Large quantities of butchered caribou and sheep bones and lithic artifacts were recovered. Provisional interpretation of the prehistoric artifacts suggests a series of nonwinter processing and camping sites of possible AST tradition affiliation. Radiocarbon samples have been submitted to establish a chronology of occupations. Several localities, possibly the remains of Itchalik winter camps, were identified through oral testimony from village elders. A related oral history project is being conducted by Vera Weber of the Simon Paneak Museum.
Analyses are ongoing.
In late August and September, archaeological inventory was conducted on Forts Wainwright and Greely, central Alaska, under the direction of Andy Higgs and Peter Bowers. Reconnaissance surveys were carried out for the U.S. Army and ABR, Inc. in the Yukon Tanana uplands east of Fairbanks, along the Delta River, Delta Creek, and Little Delta River drainages. Seventeen new sites were recorded, and several sites previously identified by Chuck Holmes or John Cook were reinvestigated. The artifacts from XBD-167 show primary and secondary stages of lithic reduction, primarily from chert cobbles assumed to have been procured from the nearby Little Delta River. Directed by Peter Bowers and Andy Higgs, this study relied heavily on ethnohistoric methods, including oral history, archival research, and historic photograph analysis.