Community Archaeology: Week Two

     We've moved a lot of dirt at the Kashevarof site since my last post, and we have learned a great deal.
     We still have not seen any bears where we are digging, but the location is perfect near Salonie Creek and the red salmon are coming in. We just have the squawking of the ravens and the chippering of the magpies to keep us company as we trowel away at layers of soil and ash that has been undisturbed for thousands of years. Every once in a while one of the volunteers will have this realization, hold up an artifact they've found in their unit and say, "I'm the first person to have touched this in a really really long time..."

    As we are entering the second week of excavation, it looks like we have at least three distinct occupations; the house feature under the Katmai ash fall being a Koniaq era fishing camp with ulus, built on top of a less intensive (absence of any permanent structures or hearths) Kachemak Bay era site marked by red chert flakes and flake tools, ulus, etc. Under an in situ grey ash that has been dated to around 4000 BP, we are finding evidence for an Ocean Bay era occupation as well. During this period, from around 7500 BP to 3500 BP, the Alutiiq were mobile hunter-gatherers and had not yet developed a reliance on fishing. They subsisted almost entirely on marine mammal hunting and used long lances made of ground slate to hunt them.

    Although archaeologists tend to emphasize the importance of features over 'pretty' artifacts, I have to say that we have found some showstoppers over the last week. Artifacts can be very useful for dating, as diagnostic of a particular style or manufacture, especially when a diagnostic artifact helps confirm the soil deposition of the site. We dig because we are passionate about learning the history of the Alutiiq way of life on Kodiak over time, but everyone likes to find something...

...especially when its a 4000+ BP perfectly intact marine mammal hunting lance!

        Ground slate lance used for hunting marine mammals during the Ocean Bay era, 4000+ BP. See maker's mark incised at the base and tip. The tip of a poison covered lance was meant to break off in the animal, killing it slowly. The maker's mark identified the hunter when the animal washed up on the beach days later.

 Ashley Weller with a gorgeous Kachemak Bay era ulu! According to museum staff, ulus with semi-lunate cutting surfaces were probably used for cutting, while ulus with flat cutting surfaces would have been better for scraping.

Ryan Cross, a geophysicist and friend of many at the dig came to survey with his Ground Penetrating Radar. Areas around the site that show potential for future excavation were imaged for house depressions.