Alaska dig reveals tales of Eskimo life long before contact with Europeans

By Anchorage Daily News, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.09.13

Word Count 1,059

An ulu handle with the image of a wolf-like beast on either end was uncovered at a dig site south of Quinhagak, Alaska, on

the Bering Sea. It would have held a semi-lunar blade of ground slate. Photo: Photo courtesy Department of Archaeology

of the University of Aberdeen/MCT

ANCHORAGE — Some unfamiliar items washed up on the beach near the village of

Quinhagak on the Bering Sea in Western Alaska about five years ago. The curiosities were

native to the area, with designs similar to those found in the Yup’ik Eskimo culture of the

region.

And they were wood, a material that usually decays after a few decades. Yet they were also

old. The mystery of where these items came from and why they were in such good

condition just had to be investigated.

Warren Jones is the general manager of Qanirtuuq Inc., a company which runs a grocery

store in Quinhagak and helps promote the village. Jones took some photographs and sent

them to Rick Knecht, who studies how humans have lived over the centuries as an

anthropologist.

Professor Knecht used to work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks but is now employed

by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He also helped establish museums on Eskimo

heritage in Kodiak and Unalaska.

The Question Was: How Old?

Knecht recognized the artifacts as prehistoric, which meant they were crafted in the years

long before contact between the Yup’ik Eskimos and Europeans in the 1800s. Knecht was

working on a project on Nunivak Island in Central Alaska at the time, so he dropped by

Quinhagak to examine the items. The professor toured the area and talked to Jones about

the possibility of doing a dig together.

The upshot was a partnership between Qanirtuuq and the Scottish university that is

uncovering an unprecedented trove of archaeological treasure.

“This is easily the largest collection of pre-contact Yup’ik material anywhere,” Knecht said,

describing the thousands of items that date from between 1350 and 1670.

Some of the most important pieces from previous digs are now on display at the King’s

Museum in Aberdeen. The exhibit is titled “Nunalleq,” which means “the old village” in the

Yup’ik language.

Teams of international volunteers working with local residents have found 8,000 of what

Knecht calls “better artifacts.” There are perhaps that many more fragments, all containing

information about life in the area centuries ago. And it seems like every day new and

eyepopping tools or decorative items are retrieved from the ground.

Treasures From Nunalleq

There are carvings, weapons, woven grass, clothing, dolls, even haircut trimmings from

inhabitants who lived there hundreds of years ago. “We found some amazing pieces on

Saturday,” Knecht said, adding that he has never seen anything like this before.

The first test holes were dug in 2009 and they were small, at about six feet across. But the

abundance of material that the researchers found showed that the site had been occupied

for a long while, and that the settlement probably consisted of 200 to 300 people.

Ever since then, the dig has expanded every year. In August, between 15 and 20

volunteers from all around the world joined Quinhagak residents in a “field school” to

excavate the site that now stretches for about 150 yards.

Professor Knecht is excited by what the team has found. He's really interested not only by

the amount of items discovered at the site, but by the quality and rarity of the materials.

He explained that because the ground has been frozen for the whole time, the artifacts are

in very good condition. “Because it’s been in permafrost up until now, the level of

preservation is just marvelous,” Knecht said. “Eighty percent of what we’re finding is wood

or other organics. A lot of them are preserved to the extent that they still have original paint

on them. For all practical purposes, we’re looking at new wood.”

Frozen In Time, Perfectly Preserved

This is extremely important for the research because at one time a large amount of the

things used by the Yup’ik people were made from wood. In most circumstances such items

decompose within a century or so. Here, however, the excavators have found whole

wooden masks, bowls, bows, arrows and spears.

Knecht explained that they have found not just the hard tips of the spears made out of

bone, but the softer handles and shafts of the weapons.

They also discovered "scraps of sealskin clothing with original needle holes" as well as

“animal fur, little bodies of insects” and, in one instance, a mouse. The team have dug up

grass baskets that are still a little bit green. As soon as these are brought into the air the

color fades as the oxygen hits the ancient grass.

The team has also discovered very delicate ropes made of grass and roots. These kinds of

materials are very rare to find as they usually have rotted away many years ago.

“There are very few archaeological projects in this area, which is about the size of Great

Britain,” Knecht said. The professor acknowledged that little is known about how people

used to live in this part of Alaska. "There’s been so little archaeology in Yup’ik country that

everything we find here is a revelation."

Old Village Revealing Secrets

Knecht said the dates of the objects are important, because they span a particularly cold

period of the so-called Little Ice Age, an abrupt period of lower-than-usual temperatures

and ice advances recorded from 1430 to 1455. It wiped out the Norse settlements in

Greenland and hammered crops throughout the northern hemisphere of the Old World.

The destruction was written about in court records in Europe and Asia. But how did it affect

Alaskans?

That’s something Knecht hopes the old village can reveal. “From this site, we can learn a

huge amount about how people lived before and after the ecosystems changed.”

Knecht thinks the old village was a winter gathering place on the Arolik River. It was

abandoned after the river shifted. The land is famously moving in this part of the world,

constantly rearranged by rivers and ocean currents. The shoreline is rapidly eroding at the

old village.

“Most of (the site) may have been washed away already,” Knecht said. “We may just be

looking at a portion of it. Maybe a quarter of the original site is left — and it’s going fast.”

The ocean has already taken out the original dig site, he said. “If we hadn’t done the work

we did in 2009, 2010, everything, about 8,000 pieces, would have been lost. We’re just

barely staying ahead of it. It’s kind of an emergency.”

Quiz

1 What event led to the destruction of the original archaeological dig site?

(A) cold temperature

(B) the river shift

(C) ocean's tide

(D) a mud slide

2 What is the reason why it is rare for the teams to find ropes made of grass and roots?

(A) Yup'ik people did not generally use grass ropes.

(B) The shifting of the earth washed the ropes away.

(C) These types of materials usually rot away very easily. (D) The extreme cold

temperatures destroyed the ropes.

3 What is the primary reason for the archaeological dig?

(A) to fill the King's Museum with artifacts

(B) to learn how Eskimos lived centuries ago

(C) to discover what destroyed the Norse settlements

(D) to teach volunteers how to run an excavation project

4 Select the paragraph that states the importance of discovering wooden artifacts for archaeologists.