Old Dirt – New Thoughts

^{Historic distribution of southwest Alaskan native groups (from Dumond 2005)}

Aniakchak is very near to the historic boundary between Unangan (Aleut) and Supiaq or Alutiiq (Pacific Eskimo) peoples. One of our research goals is to determine in what ways this boundary may have changed in the past. What we want to know is who lived in Aniakchak Bay? Were they more closely related to the people of the Aleutian Islands or the Kodiak Archipelago, or was their culture an amalgamation of regional traditions. In what ways did they interact with their neighbors to the east and west? Was there a sharp boundary between peoples or was there a lot of trade and contact? Did these borderlands change throughout the occupation of the site, or did they remain relatively stable and permanent? To answer these questions we look at everything from houses and harpoons to carved ivory and even quartz crystals.

^{Quartz crystal from Koniag house}

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Since we have ancient masks as a recent topic on this blog, I decided to continue my Aniakchak field reports by highlighting one of this season’s more spectacular finds – a portion of a miniature ivory mask. It came from one of the dense midden deposits (Strat Layer VII) eroding out of the headlands overlooking Aniakchak Bay. We have not dated this deposit directly, but we believe it belongs to the 1300 BP occupation. (more…)

The Amaknak Bridge site in Unalaska has produced another spectacular find – a 3000 year old whalebone mask.

I and my crew actually heard news of this find shortly before we left Anchorage. The mask displays quite sophisticated bone carving technique and will certainly add an important dimension to our understanding of eastern Aleutian artistry.

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