Afognak Lake Archaeology - What's most important is what we did not find

Old hunting camp

Afognak Lake has a pretty good salmon run and there are lots of prehistoric sites at the mouth of the Afognak River - so on my recent archaeological survey of the lake I expected that we would find prehistoric sites up on the lake.  I've found literally hundreds of other sites on inland lakes and rivers that have good salmon runs - the Ayakulik/Red, Karluk, Olga Lakes, Buskin, Uganik to name a few.  But on Afognak Lake we did not find a single prehistoric site.  And I think I know why.

We did find a lot of historic sites, all from the 20th century - old hunting camps, hatchery related stuff, and from WWII (there was a recreation camp on the lake). There is a lot of history on that lake - we just did not find anything prehistoric.

Another thing we did not find was spawning fish and feeding bears, and this is pretty unusual for kodiak.  Late October is prime spawning time for silvers and late run red salmon.  At this time of the year the banks of Kodiak's inland streams and lakes are littered with the carcasses of salmon half chewed on by bears.  It is a feeding frenzy.  Just this last week I have been watching bears feeding on the spawning silvers at the outlet to Buskin Lake.  And guess what?  There is an old prehistoric fish camp at that spot.

I've always suspected that prehistoric Alutiiq people focused on the inland fish late in the fall.  Less bugs and the fish is easier to preserve in the cold weather.  Also spawned out fish are easier to dry.  And why fish in the middle of summer?  At that time there is plenty of other species to chase on the coast and without freezers or refrigeration how are you going to get your fish to keep until winter?

So if there are no spawning fish in late fall - there should be no sites.  And this is what we found up on Afognak Lake. Also supporting this idea, we did not find any sites on the Malina Lakes - another early red salmon run. And on Karluk, Olga and Red Lakes most of the sites are near where the late run red salmon spawn in the lake shoals, and not near where the early run reds spawn in the tributaries.

So we got a pattern here and it is telling us that prehistoric people liked to catch their 'interior' fish late in the fall.

And that's a tidbit of information for the history books!

Patrick

WWII floatplane wing - the Kingfisher

A new petroglyph site?