A Smaller Pack: Aiaktalik Archaeology

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Aiaktalik Archaeology

Documenting an old village

This is my final Aiaktalik survey post - the archaeology of Aiaktalik Island. As I posted earlier we found 9 new sites and documented another 4 already know sites. But what stands out, particularly as compared to my inner Uyak Bay survey back in May (click here for post), is how many of the sites were large 'winter' villages. Five of the 13 sites represented substantial villages where maybe 100 or more people lived in the past. At Russian contact Aiaktalik village was the largest village on the archipelago and 450 people lived there. It seems that maybe it has always been the location of a big village. Three of the big villages we found were over 1000 years old.

Another surprise is that the big villages are all in fairly good condition - none of them are eroding into the sea. Fully a third or more of the coastline on Aiaktalik Island - most of the south and east side - is getting cut back dramatically by coastal erosion. It is clear that a great many sites have probably completely eroded away, but where all the big villages are located the coastline is stable.

We only found 5 small sites - sites that lacked a lot of house depressions. These were seasonal camps or places people where went to catch and process some sort of subsistence food. These are the sorts of sites I mostly found on the Inner Uyak Bay survey, and I have a feeling that these are the types of sites that have been dis-proportionally lost to coastal erosion on Aiaktalik Island. The other 3 sites we documented are the Russian Orthodox Church, a rock cairn, and a 20th century shack.

One of the cool survey finds was the church foundation at the end of Old Aiaktalik village. The church was still standing in the 1950's. The village had been abandoned immediately prior to WWII. We carefully matched up a photo of the church from the 1950s with the modern landscape (But I should have backed up just a bit and moved a little to the west!). In the 1950s the photographer was probably using a 50 mm lens while I was using a 28 mm lens. You can see that in his/her photo that the cliffs in the background seem a lot closer.

We also found a large village on top of a high cliff. In an 18th century account about the first Russian expedition to winter over on Kodiak Island they parked their boat in Russian Harbor just to the North of Aiaktalik Island. This account mentions visiting a big Alutiiq village on top of a high cliff. I think we found and mapped that very village!

Patrick