Quick Trip to Twoheaded Island

 

Last Friday just days after returning from Shuyak I went on a quick one day helicopter survey of Twoheaded Island. Twoheaded Island is a formidable looking, mountainous island with a very cliffy shoreline just off the southeast corner of Kodiak. It does not look like a place where there would be very many sites. But the late Russian-American Period historian Lydia Black had read accounts about an Alutiiq whaling village on the island, and we did know about one village on top of a high cliff.  

So away we went to map and record the one village we knew about and to see if we could find any other sites on the island. 

The known village ended up being HUGE with 14 large housepits. We also found some pieces of metal and Russian brick fragments. This suggests that the village was indeed an Early Russian Period village, and very likely the whaling village mentioned in the early historic accounts.

We also found another 3 archaeological sites - two of which are also villages on top of very high cliffs. All three villages on the island have very poor access to high energy beaches.  One village that looks to be around 1200 years old is perched on top of a 120 foot cliff with a metal shipwreck on the rocky beach beneath it. On my recent Shuyak survey I might not have even surveyed such places.

These sites were likely situated in such dramatic places precisely because they are good places to watch for whales.  

Patrick

Village a top a 120 foot cliff

Another view of cliff below village - not a likely spot for a site!