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| An ulu knife once used to process fish |
In a nutshell, on the North shore of Kiliuda Bay we found a relatively large number of big villages and the sites were mostly in good shape.
Back in the day a lot of people lived in Kiliuda Bay. And this makes sense from an ecological standpoint as the bay is rich in resources. It also matches what the Russians first reported on their arrival to the island. Their early maps show numerous villages in the bay. I've actually been trying to tie the villages on the maps (often depicted with their name in Alutiiq) with the actual archaeological villages on the landscape. This is a bit tricky because the old maps do not exactly match the modern USGS maps.
The survey was funded by the BIA, and they wanted to know about the sites on BIA private allotments. So at the sites we found on allotments we dug small holes or test pits to help us characterize the subsurface deposits. We also collected charcoal so we can later actually date how old the deposits are in radiocarbon years. We did not collect artifacts and reburied any that we found.
We found a surprising amount of really old sites - including one on the order of at least 5000 years old. I think we found so many old sites for the same reason that the sites are mostly not eroding very badly - the land seems to be rising relative to the sea. In many parts of the archipelago rising sea levels associated with global warming are causing increased erosion. But inner Kiliuda Bay is near the center of the island, and I think that like Womens Bay near the city of Kodiak this part of the island is rising long term. It is why there are mountains in the middle of the island.
Unlike in many other parts of the archipelago we found beach ridge complexes at the heads of all the small bights. Through time these beaches are building outwards. As a consequence you find the youngest sites on the beach ridges close to the sea and the older sites on the berms further from the sea. We found some sites that are now almost a kilometer away from the ocean. This is exciting because it means there is the potential to find really old sites in the area.
But this is not easy! The older inland sites are also more deeply buried (see test pit photo below) and are not as easy to see. You have to get a bit lucky or dig a lot of holes and still get lucky to find them. But the geologic evidence that we found on this survey strongly suggests that they are there. We found a few of the really old sites, but I'm sure there are more out there. This is not true of other parts of the archipelago where sinking coastlines mean that the only sites left are right on the coastline.
Patrick
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| Charcoal stained gravel at the bottom of a test pit - the very definition of a 'positive' test |
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| 5000 year old bayonet lance found in a test pit |
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| Large house depression |
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| Close up of cod bones in an eroding midden |
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| Eroding shell midden - this was one of the few sites we documented that was eroding |
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| An adze for carving wood |
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| 1000 year old village |
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| Flake of basalt and worked slate found in a test pit |
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