Documenting Petroglyphs

One of the best things about the Afognak helicopter survey a couple of weeks ago (click here for post) was that we got to document 2 sets of petroglyphs.  These were petroglyph sites that we knew about, but really had not had the chance to properly describe and photograph  I found one of the sites almost exactly 2 years ago in the pouring rain and only had about 15 minutes to take notes (click here for post).

These are not your typical anthropomorphic petroglyphs - pecked images of animals and people.  They are a distinct style of petroglyph that we find seems to be associated with fishing localities.  They are characterized by circles, pecked holes, incised lines, and stars.  They are also tucked away on flat rocks - hidden rather than made to be seen.

We think they are associated with ritual rather than 'marking territory'.  Perhaps the holes are links to another universe where the fish go and can return from - maybe a way to regenerate salmon.  That's what I think anyway and we are finding all sort of links with other aspects of the Alutiiq spiritual world.  In a few weeks I will be giving a talk on this very subject - so come and listen if you want to hear more (7PM May 17th at the Alutiiq Museum).

We are only just beginning to document the new style of petroglyph and our work on the helicopter survey was just a rough beginning.  Now we need to go and spend a day at each site - just mapping and describing.  We also need to find more of them!  I have some pretty ideas on where we are likely to find more of them too.  Patrick

P'Mid with Nora

Nora and I have been going skiing a lot this winter, but yesterday was the first time since way back in January that we climbed up Pyramid (click here for post). We have been skiing on the other side of the road where it is not as steep and extreme, and where it is much easier to ski right to the road.  But that side has melted out so yesterday we went up Pyramid.  

On the way up Nora decided that she wants to name our next dog 'Pyramid'. He would be nicknamed, 'P'Mid'.  Nora wants it to be a him and a little white lab - a white version of Tank.

After a snack at the top it was time to ski down.  This is Nora's favorite part.  I was explaining to her that my favorite part is actually climbing up.  But Nora did not agree.  'And that is why I like going to Alyeska - there is a lift', she exclaimed.

We got to the bottom of the snow and carrying the skis hiked the final slope to the car.  Nora decided that rather than becoming an Olympic skier she wants to be an extreme skier and go on the 'Red Bull' circuit.  Get paid to wear name brand gear.  She decided that those people probably have more fun than the Olympic skiers.  I also pointed out that they also get to ski out in the mountains (not just up and down on boring groomed trails), and that she could practice that type of skiing right here in her home town.  So Red Bull here we come!

Patrick

Nora takes a break own the way up - it was more of a climb than she is used to

The higher you get the better the view!

We even experienced a little sunshine

Time to ski down - Nora's favorite part

St Marys Spring Concert

On Thursday night St Marys had their Spring Concert.  The kids all sang to their parents and grandparents in the audience.  We sat and enjoyed the show.  Both Nora and Stuey had their moment in the limelight.  Nora gave her 'public speaking' speech - 'Oh the place you'll go' by Dr Seuss.  While Stuey had a solo on the guitar.  I was super proud of both of them.  Patrick

First Salmonberry Blossom 2018

I saw my first salmonberry blossom of the year a couple of days ago at the entrance to Abercrombie.  And then yesterday I noticed them blooming at the end of my driveway.  This seems a little bit earlier than normal, but is way later than a couple of year ago when they bloomed in late march!  (click here for post). Generally they first start blooming in early May - so this year is just a little bit early.  Last year they really did not bloom at all.

Nora wants to know when the blossoms will turn into ripe berries.  That is usually mid July.  Unlike last year, it is looking like we'll have a salmonberry crop this year!  Patrick

Fish Traps and Sea Stacks

There is a rich site on top of this tiny sea stack

Friday's helicopter survey was very productive.  We found 5 new (previously unreported) archaeological sites, checked on the conditions at another 14 previously known sites, and documented 2 sets of petroglyphs (this will be in a later post).  That's a lot.  But what's really cool is that we found a new type of site and another fish trap too.

The new type of site are these rich faunal middens on top of tiny sea stacks.  Refuge rocks are a similar site type.  Refuge rocks are fortress rocks with villages on top.  Basically little castles.  But the new sea stack sites we found are really tiny and lack house depressions - many even lack a flat area to put a house!.  And yet there are whale bones, fire cracked rock from hearths, fish bones - all sorts of stuff.  These are rich sites and they are surrounded by precipitous cliffs.  I can't imagine climbing up on top of these things.

I bet the Alutiiq inhabitants had ladders and ropes for getting up an down.  And I am sure they were related to some sort of defensive activity.  Now we will have to look at more of them and see if we can start to find patterns about where they are located and what is in them.  That's how we will learn what they were used for and represent.

Fish 'corals' were an unknown site type on Kodiak until last June when I found an intertidal fish trap while on the Afognak Land Survey (click here for link to last June's post).  Weirs are a similar type of feature but they are designed to channel fish to a spot where they can be speared or netted.  Intertidal fish traps seem designed to concentrate or capture fish on a falling tide.  At high tide the fish swim up above the rock walls and then when the tide drops they are trapped in the rock-walled corals.

The ones we found on this trip are in front a large, late prehistoric village that I mapped way back in 2013.  Back when I mapped the village I missed the traps!  But in my defense I did map the site at high tide when the rock walls were under water.  The traps are rock walls parallel to the shore - one wall is about 100 meters long while the other is 150 meters or more (we did not land to closely inspect and map the feature).  When the tide drops it looks like the fish would have been trapped on the beach between the walls and the shore.

Now that we recognize what these fish traps look like I bet we start to find a lot more of them.  And they are especially easy to see from a helicopter.  I can foresee aerial surveys at low tide to look for these sorts of features in the future.  Patrick

No need to climb up on top if you got a helicopter!

Now that's a rich faunal midden - the red rock is fire-cracked rock (FCR)

Keller with an ulu ('fish knife') - we photographed but did not collect artifacts

The lines of rocks on each side seem to be designed to trap fish on a falling tide

Faunal midden captured in the roots of a fallen tree

Slate lance preform and fire-cracked rock from an eroded site

Molly in an old house depression in the forest

Sucker Hole

It's been stormy for the last few days, and yesterday morning was awful.  And this morning it is stormy again with Mill Bay all a roil. But for a few hours yesterday afternoon it was spectacular.  I must admit the sunshine caught me by surprise, and the intensity did have me thinking that the clear skies were here to stay.

'Sucker hole' is the local term used for a patch of blue sky that appears during a lull in a storm and leads the foolish to think that the storm is clearing off.  Optimists like me are often fooled!  So was yesterday a 'sucker hole' or just a glorious afternoon?

I know that I made the most of the clear skies.  I skied down into the north bowl on Pyramid and could not help but look back and take lots of pictures of my tracks in the fresh corn snow.  Later I showed them to Nora and that's where she wants to ski Friday afternoon after school.  Patrick

The black dot on the cornice is a person for scale

And a few more pretty pictures of the mountain from last weekend - the bottom picture really was a sucker hole.  It cleared up for just a moment and the sun spotlit me on my ski back down the mountain.  Then it got stormy again.  The top 2 were on Friday after my helicopter tour of Afognak.

Patrick

A Real 'Sucker Hole'

Helicopter Survey

Site on top of a sea stack

Last Friday was one of those days that I really love my job.  On a sunny day I got to go on a quick helicopter survey of Afognak Island.  In six hours we did what would normally take me weeks in a kayak and on foot.  Keller Wattum of Deckload Aviation has always wanted to show me the archaeological sites that he knows about, and on Friday he did.  Thank You Keller!

And wow did we find a lot! We found a set of prehistoric fish traps at a place I already surveyed once before on foot - ooops; documented 2 sets of petroglyphs - already known about, but not drawn and photographed; and found a bunch of new sites.  This included a new type of site for me - shell  middens on top of tiny little unaccessible sea stacks.  Very cool.

Patrick

A badly damaged site from when a tree fell over in the wind

Mapping a 500 year old village

We did more in a day than I'd do in a week in a kayak!

Molly as we fly over Lily Pad Lake

Elk Herd

Pretty much the whole site is in the tree throw - the tree was growing in an old house depression

Almost home as a squall approaches - look closely and you can see the windmills above town

Oh the places you will go. ..

Last Thursday night Nora was a part of a public speaking contest.  She got second place for the 5th and 6th grade category!

The Kodiak Christian School and St Marys had already had all their students do public speaking in the classrooms, and only the best presented at last Thursday's event.  It was the finals so to speak.

And I was impressed.  One by one the students were called up and presented their pieces in an incredibly professional and animated manner.

One of my favorites was a presentation of John Donne's sermon wherein there is that line 'Never send to know for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee.'  I remember that one from growing up, but I had never heard the whole thing before.  I had always thought that the famous line ended the whole thing and was amazed that after delivered the sermon went on for quite a bit.  I decided that the 'for whom the bell tolls' line is really all I really liked about the sermon.

Nora presented Dr Seuss's 'Oh the Places You will Go', and there was a bad moment when one of the Kodiak Christian School students presented the same piece before it was Nora's turn.  Oh No!!!  But Nora recovered and I felt bad for the other student because Nora's presentation was clearly superior.

I used to read that book to Nora all the time before bedtime and knew all the lines as Nora presented them.  I was actually wondering if my prior bedtime reading had ingrained the lines into Nora's head!

Patrick