Inland Herring

Herring vertebrae

On Sunday I am off to Karluk Lake for an archaeological excavation.  I've done a lot of archaeology on Karluk Lake.  Between 2008 and 2012 we surveyed the Lake and River (click here 2011, and here 2012 , and here for 2009 for a few of the survey posts), and the last few years the landowner, Koniag Inc., and the Kodiak Brown Bear Center has been supporting archaeological excavations.  Basically, we have been testing the theories we came up with during our surveys, and learning how Alutiiq people used the area through time.

In 2019 we excavated a late prehistoric house (ca 250 years old) right at the outlet to the lake (click here for 2019 archaeology post).  Last year we excavated what we think is a ceremonial 'Qasgiq' or 'mens house' from around 1000 years ago.  This year we hope to excavated a normal house associated with the Qasgiq.  We want to compare and contrast the two structures, and strengthen our case that last year's structure is indeed a Qasgiq (click here for last year's post).

Soon after the 2019 excavation Bob K a visiting archaeologist looked at the fauna we collected from the 250 year-old house and identified what he thought was a herring bone (picture above).  This was quite exciting because the site is a long ways from the sea and herring are mostly available in the spring.  At the very least it told us that Alutiiq people were bringing up food from the coast and that they were there in the spring.  Anyway, we were not absolutely positive that it was a herring bone, and so I have waited, and waited for confirmation that it is actually a herring vertebrae.  

Erin M and Catherine W at Boston University have been analyzing the fauna (bones), and recently confirmed that it is indeed a herring bone!  They are not done with their analysis - so there will be more to come, but I have been waiting for over 3 years to do a blog post on our 2019 herring bone.  So here is a preliminary post.  Erin and Catherine will have a lot more to say!

Anyway, since 2019 we excavated another faunal midden associated with the 2021 'Qasgiq' and rather than just post on the herring bone I thought I'd do a preliminary comparison of the two middens.  The 2 structures are wildly different in age (about 800 years) but the differences between the composition of the two middens highlight the difference between how the structures were used.  Below I first show pictures from the 2019 faunal midden, and then at the bottom I show images from the 2021 faunal midden.

In a nutshell, the composition of the 2 middens matches the differences between the 2 artifact assemblages. The 'house' was associated with a wide variety of artifact types and this reflects that a diverse suite of activities that took place there. At the 'Qasgiq' the artifact assemblage was very focused - there was very little in the way of tools associated with manufacturing or processing food.  The 'house' midden was mostly fish bones but contained a wide variety of types and included marine mammal, birds and all sorts of saltwater species.  The 'Qasgiq' midden was much more focused and contained relatively little in the way of fish bones.  It was mostly clam and mussel shells.  

This contrast supports my theory that the 'qasgiq' was a special purpose structure - Alutiiq people used it for ceremonies and did not do a lot of 'household' or food processing activities there.  They were not processing and drying a bunch of fish in the structure like they were in the 250 year-old 'house'.  Also clams are not really a high quality food - they do not provide much in the way of calories, and for the calories alone it would be hardly worth it to carry them all the way up from the coast.  But they are a sort of 'prestige' item and could be considered a 'ceremonial' food.

And now in the next few weeks I hope to excavate a 1000 year-old house.  I hope we find fauna, and that it is totally different from the fauna we found in the 1000 year-old 'qasgiq'.  I hope everything is different between the 2 structures and that the differences support my story!

Patrick

Herring bones are tiny and have a distinctive hour glass shape

articulated trout or salmon bones from the 2019 midden

blue mussel shells, clearly from the coast, in the 2019 midden

Rainbow trout are easy to catch in the river at the outlet to the lake

We found this tiny hook inside an articulated small salmon/trout in the midden

Cod otolith (ear bone) another salt water fish imported to the site

Sea urchin spines from the 2019 midden

This is a map of the house and location our 2019 excavation blocks - the midden was in a mound (29-31) just outside the house

Keith exciting the midden mound found outside the 2021 structure

2021 midden mostly clam shells - some fish bones

2021 midden

2021 midden in situ

location of the 2021 midden mound in relation to 'qasgiq' - door at upper right