High Latitude Coastal Settlement Patterns: Cape Krusenstern, Alaska

Anderson, Shelby; Freeburg, Adam

doi:10.1080/15564894.2013.840873

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…3). Other regional population studies suggest that this increase continued to the historic period, though regional declines and recoveries are recognized (Potter, 2008;Anderson and Freeburg, 2014;Brown, 2015).…”

Section: Pan-alaskan Population Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mid to Late Holocene Population Trends, Culture Change and Marine Resource Intensification in Western Alaska

Tremayne¹,

Brown²

2017

ARCTIC

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The goal of this project is to understand the influence of population size on human adaptation processes and culture change during the Mid to Late Holocene in Western Alaska. We use a database of 1180 radiocarbon dates ranging from 6000 to 1000 14C years BP and drawn from 805 archaeological components in Alaska to construct a proxy record for relative change in regional and Alaskan metapopulation sizes over time. Our analysis indicates that a major population crash coincided with the disappearance of the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) and the subsequent emergence of the Norton tradition. The ASTt population began to decline around 3600 cal BP, and by 3500 cal BP it had disappeared almost completely from northern tundra habitats, though it persisted in coastal areas in Northwest and Southwest Alaska for another 500 years. The reduction in human population across Alaska after 3600 cal BP appears linked to a reduced carrying capacity that was perhaps driven by a caribou population crash. Such a shock would have increased population pressure and fostered increased reliance on marine resources, precipitating cultural changes associated with an increasingly complex maritime economy. The sharp decline in ASTt population size reduced the number of cultural role models for this population, resulting in the loss of some of the tradition’s characteristic cultural traits, while the influence of neighboring populations in southern Alaska and across the Bering Strait apparently increased, counteracting this attrition of cultural traits. Holistic explanations of the ASTt-Norton transition must take into account population size, ecological adaptation, and cultural transmission processes, as is true for cultural change more generally.

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Section: Pan-alaskan Population Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mid to Late Holocene Population Trends, Culture Change and Marine Resource Intensification in Western Alaska

Tremayne¹,

Brown²

2017

ARCTIC

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“…Pottery samples for residue analysis come from several different sites at the Cape Krusenstern site complex (Figure 1). The site complex encompasses a 4,200-year record of past human coastal occupation (Anderson and Freeburg 2013, 2014). The majority of sites that date before 2000 B.P.…”

Section: Residue Analysis Sample Selection and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aquatic Adaptations and the Adoption of Arctic Pottery Technology: Results of Residue Analysis

2017

Self Cite

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The late adoption of pottery technology in the North American Arctic between 2,500 and 2,800 years ago coincides with the development of a specialized maritime economy. Arctic pottery technologies present an excellent case study for examining possible correlations between hunter-gatherer pottery and aquatic resource use. Review of the timing and distribution of early pottery in Alaska shows that early pottery is rare and dates at the earliest to 2,500 years ago; the earliest pottery is found in small numbers and primarily in coastal areas. Despite expectations that pottery use would be strongly linked to marine lipids, biomarkers and compound-specific δ13C values of 20 sherds from the Cape Krusenstern site complex, dating from 2700 to 200 cal B.P. years ago, are most consistent with freshwater aquatic resources; mixtures of freshwater aquatic, marine aquatic, and terrestrial resources are also possible. While additional analysis of a larger sample and zooarchaeological reference specimens is necessary, our study suggests that the development of pottery production by Arctic peoples is more complex than previously appreciated. This research is the first synthesis in over 30 years of early pottery in Alaska and is the first to include residue analysis of a small sample of pre-1500 B.P. pottery.

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“…Renewed research at CAKR began in 2006, with the purpose of further exploring the role coastal environmental change may have played in human settlement patterns during the mid-late Holocene period. Through a program of systematic archaeological survey, testing, and radiocarbon dating we refined the local archaeological chronology (Anderson and Freeburg, 2013) and settlement history (Anderson and Freeburg, 2014), which parallel regional reconstructions of past coastal lifeways (Schaaf, 1988;Harritt, 1994;Mason, 1998) (Table 1). The earliest sites at CAKR, dating to between about 2750 and 4500 years ago, are limited to small campsites thought to be associated with spring sealing activities (Table 1).…”

Section: Archaeological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We undertook renewed research at the CAKR site complex with the purpose of 1) developing higher resolution archaeological and paleoenvironmental chronologies, 2) re-evaluating the local settlement history, and 3) refining the local paleoenvironmental reconstruction and landscape history. The goal of this paper is to synthesize new geomorphological and archaeological data with prior results (Anderson and Freeburg, 2013;2014), to refine local cultural and paleoenvironmental chronologies, and to consider the question of how local environmental change may have influenced local and regional settlement history. It is not our intent to develop a revised synthesis of regional beach ridge chronologies or the Chukchi Sea paleo-storm record.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human settlement and Mid-Late Holocene coastal environmental change at Cape Krusenstern, Northwest Alaska

Anderson

Jordan

Freeburg

2020

Quaternary International

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Archaeologists hypothesize that mid-late Holocene environmental variability played a role in several significant western Arctic cultural developments including population fluctuations, the evolution of Arctic maritime adaptations, and Arctic-wide migrations. Further evaluation of these hypotheses requires higher resolution archaeological and paleoecological datasets than are currently available. In response, we undertook an interdisciplinary study at Cape Krusenstern, a large coastal site complex in northwest Alaska, which was occupied over the last ca. 5000-6000 years. Our goals were to refine local cultural and paleoenvironmental chronologies and to explore the question of how local environmental change may have influenced local settlement history. The resulting revised chronology and depositional units confirm and refine prior interpretation of the local archaeological settlement history. New geomorphological data on coastal environmental change and post-depositional modification of the Cape Krusenstern beach ridge system also provide information about patterns of archaeological site preservation, indicating periods of potentially poorer site preservation around 3990 cal BP; this informs interpretation of forager settlement data. Furthermore, our findings suggest that climate-driven changes in the coastal environment at Cape Krusenstern may not be as determinative in terms of landscape evolution as previously thought. Future work should focus on further investigating the relationship between beach ridge development and regional climatic patterns on a regional scale, as this has implications for use of beach ridges as a mid-late Holocene climate proxy. Continued efforts to build paleoenvironmental reconstructions of higher temporal and spatial resolution for the region will help address remaining questions about the relationship between local coastal environmental changes and regional patterns, and the impacts of these environmental shifts on local residents.

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High Latitude Coastal Settlement Patterns: Cape Krusenstern, Alaska

Cited by 10 publications

References 40 publications

Mid to Late Holocene Population Trends, Culture Change and Marine Resource Intensification in Western Alaska

Mid to Late Holocene Population Trends, Culture Change and Marine Resource Intensification in Western Alaska

Aquatic Adaptations and the Adoption of Arctic Pottery Technology: Results of Residue Analysis

Human settlement and Mid-Late Holocene coastal environmental change at Cape Krusenstern, Northwest Alaska

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