| NSF Org: |
OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | December 6, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 1, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1223119 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Anna Kerttula de Echave
OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP) GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | December 15, 2012 |
| End Date: | February 28, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $706,029.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $780,094.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2014 = $344,887.00 FY 2015 = $249,173.00 FY 2016 = $31,241.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2145 N TANANA LOOP FAIRBANKS AK US 99775-0001 (907)474-7301 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
PO Box 757720 Fairbanks AK US 99775-7720 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | ASSP-Arctic Social Science |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.078 |
ABSTRACT
This project consists of exploration of Upward Sun River (USR) (Xaasaa Na'), a deeply buried site in central Alaska, associated with the earliest human remains and residential structure in the Arctic or Subarctic of North America (~11,500 years old). This exploration will focus on understanding technology and subsistence economy (of both plants and animals) at the transition from the last Ice Age to the modern interglacial. The research team will explore how both technology and subsistence are conditioned by site structure and organization, social organization, seasonality, and paleoenvironmental contexts. These contextual controls will be analyzed within a multi-disciplinary framework, incorporating stone tools, fauna, plant macrofossils, phytoliths, and stable isotope analyses. Results will also inform us on adaptive strategies associated with the initial colonization of the New World through Beringia. Additional questions involve the extent to which adaptive strategies remained constant or changed under changing climatic conditions at the end of the last Ice Age. Given the importance of the USR site to local and regional Alaska Native communities, the project has a robust education component, including support for Alaska Native participation. This research has the potential to contribute transformative data to our understanding of this important time period in the Western Hemisphere.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project consists of exploration of Upward Sun River (USF), an archaeological site in Alaska, focused on understanding human ecology of early prehistoric hunter-gatherers. We generally lack sufficient controls on relevant variables needed to test ideas about cultural adaptation, such as plant use, toolkit design, site structure (inside and outside houses), etc. This work at USR provided these controls.
We discovered and analyzed 3 residential features and numerous outdoor hearths and associated activity areas within USR. USR was a summer residential base camp with men, women, and children present, while another site (XBD-167) was a lithic workshop. These sites are nearby and date to the same time (11,500 years ago), indicating substantial variation in technological behaviors within a single archaeological cuture. The most important findings on ancient economies are the discovery of the earliest systemic recurrent use of salmon in the Americas. A wide range of plants were used, and both data indicate broad spectrum foraging within a complex seasonal land use system influencd both by division of labor, variation in social organization relating to specific activities, and season.
We also see a major economic response to broad climate change (Ice Age to more modern conditions), primarily associated with shifts from bison and wapiti hunting in the early period to caribou hunting in the later period. There are multiple indications of resource stress during the Younger Dryas (cold period), where we see expanding diet breadth.
The most important discovery we made was the recovery of one of the earliest human burials in the Western Hemisphere, a double burial of an infant and neonate. The genetic analyses, published in Nature in 2018, are transformative. These two infants were part of a previously unknown major population of Native Americans, the most basal known, indicating they split off from other Native Americans about 20,000 years ago, surviving in the far North until about 6000 years ago. Other significant findings include development and application of geochemical analyses to model food reousrces from ancient sediments to infer paleodiets.
Last Modified: 07/09/2018
Modified by: Ben A Potter
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