Late quaternary regional geoarchaeology of Southeast Alaska karst: A progress report

Abstract

Karst systems, sea caves, and rock shelters within the coastal temperate rain forest of Alaska's Alexander Archipelago preserve important records of regional archaeology, sea level history, glacial and climatic history, and vertebrate paleontology. Two 14C AMS dates on human bone discovered in a remote cave (49‐PET‐408) on Prince of Wales Island document the oldest reliably dated human in Alaska to ca. 9800 B.P. A series of 14C AMS dates from cave deposits span the past 40,000 years and provide the first evidence of Pleistocene faunas from the northwest coast of North America. Other discoveries include sea caves and marine beach deposits elevated above modern sea level, extensive solution caves, and mammalian remains of species previously undocumented within the region. Records of human activity, including cave art, artifacts, and habitation sites may provide new insights into the early human colonization of the Americas. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An 11,500-Year-Old Human Cremation from Eastern Beringia (Central Alaska)

“…Few burials of this antiquity exist in North America (Figure 16.1); many were found in disturbed contexts, including the only other early northern North American find, On-YourKnees Cave (Dixon et al, 1997), which is 1000 calendar years younger than the USR child. The latter shares similarities with the few known Paleoindian burials in North America, including those from pits at Arch Lake, Buhl, Gordon Creek, Horn Shelter 2, Spirit Cave, Mostin, Whitewater Draw and Wilson-Leonard II (see summaries in Dixon, 1999;Powell, 2005;Owsley et al, 2010).…”

Quaternary Cave Faunas of Canada: A Review of the Vertebrate Remains

“…the coastal vertebrate fauna could have provided abundant resources for human survival. So a later Pacific coastal migration could have occurred in latest Pleistocene-earliest Holocene time, as suggested by the oldest reliably dated, at nearly 10,000 B.P., human remains in Alaska discovered to the north in On Your Knees Cave, Prince of Wales Island (Dixon et al, 1997). Also, excavations on Haida Gwaii, Queen Charlotte Islands, since about 1995 have significantly enhanced our understanding of human history there.…”

A late Pleistocene Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) from Courtenay, British Columbia: its death, associated biota, and paleoenvironment

“…Although people are known to have occupied On Your Knees Cave, northern Prince of Wales Island, Alaska (Fig. 1) about 10 000 years ago (Dixon et al 1997) and they hunted mastodons near Sequim, Washington, just south of Vancouver Island, some 12 000 years ago (Gustafson et al 1979;Harington 1996), the forensic study does not support this view. Further, human hunters would have recovered and butchered the animal, unless it escaped their clutches.…”