Some Chirikof Thoughts - sand dunes and deflation

 

The ground surface at the North End of the island has been deflated 3-4 meters

At the end of the last ice age during the peopling of the New World there was a HUGE glacier flowing down Shelikof Strait and around Kodiak Island.  So if one was traveling along the coast by boat on a 'coastal migration' to the New World they would have had a hard time finding dry land.  But it seems Chirikof was only half glaciated - there is even a line of boulders across the middle of the island that marks the end moraine of a retreating glacier.  For this reason I have always thought Chirikof Island would be a good place to look for REALLY old archaeological sites related to the peopling of the New World. It would have been one of the only really good places to land a boat.

I have looked hard for ancient sites out there, but thus far have not found anything that I recognize as really old.  I have found sites older than 4000 years but everything I have found is similar to assemblages I have found elsewhere that are younger than 7000 or so years.  So far I 'recognize' all the types of sites I've found on Chirikof - I figure a really old site is going to look different (and maybe this is where I am wrong).

So on my last trip to Chirikof this past June, I was super excited to look for really old sites on the deflated north end.  I had never really surveyed that end before and with the vegetation all gone (thanks to the cows and wind) I figured the sites would be easy to see.

But yet again - no old sites.  I did find one big deflated site but based on the artifact types present it looks to be only 2-3 thousand years old.  I also realized that it is not easy to find the really old sites.  I noticed that deflation and blowing sand and dirt works both ways.  Parts of the island are also getting buried under the blowing sand - REALLY deeply buried.  And then there is relative sea level changes - where would the beaches and nice places to camp have been located 20 thousand years ago!

In any case, I still think it is the place to look for 'coastal migration' sites.  But I also realize that archaeologists are going to have to work with some hard core coastal geomorphology geology types to figure out where the sites could be located.

Patrick

Behind the beach on the west side blowing sand is elevating the ground surface (note thick layer of sand at top of soil profile below the grass)

River 'Styx' blowing sand on one side - grass and accumulating sand on other side?

The ground surface was once level with these barrels which created a mound by keeping all the sand from blowing away.  The ground surface is now lower but everywhere under the barrels

A deflated archaeological site on the north end of the island