Inspired by the groundbreaking investigation of ice patch archaeology in Yukon Territory, the authors began exploring the Mackenzie, Selwyn, and Richardson Mountains for ice patch archaeological sites in 2000. Through remote sensing analysis, followed by intensive field surveys in the Selwyn and Mackenzie Mountains, we documented eight ice patch sites containing well-preserved archaeological artifacts and biological specimens. Twenty additional ice patches exhibit the key indicators of ice patch archaeological sites (permanent or intermittent ice and snow lenses containing caribou fecal matter, faunal material, or both), but so far these patches have not yielded artifacts. Collections from ice patches in the Selwyn Mountains include examples of three precontact hunting technologies: throwing dart (atlatl), bow-and-arrow, and snare. Atlatl technology, represented by the distal ends of two darts dating to 2410 and 2310 14 C yr BP, predates bow-and-arrow technology, represented by two complete arrows, two distal shaft fragments, and a partial bow dating between 850 and 270 14 C yr BP. A ground squirrel snare dates to 970 14 C yr BP. Caribou dominates the faunal remains recovered from the ice patches. These data suggest that hunting on ice patches was part of a broader-spectrum summer subsistence economy focused on a broad alpine valley, known locally as K'atieh, and that hunters tended to target ice patches close to other subsistence locations in this area.

Indigenous peoples of Canada’s North have long made use of boreal forest products, with wooden drift fences to direct caribou movement towards kill sites as unique examples. Caribou fences are of archaeological and ecological significance, yet sparsely distributed and increasingly at risk to wildfire. Costly remote field logistics requires efficient prior fence verification and rapid on-site documentation of structure and landscape context. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery were used for detailed site recording and detection of coarse woody debris (CWD) objects under challenging Subarctic alpine woodlands conditions. UAVs enabled discovery of previously unknown wooden structures and revealed extensive use of CWD (n = 1745, total length = 2682 m, total volume = 16.7 m3). The methodology detected CWD objects much smaller than previously reported in remote sensing literature (mean 1.5 m long, 0.09 m wide), substantiating a high spatial resolution requirement for detection. Structurally, the fences were not uniformly left on the landscape. Permafrost patterned ground combined with small CWD contributions at the pixel level complicated identification through VHR data sets. UAV outputs significantly enriched field techniques and supported a deeper understanding of caribou fences as a hunting technology, and they will aid ongoing archaeological interpretation and time-series comparisons of change agents.

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: The Moose Horn Pass Caribou Fence site (KjRx-1) consists of three wooden fences located in a remote area of the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Situated in the traditional homeland of the Shúhtagot’ine (Mountain Dene), they were used to assist past hunters to harvest northern mountain caribou by channeling multiple animals toward kill zones. The main fence is nearly 800 m in length and terminates in a corral structure after descending from high ground into a valley. The two smaller fences are located north and south of the main fence, and they do not descend into the valley. Standard dendrochronological methods were employed to determine the ages of wood taken from the fence structures. Seventy-five living white spruce (Picea glauca) trees in the area were cored to determine the overall tree-ring growth patterns in the local environment. The chronology of living trees was supplemented by the inclusion of 29 standing-dead trees to establish a longer chronology of dated ring widths. Sixty-two of 89 cross-sections cut from the fence timbers were crossdated and added to the overall chronology, which created a well-replicated chronology of ring-widths from 972 to 2016 C.E. The terminal dates of material from the three fence systems suggest that the complex was built from trees that died over a wide temporal period, spanning the years 1314 to 1876 C.E, with clusters of dates between ca. 1420–1480 and 1580–1750 C.E. The millennial-long chronology developed in this study can now be used as a base to assist in dendroarchaeological dating of many more artifacts from the region.