“The Old Village”: Yup’ik Precontact Archaeology and Community-Based Research at the Nunalleq Site, Quinhagak, Alaska

Abstract

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UAV-Based Remote Sensing for Managing Alaskan Native Heritage Landscapes in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

“…Kanektok) river on the Bering Sea (Figure 2). Since 2009, the village-in partnership with archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen-has led archaeological excavations at Nunalleq (GDN-248), a c. 17th-century ancestral winter village [11]. This communitybased project has culminated in the establishment of a heritage museum in the village to house over 100,000 artifacts recovered from the site and a renewed interest in precontact subsistence traditions across the broader ecological landscape [11,[33][34][35].…”

“…As Yup'ik villages in the Y-K Delta consolidate, they leave behind ancestral subsistence sites, fish camps, and winter villages passed down over generations. As a result, recent decades have seen a concerted effort by the Yupiit to reclaim their heritage, culture, history, and language through close collaboration with archaeological projects and materials [3,[9][10][11][12]. There is also a sentiment prevalent in many communities that Elder knowledge in the form of Qanruyutet (trans.…”

Resistance and Care in the Time of COVID‐19: Archaeology in 2020

“…6 Given the speed of climate change, effective community engagement and coproduction of knowledge is central to the preservation of linked tangible and intangible heritages (Rivera‐Collazo 2021 ; Seekamp, Rivera‐Collazo, and Catanzariti 2021 ). Effective relationships with communities have supported not only the recording of heritage, returning it to the living memory of colonized communities, but also the importance of climate engagement and activism, as shown in cases in Alaska (Hillerdal, Knecht, and Jones 2019 ; Knecht and Jones 2019 and Puerto Rico (Rivera‐Collazo 2021 ; Rivera‐Collazo et al. 2020 ).…”

Nunalleq, Stories from the Village of Our Ancestors: Co-designing a Multi-vocal Educational Resource Based on an Archaeological Excavation

“…Despite archaeology not being part of the traditional Yup'ik way of relating to the past, the immediate threat posed by climate-enhanced erosion and the perceived loss of cultural values among the younger generations, prompted a revaluation of the benefits of archaeological excavation. With support from community Elders, the first excavation season took place in 2009, and now, 10 years later, 8 excavation seasons have been undertaken at Nunalleq (Knecht and Jones 2020). These excavations have revealed a late pre-contact Yup'ik settlement dating back to c. AD 1570-1675 (Ledger et al 2018), a time period of which very little was previously known in Yup'ik history.…”

“…Two occupation phases were identifiable within the second dwelling, separated by an extensive remodelling episode. Life at Nunalleq ended in a violent attack, dating back between AD 1645 and 1675, where the house was burnt down and abandoned for good (Knecht and Jones 2020;Ledger et al 2018). This attack is remembered in local oral history (Charlie Pleasant in Tennant and Bitar 1995), a remarkable event in a time period generally referred to as the 'Bow and Arrow Wars' in Yup'ik oral history, and known to have been a time of unrest all over the Yup'ik culture area (see Fienup-Riordan and Rearden 2016).…”