The goals of the Port Clarence project were to investigate changing subsistence practices and related settlement patterns in the Bering Strait region (Figure 1) over the last 1000 years, during a period of significant socio-economic and environmental change.  To achieve these goals we conducted two years of fieldwork at Point Spencer, excavating one previously reported village site (TEL-8) and surveying to identify and investigate several other sites in the surrounding area (Figure 2).  We collected and analyzed animal bones, tools, and radiocarbon data to reconstruct past diet, season of site occupation, and settlement patterns at TEL-8 and across the local area.  We also conducted a geoarchaeological study focused primarily on establishing local coastal landscape evolution.  

Prior research conducted in the 1940s suggested that we would encounter pre-1000 year old occupations at TEL-8, but excavation at the site did not locate any cultural materials dating before the Thule period (ca. 1000-250 years ago).  The older deposits may have been destroyed by prior digging at the site by archaeologists and local collectors.  Or, the artifacts previously thought to pre-date the Thule period may have been misidentified.  Unfortunately, the majority of artifacts we recovered cannot be linked to a specific time period; they are characteristic of late Holocene maritime cultures of northwestern Arctic.  Analysis of four temporally diagnostic tools recovered from TEL-8 date to both the early and later Neoeskimo periods.  The results of radiocarbon dating at TEL-8 and other local sites, however, indicates that the majority of occupations at Point Spencer date to the late Thule period, after 500 years ago.  This interpretation is further supported by our geoarchaeological analysis, which established the age of different coastal landforms around the Point through both radiocarbon analysis and correlation with similar dated landforms located around northwest Alaska.  Geoarchaeological dates providing bracketing ages for local coastal archaeological sites, aiding in our interpretation of local settlement patterns.  Analysis of the landscape itself, and how it changed over time, also provided information about the shifting suitability of the Port Clarence coastline for human occupation. 

Study of bird, fish, and mammal bone from TEL-8 and several other newly identified Point Spencer sites yielded important insights into diet and subsistence activities in the region.  The abundance of small seal bones at TEL-8 indicates that Phocid seal hunting was a focus of hunting activity at this site.   This was most likely conducted in early spring and in summer, based on the bird and fish bone analysis for the site.  The vast majority of the bird bones recovered from this site are from seaducks. Ethnographic work suggests that these birds were most often targeted in the early spring in ice leads during seal hunting or as they migrate to nesting areas.  Furthermore, the abundance of cod and flatfish remains represented in the TEL-8 identified fish assemblage are consistent with ethnohistoric descriptions of winter and early spring through-ice, or ice lead fishing at Point Spencer.  Organic tool analysis hints at other aspects of life at Point Spencer; many of the artifacts we recovered were related to hunting activities (e.g. various types of points), but there is also an abundance of objects related to transportation (e.g. sled runner parts). 

Our work makes several important contributions to Arctic archaeological research and to research on maritime hunter-gatherers.  Specifically, this project contributes new data on hunting and fishing activities over an approximately 1000 year period; zooarchaeological research in this region is limited so our new analysis provides important insights into past subsistence activities.  Settlement data suggests that local occupation intensified during the late pre-contact period, over the last 500 years, although additional research is needed to further evaluate the patterns we identified.  These findings differ from what is currently known about late pre-contact settlement patterns in northwest Alaska.  Lastly, geoarchaeological research established the potential of other regional landforms for archaeological sites dating both before and after the Neoeskimo transition beginning around 1000 years ago.

In addition to our intellectual contributions, this project had significant educational and career impacts for the PI’s students. Four graduate students and approximately 34 undergraduates were involved with various aspects of field and lab work over the course of the project.  The project provided an opportunity for students to conduct research in a unique setting alongside professionals from various non-academic settings.  

Last Modified: 10/03/2017
Modified by: Shelby Anderson