout the 

eastern North American Arctic, the iron used throughout Beringia appears to be from 
Central Beringia 85

Asia. It appeared later than copper and bronze and was obtained through exchange 

from Asian people living south and west of Western Beringia and then traded across 

Bering Strait. In later times it was also obtained from Pacific shipwrecks with nails, 

bolts, screws, and in other forms attached to driftwood. For the past 1,000 years the use 

of metal, particularly iron and copper, was widespread throughout all of Beringia.

By about 1,400 years ago, iron traded from Asia was being used to tip 

engraving tools and knives. Early archeologists, including Henry Collins and Helge 

Larsen, recognized that iron, although rare, enabled Old Bering Sea, Punuk and Ipiutak 

craftsmen to execute the delicate incised art characteristic of many of their tools and 

weapons. Evidence that people in Central Beringia were familiar with iron is reflected 

in ivory carving. Chains, swivels, spirals, and concentric circles are skillfully carved 

from single pieces of walrus tusk (Figure 5.12).

In 1926 Canadian archeologist Diamond Jenness found beautifully decorated 

harpoon heads and other objects at Cape Prince of Wales and Diomede Island in 

Bering Strait. He realized they were older than artifacts used by Eskimo people in more 

recent times and used the term “Bering Sea” to describe them. Subsequent research 

along the both the North American and Asian shores of the Bering and Chukchi Seas 

revealed a spectacular and elaborate artistry of Eskimo ivory carving that flourished 

between about 2,600 and 700 years ago. 

In 1928 and 1929 Henry Collins, a young archeologist from the Smithsonian 

Institution, analyzed and compared the art styles and artifacts from several large sites he 

excavated on St. Lawrence Island and the Punuk Islands. This work laid the foundation 

for Eskimo archeology in the Bering Sea region. Collins realized that artifacts could be 

divided into periods that were distinguished from each other by distinctive art styles. 

Through his pioneering analysis he recognized that each style consists of a combination 

of unique design elements that could be used to define cultural periods. Artifacts from 

these early cultures were called Okvik/Old Bering Sea 1 (2,500 – 2,000 years ago), Old 

Bering Sea 2 and 3 (2,000 – 1,400 years ago), Ipiutak (2,000 – 1,400 years ago) and 

Punuk (1,400 – 700 years ago). These early maritime cultures have been found along 

the coasts of the Bering and Chukchi Seas, and to the south roughly to the limit of 

winter sea ice. 

During this “golden age” of Eskimo art, the styles often incorporated drilled 

pits inlayed with jet, baleen, or wood. Engraved lines were often filled with white 

and red pigments. Remnants of these inlays and pigments are still preserved in some 

of the artifacts. These early artists skillfully followed the contours of the ivory, 

which has in many cases been transformed to a rich brown color from long burial 

in the earth. During Old Bering Sea 1 (or Okvik) times, tools were decorated with 

simple and restrained engraving carefully done to incorporate the surface shapes of 

the ivory (Figure 5.13). The term Okvik is derived from the Okvik site on one of 

the Punuk Islands where it was originally recognized. Stylized human figures were 

carved from ivory and depicted with pointed heads and long and narrow noses 

(Figure 5.14). Okvik carvers showed a strong preference for “fanciful and fantastic” 

animal forms. Collins described the elements of Okvik incised art as spurred lines in 

a variety of forms including short detached lines, usually in pairs, broken or dotted 

lines, radiating or converging lines which form tent-like figures, and various kinds of 

circles and ellipses. 
86 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1

2 3 4

5

6

7

Figure 5.12 Examples of Ipiutak art: 1 a decoration on mask-like set of ivory carvings once 

attached by lashing through drilled holes; 2 engraving tools; 3 openwork ivory carving; 4 

carved ivory chain links; 5 engraved composite ivory “comb” or “rake;” 6 ivory carving of 

young walrus; 7 decorated band (Larsen and Rainey 1948, Giddings 1964).
Central Beringia 87

1 cm 5 cm

1

2

3

4 5 6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Figure 5.13 Examples of Old Bering Sea Art from the Ekven site, Chukchi Penninsula, 

Russia: 1 harpoon foreshaft; 2-5 harpoon heads; 6 kayak model; 7 socket piece; 8-10 

harpoon heads; 11 harpoon socketpiece,; 12 winged object; 13, 14 decorated ladles; 

15 bucket handle; 16 bow drill; 17 decorated masquette; 18 chain of walrus ivory; 19 bear’s 

head, 20 handle for a burin. Length of 2 is circa 19 cm. All others are the same scale 

(Ackerman 1984:110–111).
88 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 5.14 Okvik female figure carved from walrus ivory (redrawn from 

Wardwell 1986: 52–53).
Central Beringia 89

Old Bering Sea 2 art differs from Okvik art because the straight lines with 

small triangular spurs that had dominated Okvik art were discontinued and emphasis 

was placed on curved lines and circles. According to Collins, there was also a strong 

tendency for the circular elements to be set in as panels, carefully placed in relation to 

carved surface contours, and for the decoration as a whole to display balanced symmetry.

The Old Bering Sea 3 style placed primary emphasis on elevated circles and 

ellipses, usually arranged to suggest the eyes of an animal. Collins identified the 

principle elements as straight and curved lines, broken lines, circles, and ovals. The 

spurred lines, circles and ovals and small circles set between converging lines prominent 

in Old Bering Sea styles 1 and 2 almost completely disappeared in style 3. The circles 

become larger and the curved lines bolder, resulting in a style of ornamentation that 

was smoother and more flowing and graceful.

Ipiutak art is primarily known from archeological sites excavated along the 

mainland coast of northwest Alaska, but sites have been found inland from the coast 

along rivers and near lakes. It is best known from the large Ipiutak site located at Point 

Hope, Alaska. The exceptional Ipiutak ivory carvers used their media to full advantage 

by creating elaborate open work carvings, ivory chains carved from single pieces of 

ivory, and unusual animal heads (Figure 5.12). Froelich Rainey and Helge Larsen 

described the surface ornamentation on Ipiutak art as an unusual combination of small 

spurred circles between converging lines, rows of connected nucleated circles, and a 

profusion of curving spurred lines, dotted lines, and rows of triangles.

The Punuk culture was partly an outgrowth of Old Bering Sea and partly the 

result of new influences from Siberia. Punuk Eskimos, like the Ipiutak ivory carvers, 

had limited quantities of iron, which was probably highly treasured and used only for 

the most delicate work, such as engraving. Punuk art is characterized by evenly incised 

lines that frequently tend to be shorter than the engraving of earlier periods, dots and 

spurs, and compass-made circles. Collins described Punuk circles as uniform in shape, 

not concentric, and made from bits with two fixed points rather than a compass with 

movable points. Perhaps because of the ease with which the lines could be engraved, 

the designs of the Punuk period became less complex and more rigid.

Henry Collins eloquently described the artistic elements of artifacts he 

collected while doing field work on the islands of the Bering Sea and compared them 

with artifacts from excavations conducted on St. Lawrence Island by self-taught 

naturalist and archeologist, Otto William Geist. Froelich Rainey later analyzed Geist’s 

huge collections, and these collections were the foundation of the University of Alaska 

Museum. The pioneering research by Collins, Geist, and Rainey outlined a chronology 

of cultural development and established the foundation for Eskimo archeology that has 

remained fundamentally unchanged since that time. 

After Collins’ original work, radiocarbon dating became available and some 

archeologists suggest that the dates for these cultural periods may be slightly younger, 

depending upon where they have been found. Most archeologists believe they can 

follow a continuum in cultural development from Okvik times to contemporary 

peopling living in the Bering/Chukchi Sea region. Although a few Old Bering Sea 

artifacts have been found on the American mainland, no settlements have been found 

there. This distinctive and elaborate cultural complex appears to have developed on the 

islands of the Bering and Chukchi Seas and on the Asian mainland. 
90 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

On the Asian side, Russian archeologist Sergei I. Rudenko began excavations 

at several sites along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in 1945. He discovered a series 

of sites that led him to conclude that the sequence of cultural development leading to 

modern Eskimo culture in Asia was similar to that in North America. On the north 

coast of the Peninsula, at the site of Uelen, he found Okvik/Old Bering Sea artifacts 

virtually the same as those reported by Collins, Geist and Rainey from the American 

Bering Sea Islands. Notably the Asian artifacts did not include labrets, suggesting some 

cultural differences. Several sites in Chukotka contain checked and linear stamped 

pottery similar to Norton ceramics in North America. 

At Uelen the houses appear to have not been as deeply excavated into the 

ground as sites on the Bering Sea Islands. Instead they appear to have been oval 

structures that were above ground, or slightly excavated into the earth, with floors 

paved with stone. At several other sites located along the coast of the Chukchi 

Peninsula, Rudenko repeatedly documented a cultural sequence and way of life 

virtually identical to that of people living on the Bering Sea Islands and later on the 

Alaska mainland. Most of the sites he located were on the Asian mainland. Unlike 

the island sites, people were able to hunt land mammals as well as sea mammals, fish, 

and birds. 

People living on the islands intensified their adaptation to using marine 

resources. The complex knowledge and elaborate technology associated with this 

maritime economy became widely adopted throughout Central Beringia. Whaling and 

open water marine mammal hunting became fully refined using float gear, kayaks, and 

larger skin boats (called umiaks). People were able to successfully and regularly harvest 

whales, seals, and walrus. They supplemented these large catches with other subsistence 

activities such as fishing, collecting wild vegetables and berries, and hunting birds. On 

the mainland they also hunted land mammals. Very specialized equipment such as 

snow goggles, ice creepers (crampons made from bone or ivory), and floats attached to 

harpoon lines increased hunting success. This sophisticated technology and knowledge 

of the environment provided dependable quantities of fuel, food, and materials that 

enabled people to live in large permanent settlements. In addition to driftwood, whale 

bone and baleen provided material for house construction and utilitarian objects. On 

the islands where caribou antler was not available, walrus ivory was most commonly 

used to manufacture tools that required strength to absorb impacts such as adze heads, 

harpoon and arrow heads, and ice picks. 

This increased prosperity probably led to more complex societies and social 

interactions. There is some evidence that power and wealth may have become more 

concentrated in the hands of powerful umaliks, or captains of whaling crews, and 

shamans. Based on the sheer size of the archeological sites dating to this time, it 

appears that the population increased. Many of these sites are associated with large 

cemeteries located away from the villages, including Ipiutak at Point Hope, Alaska; 

Uelen and Cape Chini on the Chukchi Penninsula; and Miyowagh, Seklowayaget, 

and Ievoghiyoq and Kukulik on St. Lawrence Island. Most were extended burials in 

chambers lined with wood, rock or whale bone. Some burials contain grave goods and 

sometimes exhibit evidence of unusual mortuary practices. 

A portion of the Ipiutak cemetery was excavated by Helge Larsen and Froelich 

Rainey at Point Hope, Alaska (Figure 5.15) where many of the graves contained 
Central Beringia 91

elaborately carved lance heads or dagger-like knives with chipped stone side blade 

insets. In others, they found harpoon socket pieces carved in the shape of animals, 

finely executed carvings of human heads and animals, openwork ivory carvings of 

swivels, spirals and chains. In one burial an adult and child had been buried together. 

A slender ivory rod with a human hand carved on one end had been inserted through 

some of the vertebra and along the spine of the adult. This same grave also contained a 

carved ivory chain and the skull of a loon in which ivory eyes had been inserted. A few 

burials contained death masks and elaborately carved ivory mouth covers. In one case 

conical ivory eyes inlayed with jet pupils had been inserted in the skull of the deceased. 

There is also widespread evidence for regional warfare. There is a dramatic 

increase in archery equipment such as arrow heads, bow braces, and wrist guards. 

More importantly, the use of slat armor is common. It is similar to the flexible armor 

that originated earlier in northern China. It was made by lashing flat overlapping 

rectangular pieces of bone or ivory together to provide a flexible protective vest or coat. 

Other indications of warfare are suggested from the excavations of an Ipiutak period 

house at Cape Krusenstern. Douglas Anderson and Louis Giddings found the remains 

of a woman and two children who had been trapped in a burning house. All had died 

while attempting to dig their way out using adzes and the woman had an arrow point 

imbedded in her body. This led them to speculate that the woman and children had 

been trapped and burned in the house by enemies. 

Figure 5.15 Froelich Rainey (left) and Helge Larsen (right) at Point Hope, Alaska, 1941 

(American Museum of Natural History, Photo Archives). 
92 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Birnirk and Western Thule (900 years ago to present) 

The Birnirk phase of Iñupiaq culture is best known from excavations by James 

Ford less than a mile northeast of Point Barrow, Alaska. Birnirk artifacts and houses 

have also been found at Cape Krusenstern, and other sites in Northwest Alaska and 

at Ekven and other sites in Chukotka. Although the age of these sites suggests that 

they are transitional between earlier Ipiutak and later Thule cultures, the technological 

transition between them is not clearly understood. For example, on St. Lawrence 

Island and elsewhere among the Bering Sea islands, late Punuk sites appear to be the 

same age as Birnirk, with a rather smooth transition from Punuk to Thule and little 

local evidence of the Birnirk phase. It is possible that life on the islands and the adjacent 

mainland coasts of Central Beringia led to the intensification of maritime adaptations, 

particularly whaling. 

Birnirk houses were semi-subterranean rectangular sod-covered structures 

with entrance passages sloping upward from outside the house into the interior floor 

of the dwelling. In some cases translucent gut (animal intestine) was sewn together to 

create a skylight designed to bring sun light into the house. The earliest harpoon heads 

from Birnirk have multiple spurs similar to those of Old Bering Sea culture and some 

retain small bifacial side blades reminiscent of examples known from Ipiutak, Old 

Bering Sea, and Punuk. 

The Walakpa archeological site is located about 12 miles (19.3 km) south of 

Point Barrow. The famous American humorist, Will Rogers, was killed there when his 

airplane crashed shortly after taking off from Barrow in 1935. Walakpa was excavated 

by Dennis Stanford who analyzed harpoon heads and the other artifacts from the site. 

Based on this research he concluded that there was a smooth, gradual transition from 

Birnirk to Thule. His work supported Ford’s earlier interpretation that Thule was 

derived from Birnirk. Based on an analysis of the animal bones in the site, Stanford 

suggested that Birnirk people living at Walakpa primarily relied on seals. 

By Birnik and late Punuk times, people were making most of their stone tools 

by grinding, rather than chipping stone. Pottery continued to be made using grit 

temper, but it was thick and generally poorly fired. Although still applied with the 

use of a pottery paddle, the external decoration was characteristically curvilinear (a 

repetitively circular pattern). The decoration on tools became more rigid and less fluid 

and elaborate and ivory engraving of complex animal forms began to be replaced with 

more geometric designs. 

By about 900 years ago, Western Thule culture emerges in Central Beringia. 

Thule culture received its name from a site near Thule, Greenland, found and described 

by the extraordinary Danish archeologist Terkel Mathiassen in the early 1920s. 

The artifacts discovered there were clearly related to contemporary Inuit culture of 

Greenland and Canada. The Thule period was recognized as a direct predecessor of 

Inuit people living throughout the North American arctic. When similar artifacts from 

Central Beringia were excavated and studied, they were called Western Thule. The 

word western was added to indicate that they were found in the western, rather than 

the eastern North America arctic. 

Although the origins of Western Thule are not entirely clear, many 

archeologists believe Thule developed from Birnirk in northern areas of Central 

Beringia. Thule spread rapidly from Central Beringia eastward along the coast and 
Central Beringia 93

islands of arctic North America. The artifacts and life ways from northeast Asia to 

Greenland are amazingly similar. Most archeologists believe this rapid expansion 

eastward from Central Beringia was made possible by a period of climate warming, 

known as the Neo-Atlantic phase that occurred between 1,200 and 800 years ago. 

 Although it is still not entirely clear, it appears that Thule culture arose from 

both the Birnirk and Punuk cultural phases. Although Thule culture emphasized whale 

hunting in many areas, it remained diverse with people skilled and capable of harvesting 

the resources of the adjacent tundra and rivers. Don Dumond has suggested that the 

intensification of maritime pursuits in the northern areas of Central Beringia may explain 

the expansion of later Thule people — first around the Chukchi Sea and then east across 

northern Canada to Greenland, then south to the Bering Sea and across the Alaska 

Peninsula to the North Pacific and Kodiak Island. Thule settlements indicate that Thule 

people were capable of making a living in almost any type of environment. Artifacts from 

Thule sites reflect a broad array of economic activities ranging from caribou and bird 

hunting to sealing and fishing. However, whale hunting was a major economic mainstay 

and Thule settlements were commonly at good locations to take whales. 

Although their tools were not as highly decorated as their ancestors’, Thule 

people introduced important innovations. Thule houses were rectangular with lower 

areas, called cold traps, in the entryways that made houses warmer and more energy 

efficient. Abundant supplies of whale oil and meat made it possible to live in larger 

settlements. Artifact manufacturing became more sophisticated with some objects 

being fastened to others or held in place using rivets. This innovative technique 

involved drilling a hole through both objects and securing them with a pin made from 

ivory, wood, bone, or iron. It enabled Thule people to make stronger and more durable 

tools, sleds, and boats. As a result, they were able to travel long distances in winter by 

sled and in summer by boat. 

Although the evidence is not entirely clear, it appears that it is during Thule 

times that dog traction was fully developed. This revolutionized winter transportation, 

vastly expanding the range for sea ice hunting and overland travel. This rapid 

and efficient form of transportation no doubt resulted in better and more regular 

communication and trade networks and may have contributed to the widespread 

similarity in artifacts and life ways of Thule people. 

To a large degree Thule culture defined the artifacts and life ways that were 

ancestral to modern Yupik (southern Eskimo) and Iñupiaq (northern Eskimo) people. 

Thule culture spread rapidly eastward from Central Beringia along the islands and 

shores of the Arctic Ocean during a period of comparatively warmer climate. During 

this time (1,050 – 750 years ago) the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean allowed whales to 

migrate along the northern coast and islands of Canada. Coastal sites indicate that 

Thule people were skilled whale hunters and that they followed the whales eastward 

bringing their new ideas and technology with them. They traveled and hunted whales 

in large skin boats, called umiaks, and hunted seals from smaller single or double 

passenger kayaks.

Following the emergence of Thule culture, the artifacts and life ways across 

much of the Arctic, from northeast Asia to Greenland, are strikingly similar. Because 

the types of artifacts and language are so similar across the North American arctic, 

most people believe that the migration from Central Beringia to Greenland took 
94 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

place quickly. Once Thule families had reached Greenland, communication and 

relationships were maintained between communities. As they moved east they 

probably encountered the descendants of the ASTt people who had first colonized the 

eastern arctic thousands of years earlier. The archeological remains associated with 

these people are called Dorset, after the site at which they were first discovered. It is 

unclear whether the Dorset people intermixed with the later Thule arrivals or simply 

died out. 

European Contact (1648 – present)

The earliest contact by people living in Central Beringia with Europeans 

came as a result of exploration by Russian Cossacks and traders entering the region 

from the west. Under the leadership of Semën Dezhnev, a party descended the 

Kolyma River to the Arctic Ocean in 1648. They then sailed eastward and south 

along the Asian coast to Bering Strait. After landing at the Diomede Islands, they 

sailed on to reach the Gulf of Anadyr where Dezhnev established a post on the 

Anadyr River. Dezhnev and his party were the first recorded European expedition 

to navigate Bering Strait. By this same time, Russian traders and explorers coming 

overland from the west had already reached the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka. 

During the1600s, a lucrative fur trade had been established and European trade 

goods had begun to flood into Central Beringia. 

By the middle of the 17th Century, a vigorous trade in European goods 

existed via the traditionally established economic chain from the Chukchi and Siberian 

Eskimo via the Diomede Islands to villages on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula. By the late 

1700s and early 1800s, explorers from other nations began charting the shores and 

islands of Central Beringia. In the mid-1800s commercial whaling was widespread 

throughout the region. These contacts led to the introduction of disease, and in the 

1830s a smallpox epidemic swept the region. 

During the 1700s, Russian expansion to North America had been primarily 

restricted to the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska where a lucrative fur trade 

developed. However, by the early 1800s the number of fur-bearing animals had 

declined and the Russians were forced to look northward and inland to maintain the 

flow of fur to the Asian market. During the 1820s, Russian explorers began to push 

northward into Bristol Bay and Norton Sound and then upstream along the interior 

rivers. They established posts along the coast and on the Kuskokwim and Yukon Rivers. 

This period of Russian colonialism left a fascinating and rich archeological record, 

which commonly includes Russian trade goods. 

Following the United States purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, the 

Russians withdrew to the Asian side of Central Beringia. Although Russian goods 

continued to enter North America via Bering Strait, the economic relationship of most 

people living in Central Beringia became linked to independent fur traders and whalers 

primarily operating from ships. In the 1890s, gold was discovered in Central and 

Eastern Beringia. This led to the “Rush of 98.” Tens of thousands of Americans poured 

into Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada. They radically changed the culture on the 

North American side of Central Beringia. 

Following the Russian revolution of 1918, the people on the Asian side of 

Central Beringia were organized into what were ultimately national districts or okrugs. 
Central Beringia 95

The okrugs are composed of mixed ethnic groups and designed to reorganize and direct 

economic and cultural development within the region. 

The alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States during World 

War II resulted in renewed contact across Central Beringia. Large numbers of aircraft 

and goods were transported from the United States to Russian via Central Beringia. 

Following World War II, the Cold War intensified. In 1948 the international boundary 

between the Soviet Union and the United States was closed. 

An aspect of the Cold War that had an impact on the archeological resources 

of Central Beringia was the expansion of military installations in Russia, the United 

States, and Canada. The construction of many of these installations destroyed or 

damaged many archeological sites. Furthermore, archeological sites were more 

accessible to collectors stationed at these military bases. Construction of the Distant 

Early Warning (DEW) Line, begun in 1954 as defense from Russian “over the pole” air 

attack, led to the excavation of some archeological sites.

Although Native people on both sides managed occasional clandestine 

encounters on the sea ice and by boat, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that travel between 

the two sides of Central Beringia again became legal. Today the people of Central 

Beringia are working toward reducing the political and economic barriers that remain. 

They are seeking more open relationships like the ones that have traditionally existed 

throughout Central Beringia.

Summary

The earliest people to occupy Central Beringia arrived near the end of the last 

Ice Age at a time when the Bering Land Bridge connected North America and Asia 

and Ice Age animals such as mammoths, horses, and bison roamed the land. They 

made and used bone and antler tools with microblades set end to end to form sharp 

weapons and cutting tools. They also used chipped stone knives. In Russia these types 

of artifacts are referred to as Dyuktai culture and in North America they are called 

the American Paleo-arctic tradition. As the glaciers melted and sea level rose, people 

living along the coast were forced by the rising water to move inland. People living 

in areas adjacent to glaciers were able to occupy land newly exposed by the melting 

ice. The long and complex sequence of cultural development in Central Beringia is 

outlined in Figure 5.16. 

Beginning 10,500 years ago stone projectile points that are distinctively North 

American begin to appear in Central Beringia. Although they have been found not far 

from the coasts of Beringia on the North American side, it appears that people living 

on the Asian side of Bering Strait did not adopt this distinctive Northern Paleoindian 

technology. People throughout Central Beringia also made and used large blades, 

microblades and other tools. In Asia, this period is referred to as Sumnagin culture. 

In the North American side of Central Beringia distinctive side notched 

projectile points similar to ones found farther south in North America appear for the 

first time about 7,000 years ago. These distinctive artifacts are called the Northern 

Archaic tradition. About this same time people on the Asian side of Central Beringia 

begin to make tools by grinding stone as well as chipping it. This is called the Neolithic 

period. Russian archeologists generally interpret the evidence to show that there was a 

gradual transition from Dyuktai, to Sumnagin, and then to the Neolithic culture. 
96 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 5.16 Cultural chronology of Central Beringia (Icons from Anderson 1968a, 1988; 

Bandi 1969; Dikov 1979; Dumond 1977; Giddings 1964, 1967; Orekhov 1999; Slobodin 2005, 

Stanford 1976).
Central Beringia 97

Sea level stabilized throughout much of Central Beringia by 5,000 – 4,000 

years ago. Archeological sites found along the coasts and adjacent inland area suggest 

people had developed an economy primarily based on coastal marine mammal hunting 

and inland caribou hunting. The residents of Central Beringia continued to make 

microblades and also made small delicately flaked stone tools that archeologists refer 

to as the Arctic Small Tool tradition. At this time the last of the glacial ice had melted 

in the eastern North American arctic and Arctic Small Tool tradition people rapidly 

colonized the northern coastal zone of Canada and Greenland from their stronghold in 

Central Beringia. 

People stopped making microblades in Central Beringia 3,800 years ago 

and there is greater variability in the other types of tools they used. Pottery spread 

throughout Central Beringia from Asia to North America. It is during this time that 

there is the first evidence for whaling in Central Beringia. Metal (copper, bronze, 

and iron) artifacts made in Asia were traded to people living in Central Beringia by 

2,500 years ago. Russian archeologists call this period the “paleometal epoch” and it 

marks the beginning of Neo-Eskimo culture, or the time from which the same cultural 

patterns and life ways can be traced to modern Yupik and Iñupiaq people. 

Additional Reading:

Anderson, Douglas D. 

1986 The Settlement and Cultural Development of Eskimos Around Kotzebue 

Sound. In Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern, J. L. Giddings and D.D. 

Anderson eds., pp 311-325. Publications in Archeology 20. National Park 

Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.

Bandi, Hans-Georg

1969 Eskimo Prehistory. University of Alaska Press.

Dumond, Don E.

1977 Eskimos and Aleuts. Thames and Hudson, London (revised 1987).

Fitzhugh, W. W. and A. Crowell (eds.)

1988 Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Smithsonian 

Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Giddings, J. Louis

1968 Ancient Men of the Arctic. Secker & Warburg, London. 

Saleeby, Becky

2003 Pioneer Arctic Archeologist J. Louis Giddings. Alaska Park Science, Summer 

2003:38-43, National Park Service, Alaska Regional Office, Anchorage.

I nterior Eastern Beringia extends from the Canadian Yukon in the east to the 

approximate limit of the boreal forest in the west and from the watershed of the 

Alaska Peninsula in the south to the Brooks Range in the north (Figure 6.1). By 14,000 

– 13,000 years ago the melting Cordilleran and Laurentide ice exposed new land to the 

east and south of Eastern Beringia, connecting it to the rest of North America. Large 

rivers drain the interior Eastern Beringian region: the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Susitna, and 

Copper. Today this vast area is largely covered by boreal forest consisting primarily of 

white and black spruce, birch, and larch. Willow and alder grow in the valleys, while 

higher elevations are vegetated by birch, aspen, and alpine tundra. In some regions 

there are flood plains, extensive areas of muskeg, and small lakes and ponds commonly 

underlain by permafrost. 

Interior areas of Eastern Beringian may contain the longest record of the 

cultural contacts and interactions that have taken place between North America and 

Asia because rising sea level and retreating shorelines at the end of the last Ice Age 

has flooded much of the record from Central Beringia. Many archeological sites in 

interior Eastern Beringia have been preserved in the sediments that have accumulated 

in river valleys, around lakes, and in areas that provide panoramic views of the 

surrounding terrain. 

The archeology of the interior is complex and difficult to interpret because 

many sites have been found in relatively thin (less than 3 ft or 1 m) deposits of fine 

grained wind blown silt, called loess. The sediments at many sites in interior Eastern 

Beringia have accumulated very slowly. This makes it difficult to stratigraphically 

separate different periods of occupation and can result in mixing artifacts from 

different time periods together in the same deposit. Interpreting this record is even 

more difficult because often these sites lack organic material suitable for radiocarbon 

dating. Archeologists have been working diligently to understand the sequence of 

occupations at many of these sites since the 1920s.

Beginning in the 1980s an unusual number of ancient artifacts began to 

emerge from glaciers around the world as a result of global warming. In 1997 an 

artifact was found that had recently been exposed at the base of a small glacier, known 

as an ice patch, in the Canadian Yukon. It soon became apparent that many ice 

CHAPTER 6 

EASTERN BERINGIA

INTERIOR
100 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

patches in high altitude areas of Eastern Beringia were melting and that some of them 

contained rare perishable artifacts that had been preserved in the ice for thousands 

of years. Canadian archeologist Greg Hare immediately recognized the significance 

of these discoveries. He and other researchers partnered with the Champagne and 

Aishihik First Nations and began a systematic program of monitoring and collecting 

the artifacts that were emerging from the melting ice. As news of these discoveries 

spread, similar projects were begun in other areas of Canada and in Alaska. The ice 

patch discoveries provide an important glimpse of rare perishable artifacts made of 

wood, leather, and other materials seldom preserved in other types of archeological 

sites. Most artifacts found at ice patches are related to caribou hunting; however, others 

suggest a wide range of subsistence activities including bird hunting, berry picking, and 

snaring ground squirrels. 

When people first occupied this region about 14,000 years ago, the Bering 

Land Bridge still connected Alaska to Asia. However, continental glaciers prevented 

human migration to the south and east. At this time interior Eastern Beringia was an 

unglaciated peninsula of Asia protruding into the vast continental glacier of North 

American ice. Shrub tundra consisting primarily of shrubs, grasses and sedges, covered 

much of the unglaciated landscape. 

Archeologists have long speculated that mammoth hunters may have 

first crossed the Bering Land Bridge as they pursued these large animals onto land 

Figure 6.1 Map depicting archeological locations, interior Eastern Beringia.
Eastern Beringia: Interior 101

previously unoccupied by people. Based on radiocarbon dating of mammoth 

remains and the age of the earliest archeological sites, it is probable that humans 

and mammoths coexisted in Eastern Beringia between 15,000 and 13,000 years 

ago. However, there is no definitive proof that humans hunted mammoth in Eastern 

Beringia. Although mammoth ivory has been found at several sites, it is believed that 

it was scavenged from the remains of animals that had already died, and that humans 

had not hunted the mammoths. 

However, there is a bit of tantalizing circumstantial evidence that was found 

deeply buried in a gold mine near Fairbanks. At this site, two stone projectile points 

were found near the partial jaw bone of a young mammoth about 65 ft (20 m) below 

the surface of the ground during gold mining activities in the 1920s. The mammoth 

bone was subsequently radiocarbon dated to circa 14,150 years ago. This could be the 

earliest archeological site in Eastern Beringia, but because the original discovery was 

not professionally excavated and documented, it will always be questioned. 

Early Period (15,000 – 9,000 years ago)

No one knows when humans first came to Eastern Beringia, but Alaskan 

archeologist Charles Holmes has excavated and reported the oldest reliably dated 

archeological site found thus far. The site, called Swan Point, was first used by people 

about 13,950 years ago. The artifacts include microblades, microblade core tablets 

struck from wedged-shaped cores, burins (graver-like tools) made on thick stone flakes, 

the tip of an ivory peg, and scavenged fossil mammoth or mastodon ivory scrap. 

The artifacts are strikingly similar to those of the Dyuktai culture described 

in Western Beringia. Holmes has ascribed them to the Eastern Beringian tradition, a 

term proposed earlier by Fredrick Hadleigh West to encompass both the Dyuktai and 

American Paleo-arctic traditions. In coastal areas of Alaska, artifacts dating to this 

time period were ascribed to the American Paleo-arctic tradition. However, in the 

interior they were named the Denali complex by Fredrick Hadleigh West who first 

defined them based on discoveries at several sites in central interior Alaska. The Denali 

complex was originally believed to date between 18,000 – 11,500 years old based 

on comparisons with similar artifacts from Siberia. Current knowledge suggests the 

Denali complex was present, perhaps intermittently, in the interior of Eastern Beringia 

beginning sometime before 14,000 years ago until about 9,000 years ago.

The Denali complex is known almost entirely from stone tools, including 

bifacial biconvex knives, lanceolate bifaces, end scrapers, large blades and blade-like 

flakes, wedge-shaped microblade cores, core tablets, microblades, burins, burin spalls, 

worked flakes, and retouched flakes (Figures 6.2 and 6.3). People also had tools and 

items made from organic materials, but most have not survived, with the exception of 

a few objects made from bone, antler and ivory. Although bone preservation is poor, 

the ecological setting of Denali complex sites suggests an emphasis on harvesting large 

terrestrial mammals, fresh water fish, and waterfowl.

Some of the stone tools from the oldest occupation at Swan Point have been 

made from several types of stone traded or brought from long distances, including 

obsidian or volcanic glass from the Koyukuk River hundreds of miles away. It is 

possible that the people who first camped at Swan Point had come from the Koyukuk 

area and brought the obsidian with them. However, it is more reasonable to assume 
102 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3 4 5

6

7

8 9

 10 11

12

13 14

15

16

Figure 6.2 Line drawings of Denali complex artifacts from Component II at the Dry Creek site: 

1-5 burins; 6, 7 wedge-shaped microblade cores and core tablet; 8-11 microblades; 12-14 

knifes;15 projectile point; 16 projectile point base; (Powers and Hoffecker 1989).
Eastern Beringia: Interior 103

1 cm 5 cm

1

2

3

4

5 6

Figure 6.3 Line drawings of Denali complex artifacts from Component II at the Dry Creek Site: 

1, 2 blades; 3 lanceolate biface; 4, 5 side scrapers ; 6 spokeshave (Powers and Hoffecker 1989).
104 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

that it was obtained by trade with neighbors. If this was the case, it must have taken 

some time after first settling in the region for people to become familiar with the 

landscape, to locate rare and far-flung resources, such as obsidian, and develop the trade 

networks necessary for transport as far away as the Tanana River valley. What this 

suggests to most archeologists is that even older sites must exist. 

Additional evidence of the Denali complex is preserved in the next period 

of occupation at Swan Point, which dates to about 13,500 years ago. This level 

contains microblades, microblade core preparation flakes, blades, split quartz pebble 

choppers or scrapers, and burins. It also has red ochre. Animal remains include the 

fragmentary bones from elk, bison, and geese. This level also has worked mammoth 

tusk fragments. However, it is impossible to determine if the ivory is from animals 

killed by the people who camped there or had been collected from animals that had 

died from natural causes. 

The combined evidence from Swan Point suggests to some archeologists that 

the earliest people living in interior Eastern Beringia may have practiced a similar life 

style for at least 500 years, followed by period that becomes hard for archeologists 

to interpret. The earliest occupations at other nearby sites - Broken Mammoth, the 

Mead site, and Dry Creek - hold evidence that people who camped at these sites did 

not use microblades. Archeologists have different opinions about what the absence of 

microblades means and why it is significant. 

The Broken Mammoth site preserves four major periods of occupation that 

are dated reliably using the radiocarbon method. Artifacts and animal bones (faunal 

remains) are preserved in cultural Zones II, III, and IV, but apparently absent from 

Zone I. The oldest two Zones (III and IV) lack evidence of a microblade industry. 

The oldest cultural Zone IV was occupied between 13,550 – 13,000 years ago, and the 

artifacts probably represent a series of brief visits that may have occurred occasionally 

over several hundred years. Artifacts from Zone IV include waste flakes, a quartz 

chopper/scraper/plane, retouched flakes, biface thinning flakes, scrap fossil ivory, and 

a cache of tools made of fossil ivory consisting of two cigar-shaped objects (possibly 

pieces of ivory that would be later shaped to produce projectile points or foreshafts) 

and possibly a handle. What is significant to many archeologists is that this level lacks 

microblades or microblade cores. The absence of such a significant tool type has led 

them to believe that a different cultural group who did not make or use microblades 

may have occupied the site.

Animal bones from this level include bison, elk, swan, crane, goose, duck, 

ptarmigan, fish scales (possibly grayling), and bird eggshells. Bones from small animals 

include hare, marmot, otter, arctic fox, and ground squirrel. The jaw bone of a juvenile bison 

suggests people camped at the site during the late summer or fall. Bird eggshells indicate 

the site was also occupied in the spring. The animal remains from Zone IV suggest that the 

people who camped there enjoyed a varied diet of waterfowl, eggs, fish, and a variety of small 

mammals that they obtained by hunting, trapping, and gathering. Large mammal hunting 

was also important, particularly bison, elk and sheep. The researchers who excavated the site, 

Charles Holmes and David Yesner, think the ivory was probably scavenged from the remains 

of mammoths that had already died, perhaps hundreds of year earlier. 

Until 2009 and 2011when an archeological field school took place at the 

Mead site, only limited excavation had been conducted there. The Mead Site, located 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 105

about 1 km north of Broken Mammoth, was occupied 13,400 years ago, about the 

same time as Broken Mammoth Zone IV. Stone artifacts include a scraper, biface 

fragments, waste flakes left from chipping stone tools, and possibly a small projectile 

point fragment. Like Zone IV at Broken Mammoth, microblades were not found at 

the Mead Site. 

Fred Kirsteatter was a young boy in the early 1960s collecting artifacts from 

the garden at his family’s home at Healy Lake located in the upper Tanana Valley. He 

and his parents, Margaret and Paul, showed his collection to anthropologist Robert 

McKennan. This subsequently led McKennan and his student John Cook to excavate 

the nearby Healy Lake Village site. McKennan and Cook discovered small triangular 

stone projectile points and distinctive teardrop-shaped bifaces that they called 

Chindadn (an Athapaskan word meaning ancestor) points in the lower levels of the site. 

Since that time Chindadn points have been found at other sites throughout 

Central Beringia. At Healy Lake they were found with microblades, but at other sites 

such as Broken Mammoth these very distinctive tools were found without microblades. 

At the Healy Lake Village site the deposits are relatively shallow and it is difficult to 

precisely separate artifacts that were deposited at different times from each other. The 

distinctive Chindadn points and microblades were found near the base of the deposit, 

where the oldest radiocarbon dates indicate the artifacts are about 12,500 years old. 

However, it is not possible to determine if they were associated with the microblades. 

To the southwest in the Nenana River Valley, several sites dating between 

13,200 – 12,500 years ago contain artifacts similar to the cultural zones at Swan 

Point and Broken Mammoth that lack microblades. Most of these ancient human 

occupations contain teardrop-shaped Chindadn and small triangular points similar 

to those found at Healy Lake, but without microblades. Archeologist Roger Powers 

and his student John Hoffecker named this the Nenana complex. The types of stone 

artifacts that define the Nenana complex are: 1) teardrop-shaped Chindadn and 

triangular projectile points and/or knives; 2) straight or concave-based lanceolate 

projectile points; 3) perforators; 4) end scrapers and side scrapers; 5) burins; 6) 

hammer and anvil stones; 7) small stone wedges; and 8) knives and scrapers chipped 

primarily on one side (Figure 6.4). These types of stone tools have been found at several 

sites in the Nenana River Valley including the lowest cultural level at the Dry Creek 

site, the Walker Road site, Component I at the Moose Creek site, and the Owl Ridge 

site in the Teklanika River Valley. 

Nenana complex sites occur near the bottom of thick sections of windblown 

silt that began to accumulate toward the end of the last Ice Age, about 17,000 years ago. 

Radiocarbon dates for the Nenana complex range between circa 13,700 – 13,000 years 

ago, averaging about 13,200 years old. Animal remains from the earliest occupation at 

the Dry Creek site include the bones of sheep and elk. Gastroliths (tiny pebbles from 

bird gizzards) were found in the same level, suggesting that birds, probably grouse and 

ptarmigan, were also taken.

Evidence for possible tent-like structures has been reported from a Nenana 

complex site, Walker Road, located in the Nenana Valley. Archeologist Ted Goebel 

plotted the location of more than 130 artifacts and determined they formed a pattern 

around a circular clay-lined hearth that he interpreted to be the location of a circular 

tent approximately 16 ft (5 m) in diameter. Most fires appear to have been built 
106 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1 cm 5 cm

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8

9 10 11 12

13

 14

15

16

17

18

19

Figure 6.4 Line drawings of Nenana complex artifacts from Dry Creek, Moose Creek, and 

Walker Road Sites: 1-6 bifacially chipped projectile points and knives; 6-8 perforators; 

9, 10 utilized blades; 11, 12 scrapers; 13 burin; 14 wedge-like artifact; 15-17 scrapers; 

18, 19 scraper planes (Powers and Hoffecker 1989). 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 107

directly on the surface of the ground and commonly contain small unidentifiable 

calcined bone fragments, suggesting bone may have been burned for fuel and to help 

keep camp areas clean. 

Obsidian from the Wrangell Mountains, far to the southeast, occurs in the 

lowest levels at both the Broken Mammoth and the Walker Road sites. Obsidian from 

the Batza Tena source on the south side of the Brooks Range occurs in Nenana complex 

sites in the Tanana valley. These discoveries suggest that a widespread trade network 

had already developed in interior Alaska as early as circa 13,400 years ago and probably 

earlier, based on the little evidence available from the earliest occupation at Swan Point. 

The Chugwater site is located in the Tanana Valley. The oldest occupation at 

the site, component I, has been ascribed to the Nenana complex. This level contains 

broken bifaces, scrapers, and pointed oval bifaces. Farther southeast, KdVo-6 (the Little 

John Site) is a multi-component site located north of Beaver Creek in the Canadian 

Yukon excavated by archeologist Norm Easton. It is probably about 11,500 years old 

or older, based on the fact that a later occupation at the site is stratigraphically above it 

and has been radiocarbon dated to almost 10,200 years ago. The site contains bifacial 

stone tools and pointed oval knives or points near the base of the deposits that are 

characteristic of the Nenana complex.

Cultural Zone 3 at Swan Point is radiocarbon dated to about 12,900 years 

ago. It has no microblades or microblade cores. Animal bones include moose, elk, 

ptarmigan, and goose. Unidentifiable burned large mammal bone and lumps of 

carbonized fat and grease suggest that bones, and possibly animal fat, were burned as 

fuel in the campfire. Triangular and teardrop-shaped bifaces are associated with the 

hearths. This ancient camp site also contains small lanceolate points with convex/

straight bases, thin triangular points, gravers made on broken points, and quartz 

pebble choppers or hammers. Like Zone IV at Broken Mammoth and the Mead Site, 

microblades were not found in cultural Zone 3 at Swan Point. However, approximately 

10 cm above the hearths, six microblades associated with concave based projectile 

points were recovered. It appears that microblade-using people reoccupied the site 

soon after its abandonment by the people who occupied Zone 3.

Much further to the east, the Moose Lake site excavated by Alexander Heffner 

is located about 40 km south of Beaver Creek in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Two 

radiocarbon dates suggest people first occupied the site sometime between about 

12,750 and 12,100 years ago and some archeologists have tentatively ascribed the site 

to the Nenana complex. The site contains lanceolate and ovoid bifaces and flake cores, 

but lacks evidence of microblade technology. Significantly, the site is located 1 km 

inside the maximum extent of the continental glacier in an area that did not become ice 

free until about 13,000 years ago. This indicates that people were moving south into 

recently deglaciated areas soon after the ice melted.

The next occupation at the Broken Mammoth site is Zone III, which was 

occupied around 12,100 years ago. Like Zone IV at the same site, Zone III lacks 

microblades. It contains projectile point fragments, two small triangular projectile 

points, large biface and point fragments, quartz hammer stones, and a smalleyed bone needle. Animal remains include fossil mammoth or mastodon ivory, 

bison, elk, Dall sheep, canid (wolf, dog, coyote, or fox), river otter, porcupine, 

marmot, ground squirrel, red squirrel, swan, goose, duck, ptarmigan, fish scales, 
108 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

and egg shells. These discoveries suggest that people hunted, trapped and fished 

for a wide variety of small game including birds and fish. The egg shells indicate 

people lived there during the spring. 

In the summer of 2010, Alaskan archeologist Ben Potter and his crew 

discovered the cremated remains of a 2-4 year old child at the Upward Sun River 

Mouth Site, also know as the Little Delta Dune Site. The site is located in the Tanana 

River Valley in interior Alaska. The child’s remains were recovered from a shallow 

depression approximately 45 cm deep by 130 cm wide in what appears to have been the 

remains of a roughly circular semi-subterranean house supported by at least 6 posts and 

about 3 meters in diameter. The house and human remains were found in Component 

3, which is about 11,500 years old. Careful excavation was necessary to recover the 

fragile remains and only about 20% of the skeleton was preserved. In consultation 

with local Athapaskan tribal members who named the child Xaasaa Cheege’ Ts’eniin’ 

(Upward Sun River Mouth Child), the analysis revealed that the child had been 

placed in the pit and cremated. The child’s unerupted shovel-shaped incisors are of the 

Sinodont dental pattern, which is characteristic of most people from northeastern Asia. 

Although microblades apparently have not been found in Component 3, the bifaces 

most closely resemble those of the Denali complex.

From this same general time period Denali complex assemblages with 

microblades are found on glacial terrain in the Tangle Lakes region and adjacent areas 

of the southcentral Alaska Range. All are relatively shallow sites about 20 inches (50 

cm) or less in depth. Most are situated on the top of glacial features and radiocarbon 

dated between 12,500 and 9,000 years ago. On the south flank of the southcentral 

Alaska Range in the upper Susitna River drainage, at least six Denali complex sites 

have been identified based on typological traits, stratigraphic position beneath dated 

tephras, and radiocarbon dating. Fragmentary burned animal bones from a few of 

these sites are from medium to large mammals. The location of all these sites on high 

overlooks suggests an economic emphasis on terrestrial mammal hunting. 

At least two sites in the southcentral Alaska Range located in the Tangle 

Lakes region appear to be reliably dated. The Phipps site appears to be located on a 

former sand spit possibly formed at a time of higher water level for the Tangle Lakes. 

The site contains wedge-shaped microblade cores, microblades, and burins. Two 

radiocarbon dates indicate it was occupied about 11,900 years ago. Whitmore Ridge is 

located along the crest of a north-trending esker where three localities were identified. 

Although difficult to interpret, four radiocarbon determinations suggest a Denali 

complex occupation about 11,500 years ago.

In interior Eastern Beringia, the Denali complex has also been found at several 

other sites farther from the Nenana and Tanana River valleys. Many of the Denali 

complex sites in the Alaska Range, Tangle Lakes, and Susitna River areas are situated 

in locations that are ideal for hunting caribou. Although it appears that caribou were 

extremely important in the economy, sites located near lakes and rivers indicate that the 

exploitation of freshwater resources such as waterfowl, fish, and aquatic mammals, like 

beaver and muskrat, were also important. 

Although data are sketchy, most sites are relatively small and lack evidence of 

structures or other features that might be indicative of permanent or semi-permanent 

settlement. What this suggests to archeologists is that they were used for seasonal 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 109

subsistence activities. Most sites were probably open-air camps using skin tents or 

temporary tent-like structures generally located on bluffs with panoramic views. 

The archeology of Eastern Beringia during this time period is difficult to 

interpret because some sites, and even different stratigraphic levels within the same 

site, contain microblades and others do not. The Nenana complex sites lack evidence 

of microblade technology, while the Denali complex has microblades. The Nenana 

complex also has some types of artifacts not found in Denali complex including small 

bifacially flaked triangular projectile points and the characteristic tear drop shaped 

Chindadn bifaces. Red ochre has been found in several Nenana complex sites, but 

apparently not at Denali complex sites. However, red ocher is associated with the 

Upward Sun River child burial that has been ascribed to the Denali complex. Some 

Nenana complex sites, such as Dry Creek, contain straight or concave-based lanceolate 

projectile points similar to examples made further south on the Great Plains about this 

same time. 

Some archeologists think these differences imply that at least two different 

groups of people, or cultures, may have alternated occupying the same sites and regions 

of interior Eastern Beringia. For example, Denali complex hunters may have spent 

a few days or weeks at a site while hunting caribou. In the process of making and 

repairing their tools and weapons they may have left some microblades and perhaps 

microblade cores. Nenana complex people may have subsequently used the exact same 

site, and when they departed, may have left a few animal bones and bifacially flaked 

stone tools. If these brief events occurred within one or two hundred years of each 

other, enough sediment may not have been deposited to separate them as stratigraphic 

levels. If little sediment was deposited between the occupations, the artifacts from each 

camp would be deposited on the same surface and be mixed. From an archeological 

perspective, they might appear as one event in time. Furthermore, they would be 

virtually impossible to distinguish using radiocarbon dating. Circumstances such as 

these can lead archeologists suggest that these are all the same people who only used 

microblades in some circumstances or at different times of the year, thus explaining the 

absence of microblades at some sites. 

Archeologists have different ideas regarding the significance associated with 

the presence or absence of microblades in archeological sites. Many assume that 

some groups of people, or “cultures,” knew how to make and use microblades and that 

others not. Russian archeologist Sergey Vasil’ev suggested that similarities between 

the Dyuktai, American Paleoarctic and Denali traditions, the Nenana complex, and 

Northern Paleoindian tradition reflect interrelationships between different ancient 

populations resulting from “long term co-existence” during the late Ice Age in Alaska. 

In other words, the technological and typological boundaries between the traditions 

were probably “fluid” and technological exchange between them resulted in sharing 

some typological traits. 

Charles Holmes and Ben Potter suggest that microblade manufacture and 

use was related to specific activities that may have taken place at an archeological site. 

Consequently the same people may manufacture or use microblades at one site or at 

one time but not another. For example, the same individuals might use microblades 

to clean fish at one site, but not at another where they might use only large stone spear 

points to hunt moose or caribou. There is also evidence to indicate microblades may 
110 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

have been more commonly used during the winter when lithic resources are scarce, 

and less frequently during the summer when stone is more readily available or during 

periods when the climate was colder as suggested by Brian Wygal. Consequently 

some archeologists believe that the presence or absence of microblades may not be a 

useful indicator to distinguish between different groups of people or cultures. Charles 

Holmes and Fredrick Hadleigh West lump all these early sites together under the 

Beringian Period or the East Beringian tradition regardless of whether they contain 

microblades or not. The answer is not simple and probably all of these ideas and 

perspectives are correct to varying degrees depending on the specific circumstances 

relating to each site.

Changing Environment 

About 13,000 years ago the continental ice had melted sufficiently to create 

a deglaciated corridor between Eastern Beringia and the Great Plains of western 

North America. In Eastern Beringia the summers became warmer. Aspen and 

cottonwood trees became more common. Peatlands began to form, suggesting that 

there was increased moisture between 13,000 – 10,000 years ago. During this time 

mammoth and horse probably became extinct in this region, but bison, elk, caribou 

and other large mammals continued to survive. It is about this time that some of the 

stone tools found in Eastern Beringia begin to have a similar appearance to artifacts 

of approximately the same age found in the Great Plains and more southern parts of 

North America. 

About 12,800 years ago a period of cooler climate known as the Younger 

Dryas began and continued until 11,500 years ago. There was an increase in herb 

tundra in central Alaska between 12,500 and 11,900 years ago. To the south and east, 

large areas of Canada were ice free and the unglaciated corridor connecting Eastern 

Beringia to the Great Plains had become well established. Bison, elk, and smaller prey 

such as fish, waterfowl, and small mammals had extended their range into the recently 

deglaciated terrain. 

The climate began warming again at the end of the Younger Dryas 11,500 years 

ago and extensive areas of the continental shelf continued to flood. Large regions of Beringia 

that had experienced drier interior climates became increasingly maritime. Rising sea level 

probably led to the formation of tussock tundra adjacent to the encroaching ocean coast, 

which may have dramatically reduced continental habitat for surviving animals such as elk 

and bison, while at the same time increasing habitat for caribou and moose. 

This complex environmental mosaic in conjunction with rising sea levels and 

changing climate may have created a situation in which two cultural traditions existed 

in adjacent changing habitats. The Denali complex may have occupied the coastal 

areas and nearby interior while the distinctively American Northern Paleoindian 

tradition occupied the territory further inland. They may have lived side by side, much 

as Eskimo and Athapaskan people did at the time of historic contact, occasionally 

exchanging ideas but using different technology and practicing different ways of life. 

Sometimes they may have used the same camp sites that had been used previously by 

their neighbors. Some archeologists believe the northward movement of Paleoindian 

people into Eastern Beringia from the south may have been in response to changing 

climatic conditions in North America. 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 111

Early Holocene

In interior Eastern Beringia it becomes difficult to distinguish between 

artifacts of the Nenana complex and the Northern Paleoindian tradition by about 

11,500 years ago. The reason they cannot be differentiated is that distinctive bifacial 

projectile point and knife forms, such as the unique Chindadn points or knives 

characteristic of the Nenana complex and fluted projectile points of the early Northern 

Paleoindian tradition, were no longer used after this time period. 

There are several sites excavated in interior Alaska dating to the interval 

between 10,500 and 9,500 years ago that lack microblades that some archeologists 

believe are late Northern Paleoindian sites. These are the Jay Creek Ridge site, 

Component I at Carlo Creek, the Eroadaway site, and Component II at Owl Ridge.

The Jay Creek Ridge site located in the upper Susitna Valley was occupied 

about 10,700 years ago. It is located on an approach to a mineral lick primarily used 

by Dall sheep. The people who camped in the shrub tundra at the site burned dwarf 

birch and willow. They made small triangular-shaped, concave-based projectile points 

similar to Paleoindian examples from the far south. They also made end scrapers. Carlo 

Creek was a fall/winter hunting camp occupied 9,500 years ago where caribou, sheep, 

and ground squirrel were eaten. People made and used elongate bifaces made from 

stone that was heat treated by fire before flaking, but they did not use microblades. The 

Eroadaway site is 9,560 years old, lacks microblades, and contains straight and slightly 

concave-based projectile points, some of which exhibit Paleoindian characterizes such 

as edge grinding. Spruce needles and burned twigs also were recovered from the site, 

suggesting spruce were growing close to the site when it was occupied. Like Carlo 

Creek, the site lacks evidence of microblade technology. Component II at the Owl 

Ridge site is dated between approximately 10,700 and 8,350 years old. It contains 

Paleoindian-like bifaces but lacks evidence of microblade technology. The distribution 

of cobbles may be the remains of a tent ring. In the Tanana Valley, an occupation 

dating 8,400 years ago is also reported from the Broken Mammoth and Mead sites, 

both of which also lack evidence of microblade technology but which contain bifacial 

stone tools.

During this same time people continue to make microblades at other sites 

in interior regions of Eastern Beringia. Component II at the Chugwater site is 

between 10,700 and 10,200 years old and contains a wedge-shaped microblade core, 

microblades, biface fragments, gravers, and scrapers. Component II at the Gerstle 

River Quarry Site is 10,750 years old and contains microblades, flakes removed from 

microblade cores, a burin and burin spalls — all artifact types associated with the 

Denali complex. Two later occupations containing microblades (Components III and 

IV) at the Gerstle River Site have been dated to 10,000 years ago and between 9,300 

and 8,400 years ago respectively. The site’s excavator, Ben Potter, has assigned these 

occupations to the Denali complex. Component III contains the remains of bison 

and possibly moose, caribou, or elk. A Denali complex occupation is also documented 

in Component II at Panguingue Creek located in the Nenana River Valley and dated 

between 9,500 and 7,800 years ago. 

The Sparks Point site overlooking Upper Long Tangle Lake is a Denali 

complex site that contains wedge-shaped microblade cores, microblades, large blades, 

burins and burin spalls. Frederick Hadleigh West suggests three radiocarbon dates 
112 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

probably date the Sparks Point site to 10,250 years ago, although their association with 

the cultural component is somewhat ambiguous. Based on comparison to other sites 

from the Tangle Lakes area that are undated, including the Reger Site and Mt. Hayes 

146, have been ascribed to the Denali complex. Farther west at the Little John site 

(KdVo-6) in the Yukon Territory, an occupation by microblade using people has been 

dated to 10,000 years ago. 

Organic artifacts are extremely rare from this time period but a few examples 

have been found and include two spectacular bone projectile points discovered during 

gold mining operations on Goldstream Creek near Fairbanks. Initially reported by 

Froelich Rainey in 1939, the points were subsequently radiocarbon dated and now are 

known to be 8,500 years old. These points were not slotted for microblade insets and 

were too large to have been arrow points. They are sharply pointed on one end and 

scored for hafting on the other, suggesting they were used as atl atl or spear points.

Another rare and spectacular artifact reported by Greg Hare was found at an 

ice patch in the Canadian Yukon. It is a large antler projectile point slotted to receive 

microblade insets dated to 8,100 years old (Figure 5.3.1). Although it is now warped, 

it was straight when it was used. It is beautifully carved and has near its base what 

appears to be an ownership mark, a unique design carved into an object to identify 

its owner. It is too large to have been an arrow point and appears to have been used as 

a spear or atl atl dart point. This artifact provides a rare glimpse of the technique for 

hafting microblades like small razors in slots of bone and antler points as it continued 

until at least 8,000 years ago in the interior. 

Component III at the Gerstle River Site, dated to about 10,000 years ago, 

contains the remains of a worked rod of mammoth ivory that was not slotted to 

receive microblades. It suggests that mammoth ivory remained a valuable resource 

for thousands of years after the animals had been extinct on the mainland. The ivory 

rod may be similar to two bone projectile points found along Goldstream Creek, near 

Fairbanks Alaska, and reported by Froelich Rainey in 1939. Both points do not have 

slots to hold microblades and were made from the long bones of large animals and were 

scored along their bases for hafting, or tying, onto a longer shaft. The points have been 

radiocarbon dated to 9,500 years ago. Their size and weight suggest they may have 

been used to tip darts or spears. 

Like the Mesolithic (between 12,500 and 7,000 years ago) in Western 

Beringia, this same time period in Eastern Beringia is poorly understood. It is difficult 

to determine why at some sites people made and used microblades and at others they 

did not. Some sites, like the Healy Lake Village site, appear to be mixed. This could 

suggest that microblades and non-microblade using cultural traditions persisted in close 

proximity for thousands of years in interior Eastern Beringia. Alternatively it might 

indicate that at at some sites people chose not to make or use microblades depending 

on their needs or the season of the year. At other sites there is evidence suggesting that 

people did not make or use microblades when they arrived in Eastern Beringia, but 

began using them later in time. 

At this time in coastal areas of Central Beringia, early American Paleoarctic tradition hunters may have lived a lifestyle similar to that of their later ASTt 

descendants. People practicing an economy based on hunting marine mammals 

and changing environmental conditions may have drawn caribou adjacent to the 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 113

coast inland. The ever-encroaching ocean and increasing caribou populations may 

have drawn American Paleoarctic tradition/Denali complex people further inland. 

In interior regions of Eastern Beringia, it appears that there is a transition from the 

Northern Paleoindian tradition into the Northern Archaic tradition (characterized by 

notched projectile points) similar to the transition from the Paleoindian tradition to 

the Archaic tradition elsewhere in North America.

Northern Archaic Tradition (6,800 – 3,500 years ago)

By 10,200 years ago spruce trees began colonizing Eastern Beringia from the 

south. Initially the vast region in the south and west of Eastern Beringia remained 

shrub and tussock tundra. Spruce first colonized Canada’s Mackenzie River valley and 

the upper Yukon and Porcupine River valleys. Then the trees slowly encroached south 

and westward, until by about 6,800 years ago spruce covered most of the interior. At 

this time another radical change occurred in interior Eastern Beringia. People began 

making stone projectile points in a remarkably different way. They began chipping 

notches on the sides in order to more securely lash them onto shafts. The size of the 

stone points and the way they are notched suggest that they were used to tip spears or 

atl atl darts. Others were probably hafted in handles as knife blades. 

Most archeologists have regarded the Northern Archaic as a cultural tradition 

derived from the more southern regions of North America, where similar types of 

artifacts are older and signify a way of life adapted to making a living from the plants, 

animals and other resources associated with the boreal forest. Like the Paleoindian 

tradition, it is a uniquely American innovation. It spread rapidly across Eastern 

Beringia replacing the Denali complex and Paleoindian adaptations that preceded it. 

Chipped stone projectile points with distinctive notches on their sides near their base 

for attaching them to a shaft are the hallmark of the Northern Archaic tradition. 

By comparison with sites of the Denali and Nenana complexes or the 

Northern Paleoindian tradition, some of the Northern Archaic sites are larger and 

may possibly be more permanent settlements than those of the preceding times. 

The Fog Creek site is a large Northern Archaic site in the Susitna River canyon area 

where radiocarbon dates suggest the occupation began about 5,700 years ago. In the 

interior, one of the best dated Northern Archaic sites is Component IV at Dry Creek. 

Component IV probably consists of several occupations by Northern Archaic people 

that are well dated by the radiocarbon method to between 5,300 and 3,650 years ago. 

Northern Archaic artifacts have also been recovered from a number of sites in the 

interior including the Ratekin site and Tangle Lakes along the Denali Highway, at the 

Healy Lake Village site, and at least two sites on the Teklanika River. 

Unfortunately the acidic soil of the boreal forest has destroyed most organic 

artifacts associated with the Northern Archaic tradition. Northern Archaic tradition 

artifact types include side-notched, lanceolate and possibly stemmed projectile points. 

Northern Archaic sites also contain end scrapers, elongated and semi-lunar bifaces, 

boulder chip scrapers, large unifaces, notched pebbles, hammerstones and choppers. 

Some Northern Archaic sites in the interior and the Brooks Range are 

associated with microblades and others are not. Working from the village of 

Anaktuvuk Pass in the Brooks Range of Central Beringia with guidance from Simon 

Paneak, archeologist Jack Campbell found and excavated notched projectile points 
114 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

associated with microblades. Following this discovery, numerous sites containing 

notched projectile points, microblades, and other Northern Archaic tools were 

identified. Like the preceding Northern Paleoindian tradition, in many cases it is 

difficult to determine if the microblades were made and used by the same people who 

made the notched projectile points. However, many or most of the earliest dated 

Northern Archaic sites lack microblades. Their absence has led some archeologists 

to suggest that Northern Archaic people may have adopted the use of microblades in 

various regions at different times. 

There are a few fascinating glimpses of the perishable tools used during the 

Northern Archaic period in Eastern Beringia. Because freezing is an excellent form of 

preservation, it is possible for the first time to study complete organic artifacts that 

have been recovered from melting ice patches (Figure 6.5). These artifacts made from 

wood and leather can be easily radiocarbon dated using only a very small sample. The 

remains of atl atl shafts and foreshafts have been recovered from several ice patches in 

Canada and Alaska. Greg Hare has radiocarbon dated the saplings and wood staves 

from which many of these specimens were made. Ranging in age between 9,300 year 

ago to about 1,250 years ago, most were made of birch although a few were made 

spruce and one was maple. 

The atl atl was the primary weapon used to hunt large animals and there is 

little evidence for the use of the bow and arrow in interior Eastern Beringia during 

this time. Many of the atl atl shafts were armed with foreshafts. These are detachable 

wooden shafts with a slot on one end to attach a stone spear point and cone shaped 

on the other end to fit into a socket. This technology allowed the foreshaft to detach 

if it struck an animal. This helped protect the foreshaft from breaking if the wounded 

animal fell or began running, and it enabled the hunter to more easily recover the 

longer shaft. 

Late Denali Complex (3,500 – 1,500 years ago)

There appears to have been a resurgence of microblade use in Eastern 

Beringia following the Northern Archaic tradition. Although it is not entirely clear, 

people living in the interior began making and using microblades that were strikingly 

similarly to those of the earlier Denali complex. For a long time, one of the mysteries 

of interior Alaska and adjacent areas of Canada was the very late occurrence of 

microblades and microblade cores. Although these artifacts are very similar to those 

of the Denali complex, it can be seen that there are significant differences when they 

are examined closely. For example, in the earlier Denali complex sites, the primary 

microblade core is the wedge-shaped core, but in later times they are frequently 

tabular, conical, pencil-shaped, and sometimes rotated. The microblades from the 

late Denali cores tend to be irregular and not as uniform as the earlier ones. They 

are frequently found with a wider variety of projectile points including notched, 

lanceolate, and stemmed forms. 

An example of the late Denali complex is the Campus Site, located on the 

University of Alaska campus in Fairbanks. The site, which contains microblades and 

microblade cores, was originally selected by Frederick Hadleigh West as one of the 

sites significant for defining the Denali complex. Although the Campus site may have 

a Denali complex component in its lowest levels, its reanalysis by Charles Mobley 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 115

Figure 6.5 A copper end blade and antler arrow heads found melting from the Bonanza Ice 

Patch, Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska: 1 Copper end blade; 2 Green 

staining at the tip (visible in this image as a lighter area) indicates that this arrow head once 

held a copper end blade; 3 Antler arrow head with copper end blade; 4 Antler arrow head 

with broken tip.

1 

 2 3 4

1 cm 5 cm
116 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

demonstrated that most of the microblades and microblade cores were much younger 

and dated to about 3,000 years ago. While not everyone accepts this interpretation, the 

Campus site and others like it made archeologists realize that not all sites containing 

microblades were as old as the Denali complex (9,000 - 14,000 years). In fact, many 

microblade sites are much younger.

Several sites in the interior that are relatively young have been found to contain 

microblades and/or microblade cores. A well-dated, stratified cave called Porcupine 

River Cave 1 has a brief occupation containing microblades firmly dated to 3,800 years 

ago. The site was probably the result of people hunting hibernating black bear during 

the winter. A well-documented occupation containing microblades in the upper levels 

at the Broken Mammoth site is reliably radiocarbon dated to between 2,900 and 2,500 

years ago. At Dixthada microblades in the upper level may be as recent as 2,000 – 1,500 

years old. At the Healy Lake Village site microblades have been dated to the same time 

period. Alaskan archeologist Charles Holmes coined the term Late Denali complex to 

describe this late occurrence of microblades in the interior. 

It is possible that the beginning of the Late Denali complex correlates with 

Holocene climatic trends. Researchers Owen Mason and James Jordan discovered 

that between 3,500 and 1,600 years ago there were severe storms throughout Central 

Beringia. There is other evidence to suggest that sea ice was more extensive. During this 

interval of storminess and increased sea ice in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, it may have 

been difficult to harvest marine resources along much of the coast. These conditions 

may have added impetus for coastal people to move inland to harvest caribou and other 

resources in the interior. 

Although there are differences in interpretation regarding the length of this 

cooler period, referred to as the Neoglacial period, most researchers agree that it began 

about 4,500 years ago and persisted until about 2,500 years ago. Geologist Thomas 

Hamilton documented an advance of glaciers in the Alaska Range at approximately 

3,500 – 4,000 years ago, and many of the ice patches in interior Eastern Beringia appear 

to have formed during this time. This evidence suggests that slightly cooler climate, 

possibly favoring increased caribou habitat, occurred at a time when it was difficult to 

harvest marine mammals and fish along the coast. The few archeological sites dating to 

this time appear to be smaller, suggesting fewer people, or perhaps smaller settlements, 

were spread over larger geographic areas. 

Arrows and Atl Atls

At the end of the Late Denali complex, people in interior Alaska and interior 

Yukon appear to have adopted bow and arrow technology. The bow and arrow was 

invented in Eurasia and people were quick to recognize its advantages. Although far 

more labor intensive to produce than the atl atl, it is much more effective for hunting, 

warfare, and defense in most situations. This technological innovation was quickly 

adopted around the world and Beringia was no exception. When people adopted 

the bow and arrow they did not entirely abandon the use of atl atls. Instead, they 

continued to employ them in specific types of situations where they were still useful, 

and all people in Beringia kept using atl atls even if they also used the bow and arrow. 

However, in some areas it appears that some groups did not adopt the bow and arrow 

and used only atl atls. 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 117

 Robert Ackerman’s study and dating of antler projectile points from the Nukluk 

Mountain Sites, the Ilnuk Site, and Lime Hills Cave 1 demonstrates that the bow and 

arrow was introduced to North America at the end of the last Ice Age along with the 

microblade industry associated with Dyuktai culture. Several of the points are exquisitely 

crafted and slotted to receive microblades. Their size, shape, weight, and similarity to later 

bone, antler and ivory examples indicate that they are arrow heads. Direct dates on the 

arrow heads indicate that one was 12,250 years old and another 8,800 years old. They are 

very similar to the ones recovered from Cave 2 of the Trail Creek Caves that Helge Larsen 

also recognized as arrow heads. In addition to the arrow heads identified by Larsen and 

Ackerman there are well-preserved wood arrow shafts from the North American side of 

Central Beringia dating to Choris times at Cape Krusenstern. They predate the ice patch 

arrows from the interior Alaska and Yukon by 2,000 years. 

Among the amazing discoveries at ice patches in interior Alaska and Canada 

are dozens of wooden arrows, complete with fletching (feathers), antler arrow heads 

lashed in place with sinew, and some even with ochre paint preserved. Arrow shafts 

are easily distinguished from atl atl darts by their size and the nock for the bowstring. 

Atl atl dart shafts are not only larger, but exhibit a distal indentation to receive an atl 

atl hook. By directly dating the wooden atl atl and arrow shafts, Greg Hare eloquently 

demonstrated that the bow and arrow largely replaced the use of the atl atl in the 

interior of Eastern Beringia about 1,700 – 1,800 years ago. There is little evidence 

for the existence of the bow and arrow in more southern regions of North America 

until about 1,500 years ago. At that time its adoption is documented by the relatively 

sudden and wide spread distribution of small stone arrow heads. They appear to be 

miniaturizations of stone atl atl points that are lashed to arrow shafts in the same way 

stone atl atl points were secured to atl atl darts. 

The early Eastern Beringian ice patch arrows are distinctively different. They 

are made of antler, not stone. Rather than being lashed directly to the shaft like the 

stone arrow heads to the south, the Beringian arrow heads have cone-shaped bases 

that fit securely into sockets at the end of the arrow. They are often elaborately barbed 

and sharply pointed. Although their elaborate barbing makes them distinctive, they 

are manufactured and hafted to the arrow shaft in the same way as people have done 

in coastal and near coastal regions of Central Beringia. This suggests that the use and 

manufacture of the bow and arrow was adopted in Eastern Beringia from people living in 

Central Beringia during Late Denali complex times near the end of the Neoglacial period.

Athapaskan Tradition (1,500 years ago – present)

Radiocarbon dates from numerous sites throughout Alaska and adjacent 

regions of Canada suggest that replacement of the Late Denali complex by the 

Athapaskan tradition may have occurred slowly and at different times in different 

areas of interior Eastern Beringia. Some scholars who study languages and their 

relationship to each other suggest that 2,000 to 3,000 years of development in Eastern 

Beringia would be necessary to achieve the modern diversity in Northern Athapaskan 

languages. Although the archeological evidence suggests a change in material culture 

from the Late Denali complex to the Athapaskan tradition somewhat earlier, this 

does not necessarily mean that this involved different people who may have spoken 

different languages. 
118 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Athapaskan speaking people are widely dispersed throughout western North 

America. They occupy areas from the lower Yukon River and Cook Inlet in Alaska, 

throughout the boreal forests of Alaska and western Canada, and areas along the North 

American cordillera south to Arizona and New Mexico. Despite vast geographic 

and environmental differences, the dialects are so similar that linguists believe these 

far-flung groups have not been separated long, perhaps only for 1,000 – 2,000 years. 

Archeological evidence supports this, as Athapaskan sites outside of Canada and Alaska 

appear to be no older than 1,000 – 1,500 years. Because of the diversity of geographic 

distribution of Athapaskan people and dialects, it is believed that the interior regions 

of Canada and Alaska are the heartland of the Athapaskan people and the place from 

which their cultures originated.

William Workman and other archeologists have suggested that volcanic 

eruptions at about this time in Alaska may have forced Athapaskan people from 

interior Alaska and the Canadian Yukon to move south. Regardless of the impetus 

for the diaspora, it is astonishing that relatively small groups of people traveled so 

far and successfully established themselves in a variety of different environments and 

in territory already occupied by others. This success may have been possible because 

of their skill in making a living from the cold lands of Alaska and northwestern 

Canada. Their knowledge of high latitude environments may have been ideally 

suited to subsistence in the high altitude environments of the Rocky Mountains. 

The early adoption of the bow and arrow also may have facilitated their migration 

southward through the western mountains and their movement southward may 

have led to the widespread introduction of the bow and arrow throughout the rest 

of the Americas. 

By using the direct historic approach archeologists began excavations 

at historically known Athapaskan sites and have been able to trace the material 

culture of Athapaskan people back through time. Athapaskan-style house pits 

excavated by James VanStone and Joan Townsend at Kijik on Lake Clark (Figure 

7.9) indicate that Athapaskan people occupied the region prior to Russian 

contact. At Lake Clark and adjacent areas to the west on the Alaska Peninsula 

their ancestors may have occupied the region as early as circa 1,500 years ago. The 

houses at Kijik exhibit strong similarities to the late houses on Kodiak Island, 

which suggests trade and sharing of cultural traits between Alutiiq and Dena’ina 

Athapaskans at that time.

Several archeological assemblages that have been radiocarbon dated to about 

1,000 years ago can be linked to recent Athapaskan groups. This evidence suggests that 

changes in material culture (but not necessarily people) began sometime shortly before 

1,500 years ago and were complete in all parts of the region by 1,000 years ago. By that 

time in Eastern Beringia primary reliance on stone working had given way to increased 

emphasis on the manufacture of material cultural items from native copper and organic 

materials (Figure 6.6). Long before the Russians arrived, the people of interior Eastern 

Beringia had entered the copper age and had become expert metal workers. Large 

daggers with scroll work handles and spear points were exquisitely crafted from copper. 

At Dixthada and other sites, native copper nuggets were annealed and hammered to 

manufacture awls, projectile points, knives, chisels, scrapers and other utilitarian and 

decorative objects. 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 119

1 cm 5 cm

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10

11

12

Figure 6.6 Traditional Athapaskan artifacts from the Dixthada site: 1 bone scraper; 2-5 

blunt and barbed antler projectile points; 6 stone projectile point; 7 bone projectile point; 

8 copper projectile point; 9, 10 copper awls; 11 stitched birch bark; 12 fire cracked rock 

(Dixon 1985:62).
120 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

The process of making copper artifacts relied on native copper nuggets that 

were found in streams and other areas throughout the region. The nuggets were heated 

and then hammered into bars and thin sheets, bars and wires that were then folded and 

consolidated by hammering into their final shape. Beautifully crafted stemmed copper 

projectile points were set into barbed antler and bone arrow heads. Other material 

cultural traits include intensive use of birch bark, high frequencies of fire-cracked 

rock, and pecked stone adzes. In some areas, particularly along major rivers such as the 

Yukon, some Athapaskan people adopted the manufacture and use of grit-tempered 

pottery similar to that made and used by Eskimo people along the coast. However, 

people continued to rely primarily on birch bark for making waterproof containers. 

There is little evidence about the exact types of clothing used by people during this 

time, however a rare 1,400 year old leather moccasin was found melting from an ice 

patch in the Canadian Yukon.

Euroamerican Contact (1830s – present)

When Euro-American traders, prospectors and explorers began to enter 

Alaska’s interior in the late 1800s they found the region inhabited by resourceful people 

who spoke a wide variety of dialects of the Athapaskan language. They made their 

living primarily by fishing for salmon along rivers in the summer and hunting caribou 

and moose and trapping fur bearers in the winter. They lived in permanent villages 

frequently located along rivers and lakes where fishing was good, leaving home to make 

subsistence rounds during warmer months. They hunted a variety of large animals 

including moose, bear, sheep and goats. They took waterfowl in the summer, trapped a 

variety of small mammals, and fished through the ice in winter. They were engaged in 

trade with their neighbors. Goods from the interior forest, such as furs and birch bark 

containers, found their way to the coast where they were traded for marine mammal 

products and other items. 

The first non-Natives to enter Eastern Beringia were explorers and fur traders 

associated with the Russian American Company and the Hudson Bay Company. These 

two commercial giants, one spreading eastward from Moscow and the other moving 

westward from London, met halfway around the world at the junction of the Yukon 

and Tanana Rivers near the Athapaskan village of Tanana in interior Alaska. The 

Russians established a trading post at the village of Nulato on the lower Yukon River 

and the Hudson Bay Company built a fort upstream at the junction of the Yukon and 

Porcupine Rivers that they called Ft. Yukon (Figure 6.7). From these and other trading 

posts, artifacts of Russian origin flooded into the interior from the west and artifacts 

of English manufacture entered the region from the east. Disease soon followed. 

Smallpox was introduced along the lower Yukon River in 1838-39 and later scarlet 

fever in 1851 and 1865. 

Although gold was known from Alaska, it was the Klondike Gold Rush of 

1897 – 1898 and the subsequent discovery of gold near Fairbanks in 1901 that brought 

large numbers of non-Native people into the interior. At this time the fish wheel was 

introduced in the interior. Native people moved close to trading posts and engaged 

in market hunting to provide meat and fish to the miners. The influx of outsiders 

introduced devastating epidemics of measles, tuberculosis, and influenza that further 

reduced the Native population. 
Eastern Beringia: Interior 121

The Klondike Gold Rush occurred when the United States was undergoing 

an industrial revolution. This is reflected in the historic artifacts dating to this 

period. At the beginning, horses and horse drawn vehicles were the primary form of 

transportation, and human labor was necessary for mining and industrial production. 

Soon after gold was discovered in interior Eastern Beringia, there was a dramatic 

change in technology to machine-powered vehicles and tools. Early automobiles and 

trucks soon replaced horse-drawn sledges, wagons, and wood-fired boilers. By 1902 a 

telegraph connected the interior with the port at Valdez. Gold dredges introduced in 

the 1920s changed gold mining into large commercial enterprises. The archeological 

record of Eastern Beringia documents this unique transition in the economy and 

material culture of American society.

Summary

The oldest sites suggest Denali complex people occupied interior Eastern 

Beringia prior to 14,000 years ago and that this early technology and the people 

who used it had their origins in Asia. The Denali complex is similar to the 

American Paleo-arctic tradition and Dyuktai culture in Central and Western 

Beringia. People of the Denali complex made microblades and probably used the 

bow and arrow to hunt land mammals. After the Denali complex there appears to 

be a fascinating sequence of occupations that alternate between people who made 

and used microblades and probably used the bow and arrow and other groups that 

relied on the atl atl as their primary hunting tool and did not regularly make and use 

microblades (Figure 6.8). 

Figure 6.7 Hudson Bay post at Fort Yukon (drawing by Fredereick Wymper 1866). 
122 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 6.8 Cultural chronology of interior Eastern Beringia (Icons from Anderson 1988, 1968a, 

Mobley 1991; Powers and Hoffecker 1989; West 1967, Dixon 1985).
Eastern Beringia: Interior 123

Following the Denali complex, the archeological record is confusing. There 

are occupations by microblade-using people of the Denali complex and Nenana 

complex and Paleoindian tradition people who may not have made and used 

microblades between about 12,500 and 7,000 years ago. The Denali complex people 

not only used the atl atl, but also hunted with the bow and arrow, while it appears 

that the subsequent Nenana complex and Paleoindian tradition lacked the bow 

and arrow and hunted with light-weight spears, or darts, propelled with an atl atl. 

Occupations at some sites suggest that Denali complex microblades and Paleoindian 

projectile point types appear to occur together. Artifacts from different occupations 

may have become mixed together, or there may have been cultural contact resulting 

in a blending, or sharing, of cultural traits.

The origin of the Nenana complex (13,700 – 13,000 years old) is unclear. 

Some archeologists have suggested that it originated from Asia, but similar artifacts 

of comparable age have not been found there. This has led some archeologists to 

think that it may be the first evidence of people to move north into Eastern Beringia 

from the American Great Plains at the end of the last Ice Age. Others suggest it 

is a variant of the Denali complex that for some reason lacks microblades. While 

the Denali complex occupation of the interior continued, a new people called the 

Northern Paleoindians arrived from the south about 12,500 years ago. This occurred 

soon after the continental glaciers had melted sufficiently to allow plants, animals and 

people to colonize the ice-free land. 

By about 6,800 years ago a radical change occurred in interior Eastern 

Beringia. The warming climate had reached its peak and the boreal forest 

expanded to cover the entire region. The atl atl using Paleoindians may have 

modified their technology and adopted the distinctive notched stone points 

of the Northern Archaic tradition introduced by their neighbors to the south. 

Another possibility is that new people moved northward settling Eastern Beringia 

and areas as far west as the coast of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. This tradition 

is called the Northern Archaic tradition. Toward the end of the Northern Archaic 

tradition, people began making lanceolate projectile points and adopted the use 

of microblades.

About 3,500 years ago the climate became cooler and there was a resurgence 

of microblade use in interior Eastern Beringia. People living in the interior may have 

adopted use of the bow and arrow for the first time about 2,000 years ago. By about 

1,500 years ago the use of the bow and arrow was adopted throughout much of the 

rest of North America. People in Eastern Beringia appear to be the last people in 

Beringia to abandon the use of microblades when they began making artifacts from 

native copper about 1,000 years ago. The sites and types of artifacts can be traced 

from this time period to the Athapaskan people who continue to occupy interior 

Eastern Beringia. 

By the mid-1800s two great colonial powers, the Hudson Bay Company 

expanding from the east and the Russian American Company expanding from 

the west met on the Yukon River in interior Eastern Beringia. Subsequent 

epidemics, the gold rush of 1898, the introduction of aircraft, and the 

construction of the Alaska Highway irreversibly changed the cultural history of 

interior Eastern Beringia. 
124 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Additonal Reading:

Nelson, Richard K.

1973 Hunters of the Northern Forests. University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 

VanStone, James W.

1974 Athapaskan Adaptations: Hunters and Fishermen of the Subarctic Forests. 

Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.
The Alaska Peninsula is a spine of mountains that extends westward from Cook 

Inlet to the Bering Sea. The people who lived at its western end were culturally 

most similar to people of the Aleutian Islands. The lifeways of the people who lived 

on the north side of the Peninsula were more similar to the people of Central Beringia. 

However on the south side, they were more closely associated with the cultural 

developments that took place in the Kodiak Archipelago in the Gulf of Alaska. The 

rich maritime environments of the north Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Alaska have 

supported thousands of people since the end of the last Ice Age.

Aleutian Islands

The Aleutian Islands are a string of volcanoes that have created mountains on 

the floor of the deep ocean. They stretch in an arc westward from the Alaska Peninsula 

far into the north Pacific Ocean (Figure 7.1). They are not a part of the continental 

shelf that formed the Bering Land Bridge. Even during times of lower sea level they were 

separated from the Bering Land Bridge by a deep ocean basin. Although the islands 

would have been larger when sea level was lower, they could not have been seen from the 

southern shores of the Bering Land Bridge. Some people have speculated that the first 

Americans may have traveled by watercraft from Asia and used the Aleutian Islands as 

stepping stones to reach North America. However, scientific evidence suggests that the 

first people to inhabit the Aleutian Islands came from the east (Alaska) not the west. 

Most archeologists agree that the Aleutian Islands were colonized from the 

east and that over time people gradually moved onto the unoccupied islands to the 

west. Although the data are still far from complete, Don Dumond has attempted to 

determine the timing of the colonization of the island chain. In the Fox Islands in 

the eastern sector there is evidence of occupation beginning between 9,500 and 9,000 

years ago. Moving westward he estimates the earliest evidence for occupation in the 

Andreanof Islands to be about 5,700 years ago and in the Rat Islands about 3,800 years 

ago. The Near Islands, the most westward group in the chain, are believed to have been 

colonized about 2,500 years ago. 

The islands have long been the subjects of archeological research. This work 

began when William Healy Dall conducted excavations at several midden sites in 

CHAPTER 7 

EASTERN BERINGIA

THE GULF OF ALASKA AND ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
126 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

the Aleutian Islands between 1871 and 1874. He used the method of stratigraphic 

superposition in his excavations and based on his findings proposed a three-stage 

sequence for the development of Aleut culture. This pioneering work was followed 

by that of Waldemar Jochelson, who in the 1920s excavated several sites that he 

interpreted to indicate cultural continuity over a long period of time. He believed 

that people originating from the Alaska mainland had colonized the Aleutians 

Islands originally from the east. Jochelson’s work was followed by that of physical 

anthropologist, Aleš Hrdlička, who studied human skeletons from the islands in the 

1940s. This work led him to propose a two-stage scheme based on the shape of heads: 

long-headed pre-Aleuts that were older and later Aleuts who had broad heads. 

Interestingly, none of these early researchers were archeologists. Dall was a 

self-trained naturalist, Jochelson was primarily an ethnographer, and Hrdlička was a 

physical anthropologist. Much of this early work typifies a lack of sensitivity toward 

indigenous cultures prior to and shortly after anthropology was established as a formal 

academic discipline. This was a formative period in American science and the new 

discipline of anthropology had not considered the ethics surrounding the excavation of 

human remains. 

As a result of this early work, two interpretations of Aleutian prehistory 

developed over time. The first postulated two distinct traditions: an early Anangula 

tradition followed by a later Aleutian tradition. The Anangula tradition was attributed 

to the initial colonization of the islands by people who relied primarily on large 

unifacially flaked stone blades as cutting implements. They did not make bifacial 

stone tools – tools that were chipped or flaked on both sides or faces. This initial 

colonization was followed by the Aleutian tradition, a later group of people who made 

and used bifacially flaked stone artifacts. The people of the Aleutian tradition lived 

Figure 7.1 Map of the Aleutian Islands and important archeological sites.
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 127

in villages that accumulated large refuse piles called middens. These people would 

have been the ancestors of people living along the island chain when the Russians first 

arrived in the early 1700s.

The other idea was that there was one long, continuous occupation beginning 

with early colonists who relied primarily on stone cores and blades for cutting 

implements and other tools. From this start, the culture of the islands gradually 

developed into historically documented Aleut culture, with little or no outside 

influence. Later excavations by archeologist Alan McCartney demonstrated that 

beginning about 5,500 – 4,500 years ago people lived for thousands of years in the 

same villages. During the course of this continuous occupation residents repeatedly 

constructed houses on the same site, dug storage pits and graves, and engaged in other 

activities that disturbed the middens that accumulated over long periods of time. This 

mixed the layers of sediments and tended to “homogenize” the deposits. It also mixed 

the artifacts from different time periods together, which created the impression that 

most of the artifacts from different levels, or time periods, were similar. 

The earliest archeological evidence from the island chain is known from the 

Anangula Blade site, located on Anangula Island at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. 

William Laughlin, a student of Ales Hrdlička, discovered the site in 1938. It was 

the focus of excavations by Laughlin and his students for many years. Although the 

only faunal remains found were fragments of whale bone associated with hearths, it is 

clear from the physical location of the site adjacent to the sea that its occupants were 

culturally adapted to a maritime economy. Based on a suite of 45 radiocarbon dates, the 

occupation of the site began 9,500 years ago and possibly as early as 10,000 years ago. 

Artifacts from the site include burins, pointed tools on blades, stone vessels, 

rubbing stones, red ochre, and abraders. Most archeologists agree that these artifacts 

are related to those of the early Mesolithic, or Sumnagin, cultures in Russia or a late 

regional variant the American Paleo-arctic tradition in North America. Features at 

the site include six shallow house or tent depressions, but details about the shape and 

construction are not known. If they were occupied at the same time, this site was 

probably a small permanent settlement or village. Burned whale bone was found at the 

site, which has led some archeologists to speculate that the people may have been whale 

hunters or perhaps scavenged whales that had died from other causes. Grooved stones 

were used as line weights to fish for bottom fish such as halibut. The location of the site 

and the types of artifacts recovered clearly indicate that people had a well-developed 

maritime subsistence technology. Geologist Robert Black suggested that the site was 

abandoned as a result of a volcanic eruption that buried the village under a thick layer 

of ash.

The earliest occupation at the nearby Chaluka site on Umnak Island is believed 

to be about 4,500 years old, but some archeologists have suggested it may be only 3,000 

years old. Not only is the Chaluka site younger, but the unifacial blades and blade 

cores characteristic of the Anangula Blade site are not present at Chaluka. Despite a 

5,000 year gap in time between the occupation of the Anangula Blade site on Anangula 

Island and the Chulaka site on Umnak Island, it is viewed by many archeologists as 

transitional between the Anangula blade site and later Aleutian sites.

Don Dumond and Rick Knecht excavated another site farther to the west 

on Hog Island, located in Unalaska Bay near Dutch Harbor. This site also provides 
128 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

important insights into the lives of the early Aleutian Islanders. The site has been 

radiocarbon dated to 9,000 years ago. However, it may be slightly older because the 

artifacts were found lying below a 9,300 year old volcanic ash. The distribution of 

artifacts suggests that a tent, or similar structure, was located at the site. Artifacts 

include blade and microblade cores, blades and microblades, scrapers, burins, a stone 

for grinding ocher, a pumice abrader, worked cobbles and pebbles, and a stone worked 

to serve as an oil lamp (Figures 7.2 and 7.3). The artifacts and ecological setting of the 

Hog Island site are similar to the Anangula Blade site and the people who lived there 

made their living primarily from the sea. Because the Hog Island site was located on 

an island at the time it was occupied and because of the maritime ecological setting of 

the Anangula Blade site, it is clear that people living in the eastern Aleutian Islands had 

developed sea-worthy watercraft by this time.

Most archeologists believe that the early core and blade sites in the Aleutian 

Islands originated from the earlier American Paleo-arctic tradition on the Alaska 

mainland and bear striking similarities to the Russian Sumnagin cultures. To the east, 

American Paleo-arctic tradition occupations have been excavated at Ugashik Lakes and 

Kvichak Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. Although the ecological settings of these sites 

suggest terrestrial adaptations, Anangula and Hog Island demonstrate that maritime 

adaptations had developed by this time. 

The Margaret Bay site (Figure 7.4) was excavated by Rick Knecht and is 

located not far from Hog Island on nearby Amaknak Island. Although there may be 

Figure 7.2 Microblade cores form the 9,000 year old Hog Island Site, near Unalaska, Alaska 

(Photo courtesy of Richard Knecht).
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 129

1 cm 5 cm

as much as 2,700 year gap between the two sites, archeologists recognize continuity in 

the types of stone tools used at both sites. The large number of blades and microblades 

at Hog Island, the Anangula Blade site, and the oldest levels at Margaret Bay suggest 

to most archeologists that the remains from Margaret Bay are part of the same cultural 

continuum. The earliest dated occupation at Margaret Bay is from level 5, which 

is about 6,300 years old. In addition to blades and blade cores, microblades and 

microblade cores, this level also contains stemmed and leaf-shaped projectile points or 

knives, end scrapers, a soapstone oil lamp, and a barbed bone harpoon head. 

The next youngest level, level 4, at Margaret Bay is dated between 5,400 and 5,200 

years old. Not only does the manufacture and use of blades and microblades continue, 

but other stone artifacts include burins, scrapers and stemmed and leaf-shaped bifacially 

flaked projectile points or knives. The level also preserved a number of distinctive 

barbed bone points typical of later forms common throughout the Aleutians. There are 

Figure 7.3 Nine thousand year old stone lamp from the Hog Island Site (Photo courtesy of 

Richard Knecht).
130 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

pegs for atl atls, eyed needles, line or bola weights made from a walrus tooth, and fish 

hook barbs. 

Level 4 is fascinating because in one area the bones of animals that no longer 

live in the region have been found. The bones of ringed seal, walrus, and polar bear 

were found in addition to many typical Aleutian species of today. Their presence in the 

eastern Aleutian Islands at this time roughly corresponds with a time of colder climate 

called the Neoglacial period. All these animals inhabit the edge of the ice pack and 

ride the sea ice southward in winter. This indicates that the Bering Sea pack ice came 

further south during this time. This may have resulted in contact with ASTt people to 

the north. 

Level 3 at Margaret Bay contained the remains of a semi-subterranean house. 

The outer wall of the house was delineated by a series of stone piers. Inside the 

house were storage boxes lined with stone slabs. The house had an adjoining stonelined hearth that contained charcoal dating to about 4,000 years ago. Bone was not 

preserved in this level. Stone artifacts included blades and microblades, stemmed and 

leaf-shaped points, chipped awls or lancets, a stone bowl, and ground slate artifacts 

including fragments of a lance blade and an ulu. 

The last occupation at the site, Level 2, was the most spectacular. Four stonelined semi-subterranean houses were found and one was completely excavated. Unlike 

the partial remains of the house in level 3, this structure was lined by a stone wall 

to form a round structure that had been dug about one meter below the surface. A 

radiocarbon date from charcoal on the house floor indicated that the house had been 

Figure 7.4 An excavated slab-lined house at the Margaret Bay Site, Unalaska, Alaska (Photo 

courtesy of Richard Knecht).
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 131

occupied about 3,500 years ago. Two sets of post molds suggested that a pair of tripods 

were used to support the roof. No entry was observed, so it is likely that the house 

was entered via a ladder-like notched log similar to later Aleut houses. Six storage pits 

had been dug into the floor and covered with stone lids. Two were lined with stone 

slabs and another with beach gravel. Next to the hearths were two shallow trough-like 

features made of stone slabs divided into compartments and sealed on the ends. Some 

of the compartments were filled with fish bones. These features appeared to have been 

areas where food was prepared. Several unilaterally barbed bone non-toggling harpoon 

heads were also recovered. 

In Level 2 at Margaret Bay people continue to make blades and microblades, 

but microblades are less common. Stone artifacts from level 2 include scrapers, 

bipointed bifaces, a siltstone pendant incised in a net-like pattern, chipped stone otter 

effigies, small oil lamps and bowls, ground slate lance and/or knife blades, thick squarebased stemmed chipped stone points, incised and shaped pumice objects, ground 

and chipped burins, gravers and borers, polished adze blades, and labrets. The stone 

artifacts, particularly the burins and microblades, suggest influences from the ASTt 

along the coast of the Being Sea region to the north. The earliest bone arrow points 

from Margaret Bay are barbed and not slotted for microblade or side blade insets. The 

pattern of barbing and a distinctive Aleutian haft made to fit a socket suggests that 

microblade or side blade insets may not have been used in the Aleutians at this time 

(6,300 years ago). 

By about 4,500 – 5,500 years ago sea level had stabilized and intertidal zones 

rich in kelp and shellfish had become dependable resources for marine mammals and 

humans. People resided in the same place for long periods of time and large shell 

middens began to accumulate. Numerous middens throughout the islands document 

widespread sedentary life. People living in the villages collected local plants, driftwood, 

and shellfish. They also engaged in fishing and hunting marine mammals. 

By about 3,000 years ago, people stopped using microblades in the eastern 

Aleutians and shortly thereafter stopped making blades struck from blade cores. 

Houses similar to the one carefully mapped and excavated from level 2 at the Margaret 

Bay site have been found at other sites. Somewhat younger, similar types of stone-lined 

houses have been reported from the lower levels of the Chaluka site on Umnak Island 

and at the Amaknak Bridge site on Amaknak Island (Figure 7.5). 

From this time onward people lived in sedentary villages consisting of clusters 

of semi-subterranean houses constructed with driftwood and whale bone and covered 

with sod. The manufacture and use of ground slate ulus and other stone tools became 

common by about 1,500 years ago in the eastern Aleutians and appears to be adopted 

in the western Islands later. Chipped stone end blades, stone oil lamps and bowls, 

labrets, and ground stone adze blades were used commonly throughout the islands. 

Marine mammals, including whales, were hunted using barbed harpoons. Fish were 

taken using fish spears, nets, and hooks and lines with stone weights. 

There is also evidence for increased variation in the economy throughout the 

Aleutian Islands during this time. For example, at the eastern end of the islands where 

salmon are plentiful, villages tend to be larger than those in the west where people are 

more reliant on cod, herring, and other ocean fish. In the central Aleutians, sea urchins, 

limpets and other shell fish were important resources that were harvested. People living 
132 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

on the Alaska Peninsula used pottery similar to that used elsewhere in Central Beringia, 

while people to the west on the Aleutian Islands continued to use only stone to make 

bowls and oil lamps. People in the eastern Islands also adopted the use of the toggling 

harpoon similar to forms used along the Bering Sea coast. 

During this time (about 1,500 years ago) there is evidence suggesting increased 

regional conflict. The use of the bow and arrow becomes common and body armor 

made of flat rectangular overlapping pieces of bone appears for the first time. In 

addition, many villages are located in high, defensible locations from which advancing 

adversaries can be seen for considerable distances. 

The Islands of the Four Mountains are known for caves and rock crevasses used 

to bury the dead. Although the practice of investigating burials without permission 

from Native groups is not considered ethical by archeologists today, William Dall and 

later Ales Hrdlička collected artifacts from them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The 

process of mummification which preserved these burials is unique to the Aleutians. 

On Kagamil Island in particular, more than 60 mummies were removed and taken 

to the Smithsonian Institution along with burial goods. Many were the remains of 

people who appear to have had high social status. These collections included clothing, 

weapons, armor, tools, baskets, woven mats, and stunning wooden masks. The state of 

Figure 7.5 A large multi-room slab-lined house approximately 3,000 years old excavated 

at the Amaknak Bridge Site, Unalaska, Alaska. Note the v-shaped, dual smoke ventilation 

system leading to the chimney in the foreground. The two rooms in the upper right are the 

remains of a second house (Photo courtesy of Richard Knecht).
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 133

preservation and local oral history indicated that they were ancient in age, but some 

may be as much as 2,000 years old. Because preservation of organic artifacts such as 

baskets is extremely rare in the Aleutians, these artifacts provide unique insights into 

the exceptional sophistication and craftsmanship attained by Aleut, or Unangan, 

culture prior to Russian contact. 

By the early 1700s, the proximity of Alaska to the east was well known to 

Russians involved in the ever eastward expanding fur trade. In 1724 Tsar Peter the 

Great authorized government sponsored exploration under the leadership of Vitus 

Bering. Bering’s first expedition (1725 – 1726) did little more than confirm Semeon 

Dezhnev’s earlier exploration establishing that the two continents were separated by 

Bering Strait. However, Bering’s second expedition in 1741 made several landfalls 

in Alaska. Although Bering died on the Commander (Komandorski) Islands, the 

survivors of this expedition returned with detailed information about the great land 

and the abundant, valuable fur-bearing animals they saw there. 

Two years after Bering’s voyage, private fur hunters reached the Commander 

Islands and began pressing eastward along the Aleutian Island chain, exploiting the 

diverse sea otter populations. They ruthlessly enslaved the resident Aleut population to 

work in the fur trade. By 1762 independent Russian fur traders had reached Kodiak 

Island and established Russia’s colonial claim over this territory. By then the Aleutian 

Islands had been largely depopulated as a result of epidemics and Russian conscription. By 

1774 Unalaska in the eastern Aleutians had become a small, permanent Russian outpost. 

In 1824 a Russian Orthodox mission was established at Unalaska (Figure 7.6). Because 

of its proximity to the deep water passes between the Bering Sea and the north Pacific, 

the village of Unalaska and adjacent Dutch Harbor maintained a prominent position in 

international trade and defense. Large numbers of ships visited this safe port beginning 

with the fur trade. It continued to be a busy port during the commercial whaling boom of 

the 1800s and World War II. It remains the center for regional commercial fishing. 

Today the Aleutian people are called Unangan. They have an extensive oral 

history that indicates they knew of the Pribilof Islands to the north. The Pribilof 

Islands were apparently not settled until the Russians transported Aleut people there to 

harvest the fur seal breeding grounds. To the west, the Commander Islands also appear 

to have been unoccupied at the time they were found by the Russians. Although 

there apparently was no ancient occupation, Russian archeologists have located and 

excavated Bering’s wreck and the camp where he died. 

In June 1942, carrier-based Japanese bombers attacked Dutch Harbor. A few 

days later Japanese troops landed and established bases on the islands of Kiska and 

Attu in the western Aleutians. World War II had reached Eastern Beringia. Forty-one 

people from the village of Chichagof on Attu Island and 10 American servicemen at a 

weather station on Kiska were captured. The United States evacuated the remaining 

civilians, primarily Unangan people. In a decisive battle on Attu in 1943, more than 

2,500 Japanese soldiers were killed, many took their own lives. Only 28 were taken 

prisoner. The United States suffered 3,829 casualties including 549 fatalities. The 

Japanese troops on Kiska Island slipped away under the cover of fog, leaving much of 

their equipment on the Island. 

World War II left its mark on the Aleutian Islands and the islands were 

strategically important in the Pacific theatre. The first Japanese Zero fighter plane to 
134 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 7.6 An eagle on top of the cross of the Russian Orthodox Church, Unalaska. 
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 135

be recovered during the war was captured in the Aleutians and provided important 

information to the Allies about its design, construction, and vulnerability. Many 

archeological sites were damaged or destroyed as a result of military construction 

because they were located in defensive positions or provided ready sources of fill for 

construction sites. Abandoned military installations, equipment, and bunkers remain 

scattered throughout the islands (Figure 7.7). Morale building efforts encouraged 

American soldiers to loot sites and collect artifacts. Long after the War many of these 

collections were donated to museums and government agencies by aging veterans and 

their descendents. The Japanese and American military equipment and installations on 

the Aleutian Islands are now significant historic sites providing important insights into 

the nature of World War II in the north Pacific. 

The Cold War also had an impact on the culture history of the Aleutians. 

Weather and radar stations, listening posts, and other military installations were established 

along the Aleutian chain. As during World War II, archeological sites were damaged and 

destroyed by construction and looting by contractors and military personnel. Cold War 

activity in the Aleutians culminated in underground nuclear testing on Amchitka Island by 

the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Prior to detonating underground nuclear 

bombs on the island, several archeological surveys and limited excavations were supported 

by the Atomic Energy Commission on Amchitka Island. 

Western Alaska Peninsula

The culture history for the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula is best 

known in the area from Port Moller to the end of the Peninsula. Although no 

American Paleo-arctic tradition sites have been reported from this region, they 

occur on the Alaska Peninsula to the east at Ugashik Narrows and Kvichak (Figure 

Figure 7.7 World War II military pillbox, Amaknak Island.
136 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

7.8) and in the Aleutians at Anangula and Hog Island to the west. The western 

peninsula is best known for its evidence of continuity with the culture history of 

the Aleutian Islands. In this region archeologist Herbert Mashner has conducted 

surveys and excavations and defined a sequence of cultural development spanning 

the past 5,000 years. The earliest period of occupation occurs between about 5,000 

and 3,700 years ago. Several village sites in the vicinity of Izembek and Moffet 

Lagoons, and possibly the earliest occupations at Port Moller suggest that people 

lived all year at these sites during this time period. Stone artifacts include notched 

and stemmed projectile (dart) points, notched net sinkers, ovoid knives, scrapers 

and retouched and blade-like flakes. Villages dating to this time are on terraces 

and bluff edges, commonly near salmon streams. Animal bones suggest people 

made their living by fishing for salmon and cod in the rivers and ocean, collecting 

shellfish, and hunting birds and seals. 

Following this period, the area was occupied by people who appear to be 

related to the Arctic Small Tool tradition that is widely recognized throughout 

much of Central Beringia. This period of occupation has been named the 

Russell Creek phase and occurs between about 3,500 and 3,000 years ago. 

During this time, people constructed relatively small oval houses between 10 ft 

and 6 ft (3 m and 1.75 m) in diameter. Over time they were built one on top of 

the previous one, each floor separated by a fresh layer of beach gravel. People 

hunted walrus, sea lions, seals, sea birds and migratory waterfowl. They fished 

primarily for cod and a variety of flatfish, although the remains of a few salmon 

occur. Bone and ivory artifacts include fishhook parts and harpoon fragments. 

Stone tools include microblades and microblade cores, bi-pointed, stemmed, and 

triangular end blades, as well as end and side scrapers. The houses are interesting 

because, like many ASTt examples, they contain stone slab box-like hearths; 

however, like many Aleut houses, they lack entrance passages. A post mold 

in at least one may suggest a roof entrance using a log notched like a ladder, a 

characteristic common in Aleut dwellings. 

Figure 7.8 Map of the Alaska Peninsula and Gulf of Alaska depicting key archeological sites. 
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 137

Following the Russell Creek phase, the construction of larger permanent 

villages resumes along with reliance on salmon fishing. There is no evidence that people 

made or used microblades. Instead the stone artifacts are characterized by stemmed 

end blades, large bifacial knives, and large numbers of stone net sinkers. These types of 

settlements persist between about 3,300 and 2,500 years ago. Then it appears the area 

may have been abandoned for about 300 years, possibly as a result of a large earthquake 

that may have caused the land to drop and adversely affect the streams in which salmon 

spawn. The dramatic event may have forced people to abandon the area temporarily.

Beginning about 2,200 years ago, the region appears to have been reoccupied 

and the population seems to have increased rapidly. There appears to have been contact 

with Norton people to the north. Some of the houses are built with entrance tunnels 

and contain ceramics and ground slate tools. The typical stemmed projectile points 

are most commonly basalt and are similar to Norton examples. These are all traits 

commonly associated with archeological sites farther north in Central Beringia. 

Throughout this time, the population appears to grow. Individual house 

sizes become larger, possibly suggesting larger families, and the villages themselves 

become larger. One spectacular settlement, Adamagan, contains more than 500 house 

depressions and storage pits. At some of these sites, smaller house depressions seem to 

be arranged around larger ones to form what have been described as compounds, which 

may suggest changing social organization. By about 1,000 years ago, houses and villages 

became smaller.

Between about 875 and 750 years ago another major change occurred. People 

at the western end of the Alaska Peninsula began to live in large communal houses 

consisting of a main room surrounded by a number of smaller side rooms. Although 

the central room of these houses remained about the same size as earlier house types, 

the smaller connecting satellite rooms increased in size becoming as large as 775 sq ft 

to over 3,250 sq ft (70 to over 300 sq m). This change in house type suggests larger 

corporate groups, possibly based on kinship and a ranked society. During this period, 

people continued to make and use similar artifacts, but they apparently discontinued 

making pottery. 

Farther east on the Peninsula, there has been extensive excavation at Port 

Moller by Japanese teams under the direction of Hiroki Okada. This large site is 

located adjacent to a natural hot spring and contains over 200 house pits. Although 

the site may have been occupied as early as 5,000 – 5,500 years ago, there appears to 

have been three primary periods of occupation; the first between about 3,800 – 3,200 

years ago, again about 1,300 – 1,400 years ago, and finally about 700 –500 years ago. 

Two houses were excavated. The oldest was approximately 1,300 years old. The house 

was rectangular 24.5 ft by 41 ft (12.5 m by 7.5 m) with rounded corners. Eight posts 

supported the roof. The house contained more than 1,000 artifacts made of stone and 

bone. Many of the artifacts and economic characteristics are similar to the mainland to 

the east and the Aleutian Islands to the west. 

Little archeological work has been conducted on the nearby Shumagin 

Islands, immediately south of the southern Alaska Peninsula. At the time of Russian 

contact, Aleut people occupied the islands. Archeological survey and testing suggests 

a record of human occupation going back at least 5,000 years, but little detailed 

information is available. 
138 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

South Coast of the Alaska Peninsula

The archeological evidence from the western end of the Alaska Peninsula reflects 

a cosmopolitan blend of cultural influences from the Bering Sea region to the north, Gulf 

of Alaska to the south and east, and the Aleutian Islands to the west. However as one 

moves eastward, the watershed of the Alaska Peninsula more clearly divides the rivers 

flowing northwest to the Bering Sea and southward to the north Pacific. The northern 

flank of the Peninsula is gently sloping tundra plain dotted with fresh water lakes, rivers, 

and streams. On the southern side of the Alaska Peninsula the mountains rapidly descend 

to the Pacific Ocean, forming a rugged coastline. Ports and harbors remain ice-free all 

year. Caribou, brown bear, wolf, porcupine and other small mammals are found along 

the Peninsula. Rivers and streams flow to the coast on both sides of the Alaska Peninsula 

and host large runs of salmon that provide a rich seasonal resource. 

During the last Ice Age the mountains of the Alaska Peninsula and the Kenai 

Peninsula were heavily glaciated. The moist Pacific air deposited deep snow on the 

mountains and volcanic peaks and the great weight of the ice compressed the land. 

However, about 11,500 years ago most of the ice had melted and passes across the 

mountains were ice-free. By 10,000 years ago sea level was about 4 ft (1.25 m) lower 

than it is today, and sea level continued to rise until about 6,800 years ago. 

Although sea level rose as the glaciers discharged their water into the oceans, 

the land was also rising or rebounding in response to the great weight of the ice having 

been removed. Research by geologists suggests the land rose somewhere between 

19.5 ft (6 m) and 23 ft (7 m) between 6,800 and 4,500 years ago. Consequently, 

archeological sites that used to be on the coast at that time can now be found as much 

as 30 ft (10 m) above modern sea level. Although there have been some dramatic local 

changes resulting from earthquakes and minor fluctuations in some areas in the last 

4,500 years, the relationship of the sea to the land has remained approximately what it 

is today since that time.

Volcanoes play an important role in the archeology of the Alaska Peninsula. 

In some areas as many as ten eruptions have been recognized over the past 9,000 years. 

These have been documented based on layers of volcanic ash that archeologist Don 

Dumond and other scientists have used to help date the archeological sites throughout 

the region. The volcanic events also must have had repeated impacts on the plants, 

animals, and people living in their immediate vicinity, and in areas downwind from 

them where large volumes of ash were deposited. Two particularly large volcanic 

eruptions of Mount Aniakchak and Mount Hayes took place between 4,000 and 

3,500 years ago. Richard VanderHoek and other researchers have suggested that these 

eruptions disrupted the lives of people living in the area and may have forced them 

to abandon the region. However, the archeological evidence suggests that plants and 

animals were able to recolonize much of the region within a few hundred years or less. 

These eruptions don’t appear to have had a major impact on the long-term human 

occupation of the Peninsula. 

Research under the direction of archeologist Jeanne Schaaf at the Mink Island 

site, located in Amalik Bay, documents a spectacular sequence of cultural development 

along the south side of the Alaska Peninsula. The oldest level was first occupied 7,600 

years ago and contains stone blades and blade-like flakes that may be transitional 

between the American Paleo-arctic tradition and artifacts of the Ocean Bay I tradition 
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 139

that characterizes the early archeology of Kodiak Island. One spectacular find from 

this earliest occupation is a stone oil lamp found in a pit stained with ochre. It was 

discovered immediately below a house floor that was also covered with red ochre. This 

discovery is contemporaneous with similar finds on Kodiak Island and links the early 

inhabitants of the Mink Island site to those of Kodiak Island where similar artifacts 

have been found.

The lower midden at Mink Island revealed several additional occupational 

surfaces spanning the time from the earliest occupation (circa 7,600 years ago) to 

4,100 years ago. A 6,000 year old occupation provided a rare glimpse into the homes 

of the people living at the site. Post-molds indicate that a driftwood frame supported 

the house. A pebble filled hearth heated it and the residents made and illuminated 

the house with oil lamps shaped from stone. The large stone blades that were 

commonly used in the earlier occupation are absent and people were making and using 

microblades. There is also evidence of ground slate artifacts. 

Another dwelling was constructed at the site about 5,500 years ago. At 

this time people were making and using ground slate tools. Interpretation of the 

careful excavation indicates that it was probably a temporary shelter constructed of 

bent poles that had been covered with hide. The floor was a shallow oval depression 

stained with red ochre. Analysis of artifacts found within the structure indicate that 

people performed specific tasks such as making bone needles and grinding ochre. The 

similarities between the artifacts and cultural features at Mink Island suggest a long 

period of interaction and similar economic patterns at a very early time between the 

Pacific Coast of the Alaska Peninsula and the Kodiak Archipelago. 

Other early sites in Amalik Bay, including those on Takli Island (Figure 7.9), 

and at Kukak Bay along the south shore of the Alaska Peninsula indicate that people 

were hunting marine mammals including seals, porpoise, sea otter, and sea lion. They 

also captured a variety of sea birds 

and waterfowl and fished for 

flounder, salmon, cod and halibut. 

Their tools included chipped stone 

stemmed points that probably 

served as end blades for larger bone 

points. Other stone artifacts include 

leaf shaped bifaces, scrapers, knives, 

and boat shaped oil lamps made 

from stone. 

By about 5,200 years ago 

people begin using and making long 

lance points, or knives, by sawing 

and grinding slate. They continued 

to hunt marine mammals and fish 

along the coast. Archeological 

remains from this time period are 

poorly known, but there is evidence 

that people from the coast also 

made excursions inland to hunt 

Figure 7.9 Aerial photograph of Takli Island. For 

thousands of years this rugged island served as 

home to maritime people (Photo courtesy of 

Becky Saleeby National Park Service).
140 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

caribou and other animals. In some cases people from the Pacific (south) side of 

the Alaska Peninsula even camped at the same sites used at other times by Northern 

Archaic people who lived on the north side of the Peninsula. However, occupation by 

the two groups occurred at different times and there is little evidence of contact and 

exchange between them. 

By about 4,000 years ago archeological sites are better preserved and suggest 

that people with a maritime economy lived in small camps. Although the evidence 

for houses or more permanent structures is sketchy, some post-molds and hearths 

have been found suggesting more permanent settlements. Salmon fishing is a major 

subsistence activity along with greater emphasis on deep-water fishing for halibut and 

cod. Stone projectile points are made by chipping and then grinding, rather than first 

sawing the slate with harder stone, as was done earlier. People continue to make and 

use bone harpoon heads with rows of barbs running down each side as they did in 

earlier times. They were tipped with stone points and probably used to hunt marine 

mammals including seals, sea lions, and sea otter. Other important types of artifacts 

include oil lamps, labrets made of jet, and bone pendants. Following this time there 

is a period (between 2,900 and 1,700 years ago) about which little is known. Some 

archeologists have suggested that the region may have been abandoned or archeological 

sites dating to this time have not been found or accurately dated. 

Kodiak Archipelago

To the south of the Alaska Peninsula across Shelikof Strait in the Gulf 

of Alaska lies the Kodiak Archipelago (Figure 7.8). It is a group of islands lying 

south of Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula. Kodiak Island is the largest in 

the group and is the second largest island in the United States, following the 

big island of Hawaii. The archipelago is only about 18 – 19 miles (30 km) away 

from the mainland, but ocean currents and frequent storms make the crossing 

dangerous. The islands are rich in marine life and host huge salmon runs. The 

archipelago has few land mammals, with the notable exception of the Kodiak 

brown bears, which are the largest bears in the world. Most archeological sites 

have been found along the coast or rivers where marine mammals and fish are 

abundant. The people of Kodiak Island call themselves Alutiiq. 

It is difficult to determine when people first colonized the islands because 

rising sea level has flooded or destroyed any ancient shoreline older than 6,800 – 7,400 

years old in most places. Pioneering research by Don Clark defined the unique cultural 

development over the past 6,800 years and a new generation of researchers is pushing 

the record back even further. The earliest firm evidence is from the Crag Point site 

where Richard Jordan reported finding microblades and microblade cores associated 

with the remains of two dwellings radiocarbon dated to 8,700 years ago. At the Rice 

Ridge site, archeologists found bone projectile points and tools slotted to receive 

microblades, which were radiocarbon dated to 7,100 years ago. During this time the 

climate in the Gulf of Alaska was one in which the summers were warmer and dryer 

than they are today and the islands were treeless. 

A well-excavated site at Tanginak Spring contains microblades and microblade 

cores, as well as larger blades, in its lowest levels which have been reliably dated to about 

6,200 years ago by Ben Fitzhugh. In addition, the lowest levels of the site contain 
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 141

beautiful leaf-shaped and flaked stemmed stone projectile points, knives and slate 

rods. The rods are local slate that have been used with little shaping or modification, 

possibly for polishing or sharpening other objects. The people who made these artifacts 

appear not to have made semi-subterranean houses. However, there is evidence at 

Tanginak Spring that sod blocks may have been used to hold down or reinforce tentlike structures or to make windbreaks. The sod blocks appear to surround charcoal and 

ochre-stained floors. These archeological traits are all characteristic of the earliest phase 

of the Ocean Bay tradition which is called Ocean Bay I.

Don Clark defined the Ocean Bay tradition based primarily on the results of 

his excavations at the Ocean Bay site on Kodiak Island. He divided the tradition into 

two periods, Ocean Bay I and Ocean Bay II. During Ocean Bay I times, about 6,000 

years ago, people made leaf-shaped and stemmed flaked stone projectile points. During 

Ocean Bay II times (about 5,000 years ago) people began making projectile points 

and knives by grinding and polishing slate. The original definition of the Ocean Bay 

tradition did not include microblades or microblade cores. When archeologists found 

microblades at older sites (older than 6,000 years ago) that contained all the other 

types of artifacts used to define the Ocean Bay tradition, they expanded Clark’s original 

definition to include microblades. Archeologists now recognize sites containing 

microblades found with chipped, leaf-shaped and stemmed projectile points as an early 

phase of the Ocean Bay tradition.

Most archeologists agree that the early sites containing microblades are the 

foundation for later cultural development on Kodiak and the adjacent islands. Early 

during Tanginak Spring times, people rarely ground slate to make projectile points, but 

over time ground slate points replaced ones made by chipping. Ocean Bay I settlements 

appear to have been camps at the mouths of salmon streams where people could hunt 

marine mammals including seals, sea otter, sea lions, and porpoise. House floors were 

distinctively stained with red ochre. The early occupations at Takli Island and at Kukak 

Bay on the Alaska Peninsula document a similar Ocean Bay I life style.

The early abandonment of microblade technology in the Kodiak Archipelago 

may reflect the relationship of microblades to the use of the bow and arrow. Although 

the bow and arrow are effective weapons for hunting large land mammals, darts 

propelled with a spear thrower are more effective for hunting marine mammals. A 

spear thrower, or atl atl, can be used with one hand while freeing the other hand to 

stabilize a lightweight kayak with a paddle. The bow and arrow may have been largely 

unnecessary because the Kodiak area has few land mammals. 

Some time after 5,700 years ago the climate began to change again in the 

Gulf. As elsewhere in Eastern Beringia, the Neoglacial period introduced a time 

of climate cooling. Although the general climate was cooler, some researchers have 

suggested that in the Gulf of Alaska there were alternating intervals of warming and 

cooling, each possibly lasting as long as a few hundred years. By about 5,000 years ago 

during the transition from Ocean Bay I to Ocean Bay II, the use of stone lamps became 

common. Although there is considerable diversity within the region and different 

types of artifacts appear for the first time, most archeologists see a gradual transition 

from Ocean Bay I to Ocean Bay II. These developments do not appear to result from 

a replacement by a different culture or people, but suggest instead gradual cultural and 

technological change by the same people.
142 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Beginning about 3,600 years ago and lasting until approximately 800 years 

ago, the Kachemak tradition is widely recognized throughout the Kodiak Archipelago. 

Frederica de Laguna first described the Kachemak tradition in the 1930s as a result of 

her research in lower Cook Inlet. The Kachemak tradition spans the time from about 

3,800 – 3,200 to about 1,400 – 900 years ago in the Cook Inlet region. Artifacts from 

the Kachemak tradition are similar to those of the Norton tradition that flourished at 

the same time in Central Beringia and the Pacific drainage of the Alaska Peninsula. The 

Kachemak tradition is commonly referred to as Pacific Eskimo, meaning that cultural 

traits are similar to those associated with the Norton tradition in Central Beringia 

while at the same time retaining characteristics distinctive to the Gulf of Alaska region. 

The Kachemak tradition is distinctive in many of its cultural traits and lacks the 

elaborate sea ice hunting equipment used in Central Beringia.

Although the evidence is not entirely clear, most archeologists believe that 

the Kachemak tradition developed from the preceding Ocean Bay II tradition in the 

Kodiak Archipelago. Greater numbers of grooved and notched pebbles and cobbles 

used for fish line or net weights suggest an increased emphasis on fishing, or perhaps 

changes in fishing technology. A variety of other technological innovations are 

introduced during Kachemak tradition times, including the widespread use of the ulu, 

toggling harpoons, and labrets. Many of these traits suggest influences from Central 

Beringia. Amy Steffian analyzed labrets made from jet found at the Uyak site and 

determined that they had been manufactured from coal found only on the mainland. 

During Kachemak times, people lived in villages comprised of semisubterranean dwellings. These one room rectangular structures appear to be single 

family dwellings with interior stone lined hearths and entry passages. Dog bones 

have been found at several sites, indicating they had been introduced to the islands by 

this time, and probably even earlier. Barbed arrow heads made of bone suggest wide 

spread use of the bow and arrow and possibly increased social conflict, because with 

the exception of brown bears, there are no large land animals on the islands other than 

humans. 

Kachemak burials are in the site middens and some of the skeletons have 

unusual cut marks and broken bones. Some skeletons have been found that are missing 

bones and others found where the bones have been rearranged and are not in their 

correct anatomical position. Bones from different individuals have been found in the 

same burial. Some of the remains have cut marks suggesting the bodies had been cut 

apart while still attached by flesh. In a few rare cases, human bones had holes drilled 

into it them and were used to make artifacts. No one knows the reasons for these 

unusual practices, but speculation includes warfare, unusual mummification practices, 

ancestor worship, and possibly even cannibalism. 

The transition from Kachemak to Koniag in the Kodiak Archipelago 

correlates with a dramatic increase in salmon populations. Because salmon was the 

single most important economic resource on the islands, their increase may have 

resulted in a boost in the number of people living on Kodiak and adjacent islands. 

Many artifacts from this period are similar to those used in Central Beringia at this 

time, which suggests to most archeologists that there was increased contact between 

regions or perhaps that people even emigrated to the Kodiak Archipelago from the 

Bering Sea area. The many innovations introduced at this time include the widespread 
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 143

use of the steam bath for which rocks are heated, and carried into an enclosed area 

and sprinkled with water to create steam. People began making and using pottery, but 

only in the southern areas of Kodiak Island, and they soon abandoned the experiment. 

Koniag people hunted whales using unique ground slate whaling lances rather that the 

traditional toggling harpoon used farther north. 

By 600 – 500 years ago some Koniag people were building large multi-family 

dwellings. These house types are significantly larger than those used in other regions of 

Eastern Beringia. Koniag houses have a large rectangular common area that may have 

been used at times as a center for community activities. Attached to it was a sweat bath, 

as well as several separate chambers arranged around and connected to the common 

room. The individual chambers are believed to be for families. The large communal 

building required the labor of many individuals and suggests to some archeologists 

a complex, kinship-based social organization. These large structures and associated 

storage pits were able to store large amounts of goods and food, such as dried salmon.

There is evidence for regional conflict. The bow and arrow was in use at 

least by Kachemak times and Koniag wooden slat armor was found at Karluk. Also 

excavated at Karluk were a Koniag wooden shield and a war club. Some archeological 

sites dating to this period are located in refuge areas, such as steep-sided small rock 

islands that are difficult to access. These types of sites provided protection for people 

under attack and were more easily defended. At the time of historic contact, the 

Alutiiq people were engaged in sporadic conflicts with the Aleuts to the west, people 

of Cook Inlet to the north, and Prince William Sound to the east. When the Russians 

arrived, the Koniag people spoke a dialect of Yupik Eskimo, which suggests they share a 

common historic background with people living in the Bering Sea region. Although the 

introduction or changes in language are difficult to date, this Eskimo contact or origin 

may go back to Kachemak, or even earlier, times. 

Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound

Cook Inlet is a large area of low elevation that provides a break in the massive 

mountains along the Gulf of Alaska (Figure 7.8). It is a large marine inlet extending 

northward toward the interior and separating the Alaska Peninsula from the Kenai 

Peninsula. The earliest occupations in Cook Inlet area appear to be related to the 

microblade and core complexes of the American Paleo-arctic tradition or Denali 

complex. At Beluga Point, located on the north shore of Turnagain Arm, an early 

microblade site excavated by Doug Reger is estimated to be between 8,900 – 7,900 

years old. Other sites containing similar artifacts but lacking radiocarbon dates have 

been excavated along the Kenai River and are believed to date to the same time. These 

sites document an early American Paleo-arctic tradition occupation throughout the 

region, and that people harvested resources from both the rivers and coast. 

Like elsewhere in Central and Eastern Beringia, possibly as early as 6,800 – 

5,700 years ago, people who made and used notched chipped stone projectile points 

appear to have replaced the earlier microblade-making population. Notched points 

have been reported as far south as Kachemak Bay. 

In the southern areas of Cook Inlet, William Workman has excavated the Sylva 

site where he found evidence for an occupation by people of the Ocean Bay tradition 

dated to 5,100 years ago. The site contained the long stemmed ground slate projectile 
144 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

points or knives that characterize Ocean Bay II sites. Workman has suggested that 

the Ocean Bay found in Cook Inlet originates from the Ocean Bay sites on the Alaska 

Peninsula, which Don Dumond has called the Takli Birch phase, rather than those 

to the south on Kodiak Island. Animal remains included seals, ocean fish, shellfish, 

and marine birds indicating an economy largely based on resources from the sea. The 

evidence suggests that the Ocean Bay occupation of the site may have been relatively 

short, probably less than a few hundred years. 

Following the Ocean Bay occupation there is scattered and poorly 

documented evidence that Arctic Small Tool tradition people may have occupied the 

area briefly. The best evidence comes from the earliest occupation of one site located on 

Chugachik Island reliably radiocarbon dated to 4,700 and 4,500 years ago. This level 

underlies a Kachemak tradition occupation and contains delicately flaked stone tools 

including small bipointed and stemmed projectile points believed to be arrow points, 

one or more side blades, a polished burin, and other artifacts characteristic of the ASTt. 

The ASTt occupation is followed by a long period of occupation by people associated 

with the Kachemak tradition. 

During the early stages of the Kachemak tradition, the toggling harpoon, 

ground slate ulus, notched and distinctively grooved stone line weights, and labrets 

appear in archeological sites. Over time the archeological sites seem to get larger and 

as the population increased, the material culture became more elaborate. Artistic 

expression among the Kachemak people developed and became more refined. Later 

Kachemak sites frequently contain beautifully designed and crafted objects. Probably 

the most outstanding type of artifacts was the large stone lamp, some weighing almost 

100 pounds (45 kilos) on which human and animal figures have been exquisitely 

carved. Artistic expression is also evident in beautifully carved ornamental pins made 

from bone, ivory, jet, and other exotic materials. Exquisitely crafted labrets, beads, and 

pendants have also been found. Some ground slate projectile points have been incised 

to create designs that possibly designate ownership. Artifacts include barbed arrow 

heads slotted to receive stone end blades, barbed dart heads, side prongs for atl atl 

darts, and fish hook shanks and barbs. Most of these types of artifacts are commonly 

associated with Eskimo (Norton tradition) sites of similar age in Central Beringia. 

The Kachemak tradition is well documented by major excavations at several 

sites including Yukon Island, Cottonwood Creek, Halibut Cove, Chugachik Island, and 

other sites. All these sites clearly demonstrate that Kachemak tradition people primarily 

made their living from the sea. However, on the Kenai Peninsula some Kachemak people 

placed greater economic emphasis on salmon fishing and archeologists working there 

refer to it as Riverine Kachemak. Along the Kenai and Moose Rivers, people lived in 

rectangular single-room houses with stone-lined hearths. Some houses had entrance 

passages and internal storage pits, probably for storing salmon. 

This time of elaborate cultural expression is also a time of complex burial 

practices. Like the Kodiak Archipelago, archeological sites in Cook Inlet have revealed 

a variety of practices dealing with the dead. For example, de Laguna excavated a 

multiple burial on Yukon Island. The burial contained the fully articulated remains of 

an adult male and a child, as well as two skulls of other individuals that some people 

have suggested were trophy skulls. The three adult skulls were covered with what 

appeared to be death masks made of white clay. Artificial eyes carved of bone had 
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 145

been placed in the eye sockets of all the skulls. A long marble labret was found near 

the center of the child’s jaw and a labret made of gypsum was embedded into the clay 

on the left side of the man’s jaw. The artificial eyes appear similar to those found in an 

Ipiutak burial at Point Hope and may suggest shared concepts about death or afterlife 

with people of Central Beringia. 

In Prince William Sound, located on the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula 

Kachemak-like artifacts have been found that are possibly 4,000 years old. Although 

the sites and artifacts are similar to those of the Kachemak tradition on Kodiak Island 

and Cook Inlet, they maintain distinct differences. Surveys throughout the region 

and excavations at Palugvik by de Laguna suggest that there was continuous cultural 

development from these early sites to the life way of the Chugach Eskimo, who 

occupied the region at the time of contact with the Russians.

The Kachemak tradition appears to end rather abruptly in Cook Inlet and the 

archeological record is difficult to understand. There appears to be little continuity 

with the previous Kachemak tradition during the period between roughly 1,500 years 

ago and the time of historic contact about 200 years ago. Given the limitations of 

radiocarbon dating, it is difficult to reliably define the historic relationships of many of 

the sites to one another. Several cultural traditions appear to be present. For example, 

some sites contain artifacts made of native copper suggesting relationships with interior 

Alaska, while others contain pottery and appear to be affiliated with Central Beringia. 

Sites from this period tend to be small and situated in inconspicuous settings, while 

others seem to be forts or refuge islands. This suggests to some archeologists that 

the region may have been in a state of conflict and cultural transition. At the time of 

Russian contact Athapaskan speaking people occupied the Cook Inlet region. 

By the late 1700s European explorers began to map the region. On the third 

voyage of Capt. James Cook between 1776 and 1780, the English explorer charted much 

of the north Pacific including the Gulf of Alaska. Cook Inlet north of Kodiak Island 

was named for him. Grigorii Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement 

on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay by 1784. Immediately thereafter (between 1785 

– 1786) Russian outposts were established on Afognak Island north of Kodiak and at 

English Bay on the Kenai Peninsula. By 1793 a shipyard near the modern town of Seward, 

Alaska, had been established under the authorization of Aleksandr Baranov. 

The Russian American Company was approved by the Russian crown in 

1799 and Sitka (Novo-Arkhangel’sk) was established that same year. It remained the 

capitol of Russian America until Russia relinquished its claim on Alaska to the United 

States in 1867. The interaction occurring over about a hundred years between these 

Russian settlements and Native people led to the development of a unique blend of 

Russian and Native American technology, knowledge, and values that left an important 

archeological record and cultural legacy of Eastern Beringia. 

Summary

For more than 10,000 years both the land and sea levels have fluctuated 

dramatically at different rates throughout the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska. 

As a result, a few early sites have been preserved in locations where the land rose faster 

than the sea. Rapidly rising sea level at the end of the last Ice Age probably flooded 

coastal sites older than 9,000 – 10,000 years old. 
146 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

The Aleutian Islands were colonized by people using watercraft. They settled 

the island chain from east to west and the westernmost islands may not have been 

occupied until as late as 2,500 years ago. Evidence from two sites, Anangula and Hog 

Island in the eastern Aleutians, suggests the earliest residents were living in tent-like 

or semi-subterranean structures. Although there is a gap in the archeological record 

between approximately 7,000 – 9,000 years ago, there appears to be continuity in 

technology and life ways during that time. A series of large villages along the southern 

part of the Alaska Peninsula beginning 5,500 – 6,000 years ago reflect an economic and 

cultural interface between the cultures of Central Beringia and the Aleutian Islands. 

Cultural development in the Kodiak Archipelago and southern side of the Alaska 

Peninsula took a different course (Figure 7.10). People of the American Paleo-arctic tradition 

first settled the area more than 7,500 years ago. People quit making and using microblades 

earlier (6,800 years ago) in the Kodiak Archipelago than anywhere else in Eastern Beringia. 

They were also the first to stop chipping stone projectile points (about 5,000 years ago) and to 

make them by grinding and polishing slate. This way of life, called the Ocean Bay tradition, 

persisted along the southern shores of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island. It extended 

north to Cook Inlet about 5,100 years ago. 

Figure 7.10 Cultural chronology of the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska (Icons from Clark 

1984, Dumond 1987, Dumond and Knecht 2001, Fitzhugh 2004, McCartney 1984, and 

Jochelson 1925).
Eastern Beringia: The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands 147

By 3,800 years ago, the Kachemak tradition predominated throughout 

the region, reflecting many cultural traits associated with the Eskimo traditions of 

Central Beringia. The Kachemak tradition lasted until 800 years ago in the Kodiak 

Archipelago and possibly 1,000 years ago in Cook Inlet. About 750 years ago there 

was an increase in salmon that is believed to have enabled a greater number of people 

to live throughout the region. Site locations and artifacts during this period indicate 

widespread conflict and artifacts suggest increased contact with Central Beringia. At 

the time of Russian contact in the late 1700s, Athapaskan-speaking people occupied 

Cook Inlet and the upper Alaska Peninsula, while the Yupik Eskimo-speaking Alutiiq 

people, descendents of the Koniag, occupied the Kodiak Archipelago and Prince 

William Sound. The Aleutian Islands were the stepping stones for the Russian fur 

trade, which forever changed the economy and life ways of the indigenous people living 

on the islands and coasts of the Gulf of Alaska. 

Michael Levin has estimated the Kodiak Archipelago and adjacent coasts may 

have been one of the most densely populated regions in Eastern Beringia supporting 

a minimum population between 6,000 and 6,500 people prior to the introduction 

of disease and forced labor by Europeans. Some researchers have estimated that the 

population may have been much greater based on the size and number of archeological 

sites dating to this time period. In the archeological record there is clear evidence that 

maritime hunting and fishing economies can sustain very large populations.

Additional Reading:

Black, Lydia T.

2004 Russians in Alaska: 1732-1867. University of Alaska Press. Damas, David 

(editor). 

Crowell, A.L.

1997 Archaeology and the Capitalist World System: A Study from Russian America.

Plenum Press, New York.

Dumond, Don E. (editor)

2001 Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska: Some Recent Research. University of 

Oregon Anthropological Papers No. 58.

Garfield, Brian

1969 The Thousand Mile War. Ballantine Books, New York.

McCartney, Allen P., Hiroaki Okada, Atsuko Okada, and William Workman (eds)

1998 North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies: The Archaeology of Prehistoric 

and Early Historic Coastal Peoples. Arctic Anthropology 35(1). University of 

Wisconsin Press.

Solovjova, Katerina G and AlexsandraA. Vovnyanko 

2002 The Fur Rush. Translated by Richard L. Bland and Katya S. Wessels. Phenix 

Press. Anchorage.
148 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Thomas, David H. 

2000 Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American 

Identity. Basic Books. New York.
The temperate rain forest of the Northwest Coast lies between the Pacific Ocean 

and the mountains of western North America (Figure 8.1). It extends from 

Prince William Sound in Alaska to northern California. In the past, most scientists did 

not consider the Northwest Coast of North America to be part of Beringia, because 

it was believed that the entire coast extending to the western limit of the continental 

shelf had been covered with glacial ice during the last Ice Age. However, in the 

1980s researchers began to realize that some areas along the coast, called refugia, had 

remained ice-free during that time. In these pockets of land and in select areas along 

the continental shelf, tundra-like environments persisted and some land animals such as 

caribou and brown bears survived. This coastal region probably served as a corridor for 

marine mammals and birds, some land mammals, and possibly even humans to move 

between Eastern Beringia and the southern ice free areas of North America. 

When Europeans first visited the area, the indigenous people living in the 

coastal environment were culturally similar to each other. They formed a cultural 

conduit linked by trade and social networks that enabled ideas and goods to be 

exchanged between Eastern Beringia and areas farther south in North America. This 

chapter presents the cultural history of the Pacific coast of North America stretching 

as far south as the Strait of Juan de Fuca near the present-day city of Seattle, which is 

roughly the limit of the continental glaciers during the last ice age. 

Today the rugged coastline is characterized by fjords, islands, rocky headlands, 

and calving glaciers. The climate is cool and wet and the land is dominated by a thick 

forest of Sitka spruce, hemlock, and cedar. Brown and black bears, black-tailed deer, 

mountain goat, moose, and a variety of smaller mammals inhabit the forest. Six 

species of salmon swim inland from the ocean each year to spawn in the rivers. The 

sea also provides abundant resources including halibut, cod, seals, sea otters, sea 

lions, waterfowl, and sea birds. In many areas the intertidal zone has a wide variety 

of shellfish, and edible seaweed and kelp. However, the environment was not always 

the same as it is now. Despite the long anthropological interest in the art and culture 

of the Northwest Coast of North America, relatively little is known about its culture 

history. Archeological research in this region has lagged behind other areas of Beringia 

and North America in general. The archeological record is better known from work in 

CHAPTER 8 

EASTERN BERINGIA

THE NORTHWEST COAST
150 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 8.1 Map of the northern Northwest Coast and the location of archeological sites.
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 151

British Columbia and southern regions (Washington and Oregon) than from Alaska. 

This is primarily because there has been less development in Alaska, the population is 

less dense, and the region remains blanketed by a thick, temperate rain forest. The rain 

forest makes travel and archeological survey away from the coast extremely difficult. 

Thick vegetation masks land forms. Fallen logs and massive roots make it extremely 

difficult to excavate. 

 

Early Period (14,000 – 7,000 years ago)

Most of the continental shelf from the Alaska Peninsula to the southern end of 

the Northwest Coast had been deglaciated by 19,000 – 16, 000 years ago. Occasional 

valley glaciers descended to the ocean along the Northwest Coast. At the end of the 

last Ice Age, the coast was still isolated from the mainland by glaciers that covered 

mountains to the east. The areas that were not covered by glacial ice were vegetated 

by tundra. Stunted shore pine probably survived in isolated pockets in low, sheltered 

areas. Beginning about 14,000 years ago, pine, alder, and ferns spread across the 

landscape. As the climate warmed, the glaciers melted and mountain passes opened 

between the coast and the interior. Some animals, such as ringed seals, retreated 

northward. A few caribou survived on the Queen Charlotte Islands until Europeans 

arrived. Elsewhere they became extinct and were replaced by deer migrating into the 

region from the south. Canadian archeologist Knut Fladmark has suggested that people 

may have first colonized the more southern areas of North America from Beringia 

during this time by moving along this coast.

At the end of the last Ice Age, the land began to rebound after the great weight of 

the glacier ice was gone. However, in most places sea level rose faster than the land could 

rebound. Although there was considerable local variation, the ocean actually rose about 55 

– 60 ft (15 m) higher than it is today. The rebounding earth then began to outpace sea level 

rise and by 10,700 to 10,200 years ago sea level was only slightly higher that it is today. It is 

along many of these ancient shorelines and sea caves elevated above modern sea level that the 

earliest archeological sites have been found along the Northwest Coast. Geologist Thomas 

Ager has found that during this time the developing forest was more park-like than it is today 

with blueberries, shrubs, mosses and ferns on the forest floor. By 12,000 – 11,000 years ago 

the glaciers that filled the mountain valleys to the east had melted sufficiently to enable people 

and animals to cross most, if not all, of the major passes between the coast and interior. Sea 

level then dropped, or the land continued to rise, to create the modern shore line 5,000 – 

6,000 years ago. 

The oldest archeological evidence suggests that people first settled the area 

more than 11,500 years ago. It is about this time that Sitka spruce and hemlock spread 

into the region, changing the character of older forests consisting of pine, alder, and 

ferns. The oldest sites indicate that the earliest people were skilled coastal navigators 

who made their living primarily from the sea. The earliest archeological evidence is 

known from several caves located on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska and 

Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) to the south.

Some archeologists assign these very early discoveries to the Pebble Tool 

tradition. This tradition is based on artifact types from a few sites in Southeast Alaska 

and coastal British Columbia that suggest occupation of the Northwest Coast occurred 

prior to 10,000 years ago. Philip Hobler reported stone flakes and flake cores from several 
152 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

intertidal sites in the Queen Charlotte Islands, which he presumed must have been 

deposited prior to sea level rise circa 10,000 years ago. A tool made from a large terrestrial 

mammal rib (possibly black bear) was recovered and dated to 12,300 years ago at On Your 

Knees Cave in Southeast Alaska. The cave is approximately 360 ft (110 m) above modern 

sea level and demonstrates very early human exploitation and use of noncoastal settings.

Archeologist Daryl Fedje recovered a basalt blade-like flake and a large volume 

of clam shells from material dredged from Werner Bay adjacent to a drowned fluvial 

terrace on the continental shelf of British Columbia. Based on local sea rise at the end 

of the last Ice Age, this locale would have been covered by the rising sea level sometime 

before 10,000 years ago, suggesting that the site may have been occupied by about 

10,300 years ago. Although these data are preliminary, they suggest humans occupied 

the Northwest Coast of North America at the end of the last Ice Age when the sea level 

was lower prior to 12,000 years ago. 

Occupations lacking microblades are reported from the lowest levels at Namu as 

well as several archaeological sites in Southeast Alaska and at a few caves in British Columbia 

that have very few artifacts. Some archeologists believe this documents a widespread 

occupation of the Northwest Coast that may support Knut Fladmark’s hypothesis that the 

Northwest Coast was the earliest migration route to the Americas south from Beringia. 

Although the evidence is fragmentary, it appears that people who made 

and used large leaf-shaped chipped stone projectile points and knives may have 

been the first to settle the region. Many of the sites contain pebbles or cobbles from 

which people have struck stone flakes. They may have made most of their other 

tools from organic materials, but organic artifacts from this time are extremely rare 

and seldom preserved. Innovative research by Canadian archeologists Daryl Fedje 

and Quentin Mackie has documented occupations lacking evidence of microblade 

technology at several 

archaeological sites in 

British Columbia including 

Skoglund’s Landing, 

Milliken, Richardson Island, 

and Echo Bay. The oldest 

stratigraphic levels from two 

other sites, Namu excavated 

by Roy Carlson and 

Ground Hog Bay (Figure 

8.2) excavated by Robert 

Ackerman, appear to lack 

microblades in their lower 

levels as well. 

Although it is 

still controversial, some 

archeologists believe that 

radiocarbon dates suggest 

the Northwest Coast 

Microblade tradition first 

appears possibly as early 

Figure 8.2 Robert Ackerman’s archeological excavations 

at Ground Hog Bay (Photo courtesy of Myra Gilliam, 

United States Forest Service). 
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 153

as 10,300 years ago in Southeast Alaska. Roy Carlson has suggested that this way of 

making tools was introduced from interior Eastern Beringia and subsequently spread 

south from Alaska and reached the southern regions of the Northwest coast by 9,500 

–9,000 years ago. On Your Knees Cave, Ground Hog Bay, and Hidden Falls are all 

sites in Southeast Alaska at which Northwest Coast microblade occupations have been 

reliably dated between 10,500 and 10,000 years ago. The earliest occupation at the 

Hidden Falls site (Figure 8.3), near Sitka, Alaska dates to 10,000 years ago and contains 

microblades, microblade cores, and a variety of other lithic artifacts. Microblades and 

microblade cores have been reported at the Arrow Creek 2 and the Lyell Bay sites in 

Haida Gwaii where they have been dated between circa 10,500 and 10,200 years ago.

The Northwest Coast Microblade tradition is distinctively different and 

appears later than microblade traditions elsewhere. The northern microblade industries 

(American Paleo-arctic tradition and Denali complex) predate the earliest evidence 

of this technology in Southeast Alaska by thousands of years. The Northwest Coast 

microblade cores appear to lack the detailed preparation known from the Denali 

complex and American Paleoarctic tradition. The difference may indicate that people 

already living along the Northwest Coast adopted, or learned, this technological 

concept from their neighbors to the north where the process of preparing microblade 

cores and making microblades was older and more formal.

The difference also suggests that microblade technology was adapted to meet 

the unique need of the Northwest Coast. Microblades from this region are generally 

irregular in shape and frequently are struck from unprepared blocky conical flakes, 

nodules, and pebbles. The microblades along the Northwest Coast are generally short 

and irregular, often chipped from more irregular stone cores made from split pebbles 

Figure 8.3 Archeological excavations at Hidden Falls, 1978, area A (Photo courtesy of Jeremy 

Karchut, United States Forest Service).
154 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

that are frequently rotated to produce additional microblades. This suggests that they 

may have been used differently on the Northwest Coast. Some later examples indicate 

the microblades were hafted in handles and used as small scalpel-like knives and 

perhaps engraving tools. 

Some archeologists believe that the use of microblades along the Northwest 

Coast suggests an actual migration into the region by people from the north. To others 

it indicates that the Pebble Tool tradition adapted microblade technology to their 

existing tool kit, producing and using microblades somewhat differently than their 

northern neighbors. The latter hypothesis is supported by the tool assemblage at the 

Namu site in central coastal British Columbia which appears to have changed very 

little over time, with the exception of the addition of microblades. If this hypothesis 

is correct, the use of microblades may have shifted primarily from use as insets in 

bone or antler projectile points to serve other functions. It appears that people in the 

region began using microblades sometime between 10,000 and 10,500 years ago. After 

microblades were introduced, people continued to make pebble tools and use leafshaped and stemmed chipped stone projectile points. 

At On Your Knees Cave (49-PET-408) located on Prince of Wales Island in 

Southeast Alaska the partial remains of an adult male human in his early twenties were 

found scattered throughout the cave. The man was named Shuká Kaa, or “Man Ahead 

of Us,” by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska. The tribal governments on Prince of 

Wales Island were consulted following Shuká Kaa’s discovery and gave permission for 

the respectful analysis of his remains. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the individual 

dates to about 10,300 years ago. The skeleton is not complete and the remains are not 

from an ancient burial. They appear to have been scattered throughout the cave by 

scavengers, possibly foxes, wolves, or bears. Several of the bones have marks indicating 

that they had been gnawed by animals. It is a mystery how this young man died. He 

may have been killed while hunting bears in the cave. He may have died from other 

causes outside the cave and animals may have later dragged some of his remains inside 

where they were preserved. 

The human remains were found with microblades, leaf-shaped and stemmed 

projectile points, and other stone tools made of obsidian and other exotic types of 

stone. The obsidian came from Mount Edziza on the British Columbia mainland and 

Sumez Island in Southeast Alaska. Because Prince of Wales Island was not connected 

to the mainland at the time the cave was used, obsidian and some of the other types of 

stones could only have reached the site by people using watercraft. 

Analysis of these human remains is extremely important because they are 

the oldest human skeletal remains known from the Northwest Coast. They are 

geographically located between Asia and temperate North America, and they provide 

information about the genetic and physical characteristics of an individual who may 

be a descendant of the first inhabitants of the Northwest Coast. Part of the hip bone 

was preserved which enabled scientists to determine that the individual was male. The 

recently erupted wisdom teeth in the jaw indicate he was in his early twenties when 

he died. His teeth were heavily worn for such a young person, suggesting he had an 

abrasive diet. 

Micro-sampling of the bone using a very small drill about the size of a dentist’s 

drill allowed scientists to extract enough organic material to radiocarbon date the 
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 155

individual and conduct carbon isotope analysis. This chemical analysis showed that 

the young man was raised on a diet of sea food, probably consisting mostly of marine 

mammals and fish. Using a small amount of material extracted from the pulp cavity of 

one of his teeth, it was possible to successfully identify deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 

the sample. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is transmitted from the mother to a child, 

and can be used to identify groups of people who share a common lineage. Four basic 

lineages have been identified throughout the Americas and are designated A, B, C, and 

D. The young man from On Your Knees Cave belongs to the lineage (or haplogroup) 

D, which is common among Eskimo and Aleut people to the north and among 

people living in South America. Conclusions drawn from the analysis of mtDNA can 

sometimes be controversial and ambiguous. 

The Chuck Lake site on Heceta Island in Southeast Alaska has preserved 

faunal remains dated to 9,100 years ago. This site is important because it clearly 

documents early Northwest Coast microblades with a maritime economy. The Chuck 

Lake site was adjacent to the sea at the time it was occupied and the people who 

lived there harvested shellfish and bottom fish. Rockfish were the most abundant 

subsistence resources, while land and sea mammals and waterfowl constituted a 

small percentage of the diet. Further south at the Namu Site, microblades first occur 

about 9,500 years ago. The Richardson Island site has a second component that is 

characterized by a microblade industry radiocarbon dated between 10,200 – 9,500 

years ago.

The few open air sites that have been excavated are located on ancient beaches 

and appear to have been used as brief camp sites, while early cave sites seem to be locales 

where people sought temporary shelter and perhaps hunted hibernating bears. With 

the exception of the cave sites, most sites are located in ecological settings favorable for 

harvesting salmon, saltwater fishing, marine mammal hunting, and gathering intertidal 

shellfish and other resources. Many are located on islands that only could have been 

reached with the use of some type of watercraft, possibly skin boats during the earliest 

times. Wide use of volcanic glass (obsidian) and other exotic types of stone, such as 

quartz crystals, are found at most sites dating to this early time period. Obsidian found 

at Hidden Falls and Ground Hog Bay 2 is from Sumez Island, near Prince of Wales in 

the Alexander Archipelago, and Mt. Edziza on the upper Stikine River on the northern 

British Columbia mainland. These findings indicate that people either made long trips 

to collect these valuable materials, or more likely, there were widespread trade networks 

established along the coast by 10,000 – 11,500 years ago, and possibly earlier. 

Wood, bone and shell have not been preserved at most of the archeological 

sites known from this period. However, at a few sites the remains of the animals 

harvested and eaten by people have been found and clearly indicate that people 

made their living from the sea. Caribou may have persisted as late as 9,000 years 

ago in some areas of the Alexander Archipelago, and a small population lived on 

Haida Guaii until the time Europeans arrived. At the Arrow Creek 2 site in British 

Columbia, archeologists found an alignment of stones that could be part of a stone 

fish trap possibly 10,200 years old. At other locations fish bones (including cod and 

salmon), clams and other shellfish, sea otter, and seals were harvested. A few cave 

sites suggest that black bear were also hunted, probably during the winter when they 

were hibernating. 
156 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

The period immediately following the end of the Ice Age was a time of 

relatively rapid climate adjustment. People continued to use microblades and to 

make their living primarily from the ocean, rivers, and inlets. They were faced with 

continuous changes in sea level, forests, and shifting intertidal zones, which probably 

prevented people from inhabiting particular sites for long periods of time. They 

may have had to move frequently in order to continue to adjust to the changing 

environment and shifting resources. This pattern of relocation may explain why 

archeological sites from this early period tend to be relatively small and difficult to find.

Middle Period (7,000 – 4,000 Years Ago)

By 7,000 – 6,000 years ago, sea level stabilized along much of the coast. 

Although the ocean was no longer rising, the land continued to rise slowly. Over 

hundreds of years, people who wanted to live on the coast were forced to keep gradually 

moving seaward to stay close to the shoreline. Mature forests developed on the islands. 

Sometime about 5,700 – 5,200 years ago cedar trees colonized the mainland and 

islands. For the first time, large mature cedars provided unique resources suitable for 

constructing houses and seaworthy canoes. As sea levels continued to stabilize, larger 

shellfish beds formed, and salmon runs probably became stable and reliable.

 These environmental changes enabled larger groups of people to live 

together in the same locations for longer periods of time. Stone tools such as 

scraper planes used to work wood become more common. Archeologists have 

uncovered large plank houses dating to this period, suggesting more complex social 

organization and economic specialization. These houses clearly represented a large 

investment in labor and a commitment to residing at a particular location for a 

long period of time. Their size indicates that they were occupied by large groups of 

people who were probably related. These large households must have provided a 

comfortable and relatively stable lifestyle and probably reflect an effective economic 

and social organization. 

The coniferous forest of the Northwest Coast makes the soil very acidic. 

Consequently organic artifacts made from materials like wood and bone are rarely 

preserved. However, on Prince of Wales Island the remains of a beautifully crafted 

basket made of spruce root was preserved in the mud along the banks of the Thorne 

River where it was found by geologist Dave Putnam. It was subsequently radiocarbon 

dated by archeologist Terry Fifield to about 6,100 years ago (Figure 8.4). At another 

site on Mitkof Island, in Southeast Alaska, archeologist Jane Smith found an alignment 

of wooden stakes radiocarbon dated to 5,700 years ago. The stakes were driven into the 

intertidal mud to make a fish weir that was used to funnel salmon and other migratory 

fish into a place where they could be speared or trapped. These rare discoveries indicate 

a long history of a rich and complex technology employing organic materials along the 

Northwest Coast.

Abraders used to shape, polish, and sharpen stone and bone tools begin to 

appear in archeological sites by 7,000 years ago. By 6,000 years ago people commonly 

make stone tools by grinding softer stones with harder ones to shape artifacts, rather 

than chipping stone. Although this method frequently requires more time to make 

a tool, it has the advantage of enabling people to use a wider variety of stone. After 

people started making ground stone tools, they did not immediately stop making 
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 157

1 cm 5 cm

1

2

Figure 8.4 Thorne River basket: 1 Replica of the original discovery woven by Dolores Churchill; 

2 Technical drawing by Margaret Davidson of the original discovery.
158 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

chipped stone tools. People continued to use microblades hafted in handles until at 

least 2,000 years ago. 

By about 5,000 years ago a wide variety of new artifacts begin to appear along the 

coast. They include labrets and beads, ground stone adze blades, and ribbed stones (stones 

with raised ridges). Bone spear or harpoon points with barbs along one edge are preserved 

at some sites. Dog bones possibly 4,500 years old have been found at a site near Sitka, 

Alaska, indicating that people had domesticated dogs by at least this time. The bones of 

deer, black bear, and a variety of marine mammals have been found at several sites.

Canadian archeologist Knut Fladmark suggested that dramatic changes 

in the relationships between the land and sea at the end of the last Ice Age did not 

fully stabilized until about 5,000 years ago. He postulated that this stabilization led 

to increased salmon productivity in the streams and rivers of the Northwest Coast. 

He theorized that the establishment of large predictable salmon runs enabled the 

development of cultural patterns often used to characterize the complex hunter-gather 

cultures of the Northwest Coast. 

Madonna Moss has questioned the “land sea interface” hypothesis as the 

primary mechanism for the development of Northwest Coast cultures. Instead she 

points out that there is great ecological diversity throughout this vast region and 

that environmental change and stability did not occur at the same time in all places. 

She also underscores the “deep” history underlying maritime subsistence beginning 

with Shuká Kaa and other maritime focused sites along the coast including fish weirs 

constructed prior to 5,000 years ago. She emphasizes that people living along the 

Northwest Coast have been primarily fishers throughout their long history. 

During this time people made their living hunting land and marine mammals, 

collecting shellfish, fishing, and probably collecting plant products from both land 

and sea. They may have lived in relatively small groups and occupied specific locations 

for shorter periods of time depending on shifts in local environmental conditions and 

resources. In some areas they probably moved seasonally depending on the availability 

and timing of local resources. Northwest Coast art may be traced to at least this time, 

and possibly earlier. Jon Erlandson has described a few fragments of painted split wood 

boards. Petroglyphs are rocks that have designs pecked into their surface and have been 

found in many locations along the Northwest Coast. The earliest petroglyphs may date 

to this period but their meanings are poorly understood. Some people have suggested 

they convey information similar to road signs, or they record historical events, 

territorial markers, or serve other purposes. 

As the environment continued to stabilize, shell middens were formed because 

people stayed longer at the same place and harvested more from the mature shell fish 

beds. The resulting piles of accumulation refuse were sometimes used as places to 

bury the dead. There is evidence by about 4,000 years ago that people built groups of 

houses in particularly productive areas along the coast, particularly where there were 

predictable salmon runs. Some archeologists have interpreted this to be the beginning 

of village life. 

Late Period (4,000 Years Ago – Present)

By 4,000 years ago, villages occupied by large groups of people became 

established along the coast and rivers. Stone tools such as adzes, mauls, and scraper 
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 159

planes associated with heavy wood working become increasingly abundant and 

important to the economy (Figure 8.5). Mature old growth forests contained 

huge trees that were important resources for producing split planks for building 

houses and for the construction of huge ocean-going dugout canoes. Although 

resources varied between and within various regions, people were more intensively 

harvesting a wider array of plants and animals. On rivers where salmon were 

Figure 8.5 Northwest Coast wood working tools: 1 D shaped adze; 2 antler wedge; 3 nipple maul; 

4 stone hammer; 5 planks were removed from logs by splitting with hammer and wedges. 

1 2 3 4

5
160 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

abundant, large plank house villages developed. A wider array of animal remains are 

preserved in sites dating to this period including harbor seal, porpoise, sea and land 

otter, black bear, beaver, marmot, muskrat, whales, salmon, and a variety of off-shore 

fish. Shellfish include mussels, clams, and sea urchins. 

 It is during this period that the elaborate art and social complexity of 

Northwest Coast cultures is recognizable for the first time in archeological sites. The 

earliest art objects are decorated tools and carvings of animals in bone and ivory. 

However, most art was probably produced in wood as suggested by the increase in the 

types of stone tools used for working wood at sites from the more southerly areas of the 

Northwest Coast. 

Archeological excavations reveal that by about 3,200 years ago people had 

added artifacts such as long lanceolate ground stone points, composite harpoons, 

drilled seal tooth pendants, shell beads, incised stones, shell knives, single edge ground 

stone knives, composite toggling harpoons, composite fish hooks, and wooden boxes 

to their inventory of tools and ornaments. There is evidence that eulachon, an oilrich fish, was added to the economy at this time. Widespread use of stone net sinkers 

indicate the introduction of fishing with nets and an expansion of fishing technology. 

About 90 miles (160 km) upstream from Prince Rupert harbor on British 

Columbia’s Skeena River is the Paul Mason site, with 12 rectangular house depressions 

laid out in two rows. All the houses face southwest and are oriented toward larger 

rectangular structures located uphill. The village has been dated to between about 

4,000 – 3,200 years old and is the earliest reliably dated and documented village site 

in the northern region (Alaska and British Columbia) of the Northwest Coast. The 

Boardwalk site is located in Prince Rupert harbor and appears to have been a village 

consisting of two (and possibly three) rows of plank houses probably occupied about 

the same time or possibly earlier than the Paul Mason site. These early village sites, 

particularly the larger structures at the Paul Mason site, suggest increasing social 

complexity and organization. 

Many of the skeletons from the sites in the Prince Rupert harbor area have 

forearm bone fractures that suggest to some archeologists that their arms were broken 

while attempting to fend off blows to the head. Many of the skulls have fractures, 

probably resulting from blows to the head delivered by war clubs. The number of these 

types of injuries is higher among males than females. The taking of heads as trophies 

is also suggested based on the fact that some skeletons were missing their skulls and 

there are cut marks along the neck bones where the skulls were attached. Employing a 

concept called ethnographic analogy (comparing evidence in the archeological record 

to the historically documented practices of people) some archeologists have suggested 

that slave raiding may have been a source of conflict, as it was in later times in some 

areas along the coast. 

Burials associated with the Boardwalk site and other sites in the Prince 

Rupert harbor area may also provide insights into social ranking. The majority do 

not contain grave goods. However, the burial of an adult male from the Boardwalk 

site contains elaborate high status grave goods. Dated to 2,600 years ago, the grave 

contained a decorated club, copper bracelets, copper-wrapped sticks, and finely crafted 

weapons. The artifacts associated with this burial suggest the individual was a warrior 

and that he may have gained status and wealth through warfare. Some archeologists 
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 161

have speculated that this is evidence for the development of social ranking and warfare 

during this time in Northwest Coast societies. Some sites are located in defensive 

positions and were fortified by log palisades. 

Copper artifacts are frequently found in archeological sites predating 

the arrival of Europeans and were in wide use along the Northwest Coast when 

Europeans first arrived. The copper was probably from the Copper River and 

Wrangell St. Elias region of interior Eastern Beringia. Copper was processed from 

nuggets, possibly beginning as early as 2,500 – 2,000 years ago. Research suggests the 

nuggets were heated, hammered and shaped to form a variety of tools and decorative 

objects. By the time the Russians arrived, large coppers were the ultimate symbol of 

wealth. These large decorated shield-shaped objects were skillfully crafted from a 

single piece of copper and displayed in clan houses. This period is also characterized 

by an increase in ornaments such as beads, pendants, and nose and hair pins made 

of bone, jet, soapstone, and shell. A variety of carvings in bone and wood have also 

been found. 

The number and size of archeological sites continued to increase and 

indicates that the human population along the coast was growing, possibly peaking at 

about 1,000 years ago. Afterward, there appears to be a slight decline in population, 

accompanied by a renewed emphasis on chipping stone tools as opposed to grinding. 

They used bone points barbed along one side that detached from the shaft and could be 

retrieved using a line tied through a hole drilled at the base. Iron artifacts are frequently 

found in archeological sites predating the arrival of Europeans and were in wide use 

along the Northwest Coast when Europeans first arrived. The iron was derived from 

spikes and hardware attached to shipwrecks and driftwood carried by ocean currents 

across the Pacific from Asia. 

People living along the Northwest Coast used wood as a medium for artistic 

expression. They added ground stone chisels and axes to their wood working tools. 

The magnificent trees of the Northwest Coast enabled them to create small as well 

as large sculptures such as totem poles and house posts. Probably the largest and 

most spectacular objects were carved and painted house screens. These screens were 

magnificently crafted heraldic partitions located on the rear platforms of clan houses 

to separate the chief ’s quarters from the rest of the household. Unfortunately, wood 

decomposes rapidly in the acidic soils of the Northwest Coast rainforest and little of 

this magnificent early art has survived. 

Bill Holm provides a perceptive analysis of the fundamental elements of 

Northwest Coast art. At the time of contact with Europeans, a design system had 

developed that relied on formal rules which required portraying the body parts of 

creatures within formlines that could be painted on a surface, or incised into the surface 

of an object. Formlines were used to outline the form of animals such as raven, eagle, 

and killer whale and to define the features of the animal such as wings, joints, eye 

sockets, and teeth. Formlines always joined to form an uninterrupted design, and were 

generally painted black. If the formline was black, the resulting spaces were painted 

red. If the formline was red, the spaces were colored black. Blue and green were used to 

paint less significant spaces within the formlines. 

The art of the Northwest Coast is internationally recognized for its dramatic 

figures, colors, and complexity. Most painting and sculpture were clan symbols or 
162 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

symbols used to illustrate stories. Two dimensional paintings and flat sculptures were 

sometime made three-dimensional by adding dramatic beaks, wings, or limbs. Holm 

recognized that many of the representations were abstract and understanding them is 

difficult unless standard recognition features, such as claws, teeth, or fins, were included 

in the sculpture. Although totem poles are probably the most widely recognized 

symbols of Northwest Coast art, there is little archeological evidence of them prior to 

the arrival of European explorers and traders.

Archeologists agree that the cultural remains from this period were left 

by people who were the ancestors of the contemporary ethnographic groups of 

Tlingit and Haida who occupied the northern Northwest Coast at the time of the 

first European exploration of the region. In 1774 and 1775 the Spanish, aware 

that the Russians were pressing ever eastward, dispatched expeditions to the 

Northwest Coast from their bases in California. As a result of their explorations, 

many of the islands in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska were given Spanish 

names. Other explorers, including Captain James Cook who explored the North 

Pacific between 1778 and 1779 for England, soon followed the Spanish. The 

Russians continued to operate from their base on Kodiak Island. By 1799 the new 

capital of Russian America, Novo-Arkhangel’sk, was built at what today is Sitka, 

Alaska. This was in the heart of Tlingit territory. 

By this time the trade in fur seal pelts was in full force through the entire 

Gulf of Alaska and along the Northwest Coast. The pelts were sold in China where 

there was a high demand for the fur and traders could make great profits. The Russian 

American Company led large expeditions of Native people to hunt fur seals from small 

ocean-going kayaks. Independent European and American traders operated from ships 

along the coast. By the early 1800s large quantities of items like copper and iron, so 

valuable prior to the arrival of Europeans, had flooded the local market and had become 

so common along the coast that they were of little value. 

Contact with outsiders from Europe, American and Asia soon led to 

the introduction of diseases for which the people of the Northwest Coast had 

no immunity. A series of epidemics ravaged the population. The northern area 

experienced the first outbreak of smallpox in 1775. It has been estimated that it 

killed about two-thirds of the population. It was followed by a second smallpox 

epidemic in 1836, and outbreaks of measles in 1848 and again in 1868. While there 

may have been about 50,000 people living along the northern coast prior to the 

arrival of Europeans, by 1890 their number was reduced by disease to about 10,000.

After the 1867 Russian withdrawal from Alaska, EuroAmerican 

colonists began entering the region in greater numbers. Attracted by economic 

opportunities in mining and fishing, the flood of immigrants culminated in the 

Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 – 1898. These were the last pulses of Canadian and 

American westward expansion and justified as manifest destiny. Artifacts from 

this time are a silent record of the impact and change this transition brought to 

Native cultures of the Northwest Coast. 

Summary

It is still not known when people first colonized the Northwest Coast, but 

the available archeological evidence suggests that it was prior to 11,500 years ago. 
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 163

Figure 8.6 Cultural chronology of the Northwest Coast (Icons from Carlson 1990; Davis 1990).
164 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Obsidian found at the oldest sites demonstrates that the source of these valuable 

commodities had already been discovered by this time; so older archeological sites 

probably exist. Artifacts made from exotic types of rocks were found on islands where 

they do not exist naturally, indicating that they were transported to the islands by 

people. They are evidence that early people had watercraft enabling them to travel 

extensive distances along the coast and between islands. There may be sites underwater 

along the ancient Ice Age shore line that were flooded by rising sea level more than 

12,000 years ago.

From the earliest times the people of the Northwest Coast made their living 

primarily from the sea and rivers. By 6,000 years ago people were using fish weirs to 

harvest large numbers of salmon. They were concentrated in permanent, or semipermanent villages at locations where large numbers of salmon, ocean fish, and sea 

mammals could be harvested. There is little known about the roles and importance 

of plant and shellfish gardening including clam gardens and related mariculture 

practices. The rich environment and sedentary life enabled people to devote time to 

the development of sophisticated art expressed in wood carving and the manufacture 

of utilitarian objects. By 2,500 years ago people had developed methods to work native 

copper nuggets into tools and ornaments. The rainforest provided large trees that 

people used to split planks to construct houses, and hollowed out to make large ocean 

going canoes. 

 Most archeologists who have worked along the Northwest Coast agree that 

the archeological record appears to be one of long, relatively stable and continuous 

development (Figure 8.6). Although there is local diversity, cultural development 

throughout the region as a whole does not indicate abrupt and dramatic change in 

technology, economy, or lifestyles. This fact has led most scholars to agree that there 

have not been major population replacements in the region and that the patterns 

characteristic of the cultures of the Northwest Coast can be recognized from at least 

6,000 years ago. 

Additional Reading:

Ames, K. M. and H. D. G. Mashner

1999 Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. London: 

Thames and Hudson.

Holm, Bill 

1965 Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form (Thomas Burke Memorial 

Washington State Museum, Monographs 1) Seattle: University of 

Washington Press (Reprinted 1970). 

Koppel, Tom

2003 Lost World: Rewriting Prehistory – How New Science is Tracing America’s Ice 

 Age Mariners. Atria Books, New York, NY.

Matson, R. G., and G. Coupland

1995 The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast. Academic Press, London. Suttles, 

Wayne (volume editor)
Eastern Beringia: The Northwest Coast 165

Moss, M. L.

2011 Northwest Coast: Archaeology as Deep History. The SAA Press. Washington, 

D.C.

The culture history of Beringia is the story of two vast cultural spheres, one Asian 

and the other American, in contact for thousands of years (Figure 9.1). It is the 

legacy of humans coping with environmental change on a grand scale and remarkable 

human adaptation to changing environments of land, sea, and ice. It is also the story 

of the activities in the daily lives of people living in small villages and camps over 

thousands of years. This saga is summarized within the context of four primary themes: 

1) colonization of the New World, 2) East meets West, 3) environment change and 

cultural development, and 4) the origins and character of sedentism. 

Colonization of the Americas 

Although it is still not known when people first came to Eastern Beringia, it 

is clear that it was sometime prior to 14,000 years ago. It is possible that people were 

in Western Beringia during a period of warmer climate about 27,000 years ago. The 

archeological evidence is clear that people and mammoths lived together in Asia. The 

evidence from the Yana RHS site and Berelekh suggest that people hunted mammoths 

in Siberia. Hypothetically a migration across the Bering Land Bridge to the southern 

areas of North America could have happened before the Laurentide and Cordilleran 

Ice came together about 22,000 – 25,000 years ago. However, there is little evidence 

indicating that people occupied Beringia or North America at that time. 

Ironically, very few sites have been found in Western Beringia that are older 

than sites in North America. The oldest reliably dated human occupation in Western 

Beringia is about 13,000 years ago at Ushki Lake on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, 

while the earliest in Eastern Beringia is Swan Point, dated to about 14,000 years ago. 

This was a time of massive global change when huge continental glaciers were melting, 

sea level was rising rapidly, and giant Ice Age animals, such as mammoths, were 

becoming extinct. Some archeologists believe that Beringia was not the route taken by 

the first people to colonize North America. They suggest that the Americas were first 

populated by oceanic voyages either from Asia or possibly from Europe. Obviously, 

additional research is essential to resolve this issue.

The earliest cultures to reach North America via Beringia were people who 

made and used microblades. The evidence seems firm that by about 14,000 years ago 

CHAPTER 9

SUMMARY
168 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Figure 9.1 Table correlating the expansion and contraction of Asian and American cultural 

traditions in Beringia. 
Summary 169

people camped in Eastern Beringia at Swan Point and the Little John site in Alaska’s 

Tanana River valley. By this time people were already using obsidian obtained from a 

source hundreds of miles away. This suggests that widespread exploration had already 

taken place and possibly that long distance trade networks had been established. 

When people camped at Swan Point for the first time, a massive ice sheet 

extended across Canada from the Atlantic Ocean to the western side of the Rocky 

Mountains. It wasn’t until about 14,000 years ago that this massive glacier had melted 

to expose a very narrow corridor of land between the two ice sheets. However, it 

probably took another one or two thousand years for the ice to melt sufficiently to 

permit plants, animals, and humans to move between Beringia and the southern 

regions of North America. 

Research by geologists indicates that the Northwest Coast was largely 

deglaciated as early as 19,000 – 16,000 years ago. People using watercraft could have 

moved south of the continental ice along the Northwest Coast before they could have 

moved through interior Canada. Modern geology helps us understand the context 

surrounding the first movement of people into North America, but archeologists still 

do not know how and when people first arrived south of the continental glaciers. The 

evidence indicates that they were far south of the ice sheets by 14,500 – 15,000 years 

ago, prior to the time when the interior route was deglaciated.

The end of the last Ice Age was the first opportunity for the Beringian push 

– pull effect to take place. People living along the Beringian coasts and on the Bering 

Land Bridge would have been “pushed” inland as sea level rose. They would have also 

been “pulled” eastward by unoccupied land being colonized by plants and animals as 

the glaciers receded. 

When the continental glaciers melted sufficiently for people and animals to 

move and live between them, people already living south of the continental ice sheets 

moved north. About 12,500 years ago these Paleoindian people from the south 

probably encountered people who had already been living in Eastern Beringia for 

more than a thousand years. The new arrivals from the south introduced a distinctive 

American technology called the Northern Paleoindian tradition to Beringia for the 

first time. The hallmark of this technology was fluted and large lanceolate stone dart 

and spear points, and other distinctive stone tools. The archeological evidence refutes 

the theory that mammoth hunters from Asia came across the Bering Land Bridge and 

then moved south through central North America to colonize the continents at, or 

before, the end of the last Ice Age. 

Rising sea levels flooded the former coastline of Beringia at the end of the 

last Ice Age and the earliest coastal archeological sites may now be under water. Some 

under water sites may have been destroyed and disturbed by ice gouging. In the eastern 

Aleutian Islands and along the Northwest Coast, the earliest coastal sites are about 

11,500 – 9,000 years old. These sites are preserved because the rising land outpaced 

rising sea level in specific areas. However, in most other places rising sea level has 

flooded ancient shorelines and submerged coastal archaeological sites occupied prior to 

9,000 years ago. 

All of the early coastal sites that remain above sea level contain microblades. 

However, there is some evidence to suggest that there may have been an earlier 

migration along the coast by people who did not make microblades. Nevertheless, the 
170 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

evidence is clear that early microblade-using cultures were able to make their living 

from the sea, as well as the land. 

Early people using microblades and other types of stone tools first moved 

into northeast Asia and then across the Bering Land Bridge when sea level was lower. 

They may have skirted the southern coast of the Land Bridge using watercraft. People 

could have crossed Beringia by both land and sea. Although other routes have been 

suggested, most archeologists believe people first came to North America via Beringia. 

The oral history of Native Americans varies greatly. Some accounts support 

origins via water, others by land, and others state that people originated in the 

Americas. Different groups may have had different origins — some may have come 

early and others later. The timing and character of the human colonization of the 

American continents remains one of the major unsolved questions in world archeology. 

East Meets West 

Beringia is the connecting link, or crossroad, between Asia and North America 

and it played a vital role in the development of circumpolar cultures. The presence or 

absence of microblades and evidence of the bow and arrow may be useful indicators 

to identify two major cultural traditions, one Asian and the other distinctly North 

American, that met and interacted in Central and Eastern Beringia. These events 

dramatically influenced the lives of early Beringians and helped forge unique and 

ingenious cultures.

The difference between microblade and non-microblade technology is 

significant and can be used to help identify Asian and North American cultural 

influences in Beringia. Sometimes, but not always, microblades appear to be associated 

with the use of the bow and arrow. Wooden artifacts such as bows, arrows, and atl atls 

decompose over time and are rarely preserved in archeological sites. The only parts of 

these weapon systems that are commonly found are the stone dart tips, arrow heads, 

and microblades. These stone artifacts can tell us about the missing tools that have 

decomposed. For example, compared to arrow heads the stone and bone points used to 

tip atl atl darts tend to be larger, heavier, and wider where they attach to the shaft.

Although the origins of the Nenana complex remain unclear, the Northern 

Paleoindian and Northern Archaic traditions originated south of Beringia in regions 

of North America where sources of tool stone were available throughout the winter 

months. These technological traditions did not use microblades, nor the bow and 

arrow. Instead they preferred to use the atl atl as their primary weapon. The bow and 

arrow was not adopted in the more temperate areas of North America until about 

1,500 years ago. These significant differences suggest that the cultures derived from 

the Paleoindian tradition in more southern regions of North America are distinctively 

different from the microblade and bow and arrow using traditions derived from the 

Asian Dyuktai and American Paleoarctic traditions. The presence or absence of these 

and other cultural traits enable archeologists to identify these two spheres of cultural 

influence as they waxed and waned throughout ancient Beringia. 

Asian Beringian traditions emphasized the manufacture of microblades 

and relied heavily on projectile points made from bone, antler, and ivory, while the 

Paleoindian and Northern Archaic traditions are best characterized by distinctive types 

of stone projectile points used to tip atl atl darts. These technological traits enable 
Summary 171

archeologists to define the geographic boundaries of these traditions based on the age 

and location of the archeological sites that contain these distinctive types of artifacts. 

Most archeologists agree that the origins of Dyuktai culture in Western Beringia, 

the American Paleo-arctic tradition in Central Beringia, and the Denali complex in 

Eastern Beringia are derived from the Paleolithic microblade cultures of Asia. The 

archeological evidence indicates that the microblade traditions of Asia reached interior 

Eastern Beringia more than 14,000 years ago. 

The invention of microblade technology was essential to sustain human 

life year round in the Arctic. Microblade technological systems require a complex 

sequence of procurement and manufacturing steps that are so complex that they 

must be learned and passed from one individual to another. The transmission of this 

complex technological system from one generation to the next implies other shared 

technological, economic, and social concepts. The very earliest sites that have organic 

preservation indicate that throughout Beringia microblades were used as insets in the 

sides of antler arrow points. These finds suggest the widespread use of the bow and 

arrow by early microblade-using people throughout Beringia by at least 11,500 years 

ago. Danish archeologist Helge Larsen called this the “the circumpolar side blade 

tradition.” He realized that microblades were used throughout the circumpolar north 

as razor-like insets in the sides of arrow heads made from bone, antler, or ivory. 

Larsen and other archeologists also recognized the technological continuity 

from these early microblade traditions to the later Arctic Small Tool tradition when 

a transition from microblades to bifacially flaked side blades took place. During late 

Arctic Small Tool tradition times about 4,500 – 4,000 years ago, there was a transition 

in Central Beringia from using microblades to using bifacially flaked sides blades as 

insets. The use of chipped side blades continued over time but they became smaller 

and less common until about 1,000 years ago when people stopped using side blades 

altogether. Remarkably, even after they were no longer used, people continued to incise 

a line, sometimes called a blood line, on the projectile point where the insets used to 

be located. It is difficult to believe that these practices were independently developed 

by different groups of people at different times over such a vast area. Instead, these 

incredibly long-lived practices suggest a long and continuous tradition of behavior 

passed from one generation to the next and that other customs and social beliefs were 

shared and passed from generation to generation as well. 

It is tempting to think of these early Beringians who shared this long tradition 

of technological development and learned behavior as a single people, or culture. 

However, it cannot be proven that these individuals were biologically related or even 

spoke similar languages. To confirm such relationships would require analysis of the 

genetic characteristics and the languages of these ancient people that are not available. 

It is also clear that significant cultural differences exist within this larger technological 

continuum. For example, some groups living at the same time, hunting in the same way, 

and even sharing similar art styles, used labrets as body adornment while others did not. 

The presence and absence of these symbols of social status suggest significant regional 

differences between groups for thousands of years. 

In sharp contrast to the Asian-derived microblades are the archeological 

assemblages developed in North America that lack microblades and instead are typified 

by bifacially flaked projectile points. This way of making stone tools, called the 
172 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Northern Paleoindian tradition, is dramatically different from that of the circumpolar 

side blade tradition. The making of Paleoindian points was a reductive strategy 

in which a large piece of stone was reduced by chipping it into a desired shape. In 

contrast to this extravagant use of stone, microblades were conservative in the use of 

stone. Asian projectile points were produced by an additive process of fixing razor like 

microblades into slots on the site of antler or bone points. 

Although far more labor-intensive, the manufacture of antler points with 

stone insets guaranteed that the materials necessary to make projectile points and other 

cutting tools could be available even when frozen ground and winter snow prevented 

access to stone during much of the year. In other words, the microblade technique is an 

Arctic adaptation, while bifacially chipping stone projectile points reflects a temperate, 

more southern, adaptation. Some archeologists have suggested that intervals of cooler 

climate favored caribou-hunting and tundra-adapted, microblade-using cultures, 

while warmer intervals may have favored more temperate-adapted cultures focused on 

hunting animals such as deer or bison. 

In contrast to the circumpolar microblade tradition, Paleoindian people did 

not use the bow and arrow. Instead they primarily relied on the atl atl and javelin-like 

spears for hunting. Based on their size, shape, and weight, the fluted and lanceolate 

projectile points made by the Paleoindian tradition were used to tip atl atl darts. The 

width of the projectile point at the hafting point provides an indication of the size of 

the shaft to which it was attached. Their size indicates that stone points were attached 

to atl atl darts and not used to tip arrows. These contrasting conceptual approaches 

to making and using tools reflect ways of life that were culturally different. The 

interaction between these Asian and American traditions was played out primarily in 

interior Eastern Beringia and on the North American side of Central Beringia. 

The Nenana complex is an anomaly and it is difficult to determine its 

significance. It was once believed to be the oldest complex in Eastern Beringia. It is 

characterized by small triangular bifacial projectile points and distinctive ovate bifaces 

that were probably used as knives. It does not have microblades, but some sites have 

projectile points resembling Paleoindian types. The Nenana complex appears to be 

geographically restricted to areas of interior Eastern Beringia for about a thousand 

years between about 13,200 and 12,100 years ago. It may represent a particular 

type of site associated with the Denali complex, or an early variant of the Northern 

Paleoindian tradition, or perhaps the remnant of an earlier non-microblade culture 

which was in place prior to the arrival of the Denali complex. Don Dumond cautiously 

has suggested that the Nenana complex may represent an early movement of people 

northward to Eastern Beringia from areas south of the continental glaciers immediately 

prior to the Northern Paleoindian tradition. By about 12,500 – 11,500 years ago, it 

becomes difficult to distinguish the Nenana complex from the Northern Paleoindian 

tradition, a fact that suggests a possible sharing or incorporation of technological traits 

between the two. 

The Northern Paleoindian tradition occurs throughout much of Eastern 

Beringia beginning sometime between 12,500 and 11,500 years ago and possibly 

persisting until about 7,000 years ago in some areas of Central and Eastern Beringia. 

The appearance of fluted and lanceolate projectile points in Eastern Beringia document 

people moving north from southern parts of North America, colonizing new land 
Summary 173

recently exposed by the melting continental glaciers, until they reached interior Eastern 

Beringia. The pulling effect of deglaciation is demonstrated by the presence of these 

artifacts. There is some evidence to suggest that Paleoindian people may have first 

spread northward into Alaska along the Brooks Range and then south into the more 

interior regions of Eastern Beringia. Between 12,500 and 11,900 years ago there was 

an increase in herb tundra in central Alaska and to the south and east as large areas of 

Canada were deglaciated. This vegetation may have favored the types of game familiar 

to Paleoindian hunters from the south, such as bison and elk. Although the evidence 

is difficult to interpret, it appears that neither Northern Paleoindian people nor their 

technological innovations reached the Asian side of Central Beringia. 

Following the Paleoindian period the climate continued to warm and the 

northern forest continued to expand throughout eastern and Central Beringia. In the 

southern regions of North America people abandoned the use of lanceolate projectile 

points between 9,000 – 8,000 years ago and began to tip their darts and spears with 

notched projectile points. The evidence from Eastern and Central Beringia suggests 

that by about 6,800 years ago new arrivals from the south occupied the entire region, 

bringing with them the Northern Archaic tradition. 

This notched point technology developed in the southern part of North 

America 1,000 – 2,000 years earlier. Like their Paleoindian predecessors, they did not 

use the bow and arrow, but relied on the atl atl to propel their spears. The boreal forest 

had continued to expand and by about 6,800 years ago it had reached all the way to 

the present coast of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Northern Archaic sites are common 

and frequently large, suggesting larger numbers of people. They made and used stone 

projectile points and knives with notches and other types of artifacts valuable for 

making a living from the forest. The early Northern Archaic period marks the farthest 

westward push toward Asia by New World cultures. It occurs at a time when the 

climate is near its warmest and the forest has reached its maximum extent. 

Microblades seem to disappear from Eastern Beringia during early Northern 

Archaic times. It appears that the people of the side blade tradition may have 

withdrawn to the coastal fringe and islands of the Bering and Chukchi Seas — perhaps 

all the way to Asia. In the Kodiak Archipelago, cultural development takes a unique 

path. People permanently abandon the use of microblades earlier than anywhere 

else in Beringia. This early abandonment of microblade technology about 7,000 

years ago may be related to the fact that there were few land mammals to hunt in the 

Archipelago, and the bow and arrow was not effective for marine mammal hunting 

or fishing. Also the relatively warm Pacific waters around the Archipelago may have 

created a warmer climate that allowed people access to supplies of stone during winter 

months. They are the first Beringians to produce projectile points and other tools by 

sawing, grinding, and polishing stone, rather than chipping it. 

Interior Eastern Beringia and the American side of Central Beringia was the 

geographic interface between the Asian microblade traditions and Paleoindian nonmicroblade traditions of North America. Interior Eastern Beringia was a complex 

environmental mosaic with the boundaries between these technological traditions 

shifting repeatedly over time. Consequently, when viewed from the perspective of 

a single geographic place, some archeological sites have a sequence of occupations 

alternating between those containing microblades and those that do not. The evidence 
174 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

also suggests that over time there was an exchange of technology that moved in both 

directions. Later Paleoindian people may have adopted the use of microblades and 

microblade-using groups may have acquired Paleoindian-style projectile points. 

Despite this apparent contact, the concept and use of the bow and arrow did not spread 

south from Eastern Beringia to people elsewhere in North America until about 1,500 

years ago. 

The period of Russian and European contact marks the most recent episode 

of East meets West in Beringia. The Russians pushing eastward met Europeans moving 

westward in two regions. The Russian American Company encountered the Hudson Bay 

Company in interior Alaska, where so many cultural contacts appear to have been made 

in the past. As they pushed south from the Gulf of Alaska along the west coast of North 

America, the Russians encountered the Spanish as they explored their way northward 

from California. These historic encounters probably reflect the spheres of contact that 

characterized prehistoric contact and exchange, one coastal and the other interior. 

Soon after the Russians and Europeans began their exploration of Beringia, 

disease and epidemics swept through the land killing many people. The new economic 

and political systems introduced by European and American explorers and colonizers 

irreversibly changed the Native cultures of Beringia. At the same time Native 

technology and inventions such as the parka, dog traction, and kayaks were widely 

adopted by non-Native people.

Environmental Change and Cultural Development

Because Beringian people make their living directly from the land and sea, 

environmental change has played an important role in their cultural development. 

Sharing knowledge and information is critical to success for all societies, but even more 

so in extreme environments with relatively small populations. Under these circumstances 

seemingly insignificant mistakes, false information, and errors in judgment can be 

disastrous. Survival in the extreme physical environments of Beringia required social 

environments where people could obtain information and share innovations. 

The need for safety can foster a conservative approach to adopting new ideas 

and technology. In Beringia new concepts had to be carefully tested to determine if 

they were advantageous and safe prior to adopting them. By examining when and 

where these innovations first occur, it is possible to determine the direction from which 

they came, how fast they were adopted, and how they were transferred to neighboring 

groups. It is also possible to determine how viable innovations were and to explore the 

reasons some people accepted them and others did not. 

Periods of colder climate may have resulted in the eastward expansion of 

microblade-using people in Beringia (Figure 9.1). Periods of cooler climate may have 

been more advantageous for microblade-using people hunting on land. For example, 

during periods of cooler climate, caribou habitat tends to expand enabling caribou 

hunters to move into new areas. Furthermore, microblade technology is an adaptation 

to colder climates because it conserves a usable supply of tool stone through the winter 

when most sources are inaccessible under ice and snow. 

Conversely, periods of warmer climate appear to have favored the northward 

and westward expansion of non-microblade-using people. During warmer periods, 

cultures that adapted to hunting other types of animals and to a more extravagant 
Summary 175

use of stone were economically more successful. During periods of warmer climate, 

microblade-using people may have also put greater emphasis on harvesting resources 

from the sea, rather than the land. If microblade-using people tended to aggregate 

along the coast during periods of warmer climate, the result may have been lower 

populations in non-coastal areas. Such demographic shifts would have made it easier 

for non-microblade-using people to occupy the region with less conflict. While it is 

tempting to attribute these cultural changes to climate change, there may have also been 

cultural factors affecting such as population increases or declines, cultural innovations, 

the need for trade, and social conflicts and alliances.

Correlating these cultural or technological pulses with climate change also 

suggests that there may have been a lag in time between climate change and territorial 

expansions and contractions of microblade and non-microblade use. The interface of 

these changing boundaries may explain the complexity observed in many archeological 

sites, particularly in Eastern Beringia where these shifts may have been most dramatic. 

The period beginning about 4,000 years ago appears to be a time of major 

upheaval and possible cultural displacement throughout much of central and Eastern 

Beringia. It is a time of cooler climate, stormier seas, increased tundra, and minor 

glacial advances in alpine areas. Marine mammals that inhabit the edge of the Bering 

Sea ice pack move with the winter sea ice and appear as far south as the Aleutian 

Islands for the first time. It appears to be a time of population dispersal, technological 

change, exploration, and perhaps innovation. It is also a time when there is a strong 

technological push eastward from the Asian side of Beringia. 

Pottery was also is introduced from Asia to Western Beringia at this time 

(about 4,000 years ago), and pottery was widely used for thousands of years in Western 

and Central Beringia. However, the people of Eastern Beringia who were aware of 

ceramics did not adopt pottery. It is difficult to identify environmental reasons why 

the Asian paddle and anvil technique of pottery making never spread farther south in 

North America. Perhaps the rejection of this new technology was a deliberate cultural 

choice based on social preferences rather than other more pragmatic economic or 

environmental concerns.

In the Kodiak Archipelago, Koniag people experimented with pottery 

manufacture introduced from the Bering Sea region, but it never took hold and was 

rejected in favor of more traditional materials such as bowls and oil lamps pecked from 

stone. Relatively small amounts of pottery have been found as far inland as the junction 

of the Yukon and Tanana Rivers, but its use was never widespread farther inland. Instead 

people favored containers made of traditional materials such as birch bark. 

The strength of the Asian influences in North America can also be observed 

in interior Eastern Beringia. Here there appears to be a combination of the use of 

microblades and Northern Archaic projectile points (notched and later lanceolate). 

This suggests movement into the interior of coastal microblade-using people or 

adoption of their technology. Caribou habitat and populations may have expanded 

during this colder interval. Perhaps deteriorating climatic conditions along the coast 

forced or encouraged people to place greater reliance on inland resources, such as 

caribou. There is some evidence to suggest that the bow and arrow was finally adopted 

in interior Eastern Beringia about this time (about 1,700 years ago), possibly as a result 

of a prolonged period of interaction between people of Central and Eastern Beringia. 
176 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

From there it spread southward and was adopted throughout the rest of North America 

by about 1,500 years ago. 

Although microblade use was not continuous in interior Eastern Beringia, the 

late radiocarbon dates from several sites suggest that microblade manufacture persisted 

longer in this region than anywhere else, possibly until as late as 1,500 – 1,000 years 

ago. The manufacture and use of microblades appears to terminate somewhat earlier 

in Central Beringia between about 3,800 – 2,500 years ago. With the exception of the 

Kodiak Archipelago, microblades disappear at the same time metal — copper, bronze, 

and iron — is introduced. The genius of microblade technology was that it solved the 

problem of not being able to obtain stone throughout much of the year and it may 

have been impossible to abandon it until a more efficient replacement, such as metal, 

was available. The introduction of metal no longer required the constant replacement 

of stone cutting edges, because even small pieces could be resharpened and could last 

for many years. Microblade use was discontinued about 3,800 years ago in Central 

Beringia, 3,000 years ago in Aleutians, 2,000 – 1,500 years ago in interior Alaska and 

Canada, and between 2,500 – 2,000 years ago on the Northwest Coast. 

Based on the size and shape of the stone projectile points and the atl atl dart 

shafts found at melting ice patches, it is clear that people living in interior Eastern 

Beringia were using spears and darts propelled using the atl atl. Well-preserved 

antler arrow heads, and later bow fragments, and other archery equipment appear 

to have been in use in Central Beringia beginning with the American Paleoarctic 

tradition, possibly as early as 14,000 years or more ago. However, to the south, in 

regions that are now Canada and the contiguous United States, the widespread 

occurrence of small stone projectile points used to tip arrows does not occur until 

about 1,500 years ago. 

Beginning about 1,500 year ago many areas in Beringia appear to be in a 

time of cultural unrest, movement, and conflict. Widespread conflict is indicated 

by the location of many archeological sites throughout Beringia. Old Itelmen sites 

in Kamchatka, sites throughout the Aleutian Islands, in the Kodiak Archipelago, in 

Kachemak Bay, and along the northern Northwest Coast are located in obscure or 

defensible locales. These locations have been interpreted to be places where people 

can hide from enemies or can be more easily defended by small numbers of people. 

The artifacts from many sites throughout Beringia also reflect increased conflict. For 

example, there is an increase in archery equipment, body armor, war clubs, and shields. 

Some burials and human remains from this time also exhibit indications of violent 

death and trauma. 

This was a time of climate change known as the Little Ice Age. Shortly after 

1,250 years ago the climate became colder, sea ice was more extensive, and mountain 

glaciers advanced. Shifting biological resources caused by climate change may have 

contributed to widespread social unrest. Colder climate may have caused animal 

populations, such as fish and large mammals, to decrease in some areas and increase in 

others. Changing climate may have also made some species easier or more difficult to 

harvest as a result of factors such sea ice conditions or the amount of water in rivers at 

given times of the year. The changing environment may have encouraged some groups 

to seek additional resources in neighboring territory or to expand existing territory as a 

result of increases in population. 
Summary 177

The Little Ice Age resulted in increased salmon runs in some areas, such as the 

Kodiak Archipelago, where a marked cultural change from the Kachemak to Koniag 

traditions took place. It also marks the clear emergence of Athapaskan culture in 

the interior Eastern Beringia and Western Thule in Central Beringia. These were the 

cultures encountered by the first Russian and Europeans to visit Beringia and they had 

been forged during this time of climate change and social unrest. 

Sedentism

Scientists speculate that people began as hunters and gatherers living in 

small groups and moving from place to place to obtain food, water, and other things 

necessary to survive. At some point they became more sedentary, staying in one place 

year round. This in turn led to villages that were occupied for generations. This stable 

way of life, called sedentism, can be identified throughout Beringia by the remains 

of permanent communities occupied by people for thousands of years. Sedentism is 

considered an important stage in human cultural development from which advanced 

civilizations emerged. The cultural history of Beringia may offer unique insights into 

origins of sedentism and the reasons why it developed. 

Throughout much of the world, sedentism is usually associated with 

agriculture, where surplus grain and other agricultural products can be stored to sustain 

the population throughout the year. However, people throughout Beringia were able 

to live in permanent settlements for thousands of years based primarily on the harvest 

of marine mammals and fish. The earliest evidence for this is at Ushki I in central 

Kamchatka where seven single chambered houses were found clustered around two 

larger multifamily dwellings occupied 13,000 years ago. In other areas and later in time, 

substantial villages were located on the Alaska Peninsula, along the Northwest Coast, 

throughout the Aleutian Islands, in the Kodiak Archipelago, and along the coasts and 

islands of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. 

Although these villages were not cities, they provide insights into the origins 

of urban living and complex societies. They suggest that early maritime adaptations 

enabled people to live in one place year round, and this alternative to agriculture may 

have formed the economic foundation for later civilizations elsewhere in the world. 

They demonstrate that an economy based on agriculture is not necessary to live in 

permanent settlements, develop complex technology, sustain social hierarchies, and 

achieve the high levels of sophisticated art that characterized Beringia. 

New Frontiers

Despite the substantial progress that has been made, knowledge of this vast region 

remains incomplete. Traditional archeological survey, excavation, preservation, and analysis 

are needed in all areas of Beringia. In addition, there are exciting new research frontiers, 

including the archeology of melting glaciers and underwater archeology. 

Most knowledge about the early archeology of Beringia is based on the 

few stone tools that have been preserved. Tools, clothing and other materials made 

from plants and animals usually decompose soon after deposition. This preservation 

bias greatly limits the ability of archeologists to understand the past. A better 

understanding of material culture is possible in cases where organic remains, such as 

bone and wood, are preserved. There are some environments where preservation of 
178 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

organic material is excellent. For example, some bogs, underwater sites, permafrost, and 

glaciers have preserved organic remains in exceptional condition. Waterlogged deposits 

on Kodiak Island have revealed a complex and colorful material culture that would be 

invisible if only the stone artifacts were known. 

It is difficult to determine the timing and origins of early maritime adaptations 

because rising sea level flooded the former coastline of Beringia at the end of the last Ice 

Age and coastal archeological sites are now underwater. In the eastern Aleutian Islands 

and along the Northwest Coast the earliest coastal sites are about 11,500 – 9,000 

years old. There is evidence from several cave sites in Alaska and British Columbia for 

settlement on islands that required the use of watercraft along the Northwest Coast 

more than 11,500 years ago. 

Many archeologists believe that understanding these early maritime 

adaptations holds the key to understanding the way people were first able to colonize 

North America. The record of early North Pacific maritime adaptations is probably 

preserved in some places along the submerged Ice Age shorelines. Archeological sites 

resulting from people living inland on the former Land Bridge and adjacent coasts may 

be preserved under the cold waters of the Okhotsk, Bering and Chukchi Seas, the Gulf 

of Alaska, and the Northwest Coast. 

Although marine archeological survey was tried as early as the 1970s in the 

Bering Sea, underwater archeology in Beringia has lagged far behind underwater 

archeology elsewhere in the world. Marine archeological survey in Beringia has been 

hampered by severe weather, oceans covered by ice much of the year, poor navigational 

controls, high costs and limited resources, and the absence of sunken treasure ships. 

The first underwater survey in the Bering Sea in 1976 demonstrated the feasibility of 

marine archeological survey in Beringia. Off the coast of British Columbia Daryl Fedje 

and Heiner Josenhans conducted marine survey and testing in 1997 that resulted in the 

recovery of a stone artifact probably dating to about 12,000 years ago. 

With advances in satellite navigation and underwater technology, such 

as remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) (Figure 9.2), the archeology of 

Beringia’s continental shelves may prove to be one of archeology’s most exciting and 

challenging frontiers. It remains a vast pristine environment that has escaped much 

of the destruction and disturbance resulting from modern industrial development. 

Artifacts and even well preserved archeological sites may lie beneath Beringia’s cold 

Arctic waters.

Since about the 1980s, scientists have recorded that the earth is undergoing 

a period of global warming. Researchers have documented that glaciers throughout 

Beringia have been melting and the extent of sea-ice is decreasing. Archeological 

remains are being exposed on the surfaces and along the margins of some melting 

glaciers and ice patches. Frozen environments have produced some of the most 

complete examples of prehistoric human remains and artifacts ever discovered. Their 

excellent state of preservation makes them suitable for analysis with a variety of 

scientific techniques. 

The discovery of a late Neolithic “Iceman” in 1991 brought world attention 

to the archeological potential of glaciers. Found near a 10,500 foot (3,200 m) 

glaciated pass in the Tyrolean Alps in northern Italy, the Iceman carried an impressive 

array of sophisticated technology including armaments, clothing, storage containers, 
Summary 179

wood-working implements, fire-starting equipment, and even medicinal plants. The 

pioneering work of Canadian researcher Greg Hare, Native participants, and scientific 

colleagues soon followed this discovery. In the southern Yukon Territory of Canada 

near the British Columbia border, several thawing ice patches were discovered 

containing frozen archeological and paleontological specimens. The search spread 

to Alaska where similar discoveries have been made. The finds from these sites are 

extremely important because they preserve organic artifacts seldom found in other 

types of sites. Some amazing discoveries include arrows with feathers and stone 

projectile points attached with sinew lashing, atl atl darts, and clothing. Because they 

are organic, they can be dated using the radiocarbon method.

Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi, meaning “Long Ago Person Found” in Southern 

Tutchone (Athapaskan), was found in northern British Columbia, Canada. The 

remains of this individual who lived 500 years ago were discovered along an ice ridge 

on a glacier at an elevation of approximately 5,250 ft (1,600 m). Artifacts recovered 

with Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi included tools, weapons, clothes, and even trail food. These 

and other fortuitous discoveries were brought to the attention of archeologists by 

outdoor recreationalists. 

These finds demonstrate that organic artifacts are preserved within these 

unique frozen depositional environments and that they will continue to be exposed if 

ancient ice continues to melt. The exceptional preservation of organic artifacts found in 

such contexts can make them appear to be recent, particularly to the untrained eye. As 

a result, their full significance may not be recognized. For example, the Iceman from 

the Tyrolean Alps was regarded as a recent fatality and was initially treated as a forensic 

case. Therefore, it is important to date every specimen and not assume that specimens 

are recent, or that assemblages of objects are all the same age. 

In addition to the archeological remains that have been reported from 

mountain glaciers, numerous organic artifacts have been discovered melting from 

Figure 9.2 Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) used to search for submerged archeological 

sites on the continental shelf of Southeast Alaska in 2010: 1 On deck; 2 Deployed on surface 

prior to dive to conduct underwater survey. 
180 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

small patches of perennial snow and ice (Figure 9.3). The archeology of glaciers and 

ice patches presents unique challenges. Because it is not feasible or practical to dig test 

pits in glacial ice and ice patches, archeologists rely primarily on surface finds. Once 

thawed, organic remains soon decompose or are subject to destruction by scavenging 

animals and decay. Consequently, it is important for these sites to be located in 

order to collect, study, and preserve the rare artifacts they contain. If global warming 

continues, artifacts important to understanding Beringia’s past will continue to be 

exposed. It is important that glaciers and ice patches likely to contain these rare organic 

artifacts be identified and monitored. 

Legacy

For thousands of years Beringia has been the zone of cultural contact between 

Asia and North America. The archeological record from this region documents a 

series of Asian – North American population shifts that can be correlated with climate 

change. It cannot be adequately interpreted without understanding the environment, 

fluctuating sea levels, and changing climate.

In Central Beringia an amazing sequence of technological progress and 

innovation took place. Over thousands of years the ability to make a living from the 

Arctic seas enabled people to prosper. Ultimately the innovations and refinements 

included the invention of specialized equipment such as snow goggles and snow 

knives made of bone and ivory to extend hunting and fishing onto the sea ice. Dog 

traction and specialized sleds enabled people to travel long distances across the vast 

expanse of the frozen ocean. Many Beringian inventions such as kayaks, the toggling 

harpoon, and crampons have been adapted widely and have made lasting contributions 

to contemporary society. These ingenious people adapted to the most extreme 

Figure 9.3 The Bonanza Ice Patch in Alaska. Caribou are attracted to ice patches in the

summer to cool down and escape insects. People have hunted them at these sites for 

thousands of years. 
Summary 181

environment on earth, the ice of the Arctic Ocean. This type of problem solving is 

essentially the same as that required for contemporary space exploration. People 

created artificial environments in which to work and live, discovered ingenious ways of 

procuring food and fuel, and developed the knowledge and skill to navigate vast regions 

and return home safely. 

Native people of Beringia have made significant contributions to science and 

scholarship by sharing their knowledge and expertise. During the formative stages 

of archeological and ethnographic research they carefully explained the function 

and meaning of the everyday objects they made and used. This legacy is essential to 

understand and interpret the objects found in archeological sites. Their patience 

in working with researchers and scholars not only enriched science, but also made 

scientists better people. 

During the early years of research in Beringia, many natural scientists did 

not demonstrate respect for Native people, their cultural beliefs, or even their dead. 

Human remains were exhumed inappropriately and Native people were not consulted 

about what were appropriate and respectful ways to conduct research in the context of 

their cultures. Archeologists and other scientists have learned from these mistakes and 

strive to be respectful of Native values, consult with tribal governments, partner with 

local people, and share research results. Tribal sovereignty and self governance, land 

claim settlements, and legislation codifying Native rights have changed the way science 

is conducted. Native people and indigenous scholars throughout Beringia continue to 

take leadership roles in research by sharing their interpretations through media, as well 

as local and regional interpretative centers and museums. 

The unique mix of East and West that has made Beringia a fertile home for 

innovation, invention, and adaptation continues. The historic events of Russian, 

European and American contact combined with Native knowledge have created a new 

Beringia with even greater cultural diversity. In the past, the overall flow of cultural 

traits has been primarily from Asia to North America. For much of this time the 

dividing line between the two cultural spheres has been in North America, somewhere 

in the region of what is today interior Alaska. If the correlation between climate and 

cultural trends continues, the current interval of climate warming in the Arctic suggests 

there may be an expansion of American cultural traits westward toward Asia. It will be 

fascinating to see if the trends of the past foreshadow Beringia’s future. 
182 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia
The following biographical sketches provide insights into the history of Beringian 

archeology, the influences various scholars have had on one another, and their 

impact on world archeology. Although this appendix is far from complete, is provides 

useful historic contexts from which to interpret the development of Beringian 

archeology. All living individuals, and some of those who are deceased, featured 

in biographical sketches have given permission to be included and assisted with 

photographs and important biographical and historic information about themselves, 

their colleagues and mentors. Some living individuals who were invited to be included 

in this section chose not to participate. Consequently, it should not be assumed that 

because certain individuals are not included that their contributions to Beringian 

archeology are not significant. 

Pioneers 

of Beringian Archeology
184 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Robert E. Ackerman

b. 1928 

Robert Ackerman began archeological research in Alaska in 1956 under the 

direction of J. Louis Giddings. Ackerman was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 

and educated at the University of Michigan, receiving his B.A. and M.A. degrees in 

1950 and 1951 respectively. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1961 from the University 

of Pennsylvania and began as an Instructor in Anthropology at Washington State 

University that same year. He was a Russian language specialist in the United States 

Air Force. 

His research has focused on cultural relationships between Asia and North 

America. Since 1959 he has made repeated research visits to Russia to analyze and 

interpret archeological collections and is a leading expert on the archeology of the 

Bering Sea region. He has made important contributions to the broad interpretation 

of archeology of the north Pacific Rim, and more specifically to the archeology and 

ethnology of Alaska. Ackerman has conducted extensive field research throughout 

Alaska including the Bering Sea region, southcentral and Southeast Alaska. His 

significant contributions to the archeology of Southeast Alaska include the first 

documentation of early microblade using cultures in this region of Alaska. As Professor 

of Anthropology and Director of the Museum of Anthropology at Washington State 

University, he trained numerous students in Alaskan archeology. He was the recipient 

of the Career Achievement Award of the Alaska Anthropological Association in 1999. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 185

Robert E. Ackerman at the Department of Anthropology, University of 

Washington, 1996 (Photo courtesy of Robert E. Ackerman).
186 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Douglas D. Anderson

b. 1936

Douglas Anderson began his career in Alaskan archeology in 1960 working 

with J. Louis Giddings at Cape Krusenstern where he excavated and analyzed Ipiutak 

settlements. Following Giddings’ death in 1964, he undertook the formidable task of 

completing Giddings’ unfinished research, including the analysis and publication of 

his field work at Cape Krusenstern and excavation of the deeply stratified site at Onion 

Portage on the Kobuk River. At Onion Portage he excavated and described the Akmak 

assemblage, the oldest occupation from the site. He has made numerous important 

contributions to defining and interpreting the archeology and cultures of northwestern 

Alaska. In addition to his impressive record of archeological research, he and his 

wife, Wanni W. Anderson, have conducted important long-term ethnological studies 

near Selawik, Alaska. They have also maintained a second research area in Thailand 

where he has excavated and tested sites including Lang Rongrien Rockshelter which 

spans 40,000 years of prehistory. He has probably served as mentor for more graduate 

students pursuing careers in Arctic anthropology than any other Arctic scholar. 

Born in Olympia, Washington, Anderson received his B.A. from the 

University of Washington (1960), his M.A. from Brown University (1962) and his 

Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1967). He has served on the faculty of 

Brown University since 1965. He has been a visiting lecturer at universities in Thailand 

and Russia, a member of the Advisory Council for the National Park Service, and a 

member of the subcommission for Anthropology and Archaeology of the IREX/

USSR (Russian) Academy of Sciences. He is the foremost expert on the archeology of 

northwest Alaska and remains active in teaching and research at Brown University. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 187

Douglas D. Anderson on the Amur River, near 

Khabarovsk, Russia, 1973 (Detail from a photo by C. 

Vance Haynes). 
188 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Herbert O. Anungazuk

1945 – 2010

Herbert Anungazuk was born and raised a naturalist and hunter in the 

Inupiaq community of Wales, Alaska. He graduated from Mount Edgecumbe High 

School in Sitka, Alaska and attended Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. He served 

in the military during the Vietnam War and married Lena Riley in 1983. He began 

working as an anthropologist and heritage specialist for the National Park Service in 

1985. As an Inupiaq speaker and whaler with extensive knowledge of the communities, 

history, land, and people of the Seward Peninsula and northwestern Alaska, he was 

a highly respected Park Service anthropologist. He partnered and collaborated with 

colleagues including Ernest S. “Tiger” Burch, David Hopkins, Allen McCartney, Igor 

Krupnik, Jeanne Schaaf, and many others. 

Anungazuk was a gifted speaker and author. In addition to his many reports 

and presentations at professional meetings, he published in the scholarly journals such 

as the Alaska Journal of Anthropology and the encyclopedia Archaeology in America,

and he contributed more than 4,000 entries to the Wales Sea Ice Dictionary. His 

work helped many archeologists better understand the significance and context of 

the ancient remains they discovered. His contributions to Beringian anthropology 

and archeology reached beyond Alaska and his work raised national awareness of 

the importance of indigenous knowledge in resource management. He received the 

Alaska Anthropological Association’s Professional Achievement Award in 2010.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 189

Herbert Anungazuk on the Seward Peninsula. (Photo courtesy the National Park Service 

Alaska Regional Office.)
190 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Hans-Georg Bandi

b. 1920

Hans-Georg Bandi’s fascination with Iñupiat archeology began when he 

served as a field assistant to Danish archeologist Count Eigil Knuth’s 1948 expedition 

to Pearyland in Northern Greenland. Ten years later he met J. Louis Giddings who 

invited him to participate in work at Cape Krusenstern, Alaska. As visiting professor 

at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks in 1962 – 1963, he studied the spectacular St. 

Lawrence Island collections made in the 1920s and 1930s by Otto Geist. He collaborated 

with Frederick Hadleigh-West on field research in the Yukon Flats in 1963-1964. He 

conducted an archeological reconnaissance on St. Lawrence Island in 1965, and began 

excavations during the summers of 1969, 1971 – 1973. He excavated dwellings and 

reported burials dating to Punuk, Okvik and Old Bering Sea times and recorded sites 

along the west coast of the Island that appeared to be in places that were situated for 

defensive purposes against hostile attacks coming from the Chukchi Peninsula. 

Bandi was born in Thun, Switzerland, and received his Ph.D. from the 

University of Fribourg (1945) where he studied under Hugo Obermaier. In Switzerland 

he served as assistant curator at the Ethnographic Museum Basel (1945 – 50) and as 

professor of prehistory and paleo-ethnography at the University of Bern, and as curator 

of the pre- and protohistoric section at the Bernese Historical Museum (1950 – 1985). 

He was a visiting professor at Brown University (1959) and at the University of Alaska 

Fairbanks (1962 – 1963), Research Associate in Anthropology at the Smithsonian 

Institution (1970), and Research Associate at the Institute of Arctic Biology, University 

of Alaska Fairbanks (1972 – 1974). From 1986 until 1995 he served as Secretary 

General for the Swiss-Liechtenstein Foundation for archaeological research abroad, and 

remains active in researching the archeology of the Upper Paleolithic, Ice Age art, and 

Iñupiat archeology. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 191

Hans-Georg Bandi on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 1973 (Photo courtesy of 

Hans-Georg Bandi).
192 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Theodore (Ted) Paul Bank, II

1923 – 1981

As an anthropologist and explorer, Theodore Bank dedicated his career to 

the study of the people and ecology of the North Pacific rim and the archeology of the 

Aleutian Islands. He led at least 35 scientific expeditions in various parts of the world, 

and served as the director (1969 – 1981) of the Aleutian-Bering Sea Institutes Program. 

He was an active member of the Explorers Club and proudly carried Flag #159. 

Bank was born in Patterson, Louisiana, and was a student at Harvard (1941-

1943) before serving as a naval weather observer in the Aleutians during World War II. 

After the war he attended the University of Michigan where he received B.S in forestry 

(1947). He spent two winters in the Aleutian Islands where he was a school teacher 

in the village of Atka during the winter of 1948 – 49. He returned to University of 

Michigan to earn a M.S in ethnobotany (1950), and pursued postgraduate studies in 

Anthropology until 1953. As a Fulbright scholar (1955 – 56) he conducted research 

among the Ainu of northern Japan. Based on the results of his excavations in the 

Aleutian Islands, he questioned the two stage colonization model for the island chain 

proposed by Aleš Hrdlička and his student William Laughlin. Perhaps he was best 

known for his book, Birthplace of the Winds (1956), a personal account of his early 

work in the Aleutians. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 193

Ted and Janet Bank in front of their semi-subterranean house, Atka, Alaska, 1949 (University 

of Alaska Archives and Special Collections). 
194 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

John Martin Campbell

b. 1927

Jack Campbell began his Arctic research in 1956 when he conducted an 

archeological survey and excavation in the area of Anaktuvuk Pass in the Brooks 

Range. He is best known for defining the cultural sequence in that region of Alaska 

based on the excavation, description and dating of a series of archeological sites. He 

was a friend and student of Simon Paneak. His interests include ornithology, and he 

has published numerous articles on Alaskan birds. He served as assistant editor for 

American Antiquity (1960 – 1970), summarizing archeological research in the Arctic. 

He served as Executive Secretary (1970 – 1974) of the Alaska Archaeological Project 

for the Arctic Institute of North America and the U.S. Department of the Interior. 

In this capacity he helped provide oversight and support for the archeological work 

associated with construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. He has also conducted 

important ethnohistoric work among Iñupiaq and Ahtna peoples, focusing on humanenvironmental interactions. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico 

and Research Professor at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. 

Campbell was educated at the University of Washington (B.A. 1950), 

University of New Mexico (1950-51, 1954-55), Georgetown University where he 

received a Certificate of Completion from the USAF Psychological Warfare School 

(1952), and Yale University where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1962. As a graduate 

student he was president of the Yale Anthropology Club (1957 – 1958). He served on 

the faculty of George Washington University (1959-64) before joining the University 

of New Mexico in 1968 where he was on the faculty until his retirement in 1992. He 

was Chairman of the Anthropology Department (1964 – 1972) and Director and 

Acting Director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (1970 – 1974). 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 195

John M. Campbell on the upper Tanana River, interior Alaska, 1969 (Photo by Charles E. 

Holmes courtesy of John M. Campbell).
196 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Donald Woodforde Clark

b. 1932

Born in Portland, Oregon, Donald Clark moved to Kodiak, Alaska, at the 

age of nine. He majored in geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he 

received his B.S. in 1956. He received his MA. (1966) and Ph.D. (1968) from the 

University of Wisconsin, Madison, and joined the National Museum of Canada (now 

Canadian Museum of Civilization) in 1968. 

His Beringian research has focused primarily on the archeology of Kodiak 

Island and Kachemak Bay, as well as surveys and excavations in the Koykuk River 

drainage and Hahanudan Lake in northwestern Alaska, and Canada’s Yukon Territory. 

With his wife, ethnographer Annette McFadyen Clark, he explored the Batza Tena 

obsidian source that was reported to them by Koyukon Indians. Fluted obsidian 

projectile points from this locale are similar to some of the oldest Clovis artifacts found 

in North America. Clark has also conducted archeological surveys and excavations 

around Canada’s Great Bear Lake and in the central Yukon Territory. He is probably 

best known for his 1963 recognition and excavation of the early Ocean Bay complex 

on Kodiak Island and his subsequent excavations and analysis of archeological remains 

attributable to Kachemak, Koniag and historic Russian traditions. Clark was honored 

with the Professional Achievement Award of the Alaska Anthropological Association 

in 1997. He is a research scientist at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 197

Don Clark on horse back near Carmacks, south central Yukon Territory, 

Canada, 1990 (Photo by Ruth Gotthardt courtesy of Donald W. Clark).
198 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Henry Bascom Collins

1899 – 1987

When Henry Collins made his first trip to Alaska in 1927 with Aleš Hrdlička 

and T. Dale Stewart, he became fascinated with questions regarding the antiquity and 

origins of Eskimo culture. He returned to Alaska in 1928 and began excavations on 

Punuk Island and at the eastern end of St. Lawrence Island. In 1929 he excavated on 

St. Lawrence and surveyed the Alaska mainland. His first monograph, published in 

1929, employed typology and art styles to lay the foundation for Eskimo archeology in 

the Bering and Chukchi Sea regions. This pioneering research outlined a chronology 

of cultural development that has remained fundamentally unchanged since then. He 

continued excavations on St. Lawrence Island in 1929 and 1930 and resumed his 

Alaskan field research again in 1936. He was the first to recognize that successive 

beach ridges provided a means of relative dating of the archeological sites in the Bering 

Sea region. His insights had an important impact on his young protégé, James A. 

Ford, who like his mentor worked both in Alaska and the southeastern United States. 

In 1936 Collins was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences and 

Letters of Denmark for his research interpretations regarding the origins of Eskimo 

culture, and in 1984 he received the award “For Outstanding Contributions to 

American Archaeology” from the Society for American Archaeology. He was widely 

respected among his colleagues for his academic objectivity, scholarly rigor, and 

illuminating interpretations. 

Born in Alabama, Henry Collins was educated at Millsaps College (B.A. 

1922) and immediately began archeological field research in the American Southwest 

and South. He joined the Division of Ethnology, U.S. National Museum in 1924 and 

received his M.A. from George Washington University in 1925. He was awarded an 

honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Millsaps College in 1940. Throughout 

his career he provided extensive service to the profession. He was a co-founder of the 

Arctic Institute of North America, chairing its Board of Governors in 1948. He served 

two terms (1942 & 1952) as vice-president of the Society for American Archaeology, 

and was extensively involved in the International Congress of Anthropological and 

Ethnological Sciences. He was acting director of the Bureau of American Ethnology 

(1963 – 1965).
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 199

Henry B. Collins putting grass into his Native boots, or “muk-luks,” Nunivak 

Island, Alaska, 1927 (National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian 

Institution). 
200 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

William Healey Dall 

1845 – 1927

William Dall was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a Unitarian 

missionary and his mother was an early activist for women’s rights. As a boy Dall began 

collecting shells and other natural history specimens. When he was a teenager his father 

introduced him to Louis Agassiz, who mentored Dall in the study of natural history. 

Working with Augustus A. Gould, Dall soon became skilled at the identification of 

mollusks and a student member of the Boston Society of Natural History. 

Dall did not receive a formal college education. He became a clerk for the 

Illinois Central Railroad in Chicago where his interests in natural history drew him to 

the Chicago Academy of Sciences and he became acquainted with its director, Robert 

Kennicott. After the first trans-Atlantic cable was broken in 1865, Dall accepted an 

invitation from Kennicott to serve as naturalist for the Western Union International 

Telegraph Expedition to Alaska to find an overland telegraph route to Europe. His 

decision to accompany Kennicott as the expedition’s scientific director set him upon 

a life long scientific career. When Kennicott died suddenly in Alaska the following 

year (1866), Dall’s peers unanimously elected him to lead the expedition. After the 

installation of the second trans-Atlantic cable was successful, he continued exploring 

Alaska at his own expense. Between 1868 and 1870 he studied his collections and 

reported his explorations while based at the Smithsonian Institution. With support 

from Spencer F. Baird he was appointed acting assistant with the Coast Survey in 

Alaska and commanded four cruises in Alaska between 1871 and 1880. In 1899 he 

contributed his extensive knowledge and expertise to the Harriman Alaska Expedition. 

Dall published several works important to Beringian archeology. He was the 

first scientist to apply the principle of stratigraphic superposition to chronologically 

order archeological remains in Alaska and perhaps in North America. In 1877 he 

proposed a three-stage sequence to explain the prehistoric development of Aleut 

culture. This was the first explicit model for cultural development in Beringia based 

on field research. Although lacking a formal college education, Dall was awarded an 

honorary M.A. by Wesleyan University in 1888, Doctor of Science by the University 

of Pennsylvania in 1904, and a law degree by George Washington University in 

1904. Between 1893 and 1927 he was chair of invertebrate paleontology at the 

Wagner Institute of Science, and from 1899 to 1915 was honorary curator of the 

Bishop Museum, Hawaii. From 1884 until 1925 he was a paleontologist for the U.S. 

Geological Survey and concurrently held the position of honorary curator in the 

National Museum of the United States, beginning in 1880 until his death in 1927. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 201

William Healey Dall, Chief of Marine Department Scientific 

Corps, Western Union Telegraph Expedition (Photo by 

Bradley and Rulofson, San Francisco, July 9, 1865). 
202 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Frederica Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna

1906 – 2003

Known to her many friends and colleagues as “Freddy,” de Laguna began 

her career in northern archeology as an assistant to Danish archeologist Therkel 

Mathiassen in 1929. Her Alaskan field research began with field work in Cook Inlet 

and Prince William Sound between 1930 and 1933, followed by a reconnaissance 

of the middle and lower Yukon in 1935. Between 1949 and 1958 she turned her 

attention to archaeological and ethnographic field work in Southeast Alaska where she 

focused on the development of Northern Tlingit culture using archeological, historical 

and ethnographic records. She conducted field research in and around the villages 

of Angoon and Yakutat. Later she focused on ethnographic work with Athapaskan 

peoples in interior Alaska during the 1960s. 

De Laguna’s parents were philosophy professors at Bryn Mawr College, 

Pennsylvania, where she received her A.B. degree in 1927. She studied anthropology 

and archeology in France and England in 1928 – 1929 before earning her Ph.D. 

from Columbia University in 1933. After work at the University of Pennsylvania 

Museum and the Soil Conservation Service, she joined the Bryn Mawr faculty in 1938. 

In addition to her many scholarly publications, de Laguna wrote verse and several 

popular books. Notable among her extensive professional awards and professional 

service are President of the American Anthropological Association (1965 – 1966) 

and distinguished Service Award recipient (1986); Vice-President of the Society 

of American Archaeology (SAA) (1949 – 1950) and recipient of the SAA Fiftieth 

Anniversary Award (1996); Charter member and President (1948–1949, 1964–

1966) Society of the Sigma Xi (Bryn Mawr Chapter); first recipient of the Alaskan 

Anthropological Association career achievement award (1993); and the Silver Trowel 

Award for Significant Contribution to the Archaeology of Kachemak Bay, Homer 

(Alaska) Society of Natural History (1993). 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 203

Frederica de Laguna at Palugvik, Prince William Sound, 

Alaska 1933 (Photo by Kaj Birket-Smith courtesy of 

Frederica de Laguna). 
204 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Nikolai Nikolayevich Dikov 

1925 – 1996

Nikolai Dikov began research in the Russian Far East in 1955 and soon 

became one of Beringia’s most prolific archeologists. He popularized the archeology of 

Northeast Russia. An energetic field researcher, writer and teacher he authored almost 

200 publications and papers and mentored many students. Beginning in 1962, Dikov 

collaborated closely with his wife, archeologist Tamara Mitrofanovna Dikova, until her 

death in 1981. 

He excavated at the Uelen cemetery, and conducted surveys and discovered 

hundreds of sites along costal areas of Chukotka and several of Chukotka’s great 

rivers including the Anadyr, Amguema, Main, and Vankarem. At the Ust’-Belaya 

cemetery and other sites along the Anadyr River, he defined Neolithic Ust’-Belaya 

Culture. In 1961 he led an expedition along the Kamchatka River and began test 

excavations at Ushki Lake in the Kamchata River valley. His excavations at Ushki 

Lake enabled him to accurately date a spectacular archeological sequence beginning 

in the Paleolithic about 13,000 years ago and continuing until historic times. In 1963 

he resumed research in Chukotka. In 1964 searched for early sites on Bering Island, 

where he concluded that the Commander and Aleutian Islands had not been used 

as stepping stones to the Americas by ancient people. In 1965 he conducted largescale excavations at the Chini cemetery, followed by research on petroglyphs near 

Сhukotka’s northern coast in 1967 and excavation of several sites containing pebble 

tools in the Kolyma region between 1972 and 1975. He discovered the Chyortov 

Ovrag (Devil’s Log) site on Wrangel Island in 1975. Between 1979 and 1986 he 

investigated many sites on the Chukchi Peninsula and drew comparisons to similar sites 

in Alaska. 

Dikov was born March 17, 1925, in the town of Sumi, in the Ukraine. His 

parents died at an early age and he was sent to to live with his aunt in Lenengrad where 

he graduated from Leningrad State University in1949. Under the supervision of A. 

P. Okladnikov, he excavated burial grounds in the Trans-Baikal region. In 1953 he 

completed his dissertation on the Bronze Age that was published in 1958. In 1960 he 

became Chairman of the Laboratory of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography at the 

Northeastern Interdisciplinary Research Institute of the Northeastern Branch of the 

Academy of Sciences in Magadan, a position that he held for the next 35 years. In 1979 

he was elected Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 205

Nikolai Nikolayevich Dikov filming in the Russian Far East, circa 1960s (Photo 

courtesy Northern Interdisciplinary Research Institute, Russian Academy of 

Sciences). 
206 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Tamara Mitrofanovna Dikova 

1933 – 1981

Tamara Dikova’s passion for archeology led to her becoming an important 

researcher in the archeology of Siberia. For many years, she conducted field research with 

her husband Nicoli Dikov in Chukotka (Chini Cemetery), Kamchatka (Ushki), and the 

Kolyma River drainage (Siberdik, Kongo). In 1968 she graduated from the Department 

of History at Leningrad State University and took part in expeditions to Lake Baikal and 

the Yenisey River in Siberia. She was a catalyst in the formation of a productive group 

of archaeologists in Magadan, where she mentored students, analyzed collections, and 

served as an archeological instructor at Magadan State Pedagogic Institute.

In 1972, she began work in Southern Kamchatka, focusing on defining 

cultural development on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the use of labrets, the origins 

of the Neolithic (Tarya Culture), and the Ainu occupation. She led expeditions in 

unpopulated areas where there were no roads, and excavated dozens of sites in the 

difficult environment and terrain of Southern Kamchatka. Tamara Dikova summarized 

her research in her Ph.D. Dissertation, but it was never presented to the examining 

board because of her untimely death. It was later edited by N.N.Dikov and published 

as the book, South Kamchatka Archaeology in Association with the Problem of the 

Peopling of the Ainu (1983). 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 207

Tamara M. Dikova (Photo courtesy Sergei Slobodin and 

Alexaner Lebedentsev). 
208 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Don Edward Dumond

b. 1929

Although his early graduate training was in Mexico, Don Dumond shifted 

gears and began his research on the Alaska Peninsula when he was still a graduate 

student at the Univeristy of Oregon in 1960. He has published many reports on 

the archeology of this culturally complex and important region of Alaska. His first 

major summary of Eskimo-Aleut prehistory was a pioneering effort to associate 

archeology and linguistics, which he later reexamined, adding evidence from physical 

anthropology. With James VanStone, he described the results of excavation of 

Paugvik, a 19th century Alaskan village, and the social and economic context of the 

early Russian fur trade in Alaska. He excavated a 9,000 year old site on Hog Island 

in the eastern Aleutian Islands. With colleague Rick Knecht, he documented a broad 

overview of the cultural chronology of the Aleutian Islands. He is widely recognized 

for his ability to synthesize complex archeological data over large geographic areas and 

through vast periods of time including the archeology of Alaska and the colonization 

and cultural development of the North American Arctic. 

Dumond was born in Texas and educated at the University of New Mexico 

(B.A. 1949), Mexico City College (M.A. 1957), University of Oregon (Ph.D. 1962). 

He joined the faculty at the University of Oregon that same year and later served as 

head of the Department of Anthropology (1972 – 1979). He was Director of the 

Oregon State Museum of Anthropology, housed at the University of Oregon Museum 

of Natural History (1977–1996). He is professor emeritus of anthropology at the 

University of Oregon.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 209

Don E. Dumond in the eastern Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia conducting field 

research among the Tofalar, 1991 (Photo courtesy Don E. Dumond). 
210 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

James Alfred Ford

1911 – 1968

James Ford began his Alaska work when he was 19 years old as a field 

assistant to Henry Collins at Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in 1930. This experience 

made a profound impression on the young scholar and his subsequent explanation 

of archeological seriation. Between 1930 and 1936 he worked in Alaska, primarily 

at Point Barrow and adjacent areas. He collected ethnographic information and 

conducted archeological investigations at Birnirk, Nuvuk, Utkiavik, and other sites. 

His Alaskan research culminated with the publication of Eskimo Prehistory in the 

Vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska (1959), a classic work in which he defined Birnirk 

culture and its relationship to Western Thule. He served as a curator at the American 

Museum of Natural History in New York between 1946 and 1964 and the Florida 

State Museum from 1964 until his death. The insights derived from his Alaskan work 

had an important influence on American archeology that reached far beyond Alaska. 

He was educated at Louisiana State University (B.A. 1936), University of 

Michigan (1937 – 1938), and Columbia University (Ph.D. 1946). During World 

War II (1942 – 1945) he helped design equipment and clothing for arctic conditions 

and supervised field tests in Alaska. He was President of the Society for American 

Archaeology in 1963 – 1964. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 211

James A. Ford excavating on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 1930 (Photo detail courtesy 

Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History and Betty Meggers).
212 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Otto William Geist

1888 – 1963

Otto Geist was born in Bavaria, the son of a school superintendent and 

amateur archeologist. As a boy he collected Roman artifacts. In 1923 he came to 

Alaska where he met naturalist Olaus Murie from whom he learned taxidermy and 

developed a passion for natural history. Geist led the first “Bunnell-Geist” expedition 

in 1926 and collected vast amounts of archeological and ethnographic material in 

the Bering Sea region. These collections provided the foundation for the University 

of Alaska Museum. Between 1926 and 1935, Geist excavated every summer on St. 

Lawrence Island and the Punuk Islands. He also spent several winters on St. Lawrence 

Island. He was the first non-Yupik person to become a member of a whaling crew. 

He accumulated large archeological collections from the Kukulik mound and other 

sites that were described and published with Froelich Rainey in 1936. According to 

anthropologist Ivar Skarland, his colleague at the University of Alaska, Geist was the 

first to recognize western Thule culture in Alaska. After 1935 Geist collected within 

the broader context of natural history. Under his supervision significant archeological 

material was recovered from the Pleistocene “muck” deposits near Fairbanks and other 

regions of Alaska. Geist lacked formal academic training and was probably the last of 

the old style naturalists who conducted primary field research in many disciplines. He 

received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Alaska in 1957. 

He left his estate to the University of Alaska Museum and established the Geist Fund 

that continues to support Alaskan archeology and paleontology. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 213

Otto Geist examining a mountain of bones from his 

Kukulik Mound excavations, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska 

1935 (From Agvook White Eskimo, courtesy of Charles J. 

Keim).
214 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

James Louis Giddings, Jr.

1909 – 1964

Courageous and self reliant, Louis Giddings sometimes traveled alone in 

the Alaskan bush with few supplies and only a .22 caliber rifle. Henry Collins called 

Giddings the “Prince of Serendip” because of his uncanny ability to discover important 

sites. He was a prolific author and promptly reported the results of his discoveries, 

excavations and analysis. Giddings became interested in archeology through tree ring 

dating which he applied to the wood found in the frozen “muck” deposits overlying 

gold bearing gravels in interior Alaska. In 1939 he was invited by Froelich Rainey and 

Helge Larsen to participate in archeological excavations at Pt. Hope, where he was the 

first to recognize that the depressions in the ground were house ruins, later attributed 

to the Ipiutak culture. Later that same season he discovered and excavated the first 

Okvik house on St. Lawrence Island. 

Giddings became deeply committed to a career in archeology and soon 

became Alaska’s most productive and energetic archeologist. His spectacular 

accomplishments included the first dating of western Thule culture using 

dendrochronology from five sites he excavated along the Kobuk River; the application 

of Collin’s beach ridge chronology to the massive 114 beach ridges at Cape Krusenstern 

and the Choris Peninsula; the definition of the Norton tradition and the Denbigh 

Flint complex; and the recognition of the key site at Onion Portage on the Kobuk 

River. Throughout his career he worked closely with Native people and shared a deep 

respect for their way of life. Although his research was largely confined to an area 

within 200 miles of Kotzebue, he defined the cultural chronology of Northwest Alaska 

and its relationship to the larger world of Arctic archeology. 

Giddings was born in Caldwell, Texas. He attended Rice University for three 

years and summer school at the University of Colorado before moving to Alaska, where 

he received his B.S. from the University of Alaska in 1931. He was appointed as an 

instructor at the University of Alaska in 1938 following publication of his first two 

articles in the Tree-Ring Bulletin. He studied under Froelich Rainey and received his 

Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. He joined the faculty at Brown 

University where he served until his untimely death in 1964. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 215

Louis Giddings on the airfield at Galena, Alaska, 1949 (Photo courtesy 

of Charles Lucier and James VanStone). 
216 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Thomas D. Hamilton

b. 1936

Tom Hamilton is a geologist who began his Alaskan career as a field assistant to 

Otto Geist in 1960. He got his first exposure to Alaskan archeology when Geist ordered 

him (as a young student with no archeological training and no help) to excavate a large 

archeological site on the Meade River. He has made important contributions to Alaskan 

archeology by providing valuable geological support, environmental interpretations, 

and dating for several significant Alaskan sites. With archeologists Douglas Anderson 

and Helge Larsen, he defined the geologic relationship of the Akmak assemblage to the 

other cultural occupations at the Onion Portage site in northwestern Alaska. Hamilton 

also provided geological expertise and support to archeological excavations at Healy 

Lake in Alaska’s interior. Along with colleagues Roger Powers and Robert Thorson, he 

defined the stratigraphy, age, and paleoenvironmental context of the Dry Creek site in 

the Nenana River Valley. He was instrumental in dating and interpreting the geological 

setting of Ground Hog Bay 2, which was the first dated early Holocene microblade site 

discovered in southeast Alaska. He has helped to date and interpret most of the early 

archeological finds from several regions of Alaska and has synthesized Alaska’s early 

archeological chronology and paleoecology. 

Tom Hamilton was born in White Plains, New York, and educated at the 

University of Idaho (B.S. 1960) and the University of Wisconsin (M.S. 1963, Ph.D. 

1966). He served on the faculty in the Department of Geology at the University of 

Alaska Fairbanks from 1966 until 1974 when he joined the Branch of Alaskan Geology 

of the United States Geological Survey from which he retired in 1994. He served as 

a geological consultant for the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline (1969 – 1974). His specialties 

include Alaskan Quaternary geology and stratigraphy, glacial and periglacial geology, 

environmental geology, and geoarcheology. He is an emeritus researcher with the U.S. 

Geological Survey in Alaska. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 217

Thomas D. Hamilton examining a mammoth tusk in the field. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Hamilton.)
218 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Charles Edgar Holmes

b. 1942

Charles Holmes was born in Georgia and grew up in Florida. He served in 

the US Army Security Agency prior to moving to Alaska to study at the University 

of Alaska in Fairbanks where he completed his B.A. (1970) and M.A. (1974) degrees 

in anthropology. He continued his graduate education at the University of Calgary 

(1974-75) and transferred to Washington State University where he completed his 

Ph.D. (1984). His dissertation focused on the archeology of the Lake Minchumina 

region in interior Alaska and was published in 1986. During the 1970s and early 1980s, 

Holmes worked as an archaeologist for the Bureau of Land Management and the 

Bureau of Indian Affairs. Later he served 20 years as supervisory archaeologist at the 

Alaska Office of History and Archaeology before retiring in 2004. He was an adjunct 

and affiliate faculty member at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and remains active 

as a cultural resource consultant and affiliate research professor of anthropology at the 

University of Alaska Fairbanks.

His 40 years experience in Alaskan archeology includes work in all regions 

of Alaska, but his primary interests are early Beringian archeology, lithic technology, 

boreal forest adaptation, and the Athapaskan archeology in the Tanana River Valley. 

He has a reputation for his uncanny ability to discover some of the earliest and most 

significant sites in Eastern Beringia, including Dry Creek, Broken Mammoth, Mead, 

and Gerstle River. His long-term commitment to the excavation and interpretation of 

the Swan Point site has helped define the East Beringian tradition in central Alaska and 

clarify questions concerning the later Northern Archaic tradition. His work at Swan 

Point was the first unequivocal evidence to firmly demonstrate the strong technological 

connection between 14,000 year-old sites in central interior Alaska and Western 

Beringian sites in Siberia.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 219

C. E. Holmes screening sediment in the Shaw Creek Flats near the Swan Point 

Site, Alaska, 2007 (photo courtesy of C.E. Holmes).
220 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

David Moody Hopkins

1921 – 2001

David Hopkins was the world’s foremost expert on the Bering Land 

Bridge and authored more than 200 papers and publications on its geology and 

related topics. Born in Greenfield, New Hampshire, he was mentored by his 

mother to develop a deep curiosity about nature. At an early age he spent hours 

in the woods and fields exploring and discovering the wonders of the natural 

environment. As a boy he developed a passion for trains and in later life collected 

railroad memorabilia. 

Hopkins was admitted to Harvard University after completing his B.S. 

at the University of New Hampshire in 1942. He postponed graduate work to 

avoid conscription during World War II by accepting a position with the U.S. 

Geological Survey. He was sent to Alaska as a field assistant. Hopkins served 

as a weatherman at Cold Bay in the eastern Aleutian Islands during World War 

II. Discharged in 1946, he resumed graduate school at Harvard where he was 

a student of the famous Quaternary geologist Kirk Bryant. Bryant brought 

out Hopkins’ innate open mindedness and instilled in him a passion for 

interdisciplinary science. In 1955 Hopkins received one of the first Ph.D. degrees 

in Quaternary Geology awarded by Harvard University. 

He worked closely with Alaskan archeologists beginning with test excavations 

at Trail Creek Caves in 1948 and stratigraphic interpretation of the Denbigh Flint 

Complex with Louis Giddings in 1950. He was best known as organizer and editor 

of two important books, The Bering Land Bridge in 1967 and the Paleoecology of 

Beringia in 1982. As a political activist with a dislike for cold war politics, he pioneered 

scientific exchange by bringing Beringian scientists together in a spirit of mutual 

cooperation and understanding for the first time in 1973 in Khabarovsk, USSR. He 

made many trips to Siberia where he conducted fieldwork. 

Following retirement from the USGS in 1984, Hopkins joined the faculty 

at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks as Director of the Alaska Quaternary 

Center (1985– 1990). Internationally recognized as a leading Quaternary scholar 

he received the Kirk Bryan Award in 1968, the Fryxell Award in 1988, Geological 

Society of America Career Award in 1990, and the Quaternary Geology Career 

Award in 1995. His life and career are documented in the book Last Giant of 

Beringia: The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge by Dan O’Neill.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 221

Dave Hopkins in Yakutia, 1968 (Photo Courtesy of David M. Hopkins).
222 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Aleš Ferdinand Hrdlička 

 1869 – 1943

Alois (Aleš) Hrdlička was born in Humpolec, Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), 

and immigrated to New York City in 1882. He graduated first in his class from both 

Eclectic Medical College in 1892 and Homeopathic Medical College in 1892. In 

1903 he was appointed assistant curator in charge of the new Division of Physical 

Anthropology, United States National Museum, where he served until his retirement in 

1942. In 1926 and 1929 he conducted archeological surveys in Alaska along the Yukon 

River and the Bering and Chukchi Sea coasts. In 1930 he undertook an archeological 

reconnaissance of portions of the Kuskokwim and Stony Rivers, and in 1931 surveyed 

areas around Bristol Bay, Lake Iliamna, and along the Nushagak, Molchatna, Wood, 

and Kvichak Rivers. 

Between 1931 and 1938 his research focused on the Gulf of Alaska and 

the Aleutian Islands. His excavations at Uyak Bay on Kodiak Island began in 1931 

and continued along with surveys of adjacent regions until 1936 when he turned his 

attention to the Aleutian Islands. He excavated caves near Dutch Harbor and on 

Kagamil Island in 1936, and in 1937 – 1938 surveyed the Aleutian and Commander 

Islands. As a physical anthropologist he concentrated on the analysis and interpretation 

of human remains. Based on his research he defended forcefully his interpretation that 

humans had inhabited the Americas no longer than about 4,000 years.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 223

Aleš Hrdlicka during his survey along the Yukon River š

(Photo taken at “Jack’s Camp,” between Holy Cross 

and Paimute, Alaska, 1929 (National Anthropological 

Archives, Smithsonian Institution).
224 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

William Nathaniel Irving

1927 – 1987

William “Bill” Irving was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in Alaska. 

Irving’s father, Laurence Irving, was an Arctic biologist and faculty member at the 

University of Alaska (the Irving Building on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus 

is named in his honor). Bill was introduced to Alaskan archeology as a field assistant 

to Frederica de Laguna in 1949. His father’s friendship with the Inupiat people of 

Anaktuvuk Pass inspired him to initiate independent field research in the Brooks 

Range in 1950 – 51. He published a description of archeology in the Brooks Range 

in 1951 before he received his Bachelors degree from University of Alaska in 1952. 

In subsequent years his Brooks Range research continued to expand knowledge of 

the archeology of northwest Alaska. He recognized and described burins among the 

artifacts from the Campus site and conducted a survey of the Susitna River. His work 

in northern Alaska culminated with his excavations at Punyik Point and his definition 

of the Arctic Small Tool tradition describing a series of related coastal and interior sites 

extending across the North American Arctic.

He attended Harvard University from 1953 until 1957 before transferring to 

the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D. 1964). During his graduate studies, Irving carried 

out field work in Alaska, Canada’s Keewatin, South Dakota and in Mexico’s Yucatan. 

His later career focused primarily on the very early archeology and paleoecology of 

Eastern Beringia in the Old Crow Basin in Canada’s Yukon Territory. He and his 

colleagues reported a bone flesher, other artifacts and the fractured bones of extinct 

mammals that Irving believed may have documented human presence in the Americas 

as early as 150,000 years ago. This work served as a catalyst stimulating extensive 

interdisciplinary research throughout Eastern Beringia. In 1964 he joined the National 

Museum of Man in Ottawa. In 1969 he left the Museum to join the faculty at the 

University of Toronto where he served until his death.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 225

Left to right: Truman Cleveland, Herbert Custer, William Irving, and Nelson Greist, northwest 

Alaska, circa 1968 (Photo courtesy of Thomas D. Hamilton).
226 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Diamond Jenness

1886 – 1969

Diamond Jenness was Canada’s most distinguished anthropologist. Born in 

Wellington, New Zealand, Jenness began field research in 1911 – 12 in New Guinea 

where he contracted yellow fever. While there he received an invitation from Edward 

Sapir to join the Stefansson Arctic Expedition. In 1913 he sailed north until the 

expedition ships became trapped in the arctic ice. One vessel, the Karluk, drifted 

westward and was crushed near Wrangel Island. During the next three years Jenness 

hunted, fished, trapped, and traveled with the Inupiaq and Inuit people with whom 

he lived. 

He conducted the first archeological survey along the arctic coast east of Pt. 

Barrow in 1913. He identified Dorset culture in the eastern Canadian arctic based 

on his analyses of artifacts collected by Inuit people living near Cape Dorset. Jenness 

was also the first to identify Old Bering Sea culture on Little Diomede Island in the 

Bering Sea from artifacts that were discovered 8 feet below the surface of a midden 

by a Diomede Islander while digging a meat cache. Jenness organized a symposium 

at the Fifth Pacific Science Congress in 1933 that resulted in the publication, The 

American Aborigines; their Origin and Antiquity (1933). This scholarly synthesis lay 

the foundation for the role of Beringia in American archeology. 

Jenness earned a B.A. in 1908 from Victoria College, University of New 

Zealand (now Victoria University of Wellington), as well as a B.A. (1911) and M.A. 

(1916) from Oxford University. His work as a scholar was interrupted by his service 

in two World Wars. He was an artillery gunner in World War I and during World 

War II he served as Deputy-Director of Intelligence for the Royal Canadian Air 

Force and later as Chief of the Inter-Service Topographical Section. A well-rounded 

anthropologist, Jenness was proficient in linguistics, physical anthropology, ethnology, 

and archeology. He was widely respected for his strength of character, integrity, 

intellect, and courage. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 227

Diamond Jenness (Photo [No. 50806] with permission of the Canadian 

Museum of Civilization).
228 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Waldemar Jochelson (Vladimir Il’ich Iokhel’son)

1855 – 1937

Waldemar Jochelson was born in Vilna, Russia (now Poland), and was forced 

to leave his homeland in 1875 because of his revolutionary activities as a college 

student. He first fled to Germany and then to Switzerland, where he continued 

his studies and contributed to anti-Russian publications. He returned to Russia in 

1884 under an assumed name, was promptly arrested, served three years in solitary 

confinement in the Petropavlovsk Fortress in St. Petersburg and was subsequently 

sentenced to exile in East Siberia for another ten years. It was during this period that 

he became an expert in the ethnology of the native tribes and linguistics of Siberia 

and began publishing scientific articles. As a result of this work he was invited by the 

Russian Geographical Society to participate in the 1895 – 1897 Yakut Expedition. 

In 1899 he was invited by the American Museum of Natural History to lead 

the Siberian Division of the Jessup North Pacific Expedition (1900 – 1902), headed 

by the founder of American Anthropology, Franz Boas. In 1909 – 1911 he led the 

Aleut-Kamchatka Expedition sponsored by the Russian Geographical Society. From 

1912 until 1922 he served as junior ethnographer and curator for the Museum of 

Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute 

of Oriental Studies in Perograd . His scientific contributions were widely recognized 

throughout Russia where he received the Russian Geographical Society’s silver (1895), 

gold (1900), and large gold (1914) medals; the gold medal of Moscow University’s 

Society for Anthropology and Ethnography (1912); and the Russian Academy of 

Sciences Akhmatov prize (1916). 

Jochelson immigrated in 1922 to the United States where he was associated 

with the American Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Institution. 

Although he was primarily an ethnographer, he made important contributions to 

the archeology of Beringia. The results of his excavations in the Aleutian Islands and 

Kamchatka were published in 1925 and 1928, respectively by the Carnegie Institution 

of Washington. Jochelson employed sound archeological methods by excavating 

using natural stratigraphic units and exposing reference sections to guide subsequent 

excavations. Although he disagreed with the archeological interpretations of William 

Healy Dall, together their work laid the foundations for Beringian archeology. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 229

Waldemar Jochelson in a Yakut house, circa 1896 (Courtesy 

of the Department of Library Services, American Museum of 

Natural History, Neg. No. 11016).
230 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Richard H. Jordan

1946 – 1991

Richard Jordan was the only archeologist of his generation who had field 

experience in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Jordan 

spent his early childhood in Seldovia before moving to the Lower 48 states with his 

parents. He received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College and returned to Alaska 

in 1970 to excavate at Healy Lake and participate in the archeological survey of the 

Trans Alaska Pipeline System (later Alyeska Pipeline). In 1971 – 1972 he was awarded 

a Marshall Fellowship and studied Arctic archeology with Helge Larsen and Jorgen 

Meldgaard at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. In 1972 he began 

a long and productive association with William W. Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian 

Institution. During his early career his interest focused on past environments and how 

they may have influenced Inuit culture. He worked primarily in the eastern Arctic 

concentrating on “Neo-Eskimo” culture and the effects of European contact on Inuit 

culture ( Jordan 1978).

While conducting field work with William Fitzhugh, Jordan completed his Ph.D. 

at the University of Minnesota (1975). In 1974 He was appointed to the faculty at Bryn 

Mawr College, Pennsylvania, where he carried on the tradition of Arctic scholarship begun 

by Frederica de Laguna. As a faculty member at Bryn Mawr he rediscovered Alaskan 

archeology in 1980 when he began field work on Kodiak Island. According to his friend 

and colleague William Fitzuhugh, Jordan’s Kodiak research soon assumed “Baranov-like 

proportions” and his work ignited a revitalization of interest in cultural heritage among the 

people of Kodiak Island. In 1989 he accepted an appointment to head the Anthropology 

Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 231

Dick Jordan at the Karluk I site, Karluk Spit, Kodiak Island, Alaska, 1984 (Photo courtesy of 

Colleen Lazenby).
232 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Margaret ( Jacob) Kirsteatter

1915 – 1998

Margaret Jacob was born in Mansfield Village, located in the upper Tanana 

River region of interior Alaska. Her father, Gus Jacob, died when she was two years old. 

Her mother, Agnes Sam, moved Margaret and sister back to her home at Healy Lake. 

Her mother remarried Paddy Healy, who died soon thereafter. As a consequence of 

these tragic events, Margaret was raised by her grandparents who never spoke English 

and lived a traditional life style. As a result, she gained an intimate knowledgeable 

of the Athapaskan language, ecology, subsistence practices, and customs. She did not 

begin to learn English as her second language until she was a teenager. She was proud of 

her culture and was a traditional culture bearer until the time of her death. 

Beginning in 1946, she and her husband Paul Kirsteatter were the only 

permanent year-round residents at Healy Lake. The remaining families had moved 

to villages along the Alaska Highway in order to have access to schools and other 

amenities. Margaret was appointed “Chief ” of Healy Lake by Chief Andrew Isaac and 

for 25 years kept land claims alive and fought for the recognition of Healy Lake Village.

Mrs. Kirsteatter shared her extensive knowledge of traditional Athapaskan 

lifeways and subsistence with Dartmouth anthropologist Robert McKennan, making 

important contributions to his 1959 ethnography “The Upper Tanana Indians” and 

other publications. Her son, Fred Kirsteatter, collected stone artifacts from various 

sites around Healy Lake and brought his discoveries to the attention of Robert 

McKennan who recognized the importance of the Healy Lake region and initiated 

excavations under the direction of his student, John Cook. Research at Healy Lake led 

to dating some of the earliest archeological remains from Alaska and sparked additional 

research throughout the Tanana Valley and other regions. Margaret Kirsteatter was 

gracious and hospitable to the many researchers and students who worked in the upper 

Tanana River Valley and freely shared her extensive knowledge of Athapaskan culture 

with others. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 233

Margaret Kirsteatter near her home at Healy Lake, circa 1980 (Photo courtesy of 

Fred and Paul Kirsteatter).
234 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Helge Eyvin Larsen

1905 – 1984

Helge Larsen, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, graduated from the University 

of Copenhagen (B.A.) in 1930. He immediately began working at the National 

Museum of Denmark where he was introduced to Arctic archeology by Therkel 

Mathiasen, whom he accompanied to Greenland in 1930. He participated in field 

surveys and excavations in Greenland throughout the 1930s. His work in Beringia 

began in 1939 when he traveled to Alaska and conducted excavations of Western Thule 

sites at Point Hope with his colleagues Froelich Rainey and Louis Giddings. They also 

discovered and excavated the Ipiutak site at Point Hope. He escaped to the United 

States prior to the German occupation of Denmark during World War II, and analyzed 

the Ipiutak artifacts at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Following the war he resumed work in Alaska. He was a visiting professor at 

the University of Alaska (1949 – 1950), where he was awarded an honorary doctorate 

that year. He continued conducting field work at Platinum in 1948; Pt. Spencer, Deering 

and Trail Creek in 1949 – 1950; and with Louis Giddings at Cape Krusenstern in 

1961. He served as a scientific advisor for the excavations at Onion Portage following 

Giddings’ death in 1964. In 1970 he served on the scientific advisory board to protect 

archeological sites during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 

Larsen’s accomplishments were recognized by the Danish Royal Geographical 

Society which awarded him the Hans Egede medal in 1955, and he received the 

Greenland Society’s Rink medal in 1980. Larsen devoted his professional life to Arctic 

archeology and ethnology at the National Museum of Denmark, where he served as 

head of the Ethnography Department from1963 until 1975. Along with his quick 

sense of humor, Larsen brought a stimulating international and circumpolar perspective 

to Beringian archeology. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 235

Helge E. Larsen at Point Hope, Alaska, 1941 (Photo reproduced 

with permission of the Photographic Archives, American Museum of 

Natural History, New York, Neg. No. 2A 38090 by Froleich Rainey).
236 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

William S. Laughlin

1919 – 2002

William Laughlin developed his enduring scientific interest in Alaskan 

archeology and physical anthropology as a field assistant to Ales Hrdlička in 1938 

during archeological survey and excavations in the Aleutian and Commander 

Islands and Kodiak Island. Although he worked throughout the Arctic, he is best 

known for his work in Aleutian-Siberian studies, human biology, population history, 

biogeography of the Eskimo world, and for pioneering cooperation with Russian 

colleagues across Bering Strait during the height of the Cold War. He was the catalyst 

for the symposium and subsequent publication, The First Americans. His most 

significant archeological contributions are his excavations of the core and blade site on 

the Aleutian Islet of Anangula adjacent to Umnak Island. In addition to his extensive 

research and publications, he stimulated many students to pursue careers in Alaskan 

archeology and biological anthropology during his long academic career. 

He was educated at Willamette University (B.A. 1941), Haverford College 

(M.A. 1942), and Harvard University (Ph.D.1949). He was awarded an honorary D. 

Sc. from Willamette University in 1968. He served on the faculty at the University 

of Oregon from 1949 until 1955, when he joined the faculty at the University 

of Wisconsin, where he served as Chairman from 1960 to 1962. In 1969, he left 

Wisconsin and relocated to the University of Connecticut, where he was professor and 

Chairman of the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology until 1985. Notable among his 

extensive professional awards and professional service are his Fulbright Scholarship for 

study at the University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark (1956); 

editor of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1958 – 1963); extensive 

service for the National Academy of Science and the National Science Foundation; and 

a unique honorary lifetime membership, along with land on which to build a home, 

awarded by the citizens of the Alaska Native Village of Nikolski.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 237

William S. Laughlin and Russian colleagues on Anangula Island in the Aleutians, 1972. From 

left to right: A.P. Okladnikov, Vitali Y. Larichev, W. S. Laughlin, and Ruslan Vasilievsky (Photo 

courtesy of William S. Laughlin).
238 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Hiroaki Okada 

1933 – 2004

Hiroaki Okada worked closely with his wife, Atsuko Okada on ethnological 

and ethno-archeological investigations in Alaska in 1960 and 1962. Along with other 

colleagues, they conducted extensive field research in Alaska including an archeological 

survey at the Hot Springs Village site, Port Moller, on the Alaska Peninsula in 1960. 

He subsequently led excavations at Port Moller for six field seasons between 1972 and 

1984. This fieldwork, which included the excavation of several houses, has made an 

important contribution to the archeology of the Alaska Peninsula. Between 1986 and 

1991 Hiroaki led archeological investigation on Heceta Island and adjacent areas in 

southeast Alaska. At the Chuck Lake site he discovered microblades associated with 

preserved faunal remains demonstrating the early (about 8,200 years old) evidence for a 

maritime economy in southeast Alaska. 

Hiroaki was born in Japan and educated at the University of Tokyo, receiving 

a B.A. in American Studies (1955) and an M.A. in Anthropology (1960). He was 

awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1966, and became a member of 

the faculty at Seikei University that same year. Atsuko Okada received her Ph.D. 

from Meiji University in 1958 and subsequently served as Professor and Dean of 

International Cultural Relations, Hokkaido Tokai University. Hiroaki was a Fulbright 

Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1964–1966); a Waseda/GLCA 

Exchange Professor (1971–1972); Fulbright Exchange Research Scholar (1979); and a 

Visiting Research Scholar at the Boreal Institute for Northern Studies at the University 

of Alberta, Canada (1986). Prior to his death he was professor emeritus at Hokkai 

Gakuen University and Director of the Museum of Northern Peoples, Abashiri, 

Hokkaido, Japan.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 239

Hiroaki Okada (left) and Atsuko Okada leading a private seminar at the 

Abashiri Museum, Hokkaido, Japan, 1995 (Photo courtesy of Hiroaki and 

Atsuko Okada).
240 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Alexei Okladnikov

1908 – 1981

Born in a rural village in Irkutsk Oblast, Alexei Okladnikov was the son of 

a local school teacher. Following the completion of secondary school, he attended 

Irkutsk Pedagogical Institute from 1926 until 1934. He immediately undertook 

graduate work at the State Academy of History of Material Culture in Leningrad, 

where he completed his thesis and graduated in 1938. From 1938 to 1948 he was 

a senior research fellow at the Institute, completing his doctoral thesis in 1947. He 

subsequently publised a popular version of it entitled, History of Yukutia, in 1955. 

In 1949 he became director of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of 

Material Culture. He moved to Novosibirsk in central Siberia and helped establish the 

Siberian branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1961. From 1966 until his death 

he served as the chairman of the history department at Novosibirsk State University 

and director of the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy. In 1968 he was 

appointed a full academician to the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. 

Throughout his dynamic career he authored or edited over 100 books and 

hundreds of articles. In 1974 he led a group of Soviet archeologists to the Aleutian 

Islands under the sponsorship of William Laughlin. This courageous effort was the first 

time since the Russian Revolution archeologists from Western Beringia had been able 

to physically participate in Eastern Beringian research. Okladnikov was a bigger-thanlife character and a powerful political and economic force in the archeology of Western 

Beringia during Russia’s Soviet era. He pioneered the archeology of the Russian Far 

East and was a teacher and mentor. He trained many students who established academic 

departments and research centers throughout Western Beringia.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 241

Alexei Okladnikov on the Amur River 1973.
242 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Wendell H. Oswalt

b. 1927

 Wendell Oswalt began his career in Alaskan archeology as a field assistant 

to J. Louis Giddings in 1947 in the Kotzebue-Kobuk region and participated in the 

excavations at Cape Denbigh with him in 1948. Based on Giddings’ pioneering 

work, Oswalt attempted to expand tree-ring studies in the region of Hooper Bay and 

along the Copper and the Susitna Rivers during the summers of 1950 – 1953. In 

addition to his early contributions to dendrochronology, he and JamesVanStone cofounded, the Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska in 1952. He conducted 

archeological excavations in the Katmai National Monument in 1954 and in the Bristol 

Bay-Kuskokwim region in 1960. In 1963 he initiated ethnoarchaeological studies 

with VanStone at Crow Village and expanded this research at the site of Kolmakovskiy 

Redoubt in 1966, 1967, and 1969. Oswalt introduced the term “ethnoarchaeology” to 

Alaskan archeology, 

Oswalt was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He received his B.A. from the 

University of Alaska in 1952 and his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1959. He 

was a Museum Assistant at the University of Alaska Museum (1948 – 1951) and later was 

a Research Anthropologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (1955 – 1957). In 1958 

he joined the faculty at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) as an Acting 

Instructor. He served as visiting Professor at the University of Alaska during the summers 

of 1960, 1962, and 1964, while serving on the faculty of UCLA (1959 – 1990). He was 

Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at UCLA from 1973 – 1976 and retired 

in 1990. He wrote 14 books and six monographs. During his later career he focused on 

contemporary Eskimo technology and settlement patterns. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 243

Wendell H. Oswalt looking westward toward Greenland from Lands End, Iceland, 

1981 (Photo courtesy Helen Oswalt).
244 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Simon Paneak

1900 – 1975

Born near the Killik River in Alaska’s Brooks Range, Simon Paneak was raised 

during a time of turmoil. Traditionally the Nunamuit were inland people who lived 

primarily by hunting sheep and caribou in the mountains and adjacent coastal plain 

stretching northward to the Arctic Ocean. Disease and famine in the early 1900s 

forced them to move near trading posts on the coast for work and supplies. During this 

time Paneak became fluent in English. With the collapse of the fur trade during the 

Great Depression, several Nunamuit families returned inland in the 1930s to hunt the 

caribou that had become more numerous. 

Because he was bilingual and willing to share his knowledge, scientists 

and researchers relied on him for information, expertise, and advice. He compiled 

knowledge from elders and traditional culture bearers and freely shared it with 

scientists, including biologist Laurence Irving, and anthropologists Nicholas Gubser, 

Helge Larsen, Jack Campbell, and others. He made a traditional Nunamuit tent from 

caribou hide and willow frame, as well as other objects, for the University of Alaska 

Museum. He coauthored at least three scientific publications and is acknowledged in at 

least a dozen others. Between 1967 and 1969, Paneak completed a series of drawings 

and maps depicting Nunamuit life that was published in 1998. Intensely interested 

in history and ecology, Paneak fully recognized the need to preserve traditional 

Nunamuit ecological knowledge. He made many contributions to the understanding 

of archeology, culture history, geology and biology of Northern Alaska. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 245

Simon Paneak near Chandler Lake, Brooks Range, Alaska, 1967 (Photo courtesy of John M. 

Campbell and University of New Mexico Press).
246 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

William Roger Powers

1942 – 2003

Roger Powers was born in Pocatello, Idaho, and raised on a near-by ranch. 

His initial interests in Great Basin archeology were soon replaced by his passion for 

Russian archeology under the mentorship of Chester Chard. His fascination with the 

archeology of Russia led him to translate, synthesize, and interpret the archeological 

literature of northeastern Siberia. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation at the 

University of Wisconsin on the archeology of Chukotka, Kamchatka, and Yakutia and 

this impressive work was subsequently published in Arctic Anthropology in 1973. He 

began his teaching career at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in 1971 and retired 

in 2001.

While on the faculty, he conducted excavations on St. Lawrence Island with 

Hans-George Bandi in 1973. He then engaged in archeological surveys on the Seward 

Peninsula (1974 – 75), where he survived a near-fatal floatplane crash while landing 

on a lake. He subsequently began excavations at the Dry Creek Site that had been 

discovered by Charles Holmes. This excavation along with additional survey in the 

Nenana River valley by Powers and his students led to new interpretations of the early 

archeology of Eastern Beringia. As a result of this research, he and his students defined 

the Nenana complex and suggested that earlier bifacial artifact assemblages lacking 

microblades may predate the Denali complex. This pioneering work serves as the 

foundation for continuing research to explaining the relationship of early technological 

traditions in interior Eastern Beringia.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 247

William Roger Powers at Panguingue Creek in 1989.
248 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Froelich Gladstone Rainey

1907 – 1992

Froelich Rainey was born in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and raised on a 

working ranch in eastern Montana, the R-lazy-B (Rainey Brothers Ranch), where he 

worked as a cowhand. He completed his B.A. degree in English at the University of 

Chicago in 1929, but wanderlust set in. At age 22, he hopped a freighter to Shanghai, 

China, and after a battle with pirates in the Strait of Formosa, he jumped ship in the 

Philippines. From there he returned to the United States and enrolled in graduate studies 

at Yale University under the mentorship of Cornelius Osgood, an ethnographer who was 

working with Athapaskan tribes in Alaska. Rainey received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1935. 

Rainey became the University of Alaska’s first professor of anthropology and 

began the analysis of the massive archeological collections made by Otto Geist on St. 

Lawrence Island in 1935. This culminated in their joint publication, Archaeological 

Excavations at Kukulik, the following year. Rainey then began a vigorous stint of field 

research in interior and coastal Alaska. His article, “Archaeology in Central Alaska,” 

laid the foundation for all subsequent work in the interior of Eastern Beringia. He 

partnered with Helge Larsen and together they excavated the spectacular Ipiutak site at 

Point Hope. Rainey’s academic career was interrupted during World War II for service 

on the Board of Economic Warfare and with the State Department between 1942 

and 1945. After the war Rainey served as director of the Museum of Anthropology 

and Archaeology at University of Pennsylvania from 1947 to 1976. While he was 

a professor at the University of Alaska, Rainey met and worked with an energetic 

student, Louis Giddings, who later enrolled as a graduate student at the University of 

Pennsylvania and continued his studies with Rainey. 

Froelich Rainey was an eloquent and engaging personality and public 

figure. He hosted a series television programs between 1950 and 1968, educating 

and entertaining the public with the curiosities and adventure of anthropology and 

archeology. Although Rainey conducted research throughout the world, his greatest 

accomplishments were in Beringia and public education. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 249

Froleich Rainey in uniform during World War II, circa 1944 (University of Pennsylvania, Museum 

of Anthropology and Archaeology).
250 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Dennis Joe Stanford

b. 1943 

Dennis Stanford is best known as curator of Paleoindian Archeology at the 

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, but he has made 

significant contributions to Beringian archeology as well. Stanford was introduced 

to Alaskan archeology in 1966 as a field assistant to Robert Humphrey during an 

archeological survey in the Utukok River valley in the western Brooks Range. As a 

graduate student at the University of New Mexico he was urged by Jack Campbell to 

investigate the controversial questions about the origins of Thule culture by conducting 

excavations at middens near Point Barrow. After brief investigations at Utkiavik, 

he began excavations at Walakpa, a site located about 12 miles (19.3 km) south of 

Barrow. Stanford’s excavations at Walakpa revealed more than 20 stratigraphic levels 

and demonstrated the gradual development of Thule culture from Birnirk. Stanford 

suggested that this change was caused by climatic change and over- utilization of seals 

by Birnirk peoples. 

Stanford was born in Cherokee, Iowa, and grew up in Colorado, New 

Mexico and Wyoming. He was educated at the University of Wyoming (B.A. 1965) 

and the University of New Mexico (M.A. 1967, Ph.D. 1973). He has served as 

Associate Curator (1972–1978) and Curator (1978–present) at the Smithsonian 

Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, where he was Head of the Division 

of Archeology (1990 - 1992 and later Chairman of the Department of Anthropology 

(1993 - 2001). He was visiting professor of Quaternary Science at the University 

of Alaska Fairbanks in 1989. Along with colleagues Robert Gal and Margret Jodry, 

he is engaged in field research in northwestern Alaska and in the interpretation of 

the relationships between early Alaskan archeological sites and those from the more 

southern areas of the Americas. Stanford has conducted important research in bone 

taphonomy and the Ice Age paleoecology of North America, and his most significant 

research contributions have been in Paleoindian archeology and the first peopling of 

the Americas. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 251

Dennis Stanford with two recently harvested spotted seals, Chukchi Sea coast, 1970 (Photo 

courtesy of Dennis Stanford).
252 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Tasyan (Sergeyevich) Tein

b. 1938

Tasyan S. Tein was born in Naukan Village in Siberia in 1938. The son of a 

Yupik hunter, Tein dedicated his life to learning his people’s past. He entered Anadir’ 

Pedagogic College in 1959 and graduated in 1964. Following graduation he worked 

as a teacher and educator at the boarding school in the Russian village of Nunyamo. 

In 1965 he entered Magadan State Pedagogic Institute, graduating four years later. 

After getting a teaching diploma in history and social sciences, he was sent to Wrangel 

Island where he worked until 1971. That year he was invited to Magadan Oblast 

Local Museum to do research. In 1974 he entered graduate school at the Laboratory 

of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography, Northeastern Interdisciplinary Research 

Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of N. N. Dikov. His 

archeological research of the ancient Eskimo culture began in earnest in 1975 as a result 

of his participation in an expedition to Wrangel Island organized by Dikov, when the 

research team discovered the Paleoeskimo Devil’s Log Site. 

While working on his dissertation, “Ancient Eskimo Culture of the Northern 

Chukotka, Including Wrangel Island,” Tein prepared several articles and books on 

Eskimo archeology and ethnography. Between 1976 and 1986, he conducted field 

research in Chukotka at the Devil’s Log and Rirkapiy sites, as well as on Ratmanov 

Island. His dissertation was approved in 1991 at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute 

of Archaeology. He published several books including Devil’s Log Mystery, Eskimo 

Holidays, and This Is How It Was: Essays on the Asian Eskimo Culture. In 1982 

he composed the scripts defining the roles for participants for several ceremonies 

celebrated in the Russian Yupik village of Uelen, including the Whale Holiday, Day 

of Hunters Initiation, and Day of the Canoe Launching. In 1988 his expertise was 

essential in making the arrangements for the successful Soviet-American Eskimo 

Native Celebration that brought Alaskan Eskimo people from the United States to the 

Russian village of Uelen for an historic celebration. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 253

Tasyan Tein on Wrangel Island, circa 1980 (Photo 

courtesy of Sergei Sobodin and Alexander Lebedintsev).
254 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Christy G. Turner II

b. 1933

Christy Turner developed his interest in Alaskan archeology physical 

anthropology with William S. Laughlin at the University of Wisconsin where he 

received his Ph.D. in 1967. His Alaskan research has concentrated on the prehistory 

of the Aleutian Islands where he conducted fieldwork on Umnak and Anangula Islands 

(1962), on Amchitka Island in (1968), and Akun and Akutan (1970 - 1973). Much 

of his work has focused on the initial colonization of Alaska based primarily on dental 

evidence in combination with archeological and linguistic data. His dental research 

suggests three human migrations to the New World from Asia. At the Chaluka site 

in the eastern Aleutian Islands he and his wife Jacqueline discovered the oldest known 

Neo-Aleut skeleton, radiocarbon dated to AD. 780. Their excavations at Chaluka also 

documented the effects of early Russian and American contact on the Aleut people. 

As a physical anthropologist, he has worked extensively throughout the world. 

He was on the faculty of Arizona State University (ASU) beginning in 1967 and served 

as assistant and associate Dean of the Graduate College (1972–1977); ASU’s Regents’ 

Professor (1992–present); and was appointed Distinguished Research Professor 

(1984–1985). Turner was honored as a Life Fellow of the Museum of Northern 

Arizona (1985) and appointed as a visiting scholar (NSF, IREX, and Nat. Acad. Sci.) 

to the USSR (1979, 1980–1981, and 1987). He served two terms on the Repatriation 

Review Committee for the Smithsonian Institution. He has trained numerous 

graduate and undergraduate students in physical anthropology and received the Alaska 

Anthropological Association’s Professional Achievement Award in 2012. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 255

Jacqueline A. Turner (left) and Christy Turner excavating at Chulka, Umnak Island, Alaska 

1971 (Photo courtesy of Christy G. Turner II).
256 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

James W. VanStone

1925 – 2001

In his humble way, James VanStone worked cooperatively with colleagues 

and Native People to establish the connections between archeology, ethnography and 

history in Eastern Beringia. He was educated at Oberlin College (B.A. 1948) and 

the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. 1954). He taught at the University of Alaska 

Fairbanks for seven years (1951–1958). While on the University of Alaska faculty 

he ran a trap line for beaver and commuted to campus from his cabin by dog sled. 

He and Wendell Oswalt founded the Anthropological Papers of the University of 

Alaska in 1952. In 1993 he was awarded the career achievement award by the Alaska 

Anthropological Association. 

He undertook archaeological and ethnographic field work in a number of 

areas in Alaska and Canada. His archeological excavations in Kotzebue Sound were 

followed by community studies at Point Hope (1962) and the village of Snowdrift 

(Lutsel Ke’) on Great Slave Lake (1965). A major focus of VanStone’s research was 

the impact of Russians and Americans on the Yupik Eskimos of southwest Alaska in 

the 19th and early 20th centuries. This long term project has involved archeology, 

ethnohistory, and ethnography. 

After leaving the University of Alaska, he taught at the University of Toronto 

(1959–1966) before joining the staff of the Field Museum of Natural History in 

Chicago in 1966 as Curator of North American Archeology and Ethnology. During 

the latter part of his career he undertook the challenge of completing the work of 

Margaret Lantis after her death. VanStone conducted contextual studies of a number 

of collections in the Field Museum and was responsible for the Museum’s permanent 

exhibit “Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and Northwest Coast” which opened in 1982. 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 257

James W. VanStone at a winter trap line camp near Great Slave Lake, Canada, 1961 

(Photo courtesy of James W. VanStone). 
258 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Ruslan Sergeevich Vasil’ievskii

b. 1933 – 2012

A vigorous field researcher, Ruslan Sergeevich Vasil’ievskii began his 

professional career in 1957 at the Magadan Museum of Local Studies where he 

initiated an ambitious program of archeological survey and excavation along the 

northern rim of the Okhotsk Sea. He was a student of A. P. Okladnikov and graduated 

from the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) State University, Department of History. He 

was one of the foremost experts on the adaptation and cultural relationships of the 

ancient people of the North Pacific, which was the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation. 

His pioneering research led him to define the stages of development of Koryak culture 

beginning about 4,000 years ago.

Vasil’ievskii left Magadan in 1964 to work at the Institute of History, 

Philology and Philosophy in Novosibirsk under the head of his former teacher, 

Academician A.P. Okladnikov. He was awarded his Doctoral degree in 1975. 

Along with A.P. Okladnikov, Vasil’ievskii participated in several American-Soviet 

archaeological expeditions to Alaska and the Aleut Islands. He was a leading researcher 

at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian 

Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk and published more than 200 scientific articles 

and books.
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 259

Rusian Sergeevich Vasil’ievskii on the shore of the Okhotsk Sea, 

Yama River, 1959 (Photo courtesy of Igor Vasil’levskii and Eugeny 

Rybin).
260 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Frederick Hadleigh-West

b. 1928

Fred Hadleigh-West was introduced to Alaskan field research in 1954 when 

he accompanied Ted Bank to the Aleutian Islands as a field assistant. He conducted 

extensive field research throughout Alaska including his dissertation research in the late 

1950s on the cultural ecology of the Netsi Kutchin, followed by archeological surveys 

and excavations on the western Arctic coast, southeast, and interior Alaska. He is best 

known for his discoveries and excavations in the northern and southern foothills of 

the Alaska Range, where analysis and comparison of artifacts from the Donnelly Ridge 

site led him to describe and define the Denali complex. He later conducted extensive 

excavations in the vicinity of the Tangle Lakes. His book, American Beginnings (1996), 

provides a significant contribution to comparative analysis and interpretation of 

Beringian archeology. 

 Hadleigh-West attended Tulane University and University of Michigan, 

and received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. He joined the faculty at 

the University of Alaska in 1957 as an instructor of Anthropology and Geography. 

He served as editor of the Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska and 

curator of the University Museum’s Anthropological collections (1957 – 1965). He 

inaugurated the Occasional Monograph Series, Studies of Northern Peoples, with 

its first publication Kobuk River People by J. L. Giddings. After leaving Fairbanks, he 

was Visiting Lecturer, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1965 – 1966) and returned 

to Alaska to serve as a professor at Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage until 

1974. He was appointed Senior Research Scientist at the University of Wisconsin 

(1974 – 1976) and was on the faculty of Williams College (1977 – 1982). Since 1982 

he has held the position of Curator of Archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Salem, 

Massachusetts, as well as Director of Archaeology, and Editor in Chief of the Review of 

Archaeology (formerly Quarterly Review of Archaeology). 
Pioneers of Beringian Archeology 261

Frederick Hadleigh West taking field notes, Tangle Lakes (site Mt. Hayes 72), Alaska 1978 

(Photo courtesy of Frederick Hadleigh West).
262 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

annealing: The process of repeatedly heating and hammering metal to produce a 

desired shape.

archeology: Subdiscipline of anthropology involving the study of the human past 

through material remains.

artifact: Any portable object used, modified, or made by people such as stone tools, 

pottery, and weapons.

assemblage: Term used by archeologists to describe a group of artifacts occurring 

together at a particular time and place.

atl atl: The Aztec word adopted by archeologists for spear thrower that utilizes the 

principle of the lever to increase the distance and force with which a hunter can throw 

a light weight spear called an atl atl dart.

atl atl dart: Light weight shaft tipped with a projectile point propelled by a spear 

thrower, or atl atl.

band: A term used by anthropologists to describe small-scale societies that make their 

living primarily by hunting and gathering and move seasonally to harvest wild food. 

Beringia: Geographic area extending from Russia’s Verkhoyansk Range in the west 

to interior Alaska and adjacent areas of Canada that were not covered by continental 

glaciers during the ice ages in the east. It includes the Bering continental shelf and 

extends from the Arctic Ocean southward to Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk in 

Asia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca in North America. 

biface: Stone tool that has been flaked (chipped) on both sides, or faces.

boreal forest: The nearly continuous belt of coniferous trees across the North America 

subarctic overlying formerly glaciated areas and areas of patchy permafrost. In Russia it 

is called taiga. 

Glossary of Select

Archeological and Geological Terms 

Commonly Used in Beringian Archeology
Glossary 263

burin: Stone tool exhibiting one or more characteristic facets or flakes removed from 

one or more edges used primarily for engraving and working bone, antler, and ivory. 

burin spall: Slender stone flake, frequently triangular or rectangular in cross-section, 

removed from a burin.

burin spall artifact: Burin spall that has been used as the point, or tip, of an engraving 

tool. 

basalt: Dark-colored fine grained volcanic rock widely used by early people to make 

stone tools. 

carbon 14: Carbon molecule used in radiocarbon dating.

chert: Hard dense cryptocrystalline sedimentary rock that was commonly used to 

manufacture chipped (flaked) stone tools.

cobble spall scraper: Flake struck from a cobble exhibiting use along one or more 

edges indicating it was used for scraping softer materials.

complex: Shared way of life and economic system throughout a region that persisted 

for periods of time. It is similar to the concept of tradition, but more restricted 

geographically and persists for shorter periods of time. It is interchangeable with the 

term “phase”. Complexes or phases can be part of a tradition, and may be used to 

subdivide traditions.

core: Stone, bone, or antler artifact used as a blank to make other tools or flakes. 

crampon: Cleat that can be strapped or tied to a shoe or boot to provide traction 

when walking on ice.

dendrochronology: Study of tree-rings patterns that uses annual variations in 

climate to produce differential growth to date archeological features and measure 

environmental change. 

flake: Piece of stone (or bone) detached from a core by a blow or pressure. A flake 

generally exhibits a flat area, or platform, at one end from which ripple marks extend 

indicating the direction in which force was applied to remove the flake from its core.

foreshaft: Short detachable shaft made of wood, bone, antler, or ivory placed between 

a harpoon head or projectile point and the shaft of a spear, dart, or harpoon.

harpoon: Spear or shaft armed with a barbed or toggling projectile point designed to 

remain imbedded in an animal when struck.

herb tundra: Dry open tundra comprised of lichen and low growing (5-10 cm, or 2-5 

inches) plants. 
264 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Holocene: Geologic epoch, or period of time, beginning at the end of the last Ice Age 

about 12,000 years ago and continuing to the present time. 

horizon: An archeological horizon is recognized by unique styles or characteristics 

(such as a specific art style or way of decorating pottery) that appear and spread rapidly 

throughout a geographic area. 

Ice Age: Although there have been many ice ages during the earth’s history, the most 

recent glacial period, discussed here, occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch and ended 

about 12,000 years ago. 

ice-free corridor: Hypothetical narrow strip of land between the continental glaciers 

that was once believed to have been used by people to migrate between Eastern 

Beringia and the southern parts of the Americas prior to 13,000 - 14,000 years ago. 

Geologists have proven that an ice-free corridor did not exist at that time.

labret: Body adornment made of stone, bone, or ivory worn in a piercing in the cheek 

or lip.

lanceolate: Tapering from the base toward an apex; lance-shaped. 

leaf- shaped: Tapering from a pointed or round base toward an apex.

loess: Wind blown silt which constitutes the primary sedimentary deposits at many 

archeological sites in Beringia.

kashim: Large house occupied by men where community activities are held. 

Mesolithic: An Old World term meaning the middle Stone Age used to describe the 

period about 12,500 until 7,000 years ago when people made large stone blades, leafshaped points or knives, scrapers, and stone adzes. The Mesolithic period is transitional 

between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. 

microblade: A small (usually less than .5 cm wide) parallel-sided stone flake. 

Microblades were inset in a line in a slot carved in bone or antler projectile points to 

form a razor-like stone cutting edge, or hafted in handles and used like razor knives. 

microblade core: Specially chipped nodules of stone from which microblades were 

produced. They exhibit at least one flat area, or platform, and long parallel sided facets 

(flake scars) produced when the microblades were removed from the core.

midden: The accumulated domestic debris and trash resulting from human 

occupation.

muskeg: Wetland, or bog, common in arctic and boreal areas consisting of peat and 

decomposing plants. 
Glossary 265

native copper: Metallic copper found in nuggets that can be worked by hammering 

and annealing.

Neolithic: An Old World term meaning the new Stone Age beginning in Western 

Beringia about 7,000 years ago and lasting until the time of Euro-American contact and 

characterized by ground stone tools, ceramics, and metal. In Beringia, the Neolithic 

period is divided into several cultures some of which can be traced to Native groups still 

occupying the region. 

ochre: Red, yellow, or brown iron oxide that is ground and used as a pigment.

obsidian: Volcanic glass, highly prized for making stone tools and widely traded by 

early people. 

Paleoindian: Archeological term used to describe distinctive types of stone tools and 

projectile points found throughout some areas of North America at the end of the last 

Ice Age between about 13,300 and 11,500 years ago.

Paleolithic: Old World term meaning old Stone Age describing all archeological 

sites older than about 12,500 years that are characterized by long parallel-sided 

stone blades and bifacially flaked tools that were in wide use until the end of the last 

Ice Age. 

paleontologists: Scientists who study fossil animals and plants.

phase: Shared way of life and economic system throughout a region that persisted 

for periods of time. It is similar to the concept of tradition, but more restricted 

geographically and persists for shorter periods of time. It is interchangeable with the 

term complex. Complexes or phases can be part of a tradition, and may be used to 

subdivide traditions.

Pleistocene: Geologic epoch, or period of time, also called the Ice Ages, beginning 

about 1.8 million years ago and ending about 12,000 years ago, when large glaciers 

covered much of the earth’s surface. 

projectile point: Pointed object generally made of stone, antler, or metal attached to 

the end of an arrow, spear, or atl atl dart.

radiocarbon dating: An absolute dating technique applied to specimens that were once 

living (plants and animals). It measures the decay of radioactive isotope of carbon (14C). 

scraper: Stone tool usually unifacially flaked along one or more edges to produce a 

steep angle and used to scrape or work hides or other materials.

semi-subterranean: Term used to describe houses or other structures that are 

constructed to be partially underground.
266 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

shrub tundra: Moist, or wet, tundra dominated by low shrubs. 

slate: A comparatively soft, fine-grained rock that can be split into slabs and thin plates 

that was commonly used to manufacture ground stone artifacts. 

stratigraphy: Sedimentary units that are deposited vertically and used by archeologists 

to establish the relative age of artifacts. Because the layers are deposited from the 

bottom up, artifacts in underlying (lower) sedimentary units were deposited prior to 

those in overlying (younger) units. 

tephra: Ash from the eruption of a volcano.

tephrochronology: Dating method that determines the age of unique deposits of 

volcanic ash in stratigraphic relationship to archeological remains. 

taiga: Boreal forest.

toggling harpoon: Harpoon head attached to a line designed to turn side-ways in 

a wound when resistance is applied to the line. It holds an animal more securely by 

employing a spur (a barb like protrusion) at its base. 

tradition: Archeological term used to describe groups of artifacts that are similar over 

a large geographic area and persist for long periods of time. It implies a common way 

of life and economic pattern passed from generation to generation over long periods of 

time. 

tussock tundra: Tundra dominated by cotton grass tussocks that form high clumps 

often in marshes or bogs.

ulu: All purpose knife with a crescent shaped blade commonly associated with Iñupiaq 

and Yupik culture.

uniface: Stone tool flaked on one side, or face, only.

Younger Dryas: A period of cooler climate that began about 12,800 years ago and 

continued until about 11,500 years ago.
Guide to Pronunciation of Russian Names 267

Guide to the Pronunciation 

of Russian Names1

1 . 

Many of the names of specific sites or cultures in the chapters on Western and Central 

Beringia are in Russian. This guide will assist the reader in the pronunciation of these 

names. The list below appears in alphabetical order according to Russian alphabet, 

which comes from the Cyrillic script. Some of the site and culture names mentioned in 

the text are not in Russian but are transliterations of names in the Native languages of 

the Russian Far East or Alaska.

a (as in star or car)

b (as in boots)

v (as in voice)

g (as in go or good)

d (as in do)

ye (as in met)

yo (as in yonder)

zh (as in pleasure)

z (as in zoo or is)

i (as in meet or seat)

y (as in may or boy)

k (as in cat or kind)

l (as in lion)

m (as in mother)

n (as in now)

o (as in port)

p (as in pure or poor)

r (as in river)

s (as in swim or south)

t (as in tiger)

u (as in lunar or tune)

f (as food)

kh (as in Loch Ness)

ts (as in its or waltz)

ch (as in cheap or cheese)

sh (as in fish)

shch (as in borshch)

“ (hard sign no equivalent)

y (as in rip or flip)

‘ (soft sign no equivalent)

e (as in best or chest)

yu (as in you or Yukon)

ya (as in yard)

1

 This pronunciation guide was taken from a transliteration table presented in the following:

Dolitsky, Alexander B. and Henry N. Michael

2008 Spirit of the Siberian Tiger. Folktales of the Russian Far East. Alaska-Siberia Research 

Center, Juneau
268 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Bibliography

Ackerman, R. E.

1960 Archaeological Research in Siberia. Philadelphia Anthropological 

Society, Bulletin 13(2):12-16.

1962 Culture Contact in the Bering Sea: Birnirk-Punuk Period. In Prehistoric 

Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate Zones of North 

America, edited by J. M. Campbell, pp. 27-34. Technical Paper of the 

Arctic Institute of North America, vol. II. Montreal.

1968 The Archeology of the Glacier Bay Region, Southeastern Alaska. 

Washington State University, Laboratory of Anthropology. Report of 

Investigations, No. 44, Pullman.

1970 Archeoethnology, Ethnoarchaeology, and the Problems of Past Cultural 

Patterning. In Ethnohistory in Southwestern Alaska and the Southern 

Yukon: Method and Content, edited by M. Lantis, pp. 11-48. University 

of Kentucky Press, Lexington.

1974 Post Pleistocene Cultural Adaptations on the Northern Northwest Coast. 

In International Conference on the Prehistory and Paleoecology of the Western 

Arctic and Sub-Arctic, edited by S. Raymond and P. Schledermann, pp. 1-20. 

University of Calgary Archaeological Association, Calgary.

1976 Ancient Cultures of Siberia and the Pacific Basin. Conference Report 

on the All-Union Symposium in Novosibirsk, USSR, October 20-22, 

1975. Current Anthropology 17(4):771-773.

1982 The Neolithic-Bronze Age Cultures of Asia and the Norton Phase of 

Alaska Prehistory. Arctic Anthropology 19(2):11-38.

1984 Prehistory of the Asian Eskimo Zone. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, 

pp. 106-118. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W. C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1987 Mid-Holocene Occupation of Interior Southwestern Alaska. In Man 

and the Mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum, edited by N. A. McKinnon 

and G. S. L. Stuart, pp. 181-192. University of Calgary Archaeological 

Association, Calgary.

1988a Late Prehistoric Settlement at Chagvan Bay, Southwestern Alaska. In 

Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska’s Native People, edited by R. D. 

Shaw, R. K. Harritt and D. E. Dumond. Aurora Monograph Series No. 

4:169-188, Alaska Anthropological Association, Anchorage.
Bibliography 269

1988b Settlements and Sea Mammal Hunting in the Bering-Chukchi Sea 

Region. Arctic Anthropology 25(1):52-79.

1991 Prehistoric Cultural Relations among the Interior and Coastal Peoples 

of the North Pacific Region. In International Symposium on Dietary 

and Housing Aspects of Northern Peoples, pp. 1-11. Edited by the 

Committee for the Symposium on the Peoples and Cultures in the 

North (Hiroaki Okada, chairman). Published by the City of Abashiri, 

Hokkaido, Japan.

1992 Earliest Stone Industries of the North Pacific Coast of North America. 

Arctic Anthropology 29(2):18-27.

1996a Bluefish Caves. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Paleoecology 

of Beringia, edited by Fredrick Hadleigh West, pp. 511-512. University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1996b Lime Hills, Cave 1. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by Fredrick Hadleigh West, pp. 470-478. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1996c Ground Hog Bay, Site 2. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by Fredrick Hadleigh West, pp. 424-429. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1996d Early Maritime Culture Complexes of the Northern Northwest Coast. 

In Early Human Occupation in British Columbia, edited by R. L. 

Carlson and L. D. Bona, pp. 123-132. University of British Columbia 

Press, Vancouver.

1996e Spein Mountain. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by Fredrick Hadleigh West, pp. 456-460. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1998 Early Maritime Traditions in the Bering, Chukchi, and East Siberian 

Seas. Arctic Anthropology 35(1):247-262.

2001a Spein Mountain: A Mesa Complex Site in Southwestern Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 38(2): 81-97.

2001b Late Tundra. Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 2; Arctic and Subarctic, 

pp. 111-115. Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishers, New York.

2004 The Northern Archaic Tradition in Southwestern Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 41(2):153-162.
270 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

2011 Microblade Assemblages in Southwestern Alaska: An Early Holocene 

Adaptation in From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage 

Variability in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 255-269, Goebel, T. 

and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

Ackerman, R. E., T. D. Hamilton and R. Stuckenrath

1979 Early Culture Complexes on the Northern Northwest Coast. Canadian 

Journal of Archaeology 3:195-208.

Ackerman, R. E., K. C. Reid, J. D. Gallison and M. E. Roe

1985 Archaeology of Heceta Island: A Survey of 18 Timber Harvest Units in 

the Tongass National Forest, Southeastern Alaska. Center for Northwest 

Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman.

Ager, T. and L. Brubaker

1985 Quaternary Palynology and Vegetational History of Alaska. In Pollen 

Records of Late-Quaternary North American Sediments, edited by V. 

M. Bryant, Jr. and R. Holoway, pp. 353-384. American Association of 

Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation, Dallas, Texas. 

Aigner, J.S.

1976 Dating the Early Holocene Maritime Village of Anangula. 

Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 18(1): 51-62. 

Fairbanks.

Aleksandrov, A.V., S.A. Arutunov and D.L. Brodyanskii 

 1982 Paleometal of the North-Western Part of the Pacific. Fareast University,

Vladivostok.

Alexander, H.L.

1974 The Association of Aurignaciod Elements with Fluted Point Complexes 

in North America. In International Conference of the Prehistory and 

Paleoecology of Western North American Arctic and Subarctic, edited 

by S. Raymond and P. Schlederman, pp. 21-31. University of Calgary 

Archaeological Association, Calgary.

1987 Putu: A Fluted Point Site in Alaska. Publication 17, Department of 

Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

Ames, K. M. 

1998 Economic Prehistory of the Northern British Columbia Coast. Arctic 

Anthropology 35(1):68-87.

Ames, K. M. and H. D. G. Mashner 

1999 Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. 

London: Thames and Hudson.
Bibliography 271

Anderson, D. D.

1968a A Stone Age Campsite at the Gateway to America. Scientific American 

218(6):24-33. New York.

1968b Early Notched Point and Related Assemblages in the Western American 

Arctic. Unpublished Ms. on file, Brown University.

1970a Akmak: An Early Archeological Assemblage from Onion Portage, 

Northwest Alaska. Acta Arctica, Fasc16, Copenhagen.

1970b Microblade Traditions in Northwestern Alaska. Arctic Anthropology

7(2):2-16.

1972 An Archaeological Survey of Noatak Drainage, Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 9(1):66-117.

1975 Trade Networks among the Selawik Eskimos, Northwestern Alaska 

during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Folk 16-17:63-72.

1978a Western Arctic and sub-Arctic Chronologies. In Chronologies in New 

World Archeology, edited by R.E. Taylor and C.W. Meighan, pp. 29-50. 

Academic Press, New York.

1978b Tulaagiaq: A Transitional Near Ipiutak-Ipiutak Period Archeological 

Site from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the 

University of Alaska 19(1):45-57.

1979 Archaeology and the Evidence for the Prehistric Development of 

Eskimo Culture: An Assessment. Arctic Anthropology 16(1):16-26.

1980 Continuity and Change in the Prehistoric Record from North 

Alaska. In Alaska Native Culture and History, edited byY. Kotani and 

W.B. Workman, pp. 233-251. National Museum of Ethnology, Senri 

Ethnological Studies 4, Osaka, Japan.

1984 Prehistory of North Alaska. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, pp. 80-

93. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W. C. Sturtevant, 

general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1986 The Settlement and Cultural Development of Eskimos Around 

Kotzebue Sound. In Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern, edited 

by J. L. Giddings and D. D. Anderson, pp. 311-325. Publications in 

Archeology 20. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 

Washington, DC.
272 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1988 Onion Portage: The Archaeology of a Stratified Site from the Kobuk 

River, Northwest Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of 

Alaska 22(1-2). University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks.

2009 The Archaeology of Northwest Alaska: 276-280 in Archaeology in 

America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/

Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

Anderson, D. D. and W. W. Anderson 

1971 Archeological and Ethnological Research in Selawik, Alaska: A 

Preliminary Report. U.S. National Park Service.

1977 Selawik Inupiat (Eskimo) Archeological Settlements, Use Areas and 

Resources, Northwestern Alaska. U.S. National Park Service.

Anderson, D. D., R. Bane, R. K. Nelson, W. W. Anderson and N. Sheldon

1976 Kuuyangmuit Subsistence: Traditional Eskimo Life in the Latter 

Twentieth Century. Report to the U.S. National Park Service.

Anderson, P.M and L. B Brubaker 

1994 Vegetation History of North Central Alaska’s Mapped Summary of 

Late-Quaternary pollen data. Quaternary Science Reviews 13:71-92.

Anderson, P.M. and A.V. Lozhkin

2001 The Stage 3 Interstadial Complex (Karginskii/middle Wisconsinan 

interval) of Beringia: Variations in Paleoenvironments and Implications

for Paleoclimatic Interpretations. Quaternary Science Reviews 20:93-

125.

Anikovich,M.V., A.A. Sinitsyn, J.F. Hoffecker, V.T. Holliday, V.V. Popov, S.N. Lisitsyn, 

S. L. Forman, G.M. Levkovskaya, G.a. Pospelova, I.E. Kuz′mina, N.D. Burova, P. 

Goldberg, R.I. Macphail, B. Giaccio, N.D. Praslov. 

2007 Early Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Europe and Implications for the 

Dispersal of Modern Humans. Science 314:223-226.

Bandi, H.G.

1969 Eskimo Prehistory. University of Alaska Press.

Bar-Yosef O., Arnold M, Mercier N, Belfer-Cohen A., Goldberg P., Housley R., Laville 

H., Meignen L., Vogel J.C., Vandermeersch B.

1996 The dating of the Upper Palaeolithic layers in Kebara Cave, Mt Carmel. 

Journal of Archaeological Science, 23:297-306.

Barclay, M., A. Malmin, and D. Croes

2005 Hoko River Archeological Site Complex Digital Image Archive. 

Washington State University Press.
Bibliography 273

Barnosky, C. W., P. M. Anderson, and L. B. Brubaker

1988 The Northwestern U.S. during deglaciation: Vegetational history and 

Paleoclimatic implications. In North American and Adjacent Oceans 

During the Last Deglaciation, edited by W. F. Ruddiman and H. E. 

Wright, Jr., pp. 289-321. The Geology of North America, Vol. K-3. 

Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.

Beebe, B. F. 

1983 Evidence of Carnivore Activity in a Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene 

Archaeological Site (Bluefish Cave 1), Yukon Territory, Canada. 

In A Question of Bone Technology, edited by G. M. LeMoine and 

A. S. MacEachern, pp.1–14. The Archaeological Association of the 

University of Calgary, Calgary.

Begét, J.E., R.D. Reger, D.S. Pinney, T. Gillispie, and K.M. Campbell.

1991 Correlation of the Holocene Jarvis Creek, Tangle Lakes, Cantwell, and 

Hayes Tephras in South-Central Alaska. Quaternary Research 35:174-189.

Bever, M.R.

2001 Stone Tool Technology and the Mesa Complex: Developing a 

Framework of Alaskan Paleoindian Prehistory. Arctic Anthropology

38(2):98-118.

Bigelow, N.H. and M.E. Edwards 

2001 A 14,000 Yr Paleoenvironmental Record from Windmill Lake, Central 

Alaska: Late-glacial and Holocene Vegetation in the Alaska Range. 

Quaternary Science Reviews 20:203-215.

Bigelow, N.H. and W.R. Powers

2001 Climate, Vegetation, and Archaeology 14,000 to 9,000 Cal Yr B.P. in 

Central Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 38(2):171-195.

Black, L. T. 

2004a Warriors of Kodiak: Military Traditions of Kodiak Islanders. Arctic 

Anthropology 41(2):140-152.

2004b Russians in Alaska: 1732-1867. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks.

Blaise, B., J. J. Clague, and R. W. Mathewes

1990 Time of Maximum Late Wisconsin Glaciation, West Coast of Canada. 

Quaternary Research 34:282–295.

Bobrowsky, P. T., N. R. Catto, J. W. Brink, B. E. Spurling, T. H. Gibson, and N. W. 

Rutter 

1990 Archaeological Geology of Sites in Western and Northwestern Canada. 

Geological Society of America. Centennial Special Vol. 4, Chapter 5, pp. 

87-122. Geological Society of America, Boulder.
274 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Bonnichsen, R.

1978 Critical Arguments for Pleistocene Artifacts from the Old Crow Basin, 

Yukon: A Preliminary Statement. In Early Man in America from a 

Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by Alan Lyle Bryan, pp. 102–118. 

Occasional Papers No. 1. Department of Anthropology, University of 

Alberta, Edmonton. 

1979 Pleistocene Bone Technology in the Beringian Refugium. National 

Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada 

Paper 89. Ottawa.

Borden, C. E.

1969 Early Population Movements from Asia into Western North America. 

Syesis 2:113.

1975 Origins and Development of Early Northwest Coast Culture to about 

3,000 B.C. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological 

Survey of Canada Paper 45. Ottawa.

Bowers, P. M.

1978 Research Summary: 1977 Investigations of the Carlo Creek Archaeological 

Site, Central Alaska. Report submitted to the University of Alaska 

Museum, Fairbanks. Laboratory of Anthropology, Arctic Research 

Section, Washington State University, Pullman. Ms. 24 1. January.

1980 The Carlo Creek site: Geology and archaeology of an early Holocene site in 

the central Alaska Range. M. A. thesis. Department of Anthropology, 

Washington State University, Pullman.

1980 The Carlo Creek Site: Geology and Archaeology of an Early Holocene Site 

in the Central Alaska Range. Anthropology and Historic Preservation, 

Cooperative Park Studies Unit, Occasion Paper No. 27, Fairbanks, 

Alaska.

1982 The Lisburne Site: Analysis and Culture Hisory of a MultiComponentLithic Workshop in the Iteriak Valley, Arctic Foothills, 

Northern Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska

20:79-112. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks.

1999 AMS Dating of the Area 22 American Paleoarctic Tradition Microblade 

Component at the Lisburne Site, Arctic Alaska. Current Research in the 

Pleistocene 16:12-14.

Boyd, R. T.

1990 Demographic History, 1774-1874. In Northwest Coast, edited by W. 

Suttles, pp. 135-148. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7, 
Bibliography 275

W.C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 

D.C.

Butler, V.L. and S.K. Campbell

2004 Resource Intensification and Resource Depression in the Pacific 

Northwest of North America: A Zooarchaeological Review. Journal of 

World Prehistory 18(4):327-405.

Butler, V.L. and J.E. O’Connor

2004 9,000 Years of Salmon Fishing on the Columbia River, North America. 

Quaternary Research 62:1-8.

Canada, Government of

2005 Canada’s Digital Collections, http://collections.ic.gc.ca/e/view.html. 

Carlson, R. L. 

1979 The Early Period on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Canadian 

Journal of Archaeology 3:211–228.

1983 The Far West. In Early Man in the New World, edited by Richard 

Shutler, Jr., pp. 73–96. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills.

1990a Cultural Antecedents. In Northwest Coast, edited by W. Suttles, pp. 60-

69. Handbook of North American Indians, W.C. Sturtevant, general 

editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1990b History of Research in Archaeology. In Northwest Coast, edited by W. 

Suttles, pp. 107-115. Handbook of North American Indians, W.C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1996 Introduction to Early Human Occupation in British Columbia. In 

Early Human Occupation in British Columbia, edited by Roy L. Carlson 

and Luke Dalla Bona, pp. 3–10. University of British Columbia Press, 

Vancouver.

1998 Coastal British Columbia in the Light of North Pacific Maritime 

Adaptations. Arctic Anthropology 35(1):23-35.

2004 The Northwest Coast Pre-Microblade Horizon and the Neanana 

Complex. In Abstracts for the 31st Annual Conference of the Alaska 

Anthropological Association, (no page number), Whitehorse, Yukon, 

Canada.

Carlson, R. L. and L. Dalla Bone (eds)

1996 Early Human Occupation in British Columbia. University of British 

Columbia Press, Vancouver. 
276 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Chaussonnet, V.

1995 Crossroads Alaska, Native Cultures of Alaska and Siberia. Arctic Studies 

Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington, D.C.

Cinq-Mars, J.

1979 Bluefish Cave I: A Late Pleistocene Eastern Beringian Cave Deposit in 

the Northern Yukon. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 3:1–32.

Cinq-Mars, J. and R.E. Morlan

1999 Bluefish Caves and Old Crow Basin: A New Rapport. In Ice Age People 

of North America: Environments, Origins, and Adaptations, edited by 

Robson Bonnichsen and Karen L.Turnmire, pp. 200-212. Center for 

the Study of the First Americans, Corvallis, Oregon, Oregon State 

University Press.

Clark, D. W.

1974a Contributions to the Later Prehistory of Kodiak Island, Alaska. National 

Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada 

Paper No. 20. Ottawa. 

1974b Koniag Prehistory. Tubinger Monographien zur Urgeschichte Vol. 

1 Verlag Kohlhammer, for Institut fur Urgeschichte, University of 

Tubingen.

1978 Hahanudan Lake: An Ipiutak-Related Occupation of Western Interior 

Alaska. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological 

Survey of Canada Paper 71, Ottawa.

1979 Ocean Bay: An Early North Pacific Maritime Culture. National Museum of 

Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 86, Ottawa.

1981 Prehistory of the Western Subarctic. In Subarctic, edited by J. Helm, 

pp. 107-129. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol 6, W.C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1982 An example of technological change in prehistory: the origin of a 

regional ground slate industry in south-central coastal Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 19(1):103-126.

1984a Prehistory of the Pacific Eskimo region. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, 

pp. 136-148. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W.C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1984b Northern Fluted Points: Paleo-Eskimo Paleo-Arctic, or Paleo-Indian. 

Canadian Journal of Anthropology 4(1):65-81
Bibliography 277

1984c Some Practical Applications of Obsidian Hydration Dating in the 

Subarctic. Arctic 37(2):91–109.

1987 Archaeological Reconnaissance at Great Bear Lake. Archaeological 

Survey of Canada Paper No. 136, Mercury Series. Canadian Museum of 

Civilization, Ottowa.

1991 Western Subarctic Prehistory. Canadian Prehistory Series, Canadian 

Museum of Civilization, Ottowa.

1992 “Only a Skin Boat Load or Two”: The Role of Migration in Kodiak 

Prehistory. Arctic Anthropology 29(1):2-17. 

1997 The Early Kachemak Phase on Kodiak Island at Old Kiavak. Mercury 

Series Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper 155. Canadian Museum 

of Civilization, Hull, Quebec.

1998 Kodiak Island: The Later Cultures. Arctic Anthropology 35(1):172-186.

 

2001 Microblade-Cultural Systematics in the Far Interior Northwest, Arctic 

Anthropology 38(2):64-80.

Clark, D. W. and A. M. Clark

1983 Paleo-Indians and Fluted Points: Subarctic Alternatives. Plains 

Anthropologist 1:283–92.

1993 Batza Tena Trail to Obsidian: Archaeology at an Alaskan Obsidian 

Source. Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series Paper 147. 

Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec. 

Clark, D. W. and R. M. Gotthardt

1999 Microblade Complexes and Traditions in the Interior Northwest, as 

Seen from the Kelly Creek Site, West-Central Yukon, Occasional Papers 

in Archaeology No. 6, Heritage Branch, Government of the Yukon.

Collins, H. B., A. H. Clark, and E. H. Walker

1945 The Aleutian Islands: Their People & Natural History. Smithsonian 

Institution, Washington, D.C. (limited reprint in 1972).

Cook, J. P.

1969 The Early Prehistory of Healy Lake, Alaska. Ph.D. dissertation, 

Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

1996 Healy Lake. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of 

Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 323–327. University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago.
278 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Cook, J.P and R.A. McKennan 

1970 The Village Site at Healy Lake, Alaska: An Interim Report. Paper 

presented at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for American 

Archaeology, Mexico City.

Corbett, D.G., D. West and C. Lefevre 

2001 Prehistoric Village Organization in the Western Aleutians. In

Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers 58: 251-266.

Coupland, G.

1998 Maritime Adaptation and Evolution of the Developed Northwest Coast 

Pattern on the Central Northwest Coast. Arctic Anthropology 35(1):36-56.

Crass, B. A. and C. E. Holmes

2004 Swan Point: A Case for Bering Land Bridge Migration in the Peopling 

of North America. Paper presented 69th Annual Meeting of the Society 

for American Archaeology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Crass, B. A., B. L. Kedrowski, J. Baus, and J. A. Behm

2011 Residue Analysis of Bone-Fueled Pleistocene Hearths in From the Yenesei 

to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability in Late Pleistocene/

Early Holocene Beringia: 192-198, Goebel, T. and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A 

& M University Press, College Station. 

Crockford, S. J., M. L. Moss, and J. F. Baichtal

2012 Precontact Dogs from the Prince of Wales Archipelago, Alaska. Alaska 

Journal of Anthropology 9(2):49-64. 

Crowell, A.L.

 1997 Archaeology and the Capitalist World System: A Study from Russian 

America. Plenum Press, New York. 

 2009 Russian Colonization of Alaska and the Northwest Coast: 282-286 in 

Archaeology in America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and 

Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

 2009 Archaeology of a Borderland: Prince William Sound and Cook 

Inlet, southern Alaska Coast: 258-261 in Archaeology in America. 

An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. 

McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

Dall, W. H. 

1877 On succession in the shell-heaps of the Aleutian Islands. In 

Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. 1, pp. 41-92. U.S. 

Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Bibliography 279

Davis, B.

2001 Sea Mammal Hunting and the Neoglacial: Environmental Change and 

Subsistence Technology at Margaret Bay. In Archaeology in the Aleut 

Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 58: 71-

86.

Davis, C.W., D.C. Linck, K.M. Schoenberg and H.M. Shields

1981 Slogging, Humping and Mucking through the NPR-A: An 

Aarchaeological Interlude. University of Alaska, Anthropology and 

Historic Preservation Cooperative Park Studies Unit, Occasional Paper 

25.

Davis, S. D.

1989 Cultural Component I. In The Hidden Falls Site, edited by D. Davis, 

pp. 159-198. Alaska Anthropological Association. Monograph Series. 

No. 5.

1990 Prehistory of Southeastern Alaska. In Northwest Coast, edited by W. 

Suttles, pp. 197-202. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7, W.C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 

de Laguna, F.

1930 The Thousand March: Adventures of an American Boy with Garibaldi. 

Map and illustrations by Daniel F. Low. Little, Brown and Co., New 

York.

1932 An Alaskan Stone Lamp. The University Museum Bulletin, Vol 4, No. 1, 

December, pp 21, 2425, Pl.XI.

1932-1933 A Comparison of Eskimo and Palaeolithic Art. American Journal of 

Archaeology, Vol. 36, No. 4, October-December, 1932, pp. 477-511,Pls. 

XIX,-XXIII, and Vol. 37, No. 1, January-March, pp. 77-107, Pls. XVIIIXXIV.

1933a Three Carvings from Cook Inlet, Alaska. The University Musuem 

Bulletin, Vol. 4 (2), February, pp. 56-58, Pl. XII.

1933b Mummified Heads from Alaska. American Anthropologist, Vol 35, No. 

4, October-December, pp 742-744, Pl., X.

1934 The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska. University of Pennsylvania Press 

for the University Museum, Philadelphia. Second expanded edition, 

Alaska Historical Society, 1975.

1935 Expedition to the Yukon. The University Museum Bulletin, Vol. 7: 50-57, 

December, Philadelphia.
280 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1936a An Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Middle and Lower Yukon 

Valley, Alaska. American Antiquity, Vol. 2 (1), January, pp. 6-12.

1936b Preliminary Report of an Archaeological and Geological 

Reconnaissance of the Middle and Lower Yukon Valley. Miscellanea, 

Amercian Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 31-40. 

1937 The Arrow Points to Murder. The Crime Club, Doubleday Doran Co., 

Garden City, N.Y. 

1938 Fog on the Mountain. The Crime Club, Doubleday Doran Co. Garden 

City , NY. (Republished with new Preface by Kachemak Country 

Publications, Homer, Alaska, 1995).

1947 The Prehistory of Northern North America as Seen from the Yukon. 

Memoir 3, Society for American Archaeology, Menasha, WI.

1956 Chugach Prehistory: the Archaeology of Prince William Sound, Alaska. 

University of Washington, Publications in Anthropology, Vol. 13, 

Seattle.

1958 Geological Confirmation of Native Traditions, Yakutat, Alaska. 

American Antiquity, Vol. 23 (4): 434.

1960 The Story of a Tlingit Community: A Problem in the Relationship 

between Archeological, Ethnological and Historical Methods. Bureau of 

American Ethnology, Bulletin 172, Washington, DC. 

1969-70 The Atna of the Copper River, Alaska: The World of Men and 

Animals. (Essays in honor of Erik Holtved). Folk, Vol. 11-12, pp. 18-

26.

1972 Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat 

Tlingit. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, No 7 (3 Volumes), 

Washington, D.C.

1977 Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology. W. W. 

Norton Co. New York.

Deetz, J.

1967 Invitation to Archaeology. American Museum Science Books. The 

Natural History Press, Garden City, New York.

Derev’anko, A.P.

1998 The Paleolithic of Siberia: New Discoveries and Interpretations. Demitri 

B. Shimkin and W. Roger Powers, American editors. Inna P. Laricheva, 
Bibliography 281

Translator. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Siberian 

Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk. University of 

Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago.

Dikov, N. N.

1971 Mysteries in the Rocks of Ancient Chukotka (Petroglyphs of Pegtymel’).

Nauka, Moscow. Richard L. Bland, Translator. Published in 1997 by 

the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared 

Beringian Heritage Program, Anchorage, Alaska.

1974 The Chini Cemetery (A History of Sea Mammal Hunters in Bering 

Strait). Nauka, Novosibirsk. Richard L. Bland, Translator. Published in 

2002 by U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared 

Beringian Heritage Program, Anchorage, Alaska.

1977 Arkheologicheshie pamyatniki Kamchctki, Chukotki i Verkhnej Kolymy 

(Archeological Sites of Kamchatka, Chukotka, and the Upper Kolyma).

Nauka, Moscow. Richard L. Bland, Translator. Published in 2003 by 

the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared 

Beringian Heritage Program, Anchorage, Alaska.

1979 Drevnie kul’tury Severo-Vostochnoj Azii (Early Cultures of Northeast 

Asia). Nauka, Moscow. Richard L. Bland, Translator. Published in 2004 

by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared 

Beringian Heritage Program, Anchorage, Alaska.

1993 Asia at the Juncture with America in Antiquity. Russian Academy 

of Sciences (RAS), Department of History Far-Eastern Branch of 

RAS Northeastern Interdisciplinary Research Institute, Nauka, St. 

Petersburg, Richard L. Bland, Translator. Published in 1997 by the 

U.S.Depoartment of the Interior, National Park Service, Beringia 

Program, Anchorage, Alaska.

Dikov, N. N. and E. E. Titov

1984 Problems of the Stratification and Periodization of the Ushki Sites. 

Arctic Anthropology 21(2):69–80.

Dixon, E. J.

1975 The Gallagher Flint Station, An Early Man Site on the North Slope, 

Arctic Alaska and its role in Relation to the Bering Land Bridge. Arctic 

Anthropology 12(1): 68-75.

1976 The Pleistocene Prehistory of Arctic North America. In Colloque XVII 

Habitats Humains. Anterieurs a l’Holocene en Amerique, edited by J. B. 

Griffin, pp. 168–198. Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of 

Anthropological Sciences, Nice, France.
282 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1983 Pleistocene Proboscidean Fossils from the Alaskan Continental Shelf. 

Quaternary Research 20:113–119.

1984 Context and Environment in Taphonomic Analysis: Examples from 

Alaska’s Porcupine River Caves. Quaternary Research 22:201–215.

1985 Cultural Chronology of Central Interior Alaska. Arctic Anthropology

22(1): 47-66.

1986 The Northern Paleoindian/Northern Archaic Transition in 

Alaska. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Alaska 

Anthropological Association, Fairbanks, Alaska.

1993 Quest for the Origins of the First Americans. University of New Mexico 

Press, Albuquerque.

1999 Bones, Boats, and Bison: Archeology and the First Colonization 

of Western North America. University of New Mexico Press, 

Albuquerque. 

2001 Human Colonization of the Americas: Timing, Technology and 

Process. In Beringian Paleoenvironments: Festschrift in Honor of David 

M. Hopkins, guest editors S. E. Elias and J. Brigham-Grette. 

 Quaternary Science Reviews 1-3:277-299.

2006 Paleo-Indian: Far Northwest. Environment, Origins, and Population. 

Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 3:129-14, Douglas H. 

Ubelabaker,Volume Editor. Dennis Stanford, Bruce D. Smith, Douglas 

H. Ubelaker, and Emöke J.E. Szathmáry (associate eds), Smithsonian 

Institution Press. 

2008 Archaeology and the First Americans. Encyclopedia of American Indian 

Histroy. Vol.1:82-87. Pritzker, B., and B.E. Johansen, eds. ABC-CLIO. 

Santa Barbara.

2009 Ice Field Archaeology: 304-308 in Archaeology in America. An 

Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. 

McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

2010 A Reappraisal of Circumpolar Microblade Technological Systems. In A 

Circumpolar Reappraisal. The Legacy of Gutorm Gjessing (1906-1979): 

77-85. Christer Westerdahl ed., British Archaeological Reports (BAR) 

International Series 2154. Oxford, England. 

2011a Arrows, Atlatls, and Cultural-Historical Conundrums, in From the 

Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability in Late 
Bibliography 283

Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 361-369. T. Goebel and I. Buvit 

(eds.), Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

2011b Late Pleistocene colonization of North America from Northeast 

Asia: New insights from large-scale paleogeographic reconstructions. 

Quaternary International:1-11.

Dixon, E. J., T. H. Heaton, T. E. Fifield, T. D. Hamilton, D. E. Putnam, and F. Grady

1997 Late Quaternary Regional Geoarchaeology of Southeast Alaska 

Karst: A Progress Report. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal

12(6):689–712.

Dixon, E.J., W.F. Manley, and C.M. Lee

2005 Emerging archaeology of glaciers and ice patches: examples from 

Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. American 

Antiquity 70(1):129-143.

Dixon, E. J. and G. S. Smith

1986 Broken Canines from Alaskan Cave Deposits: Re-evaluating Evidence 

for Domesticated Dog and Early Humans in Alaska. American 

Antiquity 51:341–351.

1990 A Regional Application of Tephrochronology in Alaska. Centennial 

Special Vol. 4, Chapter 21:383-398. Geological Society of America, 

Boulder.

Dixon, E. J., G. S. Smith, and D. C. Plaskett

1980 Archeological Survey and Inventory of Cultural Resources, Fort 

Wainwright, Alaska. Final Report. Submitted to the Department 

of the Army, Alaska District, Corps of Engineers, Contract No. 

DACA-78-C-0047. Copy on file, University of Alaska Museum, 

Fairbanks.

Dixon, E. J. and R. M. Thorson 

1984 Taphonomic Analysis and Interpretation in North American 

Pleistocene Archaeology. Quaternary Research 22:155–159.

Dolitsky, A. B. and H. N. Michael

2008 Spirit of the Siberian Tiger. Folktales of the Russian Far East. AlaskaSiberia Research Center, Juneau. 

Dove, C. J., P. G. Hare, and M. Heacker. 

2005 Identification of ancient feather fragments found in melting alpine ice 

patches in southern Yukon. Arctic 58(1):38-43.
284 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Driver, J. C. 

1996 The Significance of the Fauna from the Charlie Lake Cave Site. In Early 

Human Occupation in British Columbia, edited by Roy L. Carlson and 

Luke Dalla Bona, pp. 21–28. University of British Columbia Press, 

Vancouver.

Driver, J. C., M. Handly, K. R. Fladmark, D. E. Nelson, G. M. Sullivan, and R. Preston

1996 Stratigraphy, Radiocarbon Dating, and Culture History of Charlie Lake 

Cave, British Columbia. Arctic 49(3):265–277.

Dumond, D. E.

1963 Two Early Phases from the Naknek Drainage. Arctic Anthropology

1(2):93-104.

1965 On Eskaleutian Linguistics, Archaeology, and Prehistory. American 

Anthropologists 67(5):1231-1257.

1968 Toward a Prehistory of Alaska. In Frontier Alaska: Proceedings of the 

Conference on Alaskan History, edited by R. Frederick, pp. 31-50. Alaska 

Methodist University, Anchorage.

1969 Prehistoric Cultural contacts in Southwestern Alaska. Science 166:1108-

1115. 

1971 A Summary of Archaeology in the Katmai Region, Southwestern Alaska. 

University of Oregon Anthropological Papers No. 2, Eugene.

1972 The Alaska Peninsula in Alaskan Prehistory. In For the Chief: 

Essays in Honor of L. S. Cressman, edited by F. W. Voget and R. 

L. Stephenson, pp. 29-47. University of Oregon Anthropological 

Papers, 4, Eugene.

1974 Prehistoric Ethnic boundaries on the Alaska Peninsula. Anthropological 

Papers of the University of Alaska 16(1)1-7.

1975 Coastal Adaptation and Cultural Change in Alaskan Eskimo 

Prehistory. In Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations of the Circumpolar 

Zone, edited by W. Fitzhugh, pp. 167-180. Mouton, The Hague.

1976 Archaeology and Prehistory on the Alaska Peninsula. Anthropological 

Papers of the University of Alaska 18(1):17-29.

1977 The Eskimos and Aleuts. Thames and Hudson, London (revised 1987).

1978 Alaska and the Northwest Coast. In Ancient Native Americans, edited 

by J.D. Jennings, pp. 43-93. W. H. Freeman, San Fransisco.
Bibliography 285

1979 Eskimo-Indian Relationships: A View from Prehistory. In IndianEskimo Relations: Studies in the Inter-Ethnic Relations of Small 

Societies edited by J.G.E. Smith. Arctic Anthropology 16(2): 3-22.

1980a A Chronology of Native Alaskan Subsistence Systems. In Alaska Native 

Culture and History, edited by Y. Kotani and W. B. Workman, pp. 

23-48. Senri Ethnological Studies, 4. National Museum of Ethnology, 

Osaka.

1980b The Archeology of Alaska and the Peopling of America. Science

209:984-991.

1981 Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The Naknek Region, 1960-1975. 

University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, No. 21, Eugene.

1982a Colonization of the American Arctic and the New World. American 

Antiquity 47(4):885-896.

1982b Trends and Traditions in Alaskan Prehistory: The Place of Norton 

Culture. Arctic Anthropology 19(2)39-51.

1984a Prehistory of the Bering Sea Region. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, 

pp. 94-105. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W.C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 

D.C.

1984b Prehistory: Summary. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, pp. 72-79. 

Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W.C. Sturtevant, general 

editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1987a A Reexamination of Eskimo-Aleut Prehistory. American Anthropologist

89(1):1-25.

1987b Prehistoric Human Occupation in Southwestern Alaska: A Study 

of Resource Distribution and Site Location. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers, 36, Eugene.

1998a The Hillside Site St. Lawrence Island Alaska: An Examination of 

Collections from the 1930s. University of Oregon Anthropological 

Papers, 55, Eugene.

1998b Maritime Adaptation on the Northern Alaska Peninsula. Arctic 

Anthropology 35(1):187-203.

2001a The Archaeology of Eastern Beringia: Some Contrasts and 

Connections, Arctic Anthropology 38(2):196-205.
286 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

2001b Toward a (Yet) Newer View of the (Pre)History of the Aleutians. 

In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers 58.

2004 Volcanism and History on the Northern Alaska Peninsula. Arctic 

Anthropology 41(2):112-125.

2009 The Brooks River Archaeological District: 292-294 in Archaeology in 

America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. 

P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

2009 Where the Bering Sea Meets the Pacific Ocean: The Archaeology 

of the Alaska Peninsula: 265-267 in Archaeology in America. An 

Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. 

McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

2011 Technology, Typology, and Subsistence: A Partly Contrarian Look at 

the Peopling of Beringia, in From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting 

Lithic Assemblage Variability in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene 

Beringia: 345-361, Goebel, T. and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M 

University Press, College Station.

Dumond, D. E. and R. L. Bland

1995 Holocene Prehistory of the Northernmost North Pacific. Journal of 

World Prehistory 9(4): 401-451.

2004 Volcanism and History on the Northern Alaska Peninsula. Arctic 

Anthropology 41(2): 112-125.

Dumond, D. E., W. Henn, and R. Stuckenrath

1976 Archaeology and Prehistory on the Alaska Peninsula. Anthropological 

Papers of the University of Alaska 18(1): 17–29.

Dumond, D.E. and R.A. Knecht

2001 An Early Blade Site in the Eastern Aleutians. In Archaeology in the 

Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 58, 

Eugene.

Dumond, D. E. and J. W. VanStone

1995 Paugvik: A Nineteenth Century Native Village on Bristol Bay, 

Southwestern Alaska. Fieldiana Anthropology No. 24. Field Museum of 

Natural History, Chicago.

Easton, N. A.

1992 Mal de Mer Above Terra Incognita, or, “What Ails the Coastal 

Migration Theory?” Arctic Anthropology 29(2): 28-41.
Bibliography 287

2004 Nenana in Canada – 2003 Excavation of a Multi-Component Site 

(KdVo-6) in Mirror Creek Valley, Yukon Territory, Canada. In 

Abstracts of the 31st Annual Conference of the Alaska Anthropological 

Association, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

Easton, N. A., G. R. MacKay, P. B. Young, P. Schnurr, and D. R. Yesner

2011 Chindadn in Canada? Emergent Evidence of the Pleistocene 

Transition in Southeast Beringia as Revealed by the Little John Site, 

Yukon in From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage 

Variability in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 289-307, 

Goebel, T. and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College 

Station.

Edwards, M. E. and P. W. Dunwiddie

1985 Dendrochronological and Palynological Observations on Populus balsamifera in Northern Alaska, U. S. A. Arctic and Alpine Research 17: 

271-278.

Elias, S.A.

2001 Beringian paleoecology: results from the 1997 workshop. In Beringian 

Paleoenvironments: Festschrift in Honor of David M. Hopkins, guest 

editors S. E. Elias and J. Brigham-Grette. Quaternary Science Reviews

1-3: 7-14.

2002 Setting the Stage: Environmental Conditons in Beringia as People 

Entered the New World. In The First Americans: The Pleistocene 

Colonization of the New World, Memoirs of the California Academy of 

Sciences 27:9-26.

Elias, S. A., S. K. Short, C. H. Nelson, and H. H. Birks

1996 Life and Times of the Bering Land Bridge. Nature 382: 60–63.

Elias, S.A., S. K. Short, and R. L. Phillips

1992 Paleoecology of Late Glacial Peats from the Bering Land Bridge, 

Chukchi Sea Shelf Region, Northwestern Alaska. Quaternary Research

38: 371-378.

Erlandson, J. M., A. Crowell, C. Wooley and J. Haggarty

1992 Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Alutiiq Paleodemography. Arctic 

Anthropology 29(2): 42-61.

Erlandson, J. M., M. H. Graham, B. J. Bourque, D. Corbett, J. A. Estes, and R. S. 

Steneck

2007 The Kelp Highway Hypothesis: Marine Ecology, the Coastal Migration 

Theory, and the Peopling of the Americas. Journal of Island and 

Coastal Archaeology 2:161-174.
288 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Erlandson, J. M., M. L. Moss, and R. E. Hughes

1992 Archaeological Distribution and Trace Element Geochemistry of 

Volcanic Glass from Obsidian Cove, Sumez Island, Southeast Alaska. 

Canadian Journal of Archaeology 16: 89–95.

Farnell, R., P. G. Hare, E. Blake, V. Bowyer, C. Schweger, S. Greer, and R. Gotthardt

2004 Multidisciplinary Investigations of Alpine Ice Patches in Southwest 

Yukon, Canada: Paleoenvironmental and Paleobiological Investigations. 

Arctic 57(3):247-259.

Fedje, D.W.

2003 Ancient Landscapes and Archaeology in Haida Gwaii and Hecate 

Strait in Archaeology of Coastal British Columbia. Essays in Honor 

of Professor Philip M. Hobler, edited by Roy L. Carlson, pp. 29-38. 

Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C.

Fedje, D.W. and H. Josenhans 

2000 Drowned Forests and Archaeology on the Continental Shelf of British 

Columbia, Canada. Geology 28(2):99-102.

Fedje, D. W., Q. Mackie, N. Smith, D. McLaren 

2011 Function, Visibility, and Interpretation of Archaeological Assemblages 

at the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition in Haida Gwaii in From the 

Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability in Late 

Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 323-344, Goebel, T. and I. Buvit 

(eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

Fedje, D. W., A. P. Mackie, J. B. McSporran, and B. Wilson 

1996 Early Period Archaeology in Gwaii Haanas: Results of the 1993 Field 

Program. In Early Human Occupation in British Columbia, edited 

by Roy L. Carlson and Luke Dalla Bona, pp. 133–150. University of 

British Columbia Press, Vancouver.

Fedje , D. W., J. M. White, M. C. Wilson, D. E. Nelson, J. S. Vogel, and J. R. Southon

1995 Vermillion Lakes Site: Adaptations and Environments in the Canadian 

Rockies During the Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene. American 

Antiquity 60:81–108.

Ferguson, D.E.

1997 Revised Temporal Assessment of a Proposed Paleoarctic Site in the 

Sagavanirktok River Valley, Northern Alaska. Current Research in the 

Pleistocene 14: 24-26.

Fitzhugh, B. 

2004 Colonizing the Kodiak Archipelago: Trends in Raw Material Use and Lithic 

Technologies at the Tanginak Spring Site. Arctic Anthropology 41(1):14-40.
Bibliography 289

Fitzhugh, W. W. (ed.)

1973 Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations of the Circumpolar Zone. International 

Congress of Anthropological and ethnological Sciences. The Hague: 

Mouton.

1994 Crossroads of Continents: Review and Prospect. In Anthropology of the 

North Pacific Rim: 27-52, W.W. Fitzhugh and V. Chaussonnett eds.

Fitzhugh, W. W. and A. Crowell (eds.)

1988 Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Smithsonian 

Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Fladmark, K. R.

1975 A Paleoecological Model for Northwest Coast Prehistory. Archaeological 

Survey of Canada Paper 43. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, 

Ottawa.

1979 Routes: Alternative Migration Corridors for Early Man in North 

America. American Antiquity 44: 55–69.

1982 An Introduction to the Prehistory of British Columbia. Canadian 

Journal of Archaeology 6:95–156.

1985 Glass and Ice: The Archaeology of Mt. Edziza. Publication Number 14. 

Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C.

1990 Possible Early Human Occupation in the Queen Charlotte Island. 

Canadian Journal of Archaeology 14: 183-97.

Fladmark, K. R., K. M. Ames, and P. D. Sutherland

1990 Prehistory of the Northern Coast of British Columbia. In Northwest 

Coast, edited by W. Suttles, pp. 229-239. Handbook of North 

American Indians, Vol. 7, W.C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian 

Institution, Washington, D.C. 

Fladmark, K. R., J. C. Driver, and D. Alexander 

1988 The Paleoindian Component at Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf 39), British 

Columbia. American Antiquity 53: 371–384.

 

Ford, J. A.

1959 Eskimo Prehistory in the Vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska. 

 Anthropological Papers of the American Musum of Natural History 47(l): 

 l-272.

Franklin, U.M., E. Badone, R. Gotthardt, and B. Yorga

1981 An Examination of Prehistoric Copper Technology and Copper Sources 

in Western Arctic and Subarctic North America. National Museum of 
290 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 101, 

Ottawa.

Frison, G. C., and D. Stanford

1982 The Agate Basin Site: A Record of the Paleoindian Occupation of the 

Northwestern High Plains. Academic Press, New York.

1983 The Western Plains and Mountain Region. In Early Man in the New 

World, edited by Richard Shutler Jr., pp. 109–124. Sage Publications, 

Beverly Hills.

Gal, R.

1982 Excavation of the Tunalik Site, Northwestern National Petroleum Reserve in 

Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 20: 61-78.

Geist, Otto William, and Froelich G. Rainey

1936 Archaeological Excavations at Kukulik St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. 

United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.

Gjessing, G. 

1944 Circumpolar Stone Age. Acta Arctica Fasc. II, Copenhagen

1953 Circumpolar Stone Age. Antiquity Vol. 27, No. 107:131-136.

Giddings, J. L.

1952 The Arctic Woodland Culture of the Kobuk River. Museum Monographs. 

The University Museum, Philadelphia.

1964 The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. Brown University Press, Providence.

1968 Ancient Men of the Arctic. Secker & Warburg, London.

Giddings, J. L. and Douglas D. Anderson

1986 Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Publications in Archeology 

20, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, 

DC.

Goebel, T. 

1999. Pleistocene human colonization of Siberia and the peopling of the Americas: 

an ecological approach, Evolutionary Anthropology 8(6): 208-227.

2011 What is the Nenanna Complex? Raw Material Procurement and 

Technological Organization at Walker Road, Central Alaska in From 

the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability in 

Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 119-214, Goebel, T. and I. 

Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.
Bibliography 291

Goebel, T. and M. Aksenov

1995 Accelerator radiocarbon dating of the initial Upper Palaeolithic in 

southeast Siberia. Antiquity 69:349-57.

Goebel, T. and N. H. Bigelow 

1996 Panguingue Creek. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 366–

371. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Goebel, F.E. and W.R. Powers

1990 Early Paleoindians in Beringia and the Origins of Clovis. In 

Chronostratigraphy of the Paleolithic of North, Central and East Asia and 

America, p. 173. Academy of Sciences of the USSR Institute of History, 

Philology and Philosophy, Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences. 

Novosibersk, USSR.

Goebel, F.E., W.R. Powers and N. Bigelow

1991 The Nenana Complex of Alaska and Clovis Origins. In Clovis 

Origins and Adaptations, edited by R. Bonnichsen and K. 

Turnmire, pp. 49–79. Center for the Study of the First Americans, 

Oregon State University, Corvallis.

Goebel, F.E. and S.B. Slobodin

1999 The Colonization of Western Beringia: Technology, Ecology, and 

Adaptations. In Ice Age People of North America: Environments, Origins, 

and Adaptations, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and Karen L.Turnmire, 

pp. 104-155. Center for the Sutdy of the First Americans, Oregon State 

University Press, Corvallis.

Goebel, T. and W.R. Powers

1989 A Possible Paleoindian Dwelling in the Nenana Valley, Alaska: 

Spatial Analysis at the Walker Road Site. Paper presented at the 

16th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association. 

Anchorage, Alaska.

Goebel T., M. R. Waters and M. Dikova

2003 The Archaeology of Ushki Lake, Kamchatka, and the Pleistocene 

Peopling of the Americas. Science Vol 301(5632): 501-505.

Greenberg, J. H., C. G. Turner II, and S. L. Zegura

1986 The Settlement of the Americas: A Comparison of the Linguistic, 

Dental, and Genetic evidence. Current Anthropology 27(5): 477-497. 

Guthrie, R. D.

1990 Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe. University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago.
292 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Griffin, K.

2009 North Point, Hidden Falls, Groundhog Bay, and Other Sites: 230-225 

in Archaeology in America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast 

and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

Hall, E. S. Jr.

1969 Speculations on the late prehistory of the Kutchin Athapaskan. 

Ethnohistory 16(4): 317-333.

1970 The Late Prehistoric/Early Historic Eskimos of Interior Northwest 

Alaska: an Ethnoarchaeological approach? Anthropological Papers of the 

University of Alaska 15(1): 1-11.

1971a The Iron Dog in Northern Alaska. Anthropologica 13(102): 237-254.

1971b Kangiguksuk: a Cultural Reconstruction of a 16th Century Eskimo site 

in Northern Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 8(1): 1-101.

1974 Archaeological Investigations in the Noatak River valley, summer 1973 

(Final Report). In The Environment of the Noatak River basin, Alaska, 

edited by S. B. Young. In Contributions from the Center for Northern 

Studies 1: 460-523.

1975 The Eskimo Storyteller: Folktales from Noatak, Alaska. University of 

Tennessee Press (reprinted 1976, 1989).

1976 A Preliminary Analysis of House Types at (Sikoruk) Tukuto Lake, 

Northern Alaska. In Contributions to Anthropology: the Interior Peoples 

of Northern Alaska, edited by Edwin S. Hall Jr. National Museums of 

Canada Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 49, pp. 

98-134.

1985 Interior North Alaska Eskimo. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, pp. 338-

346. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W. C. Sturtevant, 

general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1990 The Cultural Research Setting of the Utqiagvik site - a Brief 

Bibliographic Essay. In The 1981Excavations at the Utqiagvik 

Archaeological Site, Barrow, Alaska by Dekin et al. The North Slope 

Borough Commission on Inupiat History, Language and Culture, 

Alaska: Barrow, pp. 8-30.

Hall, E. S. Jr. and R. Gal 

1982 Archaeological Investigations by the U.S. Geological Survey and the 

Bureau of Land Management in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska: 

Introduction. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 20: 1-2.
Bibliography 293

1989 The U.S. Geological Survey-Bureau of Land Management Cultural 

Resources Program in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, 1977-

1981. In Geology and Exploration of the National Petroleum Reserve on 

Alaska, 1974 to 1982, edited by George Gryc. U.S. Geological Survey 

Professional Paper 1399, pp. 859-897. United States Government 

Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

1995 Cores and Blades at XHP-010, Northwestern Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 32(1):131-137. 

Hall, E. S. Jr. and S. C. Gerlach

1988 The Later Prehistory of Northern Alaska: the View from Tukuto Lake. 

In The Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska’s Native People, edited 

by Robert D. Shaw, Roger K. Harritt and Don E. Dumond. Aurora 

Monographic Series No. 4, Alaska Anthropological Association, 

Anchorage.

Hall, E. S. Jr. and R. A. McKennan

1973 An Archaeological Survey of the Old John Lake Area, Northern Alaska. 

Polar Notes, pp. 1-30.

Hamilton, T.

1970 Geologic Relations in the Akmak Assemblage, Onion Portage, Alaska, In 

Anderson, D.D., ed., Akmak: An Early Archaeological Assemblage from 

Onion Portage, Northwest Alaska: Acta Arctica, facial 15, p. 71-78.

1977 Late Cenozoic Stratigraphy of the South-central Brooks Range. U.S. 

Geological Survey, Circular 772-B: B36-B38.

Hamilton, T. D. and R. J. Fulton

1999 Middle and Late Wisconsin Environments of Eastern Beringia. In Ice Age 

Peoples of North America, edited by R. Bonnichsen. Oregon State University 

Press for the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Corvallis.

Hamilton, T. D., and T. Goebel

1999 Late Pleistocene Peopling of Alaska. In Ice Age Peoples of North America, 

edited by R. Bonnichsen. Oregon University Press for the Center for 

the Study of the First Americans, Corvallis.

Hare, G. P., S. Greer, R. Gotthardt, R. Farnell, V. Bowyer, C. Schweger, and D. Strand

2004 Ethnographic and Archaeological Investigations of Alpine Ice Patches 

in Southwest Yukon, Canada, Arctic 57(3):260-272.

Harington, C. R., R. Bonnichsen, and R. E. Morlan

1975 Bones Say Man Lived in Yukon 27,000 Years Ago. Canadian 

Geographical Journal 91(2):42–48.
294 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Harritt, R.K.

1998 Paleo-Eskimo Beginnings in North America: a New Discovery at 

Kuzitrin Lake, Alaska. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 22 (1).

2004 A Preliminary Reevaluation of the Punuk-Thule Interface at Wales, 

Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 41(2): 163-176.

Haynes, G.

1991 Mammoths, Mastodons, & Elephants: Biology, Behavior, and the Fossil 

Record. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Heaton, T.H. and F. Grady

2002 The Biostratigraphy of On Your Knees Cave, Northern Prince of Wales 

Island, Southeast Alaska. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(3): 63A.

2003 The Late Wisconsin Vertebrate History of Prince of Wales Island, 

Southeast Alaska. In Ice Age Cave Faunas of North America, Chapter 

2, edited by B. W. Schubert, J. I. Mead, and R. W. Raham, Indiana 

University Press, Bloomington.

Heffner, A.

2002 KaVn-2: An Eastern Beringian Tradition Archaeological Site in WestCentral Yukon Territory, Canada. Occasional Papers in Archaeology

No.10, Whitehorse, Yukon.

Henn, W.

1978 Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The Ugashik Drainage 1973-1975. 

University of Oregon Anthropological Papers No. 14, Eugene.

Hibben, F.C.

1943 Evidence of Early Man in Alaska. American Antiquity 8: 254-259.

Hickey, C.G.

1976 The Effects of Treeline Shifts on Human Societies: Crazy Quilt 

Variability vs. Macrozonal Adaptation. In International Conference on 

the Prehistory and Paleoecology of North American Arctic and Subarctic

(second edition), edited by S. Raymond and P. Schledermann, pp. 87-

89. University of Calgary, Calgary.

Hobler, P. M.

1978 The Relationship of Archaeological Sites to Sea Levels on Moresby 

Island, Queen Charlotte Island. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 2: 

1–14.

1990 Prehistory of the Central Coast of British Columbia. In Northwest 

Coast, edited by W. Suttles, pp. 298-305. Handbook of North 
Bibliography 295

American Indians, Vol. 7, W.C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian 

Institution, Washington, D.C. 

Hoffecker, J. F.

2001 Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Sites in the Nenana River Valley, 

Central Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 38(2): 139-153.

Hoffecker, J.F., W.R. Powers, and T. Goebel

1993 The Colonization of Beringia and the Peopling of the New World. 

Science 259: 46-53.

Holland, K.M.

1992 In the Wake of Prehistoric North Pacific Sea Mammal Hunters. Arctic 

Anthropology 29(2): 63-72.

2001 Regional Interaction as Seen from the Eastern Aleutians. In Archaeology 

in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological 

Papers 58. Eugene.

Holm, B.

1990 Art. In Northwest Coast, edited by W. Suttles, pp. 602-632. Handbook 

of North American Indians, Vol. 7, W.C. Sturtevant, general editor. 

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 

Holmes, C. E.

1976 3000 Years of Prehistory at Minchumina: The Question 

of Cultural Boundaries. Paper presented at the 9th Annual 

Conference of the University of Calgary Archaeological 

Association, Calgary, Alberta.

1988a Archaeological Mitigation of the Thorne River Site (CRG-177), Prince 

of Wales Island, Alaska. Office of History and Archaeology, Report 

15. Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, Alaska Department of 

Natural Resources, Anchorage.

1988b An Early Post Paleo-Arctic Site in the Alaska Range. Paper presented 

at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, 

March 25-26. Fairbanks, Alaska.

1990 The Broken Mammoth Site: Its Relevance in Alaska/Yukon Prehistory. 

Paper presented at the Canadian Archaeological Association Annual 

Meeting, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

1996 Broken Mammoth. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 312–

317. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
296 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

2001 Tanana River Valley Archaeology circa 14,000 to 9,000 B.P. Arctic 

Anthropology 38(2): 154-170.

2011 The Beringian and Transitional Periods in Alaska: Technology of the East 

Beringian Tradition as Viewed from Swan Point in From the Yenesei to 

the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability in Late Pleistocene/

Early Holocene Beringia: 179-191, Goebel, T. and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A 

& M University Press, College Station.

Holmes, C.E. and B.A.Crass 

2003 Early Cultural Components in Central Alaska: An Update from Swan 

Point. Paper presented at the 30th Alaska Anthropological Association 

Meeting, Fairbanks. 

Holmes, C. E., R. J. Dale, and J. D. McMahan

1989 Archaeological Mitigation of the Thorne River Site (CRG-177). Office 

of History and Archaeology, Report 15. Division of Parks and Outdoor 

Recreation, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Anchorage.

Holmes, C. E., R. Vanderhoek, and T. E. Dilley

1996 Swan Point. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of 

Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 319–323. University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Hopkins, D. M. 

1967 The Bering Land Bridge. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

1982 Aspects of the Paleogeography of Beringia during the Late Pleistocene. In Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by D. M. Hopkins, J. V. 

Matthews, Jr., C. E. Schweger, and S. B. Young, pp. 3-28. Academic 

Press, New York.

Hrdlicka, A.

1930 Anthropological Survey in Alaska. 46th Annual Report of the Bureau of 

American Ethnology for the Years 1928-29, Washington, D.C.

1941a Diseases of and Artifacts on Skulls and Bones from Kodiak Island. 

Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection 101(4). Washington, D.C.

1941b Artifacts of Human and Seal Skulls from Kodiak Island. American 

Journal of Physical Anthropology 28(4).

1943 Alaska Diary, 1926-1931. Jacques Cattell, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

1944 The Anthropology of Kodiak Island. The Wistar Institute of Anatomy 

and Biology, Philadelphia.
Bibliography 297

1945 The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their Inhabitants. The Wistar 

Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia.

Humphrey, R. L.

1966 The Prehistory of the Utukok River Region Arctic Alaska: Early Fluted 

Point Tradition with Old World Relationships. Current Anthropology 7: 

586-588.

Hutchings, K. W. 

1996 The Namu Obsidian Industry. In Early Human Occupation in British 

Columbia, edited by Roy L. Carlson and Luke Dalla Bona, pp. 167-176. 

University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver.

Irving, W. N. 

1951 Archaeology in the Brooks Range of Alaska. American Antiquity 17(1): 52.

1953 Evidence of Early Tundra Cultures in Northern Alaska. Anthroplogical 

Papers of the University of Alaska 1(2): 55-85.

1955 Burins from Central Alaska. American Antiquity 20(4): 55-85.

1957 An Archeological Survey of the Susitna Valley. Anthropological Papers of 

the University of Alaska 6(1):37-52.

1962a 1961 Field Work in the Western Brooks Range, Alaska: Preliminary 

Report. Arctic Anthropology 1(1):76-83.

1962b A Provisional Comparison of Some Alaskan and Asian Stone Industries. 

In Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate Zones 

of North America, edited by J.M. Campbell, pp. 55-68. Arctic Institute 

of North America Technical Paper 11, Montreal.

1964 Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool Tradition. Unpublished Ph.D. 

Dissertation in Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

1969-70

 The Arctic Small Tool Tradition. In Proceedings of the 8th International 

Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 340-

342, 3 vols. Tokyo and Kyoto, 1968.

Irving, W. N., and C. R. Harington

1973 Upper Pleistocene Radiocarbon-dated Artifacts from the Northern 

Yukon. Science 179 (4071): 335-340.

Ishizuka, Y. and C.A.S. Mandryk

2002 Archaeology in the Kuril Islands: Advances in the Study of Human 
298 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Paleobiogeography and Northwest Pacific Prehistory. Arctic 

Anthropology 39(1-2): 69-94.

Jochelson, W.

2002a Archaeological Investigations in the Aleutian Islands, edited by 

Herbert D. G. Maschner and Katherine L. Reedy-Maschner for the 

Anthropology of Pacific North America series. University of Utah Press, 

Salt Lake City.

2002b History, Ethnology, and Anthropology of the Aleut, edited by Herbert D. 

G. Maschner and Katherine L. Reedy-Maschner for the Anthropology 

of Pacific North America series. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake 

City.

Johnson, L.L. and E.G. Wilmerding

2001 Bringing the House Down: Modeling Construction and 

Deconstruction of Aleut Semisubterranean Houses. In Archaeology in 

the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 

58, Eugene.

Johnson, L.L. and M.A. Winslow

1992 Paleoshorelines and Prehistoric Settlements on Simeonof and 

Chernabura Islands, Outer Shumagin Islands, Alaska. In Paleoshorelines 

and Prehistory: An Investigation of Method, edited by L.L. Johnson and 

M. Stright. CRC Press, Inc., Florida.

Jordan, R.J.

1975 Pollen Diagrams from Hamilton Inlet, Central Labrador and Their 

Environmental Implications for the Northern Maritime Archaic. Arctic 

Anthropology 12(2): 92-116.

1978 Archaeological Investigations of the Hamilton Inlet Labrador Eskimo: 

Social and Economic Responses to European Contact. In Selected 

Papers from a Symposium on Central Labrador Archaeology, edited by 

R. H. Jordan. Arctic Anthropology 15(2): 175-185.

1984 NeoEskimo Prehistory of Greenland. In Arctic, edited by D. Damas, 

pp. 540-548. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, W. C. 

Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1988a A Postglacial Pollen Record from Western Kodiak Island, Alaska (with 

R. E. Nelson). Arctic 41(1): 59-63.

1988b Archaeological Research on Western Kodiak Island, Alaska: The 

Development of Koniag Culture. In The Late Prehistoric Development 

of Alaska’s Native People, edited by R. D. Shaw, R. K. Harritt, and 
Bibliography 299

D. E. Dumond, pp. 225-306. Monograph Series No. 4. Alaska 

Anthropological Association, Anchorage.

1992 A Maritime Paleoarctic Assemblage from Kodiak Island, Alaska. 

Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska Fairbanks 23(1-2).

Josenhans, H. W., D. W. Fedje, K. W. Conway, and J. E. Barrie

1995 Post Glacial Sea-Levels on the Western Canadian Continental Shelf: 

Evidence for Rapid Change, Extensive Subaerial Exposure, and Early 

Human Habitation. Marine Geology 125: 73-94.

Josenhans, H. W., D. W. Fedje, R. Pienitz, and J. Southon

1997 Early Humans and Rapidly Changing Holocene Sea Levels in the 

Queen Charlotte Islands-Hecate Strait, British Columbia, Canada. 

Science 277: 71–74.

Keim, C.

1969 Aghvook, White Eskimo. Otto Geist and Alaskan Archaeology. University 

of Washington Press, Seattle.

Kemp, B.M. R.S. Malhi, J. McDonough, D.A. Bolnick, J. A. Eshleman, O. Rickards, 

C. Martinez-Labarga, J.R. Johnson, J.G. Lorenz, E. J. Dixon, T. Fifield, 

T.H. Heaton, R. Worl, and D.G. Smith.

2007 Genetic Analysis of Early Holocene Skeletal Remains From Alaska and 

its Implications for the Settlement of the Americas. American Journal of 

Physical Anthropology 132:1-17.

King, M. L., and S. B. Slobodin 

1996 A Fluted Point from the Uptar Site, Northeastern Siberia. Science 273: 

634–636.

Knecht, R.A. and R.S. Davis 

2001 A Prehistoric Sequence for the Eastern Aleutians. In Archaeology in the Aleut 

Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene.

Knecht, R.A., R.S. Davis and G.A. Carver

2001 The Margaret Bay Site and Eastern Aleutian Prehistory. In Archaeology 

in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological 

Papers 58, Eugene.

Krauss, M.E.

1972 Na-Dene. Current Trends in Linguistics 10(1): 903-978.

Krasheninnikov, S. P.

1964 The History of Kamtschatka and the Kurilski Islands, with Countries 

Adjacent. Quadrangle Books, Chicago.
300 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Krupnik, I. I.

1993 Arctic Adaptations. University Press of New England, Hanover.

Kunz, M. L.

1982 The Mesa Site: An Early Holocene Hunting Stand in the Iteriak Valley, 

Northern Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska

20(1–2): 113–122.

2009 The Mesa, Lisburne, and Punyik Point Sites, Colville River Drainage, 

Northern Alaska: 321-326, in Archaeology in America. An Encyclopedia: 

Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. 

ed.), Westport. 

Kunz M.L., M. Bever and C. Adkins

2003 The Mesa Site: Paleoindians above the Arctic Circle. U.S. Department 

of the Interior, BLM-Alaska Open File Report 86, Anchorage.

Kunz, M. L., and R. E. Reanier 

1994 Paleoindians in Beringia: Evidence from Arctic Alaska. Science 263: 660–662.

1995 The Mesa Site: A Paleoindian Hunting Lookout in Arctic Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 32(1): 5–30.

1996 The Mesa Site, Iteriak Creek. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory 

and Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 

497–504. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Kunz, M. L., and P. H. Shelley

1994 The Mesa Complex: A Possible Beringian Precursor to the Agate Basin 

Culture. Paper presented at the 52nd Annual Plains Anthropological 

Conference, Lubbock, Texas.

Kuzmin, Y. V.

2000 The Radiocarbon Chronology of Stone Age Culture on the Pacific 

Coast of Northeastern Siberia. Arctic Anthropology 37(1): 120-131.

Kuzyk, G. D. E. Russell, R. S. Farnell, R. S. Gotthardt, P. G. Hare, and E. Blake

1999 In Pursuit of Prehistoric Caribou on Thandlät, Southern Yukon, Arctic

52(2):214-219.

Larsen, H.

1968a Trail Creek, Final Report on the Excavation Two Caves at Seward 

Peninsula, Alaska. Acta Arctica 15:7-79, Copenhagen. 

1968b The Eskimo Culture and Its Relationship to Northern Eurasia. In 

Proceedings of the VIII the International Congress of Anthropological and 

Ethnological Sciences, pp. 337-340.
Bibliography 301

2001 Deering – A Men’s House from Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Publications 

of the National Museum Ethnographical Series, Volume 19, edited by 

Martin Appelt. The National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.

Laughlin, S.B., W.S. Laughlin and M.W. McDowell

1975 Anangula Blade Site Excavations, 1972 and 1973. Anthropological 

Papers of the University of Alaska 17(2): 39-48. 

Laughlin, W. S.

1967 Human Migration and Permanent Occupation in the Bering Area. 

In The Bering Land Bridge, edited by D. M. Hopkins, pp. 409–450. 

Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California. 

1975 Aleuts: Ecosystem, Holocene History, and Siberian Origin. Science 189: 

507–515. 

Lebedintsev, A. I.

1990 Drevnie primorskie kul’tury Severo-Zapadnogo Priokhot’ia (Early 

Maritime Cultures of Northwestern Priokhot’e). Nauka, Leningrad. 

Richard L. Bland, Translator. Department of the Interior, National 

Park Service, Shared Berinigian Heritage Program, Anchorage, 

Alaska. 

1998 Maritime Cultures of the North Coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Arctic 

Anthropology 35(1): 296-320. 

Lee, C.M.

2000 Microblade Morphology and Trace Element Analysis: An Examination 

of Obsidian artifacts from 49-PET-48. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, 

Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie.

Lefevre, C., D. West and D.G. Corbett

2001 Archaeological Surveys in the Near Islands: Attu Island and Shemya 

Island. In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene.

Lev, D.

1987 Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera) in Northern Alaska: Ecology and 

Growth Response to Climate. Unpublished M.S. thesis. University of 

Washington, Seattle.

Lively, R.

1988 Chugwater (FAI-035). A Study of the Effectiveness of a Small Scale 

Probabilistic Sampling Design at an Interior Alaskan Site. Chena River 

Lakes Flood Control Project. US Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska 

District.
302 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Lozhkin, A.V., P.M. Anderson, W.R. Eisner, L.G. Ravako, D.M. Hopkins, L.B. 

Brubaker, P.A. Colinvaux, and M.C. Miller

1993 Late Quaternary lacustrine pollen records from southwestern Beringia. 

Quaternary Research 39: 314-324.

Manley, W. F. 

2002 Postglacial Flooding of the Bering Land Bridge: A Geospatial 

Animation:INSTAAR, University of Colorado, v1, http://instaar.

colorado.edu/QGISL/bering_land bridge.

Mann, D.H., A.L. Crowell, T. D. Hamilton, and B. P. Finney

1998 Holocene Geologic and Climatic History around the Gulf of Alaska. 

Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 112-131.

Mann, D. H., and D. M. Peteet

1994 Extent and Timing of the Last Glacial Maximum in Southwestern 

Alaska. Quaternary Research 42(2): 136–148.

Mann, D.H., R.E. Reanier, D.M. Peteet, M.L. Kunz and M. Johnson

2001 Environmental Change and Arctic Paleoindians. Arctic Anthropology

38(2): 119-138.

Maschner, H. D.G.

1999 Prologue to the Prehistory of the Lower Alaska Peninsula. Arctic 

Anthropology 36(1-2): 84-102.

2004 Traditions Past and Present: Allen McCartney and the Izembek 

Phase of the Western Alaska Peninsula. Arctic Anthropology 41(2): 

98-111.

Maschner, H. D.G. and J.W. Jordan

2001 The Russell Creek Manifestation of the Arctic Small Tool Tradition 

on the Western Alaska Peninsula. In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of 

Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene. 

Maschner, H. D.G., J.W. Jordan, B.W. Hoffman and T.M. Dochat

1997 The Archaeology of the Lower Alaska Peninsula. Report 4 of the 

Laboratory of Arctic and North Pacific Archaeology, University of 

Wisconsin, Madison.

Mason, O.K.

1992 A Geoarchaeological Methodology for Studying Prograding Costal 

Sequences: Beach-Ridge Geomorphology in Kotzebue Sound, 

Alaska. In Paleoshorelines and Prehistory: An Investigation of 

Method, edited by L.L. Johnson and M. Stright. CRC Press, Inc., 

Florida.
Bibliography 303

2001 Catastrophic Environmental Change and the Middle Holocene 

Transition in the Aleutian Islands. In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of 

Alaska. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene.

Mason, O. K. and J. W. Jordan

1993 Heightened North Pacific Storminess during Synchronous Late 

Holocene Erosion of Northwest Alaska Beach Ridges. Quaternary 

Research 40(1): 55-69.

Mason, R. and C. Z. Jolles

2011 Passing of Herbert Anungazuk. May Archeology E-Gram, Archeology 

Program, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Matson, R. G., and G. Coupland

1995 The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast. Academic Press, London.

McCartney, A.P.

1992 Along the Coast: Regional Archaeology in Southern Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 29(2): 192-204.

McCartney, A.P. and C.G. Turner II

1966 Stratigraphy of the Anangula unifacial core and blade site. Arctic 

Anthropology 3(2): 28-40.

McManamon, F. P. (gen. ed.)

2009 Archaeology in America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and 

Arctic/Subarctic,Westport. 

McManus, D. A., J. S. Creager, R. J. Echols, and M. L. Holmes

1983 The Holocene Transgression of the Arctic Flank of Beringia: Chukchi 

Valley to Chukchi Estuary to Chukchi Sea. In Quaternary Coastlines 

and Marine Archeology, edited by P. M. Masters and M. C. Flemming, 

pp. 365–388. Academic Press, New York.

Michael, H. N.

1984 Absolute Chronologies of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene 

Cultures of Northeastern Asia. Arctic Anthropology 21(2): 1–68.

Mitchell, D.

1990 Prehistory of the Coasts of Southern British Columbia and Northern 

Washington. In Northwest Coast, edited by W. Suttles, pp. 340-358. 

Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7, W.C. Sturtevant, general 

editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 

Mitchell, D. and D. L. Pokotylo

1996 Early Period Components at the Milliken Site. In Early Human 
304 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Occupation in British Columbia, edited by Roy L. Carlson and Luke 

Dalla Bona, pp. 51-64. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver.

Mobley, C.M.

1991 The Campus Site: A Prehistoric Camp at Fairbanks, Alaska. University 

of Alaska Press, Fairbanks. 

1996 Campus Site. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology 

of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 296–301. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Mobley, C.M. and M. Eldridge

1992 Culturally Modified Trees in the Pacific Northwest. Arctic Anthropology

29(2): 91-110.

Mochanov, I. A.

1978 Stratigraphy and Absolute Chronology of the Paleolithic of Northeast 

Asia, According to the Work of 1963-1973. In Early Man in America 

from a Circum-Opacific Perspective, edited by A. L. Bryan, pp 54-67. 

Occasional Papers No. 2, Department of Anthropology, University of 

Alberta, Edmonton.

Mochanov, I.A. and S.A. Fedoseeva

1996a Dyuktai Cave. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology 

of Beringia, edited by F. H. West, pp. 157-163. University of Chicago 

Press, Chicago.

1996b Berelekh, Allakhovsk Region. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory 

and Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by F. H. West, pp. 218-222. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Mock C.J., P.J Bartlein, and P.M. Anderson

1998 Atmospheric circulation patterns and spatial climatic variations in 

Beringia. International Journal of Climatology 18: 1085-1104.

Morlan, R.E.

1977 Fluted Point Makers and the Extinction of the Arctic-Steppe Biome in 

Eastern Beringia. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 1: 95-108.

1980 Taphonomy and Archaeology in the Upper Pleistocene of the Northern 

Yukon Territory: A Glimpse of the Peopling of the New World. 

National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of 

Canada Paper No. 94. Ottawa.

1983 Spiral Fractures on Limb Bones: Which Ones are Artificial? In 

Carnivores, Human Scavengers, and Predators: A Question of Bone 
Bibliography 305

Technology, edited by G. M. LeMoine and A.S. MacEachern, pp. 241-

269. University of Calgary Archaeological Association, Calgary. 

1986 Pleistocene Archaeology in Old Crow Basin: A Critical Reappraisal. In 

New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by A. 

L. Bryan, pp. 27-48. Center for the Study of Early Man, University of 

Maine, Orono. 

Morlan, R. E., and J. Cinq-Mars

1982 Ancient Beringians: Human Occupation in the Late Pleistocene of 

Alaska and the Yukon Territory. In Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by 

D. M. Hopkins, J. V. Matthews Jr., C. E. Schweger, and S. B. Young, 

pp.353-381. Academic Press, New York.

Morrison, D.

1991 The Diamond Jenness Collections from Bering Strait. Canadian Museum 

of Civilization Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 

144.

Moss, M. L.

1992 Relationships between Maritime Cultures of Southern Alaska: 

Rethinking Culture Area Boundaries. Arctic Anthropology 29(2): 5-17.

1998 Northern Northwest Coast Regional Overview. Arctic Anthropology

35(1): 88-111.

2004 The Status of Archaeology and Archaeological Practice in Southeast 

Alaska In Relation to the Larger Northwest Coast. Arctic Anthropology

41(2): 177-196.

2011 Northwest Coast: Archaeology as Deep History. The SAA Press. 

Washington, D.C. 

Moss, M.L. and J.M. Erlandson 

1992 Forts, Refuge Rocks, and Defensive Sites: The Antiquity of Warfare 

along the North Pacific Coast of North America. Arctic Anthropology

29(2):73-90.

Moss, M. L. and J. M. Erlandson (eds) 

1992 Maritime Cultures of Southern Alaska: Papers in Honor of Richard H. 

Jordan. Arctic Anthropology 29(2). University of Wisconsin Press.

Murray, M. S., A. C. Robertson, and R. Ferrara

2003 Chronology, Culture, and Climate: A Radiometric Re-Evaluation 

of Late Prehistoric Occupations at Cape Denbigh, Alaska. Arctic 

Anthropology 40(1): 87-105.
306 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Nelson, D. E., R. E. Morlan, J. S. Vogel, J. R. Southon, and C. R. Harington

1986 New Dates on Northern Yukon Artifacts: Holocene Not Upper 

Pleistocene. Science 232: 749–51.

Newell, J.

2004 The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and 

Development. 2nd edition. Daniel and Daniel, Publishers, Inc., 

McKinleyville, California.

Office of History and Archaeology (OHA)

2004 www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/oha. Office of History and Archaeology, 

State of Alaska, Anchorage.

Okada, H. and A. Okada

1974 The Hot Springs Village site - Preliminary report of the 1972 

excavations at Port Moller, Alaska. Hachioji, Tokyo.

1976 The Hot Springs Village site (2) - Preliminary report of the 1974 

excavations at Port Moller, Alaska. Hachioji, Tokyo.

1992 Heceta Island, southeastern Alaska (2); Anthropological Survey in 1989 

& 1990. Department of Behavioral Science, Hokkaido University, 

Sapporo, Japan.

Okada, H., A. Okada, Y. Kotani, K. Yajima, W. M. Olson, Y. Nishimoto, and S. Okino

1989 Heceta Island, Southeastern Alaska Anthropological Survey in 1987. 

Department of Behavioral Science, Faculty of Letters. Hokkaido 

University, Sapporo, Japan.

Okada, H., A. Okada, K. Yajima, W.M. Olson, M. Sugita, N. Shionosaki, S. Okino, K. 

Yoshida, H. Kaneko.

1992 Heceta Island, Southeastern Alaska – Anthropological Survey in 

1989 – 1990. Department of Behavioral Science, Faculty of Letters, 

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.

Okada, H. and B. Yamaguchi

1975 Human skeletal remains excavated at the Hot Springs Village site, Port 

Moller, Alaska Peninsula, in 1972. Bul Nat. Sci. Mus. Series D-1, pp 25-42.

1976 Further human cranial remains excavated in 1974 at the Hot Springs Village 

site Port Moller, Alaska. Bul Nat. Sci. Mus. Series D-2, pp. 25-35.

O’Leary, M.

2001 Volcanic Ash Stratigraphy for Adak Island, Central Aleutian 

Archipelago. In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of 

Oregon Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene.
Bibliography 307

O’Neill, D.

2004 The Last Giant of Beringia: The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge. 

Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.

Orekhov, A. A.

1987 An Early Culture of the Northwest Bering Sea. Nauka, Moscow. Richard 

L. Bland, Translator. Published in 1999 by U.S. Department of the 

Interior, National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

1998 The Development of Maritime Adaptations among the Early 

Populations of the Northwest Bering Sea Region. Arctic Anthropology

35(1): 263-280. 

Osgood, C.

1936 The Distribution of Northern Athapaskan Indians New Haven, Yale 

University Publications in Anthropology, 7.

1937 The Ethnography of the Tanaina. Yale University Publications in 

Anthropology 16. New Haven, Conn.

Oswalt, W. H.

1949 Dated Houses at Squirrel River, Alaska. Tree-Ring Bulletin 16 (1): 7-8, 

University of Arizona, Tucson.

1950 Spruce Borings from the Lower Yukon River, Alska. Tree-Ring Bulletin

16(4): 26-30, University of Arizona, Tucson.

1951 The Origin of Driftwood at Hooper Bay, Alaska. Tree-Ring Bulletin, 

18(1): 6-8, University of Arizona, Tucson.

1952a Pottery from Hooper Bay Village, Alaska. American Antiquity 18(1): 

18-29.

1952b Spruce Samples from the Copper River Drainage, Alaska. Tree-Ring 

Bulletin 19(1): 5-10, University of Arizona, Tucson.

1954 Regional Chronologies in Spruce from the Kuskokwim River. Alaska. 

Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 2(1):5-18.

1960 The Growing Season of Alaskan Spruce. Tree-Ring Bulletin 23(104): 

3-9, University of Arizona, Tucson.

1980 Kolmakovskiy Redoubt: The Ethnoarchaeology of a Russian Fort in 

Alaska. Monumenta Archaeologica, no. 8.
308 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Oswalt, W. H. and J. W. VanStone

1967 The Ethnoarcheology of Crow Village, Alaska. Smithsonian Institution, 

Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 199.

Petrivelli, P. J.

2004 Unangam Aleut Social System. Arctic Anthropology 41(2):126-139.

Phippen, P.

1988 Archaeology at Owl Ridge: A Pleistocene - Holocene Boundary Age Site in 

Central Alaska. M.A. Thesis. University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Pitul’ko, V. V.

1993 An early Holocene Site in the Siberian High Arctic. Arctic Anthropology

30(1):13-21.

2001 Terminal Pleistocene – Early Holocene Occupation in Northeast Asia 

and the Zhokhov assemblage. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 267-275.

2003 The Holocene Stone Age of North East Asia. Natural History of Russian 

East Arctic in Pleistocene and Holocene pp. 99-151.

Pitul’ko, V. V., Kasparov, A.K. 

1995 Ancient Arctic hunters: material culture and survival strategy. Arctic 

Anthropology 33(1): 1-36.

Pitul’ko, V. V., P.A. Nikolsky, E. Yu. Girya, A. E. Basilyan, V.E. Tumskoy, S.A. 

Koulakov, S.N. Astakhov, E. Uyu. Pavlova, M.A. Anisimov

2004 The Yana RHS Site: Humans in the Arctic before the Last Glacial 

Maximum. Science Vol. 303(5654): 52-56.

Pitul’ko, V. V., E. Yu. Pavlova, S. A. Kuz’mina, P. A. Nikol’skii, A. E. Basilyan, V. E. 

Tumskoi, and M. A. Anisimov

2007 Natural–Climatic Changes in the Yana–Indigirka Lowland during 

the Terminal Kargino Time and Habitat of Late Paleolithic Man in 

Northern Part of East Siberia. Doklady Earth Sciences, Vol. 417, No. 8, 

pp. 1256–1260. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

Ponomarenko, А. K. 

2000 The Old Itelmen Culture of Kamchatka. Petropavlovsk, Kamchatski.

Potter, B. A.

2001 Recent Investigations at the Gerstle River Site, a Multicomponent 

 Site in Central Alaska. Current Research in the Pleistocene 18: 52-54.

2002 A Provisional Correlation of Stratigraphy, Radiometric Dates, and 

 Archaeological Components at the Gerstle River Site, Alaska. 
Bibliography 309

 Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New Series 

 2(1): 73-93. 

2009 Swan Point, Dry Creek, Broken Mammoth, Healy Lake, and other 

Sites: 308-310 in Archaeology in America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 

4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), 

Westport.

2011 Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Assemblage Variability in Central 

Alaska in From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage 

Variability in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 215-233, Goebel, T. 

and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

Potter, B. A. and C. E. Holmes

1999 Gerstle River Quarry: An Early Holocene, Multicomponent Site in the 

Tanana Basin, Alaska. Paper presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of 

the Alaska Anthropological Association, Anchorage.

Potter, B. A., J. D. Irish, J. D. Reuther, C. Gelvin-Reymiller, V. T. Holliday

2011 A Terminal Pleistocene Child Cremation and Residential Structure 

from Eastern Beringia, Science 331:1058-62.

Powers, W. R.

1973 Paleolithic Man in Northeast Asia. Arctic Anthropology 10(2): 1–106.

1990 The People of Eastern Beringia. In Prehistoric Mongoloid Dispersals, No. 

7 (Special Issue), University Museum, University of Tokyo.

Powers, W. R. and T. D. Hamilton

1978 Dry Creek- a Late Pleistocene Occupation in Central Alaska. In Early 

Man in America from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by A.L. 

Bryan, pp. 72-77. University of Alberta, Anthropology Department, 

Occasional Papers No. 1.

Powers, W. R., T. Goebel, and N. H. Bigelow

1990 Late Pleistocene Occupation at Walker Road: New Data on the Central 

Alaskan Nenana Complex. Current Research in the Pleistocene 7: 40-43.

Powers, W. R. and J.F. Hoffecker

1989 Late Pleistocene Settlement in the Nenana Valley, Central Alaska. 

American Antiquity 54(2): 263-287.

Powers, W. R. and H. E. Maxwell

1986 Lithic Remains from Panguingue Creek: an Early Holocene Site in the 

Northern Foothills of the Alaska Range. Alaska Historical Commission, 

Anchorage.
310 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Pullar, G.L.

1992 Ethnic Identity, Cultural Pride, and Generations of Baggage: A Personal 

Experience. Arctic Anthropology 29(2): 182-191.

Rainey, F.

1939 Archaeology in Central Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the American 

Museum of Natural History 36(4): 351–405.

Rasic, J.T. 

2000 Prehistoric Lithic Technology at the Tuluaq Hill Site, Northwest Alaska. 

Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Department of Anthropology, Washington 

State University, Pullman.

2003 Ancient Hunters of the Western Brooks Range: Integrating Research 

and Cultural Resource Management. In Alaska Park Science: 21-25. 

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Anchorage.

Rasic, J. T. and R. Gal

2000 An Early Lithic Assemblage from the Tuluaq Site, Northwest Alaska. 

Current Research in the Pleistocene 17: 66-68.

Reanier, R. E.

1994 The Putu Site: Pleistocene or Holocene? Current Research in the 

Pleistocene 11:148–150.

1996 Putu and Bedwell. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 505–

511. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Riehle, J.R., P.M. Bowers, and T.A. Ager

1990 Hayes Tephra Deposits, An Upper Holocene Marker Horizon in SouthCentral Alaska. Quaternary Research 33: 276-290.

Reger, D. R.

1996 Beluga Point. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology 

of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 433–436. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1998 Archaeology of the Northern Kenai Peninsula and Upper Cook Inlet. 

Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 160-171.

Ritchie, J.C.

1984 Past and Present Vegetation of the Far Northwest of Canada. University 

of Toronto Press, Toronto.

1987 Post-glacial Vegetation of Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bibliography 311

Ritchie, J. C., L. C. Cwynar and R. W. Spear

1983 Evidence from North West Canada of an Early Holocene Melankovitch 

Thermal Maximim. Nature 305: 126-128.

Rouse, I.

1984 Migrations in Prehistory: Inferring Population Movement from Cultural 

Remains. Yale University Press, New Haven.

Reuther, J. D., N. S. Slobodina, J. T. Rasic, J. Pl Cook, and R. J. Speakman

2011 Gaining Momentum: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene 

Archaeological Obsidian Source Studies in Interior and Northeastern 

Beringia in From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage 

Variability in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 270-286, Goebel, 

T. and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

Rudenko, S.I.

1947 The Ancient Culture of the Bering Sea and the Eskimo Problem. 

Publishing House of the Main Northern Sea Route, MoscowLenningrad. Paul Tolstoy, Translator, edited by Henry N. Michael. 

Published in 1961, reprinted in 1972, for the Arctic Institute of North 

America. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.

Saleeby, B. M.

2003 Pioneer Arctic Archeologist J. Louis Giddings, Alaska Park Science, 

Summer 2003:38-43.

2005 National Historic Landmark Nomination, Amalik Bay Archeological 

District. On file, National Park Service, Alaska Regional Office, 

Anchorage. 

Sattler, R.A.

1991 Paleoecology of A Late Quaternary Cave Deposit in Northeast Alaska. 

Master’s thesis, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

1997 Large Mammals in Lower Rampart Cave 1, Alaska: Interspecific 

Utilization of an Eastern Beringian Cave. In Special Issue: 

Geoarchaeology of Caves and Cave Sediments, edited by E. James 

Dixon, pp. 657-688, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal.

Schaaf, J.

1994 Seward Peninsula Prehistoric Lifeways. In Prehistoric Alaska, edited by 

P. Rennick, pp. 82-85. Alaska Geographic Society 21(4), Anchorage.

2009 Mink Island Site and the Amalik Bay Archaeological District: 294-300 

in Archaeology in America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and 

Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.
312 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

2009 Round Island Site: 300-304 in Archaeology in America. An 

Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. 

McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

Schell, D.

1983 Carbon-13 and Carbon-14 Abundances in Alaskan Aquatic Organisms: 

Delayed Production from Peat in Arctic Food Webs. Science 219:1068-

1071.

Schledermann, P.

1996 Voices in Stone: A Personal Journey into the Arctic Past. The Arctic 

Institute of North America of the University of Calgary, Alberta.

Schweger, C.

1982 Primary Production and Pleistocene Ungulates—The Productivity 

Paradox. In Paleoecology of Beringia, edited by David M. Hopkins, John 

V. Matthews, Jr. Charles E. Schweger, and Steven B. Young, pp.95-112. 

Academic Press, New York.

Scott, G.R.

1992 Affinities of Prehistoric and Modern Kodiak Islanders and the Question 

of Kachemak-Koniag Biological Continuity. Arctic Anthropology

29(2):150-166.

Sellet, F. 

2001 A Changing Perspective on Paleoindian Chronology and Typology: A 

View from the Northern Plains. Arctic Anthropology 38(2): 48-63.

Shaw, R. D.

1998 An Archaeology of the Central Yupik: A Regional Overview for the 

Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Northern Bristol Bay, and Nunivak Island. 

Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 234-246.

Shinkwin, A.D. 

1975 The Dixthada Site: Results of the 1971 Excavations. The Western 

Canadian Journal of Anthropology 5 (3-4): 148-158.

1979 Daka De ́nin’s Village and the Dixthada Site: A Contribution to 

Northern Athapaskan Prehistory. National Museum of Man, Mercury 

Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 91. National 

Museums of Canada, Ottawa.

Simon, J.K.

1992 Mortuary Practices of the Late Kachemak Tradition in Southcentral 

Alaska: A Perspective from the Crag Point Site, Kodiak Island. Arctic 

Anthropology 29(2): 130-149.
Bibliography 313

Skarland, I.

1964 Otto William Geist, 1888-1963. American Antiquity 29(4).

Slobodin, S.B.

1999a Northeast Asia in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. World

Archaeology 30(2):251-266, edited by P. Rowley-Conwy. Routledge, 

London.

1999b Archaeology of Kolyma and Continental Priokhotye in Late Pleistocene 

and Early Holocene. Russian Academy of Sciences, Magadan.

2001a Western Beringia at the End of the Ice Age. Arctic Anthropology 38(2): 

31-47. 

2001b Old Itelmens. Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 2; Arctic and Subarctic 

pp. 165-166. Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishers, New York.

2001c Mesolithic. Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 2; Arctic and Subarctic 

pp. 69-70. Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishers, New York.

2001d Tarya Neolithic. Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 2; Arctic and 

Subarctic pp. 205-207. Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishers, New York.

2005a Bel’kachi Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 1: 225-227. Routledge, 

New York. 

2005b Dikov, Nikolay. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 1: 490-493. Routledge, New York.

2005c Dyuktai Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 1: 516-518. Routledge, New York.

2005d Old Itel’men Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 2: 1569-1570. 

Routledge, New York.

2005e Old Koryak Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 2: 1571-1573. 

Routledge, New York.

2005f Siberdik Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3:1905-1906. Routledge, 

New York.

2005g Sumnagin Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3: 1964-1966. Routledge, 

New York.

2005h Syalakh Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3: 1993-1994. Routledge, 

New York.

2005i Tarya Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3: 2001-2002. Routledge, New York.
314 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

2005j Tein, Tasyan. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3: 2011-2013. Routledge, New 

York.

2005k Wrangel Paleo-Eskimo Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3: 2197-2199. 

Routledge, New York.

2005l Ymyakhtakh Culture. Encyclopedia of the Arctic 3: 2214-2216. 

Routledge, New York.

Smith, J. L.

2012 An Update of Intertidal Fishing Structures in Southeast Alaska. Alaska 

Journal of Anthropology 9(2):1-26. 

Solovjova, K. G., and A. A. Vovnyanko

2002 The Fur Rush: Essays and Documents of the History of Alaska at the End 

of the Eighteenth Century. Phenix Press, Anchorage, Alaska.

Stanford, D. J.

1976 Walakpa Site, Alaska: Its Place in the Birnirk and Thule Cultures. 

Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, No. 20. Washington D. C.

1979 Afterword: Resolving the Question of New World Origins. In PreLlano Cultures of the Americas: Paradoxes and Possibilities, edited 

by Robert L. Humphrey and Dennis Stanford, pp. 147-150. The 

Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington, D.C.

1982 A Critical Review of Archeological Evidence Relating to the Antiquity 

of Human Occupation of the New World. In Plains Indian Studies: 

A collection of Essays in Honor of Hohn C. Ewers and Waldo R. 

Wedel, edited by D. Ubelaker and H. Viola, pp. 202-218, Smithsonian 

Contributions to Anthropology, 30.

1983 Evidence for Pre-Clovis Human Occupation South of the Ice-Sheets 

in North America. In Early Man in the New World, edited by Richard 

Shutler Jr., pp. 65-72. Sage Publications Inc., Beverly Hills. 

1990 Paleoindian-Possible Asian Ancestors. In McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of 

Science and Technology, edited by R. Klein, pp. 45-47. New York.

Stanford, D., R. Bonnichson and R. E. Morland

1981 The Ginsberg Experiment: Modern and Prehistoric Evidence of a Bone 

Flaking Technology. Science 212: 438-40.

Stanford, D. J., J. W. Jordan, E. J. Dixon and M. E. Jodry

1991 Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, 

Northwest, Alaska. Current Research in the Pleistocene 7: 44-46.
Bibliography 315

Stanford, M. V.

2012 Shoreline Pictographs of Extreme Southeast Alaska. Alaska Journal of 

Anthropology 9(2):27-48. 

Steffian, A. F.

1992 Archaeological Coal in the Gulf of Alaska: A View from Kodiak. Arctic 

Anthropology 29(2): 111-129.

Steffian, A. F. and P. G. Saltonstall

2009 The Archaeology of Kodiak Island, Alaska: 261-265in Archaeology 

in America. An Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/

Subarctic, F. P. McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

Thompson, R. W.

1948 Notes on the Archeology of the Utukok River, Northwestern Alaska. 

American Antiquity 14: 62–65.

Thorson, R. M. and T. D. Hamilton

1977 Geology of the Dry Creek site: a stratified Early Man site in interior 

Alaska. Quaternary Research 7: 149-176.

Thorsen, R.M., D.C. Plaskett, and E.J. Dixon

1984 A Reported Early Man Site Adjacent to Southern Alaska’s Continental 

Shelf: A Geologic Solution to an Archeologic Enigma. Quaternary 

Research 13: 259-273.

Tremayne, A. H.

2011 An Analysis of Faunal Remains from a Denbigh Flint Complex Camp 

at Matcharak Lake, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 48(1):33-53.

Turner, C. G. II

1983a Dental evidence for the peopling of the Americas. In Early Man 

in the New World, edited by Richard Shutler Jr., pp. 147-157. Sage 

Publications, Beverly Hills, California.

1983b Sinodonty and Sundadonty: A dental anthropological view of 

Mongoloid Microevolution, origin, and dispersal into the Pacific 

Basin, Siberia and the Americas. In Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene 

Cultural Connections of Asia and America, edited by R. S. Vasilievsky, 

pp. 72-76. USSR Academy of Science, Siberian Branch, Novosibirsk. 

(in Russian).

1988 A new view of Alaskan population history at about historic contact. In The 

Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska’s Native People, edited by Robert 

D. Shaw, Roger K. Harritt, and Don E. Dumond, pp. 27-36. Aurora 

Monograph Series no. 4, Alaska Anthropological Association, Anchorage.
316 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

1989 Teeth and prehistory in Asia. Scientific American 260(2): 88-91, 94-96.

1991 The Dentition of Arctic Peoples. The Evolution of North American 

Indians. A 31-Volume Series of Outstanding Dissertations, edited by 

David Hurst Thomas. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York.

1992 New World Origins: New research from the Americas and Soviet 

Union. In Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies, edited by D.J. Stanford and J.S. 

Day, pp. 7-50. Denver Museum of Natural History and University Press 

of Colorado, Niwot.

1994a New dental anthropological observations relevant to the human population 

system of the Greater Beringian Realm. In Anthropology of the North Pacific 

Rim, edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Valerie Chaussonnet, pp. 97-106. 

Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

1994b Relating Eurasian and Native American Populations through dental 

morphology. In Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of 

the Americas, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and D. Gentry Steele, pp. 

131-140. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State 

University, Corvallis.

2004 Our Northern Start, Chaluka and Anangula, 1962: A Photo Essay. 

Arctic Anthropology 41(2):23-49.

Turner, C. G. II and J. A. Turner

1974 Progress Report on Evolutionary Anthropological Study of the Akun 

Strait District, Eastern Aleutians, Alaska, 1970-1971. Anthropological 

Papers of the University of Alaska 16(1): 27-57.

VanderHoek, R. 

2009 The role of ecological barriers in the development of cultural boundaries 

during the later Holocene of the central Alaska Peninsula. Ph.D. 

dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

VanderHoek, R., R.M. Tedor, and J.D. McMahan 

2007 Cultural materials recovered from ice patches in the Denali Highway region, 

central Alaska, 2003-2005. Alaska Journal of Anthropology 5(2):185-200.

VanderHoek, R., B. Wygal, R.M. Tedor, and C.E. Holmes 

2007 Survey and monitoring of ice patches in the Denali Highway region, central 

Alaska, 2003-2005. Alaska Journal of Anthropology 5(2):67-86. 

VanStone, J. W.

1955 Archaeological Excavations at Kotzebue, Alaska. Anthropological Papers 

of the University of Alaska 3(2).
Bibliography 317

1962 Point Hope, an Eskimo Community in Transition. University of 

Washington Press, Seattle.

1965 The Changing Culture of the Snowdrift Chipewyan. National Museum 

of Canada, Bulletin 209. Ottawa.

1967 Eskimos of the Nushagak River: An Ethnographic History. University of 

Washington Press, Seattle.

1968 Tikchik Village. A Nineteenth Century Riverine Community in 

southwestern Alaska. Fieldiana: Anthropology 56(3).

1976 The Bruce Collection of Eskimo Material Culture from Port Clarence, 

Alaska. Fieldiana: Anthropology Vol. 67.

1979 Ingalik Contact Ecology: An Ethnohistory of the Lower-Middle 

Yukon, 1790-1935. Fieldiana: Anthropology Vol. 71.

1994 The Noice Collection of Copper Inuit Material Culture. Fieldiana: 

Anthropology No. 22 (n.s).

VanStone, J. W. and D. Kraus

1988 Russian Exploration in Southwest Alaska: The Travel Journals of Petr 

Korsakovskiy (1818) and Ivan Ya. Vasilev (1829). Rasmuson Library 

Historical Translation Series, vol. IV. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks.

VanStone, J. W. and W. H. Oswalt

1967 The Ethnoarchaeology of Crow Village, Alaska. Bureau of American 

Ethnology, Bulletin 199. Washington, D.C.

Vartanyan, S.L., V.E. Garutt, and A.V. Sher

1993 Holocene dwarf mammoths from Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic. 

Nature 362: 337-340. 

Vasil’ev, S.A. 

2001 The Final Paleolithic in Northern Asia: Lithic Assemblage Diversity 

and Explanatory Models. Arctic Anthropology 38(2): 3-30. 

2011 The Earliest Alaskan Archaeological Record: A View from Siberia in 

From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability 

in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 119-127, Goebel, T. and I. 

Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

Vasil’evskii, R. S.

1998 Fishing as an Early Form of Maritime Adaptation on the Pacific Coast 

of Northeast Asia. Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 281-295.
318 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

Veltre, D. W.

1998 Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations in the Western and Central Aleutian 

Islands, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 223-233.

2000 Korovinski: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigations 

of a Pre- and Post-Contact Aleut and Russian Settlement on Atka 

Island. In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene.

2009 The Most Isolated Part of America: The Archaeology of the Aleutian 

and Pribilof Islands: 268-272 in Archaeology in America. An 

Encyclopedia: Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, F. P. 

McManamon, (gen. ed.), Westport.

Veltre, D.W. and A.P. McCartney

2001 Ethnohistorical Archaeology at the Reese Bay Site, Unalaska Island. 

In Archaeology in the Aleut Zone of Alaska. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers 58, Eugene.

Veltre, D.W., D.R. Yesner, K. J. Crossen and R. W. Graham

2004 Late Pleistocene/Holocene Mammal Bone Assemblages from a cave 

on St. Paul Island: Implications for Paleoclimatic Change and Human 

Occupation of the Bering Sea Region. In Abstracts of the 31st Annual 

Conference of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Whitehorse, 

Yukon, Canada.

Vereshchagin, N. K.

1977 Berelyokhskoye “Kladbische” Mamontov. Trudi Zoologicheskovo 

Instituta 72: 5–50.

Vinson, D. M.

1993 Taphonomic Analysis of Faunal Remains from Trail Creek Caves, Seward 

Peninsula, Alaska. Unpublished Master’s thesis. University of Alaska, 

Fairbanks.

Wedel, W. 

1938 The direct-historical approach in Pawnee archaeology. Washington 

D.C., Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Vol. 97 (7).

Wessen, G.

1990 Prehistory of the Ocean Coast of Washington. In Northwest Coast, 

edited by W. Suttles, pp. 412-421. Handbook of North American 

Indians, Vol. 7, W.C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian 

Institution, Washington, D.C. 
Bibliography 319

West, F. H. 

1959 On the Distribution and Territories of the Western Kutchin Tribes. 

Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 7(2): 113-116.

1966 Archaeology of Ogotoruk Creek. In Environment of the Cape Thompson 

Region, Alaska, edited by Norman Wilimovsky and John N. Wolfe, 

pp. 927-967. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Division of Technical 

Information, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

1967 The Donnelly Ridge Site and the Definition of an Early Core and Blade 

Complex in Central Alaska. American Antiquity 32(3): 360-382.

1973 Old World Affinities of Archaeological Complexes from Tangle Lakes, 

Central Alaska. Paper presented at the International Conference on the 

Bering Land Bridge and Its Role for the History of Holarctic Floras and 

Faunas in the Late Cenozoic, Khabarovsk, USSR.

1975 Dating the Denali Complex. Arctic Anthropology 12(1): 76-81.

1981 The Archaeology of Beringia. Columbia University Press, New York.

1996a Beringia and New World Origins II. In American Beginnings: The 

Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh 

West, pp. 537–559. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1996b South Central Alaska Range: Tangle Lakes Region. In American 

Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by 

Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 375–380. University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago.

1996c Reger Site. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of 

Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 399–403. University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1996d Other Sites in the Tangle Lakes. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory 

and Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 

403–408. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

1996e American Beginnings, The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill.

West, F. H., B. S. Robinson, and M. L. Curran

1996a Phipps Site. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of 

Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 381–386. University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago.
320 Arrows and Atl Atls: A Guide to the Archeology of Beringia

West, F. H., B. S. Robinson, and R. G. Dixon

1996b Sparks Point. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology 

of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 394–398. 

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

West, F. H., B. S. Robinson, and C. F. West

1996c Whitmore Ridge. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and 

Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh West, pp. 386–

394. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Willey, G. R., and P. Phillips

1958 Method and Theory in American Archaeology. University of Chicago 

Press, Chicago.

Workman, W. B.

1978 Prehistory of the Aishihik-Kluane Areas, Southwest Yukon Territory. 

National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of 

Canada Paper No. 74. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.

1998 Archaeology of the Southern Kenai Peninsula. Arctic Anthropology

35(1): 146-159.

2004 No Vestige of a Beginning – No Prospect of an End: Allen McCartney’s 

Contributions on the Problem of Cultural Frontiers and Ethnic 

Boundaries. Arctic Anthropology 41(2): 70-75.

Workman, W. B. and A. P. McCartney

1998 Coast to Coast: Prehistoric Maritime Cultures in the North Pacific. 

Arctic Anthropology 35(1):361-370.

Workman, W.B. and P. Zollars 

2002 The dispersal of the Arctic Small Tool Tradition into Southern 

Alaska: dates and data from the Kenai Peninsula, Southcentral Alaska. 

Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New Series 

2(1):39-49.

Wormington, H. M., and R. G. Forbis

1965 An Introduction to the Archaeology of Alberta, Canada. Proceedings of 

the Denver Museum of Natural History Vol. 11.

Wygal, B. T. 

2011 The Microblade/Non-Microblade Dichotomy: Climate Implications, 

Toolkit Variability, and the Role of Tiny Tools in Eastern Beringia, 

255-269 in From the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage 

Variability in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 192-198, Goebel, 

T. and I. Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.
Bibliography 321

Yamaura, K.

1998 The Sea Mammal Hunting Cultures of the Okhotsk Sea with Special 

Reference to Hokkaido Prehistory. Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 321-334.

Yesner, D. R.

1992 Evolution of Subsistence in the Kachemak Tradition: Evaluating the 

North Pacific Maritime Stability Model. Arctic Anthropology 29(2): 

167-181.

1996 Human Adaptation at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary (circa 

13,000 to 8,000 B.P.) in Eastern Beringia. In Humans at the End of the 

Ice Age: The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition, edited 

by Lawrence Guy Straus, Berit Valentin Eriksen, Jon M. Erlandson, and 

David R. Yesner, pp. 255–257. Plenum Press, New York.

1998 Origins and Development of Maritime Adaptations in the Northwest 

Pacific Region of North America: A Zooarchaeological Perspective. 

Arctic Anthropology 35(1): 204-222.

Yesner, D. R., K. J. Crossen and N. A. Easton

2011 Geoarchaeological and Zooarchaeological Correlates of early Beringian 

Artifact Assemblages: Insights from the Little John Site, Yukon in From 

the Yenesei to the Yukon: Interpreting Lithic Assemblage Variability in 

Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Beringia: 192-198, Goebel, T. and I. 

Buvit (eds.) Texas A & M University Press, College Station.

Yesner, D. R., C. E. Holmes, and K. J. Crossen

1992 Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Broken Mammoth Site, Central 

Tanana Valley, Interior Alaska, USA. In Current Research in the 

Pleistocene, edited by J.I. Mead and D.J. Meltzer, pp. 53-57. 

Yurtsev, V. A. 

1984 Problems of the Late Cenozoic Paleogeography of Beringia in Light 

of Phytogeographic Evidence. In Beringia in the Cenozoic Era, edited 

by V. L. Kontrimavichus, pp. 129-153. Amerind Publishing Co., New 

Delhi.