F 912 .TJ W4 1972

ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND PALAEO­ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE

TANGLE LAKES_, CENTRAL ALASKA_, 1966-1972

BY: FREDERICK HADLEIGH WEST

ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND PALAEOECOLOGICAL

,RESEARCH IN THE TANGLE LAKES, 1

CEN'rRAL ALASKA, 1966-1972

A Report of Progress

Frederick Hadleigh ~est Professor of Anthropology

Laboratory of Anthropology Alaska Methodist University

~nchorage, Alaska December 1972

ARLIS Alaska Resources Library & lDformation Semces

Library Building, Suite 111 3211 Providence Drive

llnchorage,AJ{ 99508·4614

/

' ' • J ., •

The ·research ·\!ork which I have undertaken in the Tangle Lakes district of central Alaska now covers a span

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of six years and has had, in my opinion, a high degree of success. It shall be my purpose here to provide a brief summary of the several aspects of this research for the ben­efit of those who have been generous enough to interest themselves, in one way or another, in this work.

The first archaeological discoveries in the Tangle Lakes were made in 1956 by the then Dean of Faculty of the University of iUaska, Dr. William· Hosley. Dr. Hosley relayed news of his find to the late Dr. Ivar Skarland, at that time, and until his death in 1965, Head of the Department of Anthro­pology of the University of Alaska. Dr. Skarland, accom­panied by a friend, Professor·charles J. Keirn, spent part of the follov1ing summer, 1957, follo-v;ing up Hosley's inform­ation and also that of a highway engineer, Mr. C. M. Ratekin, who had :mace sir;:ilar fir:c:.s in t:l\a vici.;·d.ty of the Susi tna River crossing. In the Spring of 1958 Skarland and Kei:m published a brief account of their work in the Anthrovolos­ical Papers of the University o.L Alaska (Volume 6, J:~ur,·,l:e:r 2). By th~s t~rne-r had JO~ned the Univers~ty of Alaska faculty as Instructor in Anthropology and Geography and \•.ras serving as Editor of that journal. Since my primary interest in Alaskan archaeology v1as, and still is, early man in the New World .(a degree of consistency for which I somehow feel apologetic), I was much interested in certain portions of the Skarland-Keim collection which seemed to relate typolog­ically to some of the better-known early man tool cateqories of the Great Plains and Southwest. The photographic plates which illustrated the _Skarland-Keim paper were made by me. Most of the Tangle Lakes material collected at that time came from Hosley's original find place immediately adjacent to the road at about mile 21.4. Skarland and Keirn named this site "Hosley Ridge."

As early as 1958 with.Professor Skarland's encourage­ment-,I interested myself casually in this area taking students there on occasion in early Fall or late April, and otherwise making additional small collections at Hosley Ridge. At this time, it should be realized, there were virtually no archae­ological sites of any consequence knmvn in Interior Alaska that could.be more or less conveniently reached by auto. Over the same period, 1958-1964, Professor Skarland also would occasionally drive into the Tangle Lakes and make further collections. In total, howeve~, these several forays

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produced relatively small quantities of material and, save for Skarland and Keirn's expedition of 1957, no effort cf

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any i11tensi ·ve sOrt \·;·3.s as sa~re(3. he:.:-e. I"ly o,-\:n surru.1ers. ir1 thiS· period were consu:ned doing salvase work of one kind and. another, pursuing an ecological study of the Chandalar Kutchin Indians (the subject of rny PhD dissertation) doing an arch­aeological·su~vey (01 low productivity) on the Seward Penin­sula, etc. ~hus, despite the reason that had really been decisive in my going to Alaska in the first place, it was not until 1964 that I was able to turn my attention on a more or less exclusive basis to the problem of early man in P~laska. In that summer, with the aid of a research grant from the National Science Foundation, I carried out archaeo­logical survey and excavations in the vicinity of Donnelly Dome in central Alaska. The most important aspect of that \rlOrk was the excavation of the site cataloqued as Mt. Hayes 5, later called the "Donnelly Ri5ge ~ita.~ The material from this site was quite similar to that described in the 1930's from the Carnpus site near Fairbanks. It was also like that which had been recovered by me in 1961 from two sites in-1,£. McKinley National Park, A detailed comparison of Don­nelly Ridge, the Teklanika River sites in McKinley Park, and the Campus site (}:::nc.cn sir:c~ the 1930's) led to r:.y for-r:.1ulation of the 2::.::-:.a.li c:: ___ ,;·~;:)l~~:{, a11 acco1..111t of \\~l1ic;: \\'c._s pub-lished in 1967 (I'The DOr:nelly P.idqe Site and the Definition of an Early Core and Bla~e Complex in Central Alaska," 1\merican J.,ntiquity, Volume 32, Number 31).

In that same surrc.:er of 1964, since Donnelly v-1as reasonably close to the Tangle Lakes, we made a brief survey trip there to see \vhether our newly-sharpened vision might reveal soEething more there which had been previously mi-ssed. ~7e had located some 23 sites in the Donnelly area, at that time a record of sorts. A couple of test excavations near Hosley Ridge showed that not only was there more material, but that some of this was in place and in a mature soil. The occurrence of material in situ had, to that time, been quite rare. It was decided~hat as soon as possible a full­scale survey should be initiated in the Tangle Lakes. Two separate trips with student·s made in the fall of 1964 produced additional eviden6e on just how extensive the archaeology might be here.

The press of-other work in the following summer and the occasion of my resignation from "the University of Alaska dictated that most of that summer be spent writing reports, etc., and only a small portion of time was available for field \vork. However, with an assistant, Mr. Douglas Reger, several da~~ were spent in the Tanqle Lakes with the result that all re~idual doubt about its ~rchaeological potential vlas removed. Clearly, the surface had not even been scratched.

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Following a year as Visiting Lecturer at the Univer­sity of ~'iisconsin, I returned once more to Alaska, this time on the faculty of Alaska Methodist University as their first fUll-time anthropologist. This association, fortunately, continues to the pre~ent. One of the ~ajor prods to my rnak-. h' ;.. _,.,. • 1 ' ' ' • J...h ..:l • .._ J... t t'h rn 1 lng t .. lS ar:Il la-c.J_on v.'aS L. e l.>.eSJ_re L.O re~.-urn 0 ue ,; . .'ang_e Lakes. Accordingly, vThile still at the University of \·7iscon­sin (but already cornmi tted to going to A. H. U.) I applied to the National Science Foundation for a grant to be administer­ed through A.M.U., the purpose of which was to_ support arch­aeological survey and excavations in the Tangle Lakes. Most gr~tifyingly, the grant was awarded and 1966 saw the first full scale (albeit with only two people) archaeological sur­vey begun in the Tangle Lakes. Actually, only about a month was spent in the field because of.the necessity to move self and family from Wisconsin to Alaska. Nevertheless, the re­sults were more than encouraging. Hy assistant, (again, Douglas Reder) and I, literally found new sites every day. One of the :rnost strikingly important of these 'l.vas the dis­covery of the first Denali Complex site to be found in the Tangle Lakes. Previous to this time, with the exception of some slightly sugges~i.ve nate~ials ~ou~d in the fall o~ 1964, nothing certainly indicative of the presence of core and blade cultures had ccn:::: to 13-sht. ':i:'hus, \\·hen the Denali Complex was first proposed, it was based upon four sites alone. With the close of 1966, we had three new Denali sites, of which two v.rere rrDre productive than any one of the origin­al four.

The terms of the grant of 1966 allowed for the employ­ment o'f a laboratory ass2.stc..nt t:-.Lrough the acaO.emic year. This position was ably filled by Mr. Reger and allowed all the time-consuming work of processing field collections to be done in timely fashion.

So encouraging were the results to 1967 that a further grant was sought from NSF. This was awarded and the summer of 1967 saw a much more ambitious expedition take the field. Douglas Reger served as Field Assistant, the late J. Bond Whitmore, Jr., the one anthropology concentrator at that time, served as Assistant Assistant, and !·1r. Peter E\\7an, an Ahtena Indian from Copper Center was with us briefly to guide us into areas where he had trapped as a youngster. Many more sites were found and more material recovered. It was quite clear that this was an area of really exceptional productivity.

<"' By the end of 1967 we had catalogued. in the field more than · one hundred sites. These were spread over a fairly consid­erable area \•.rhich we traversed by combination of canoeing and shank's,mare. Even though it was obviously not possible

to have put in test excavatJ.ons clt all these sites, never­theless our surnrner' s collections vJere extensive. Had it not . been for the presence once more of a full-time laboratory assistant during the academic year (1967-8), the project would assuredly have. foundered. This task ~vas admirably carried out by Mrs.· Linda C. Elanna with the part-time aid of anthropology students.

Because of large numbers of sites present in the Tangle Lakes it nmv was possible to entertain the possibility of s~tting up a field school in archaeology to train students in field methodology under conditions totally unlike those normal to such sessions. Two prime requisites had been met: (1) there was available a large concentration of sites, hitherto unknown in Interior· Alaska, and, (2) we had the support of the A.M.U. administration. Moreover, the Tangle Lakes district, situated some 300 mile·s from Anchorage, was readily accessible by road. Thus, in the summer of 1968 the ~irst A.M.U. field schdol was held. This was also, as far as I kno\v, the first field school of its sort held any­where in the sub-arctic.

This.su~ner course continues to the present time an<l in every instanc·2, ha.s for interes::.ec1 students provided an unp~~alleled experience. ~ot to belabor the point: discussions of glacial chronology, glacially-created land­forms, etc., are made i:1.1.1T:easurably n:ore co:·~prehensible by having close by two active glaciers. Better yet, the history O'f o~,lP. f'· ... 'h.c:>c.-:> ·- ~·•t"'· .,-"'1 1 '7 ~ ,~.;- ,-::-"·h.<>}- • .,., n h-isto y _ Q.,_ L-n~"'~ l~ .LL cog~~ .i...z o. pc.o;.-'- ·- O.t t,l.~ .llJ.,,a_ .. ~ r

of the Tangle Lakes.

It was apparent that not only were the Tangle Lakes uniquely popular in the prehistoric past, but also that the area had enjoyed this popularity over an enormously long span of time. Our core and blade sites (Denali Complex and others) were considered to be in the time ranae of 8-10,000 years ago and now we (1967-8) were beginning to accumulate some materials that looked to be earlier still. Clearly, the early use of this country by prehistoric hunters h~d taken place in }ate Pleistoc~ne times., .Clearly, too, the glacial history of the region had been highly complex, with ice advances from at least t~o immediate sources and direc­tions, a pro-glacial lake being present and subsequ'E:mtly draining, .and so on. (It must be admitted that much of what we surmise to have been the glacial history here was learned in 1969~ 1970 and 1971.) It was apparent that there would be no understanding of the culture history here without, at the same time, unravelling the environmental history~ To reiterate, for all of ~s who have been students

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in the Tangle Lakes, one of the great virtues of the region is the ready access to presently~active glaciers. Virtual­ly all of the 160-odd sites now recorded are located on glacial tell .of one kir:.d c.nd another. It is, mcreo~Ter, eviden~ that when the Tangle Lakes wc~e first occupied some of these glacial and peri-glacial fea·cures were in the process_of formation ar.d thus constituted parts of the environment of these early hunters. Students nmv, in the course of one day, are able to travel from the Tangle Lakes sites, situated on Pleistocene glacial features, to Gulkana glacier and see thus the kinds of forces that 'l.vere at \'lork shaping the Tangle Lakes. There is gained, too, invaluable insight into the methodology of environmental reconstruction.

In 1968 the field schobl was tri-partite, being equal­ly divided between geology, biology, and archaeology. These were the three science field courses then off~red at A.M.U. Those of us charged with their instruction simply agreed to pool our efforts. The ~essiop lnsted eight weeks and stu­dents were enrolled for credit in each of the three courses. t~Jh.ile it v.;as felt. tllaut thi.s sc.: s2-ior1 \,J~::~s q1..:1.i t.e succe~:sfu.l c~11 tl:e \·711ole, fo:c se\~'eral rec~.scr:s it \\7z~s 11c}t rsr:<::a ted ,.,/i th ti·lat forr.1at. 'I.his 'i!as the regular gE:olog·:z fiela course, .:md while it was found that the Pleistocene was abundant herR, the hard rock geology in reQsonable diversity was wanting. Similarly, the botanist v.rho hanc"!.led the bioiogy section wanted t:o be 202:e mcbile c-:end to p.rovic:e his peop1 e i-Ji th a view of the whole r2~ge of su~-arctic biotR inclu6ing partic­ularly the marine littoral. For our part, there was felt a need. for more e::;r_Jhasis c:c "c.Lc }?leistocr:.::ne and envircr::r,e:ntal analysis.

In 196 9 there "~dere two instructors offering t\vo courses: field archaeology, and Pleistocene geology. The latter was handled by John V. Hatthews then of the University of Alberta. This was one of our best sessions in that we had an especially good group o£ students who carried through most ably with their individual projects, and also because in that season there were formed some additional insights that are proving to be invaluable in our developing understanding of the Tangle Lakes.

The year 1970 found us offering only field archaeology in which I was ably assisted once more by Douglas Reger, who is now in graduate \\Tork at \ti!ashington State University. The student group \.vas small, but good, and vlell-motivated. The principal accomplish:nents were completing excavation of two sites. But, as always, there were new discoveries. One of

the most important of these \-,'as the discovery of a small stratified site on a portage in ~hich the upper levels are Ahtena (Copper P.iver £,thabascan) Indian.

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In 1971 we ware again able to offer the combination of archaeology and Pleistocene geology. Our archaeology of­fering was considerably broadened by reason of there being two instructors for that area, but also by virtue of the peculiar skills possessed by one. My reference here is to Jeffry E. Ha.uger, a former student of mine, now a PhD can­didate at l:Jashington State University. He is an excellent flintknapper and student of lithic technology. His in­struction in these fields provided invaluable insight into

. the -v;ays in vThich technological parameters may coincide with or cross-cut those of tradition or typology.

Pleistocene studies were under the extremely able tu­telage of Charles E. Schweger of the University of Alberta. Since our normal starting time of June 7 found the Tangle Lakes area under a great, and·unseascnable, burden of ice and sno~·l, \·:e r2:pa.5.J~·ec1 ·to !~'It. I·1c·I~irl1.·.:::_r t--~:::t:ic,na.l Pa:--:k. anC:~ tl:c~~ ... j:;; p::.: of i -L"': :..~:_:.-.~-1 ::... ~·: ~~- -=-~:~:. -:..: t }}_~J f i:c s ·t t~\· 7 C) , . .,-;:: :::: ~,: .:: \:·70 rlc iY":·~J ::~ t .:.:..:!.-~:-:;

Teklanika River sites. Since these are D=.nali Co::rplex ~;i t:es and since the major cme, 'I'ekl.:mika Fest (Fec"ly 1), offered Sonu2 1-lO.t:Je of L'fSCO\~"CLir;y Uat.aLle hlc.·te:Ciz. .. l t ... rits v;as all gri~t for the mill. Ne had, in fact, planned to ·put in some time there.

During the 1971 season 1<10re was learnEd of the cc:n­ple;~i ties of ice r:i0\7er~en t, a.n6. of tl"l~ c:irection of d.~:aina.c~e of the old pro-glacial lake--all of which bear directly upon arriving at any sort of, tentative even, chronology of the early sites. To wit, one source of difficulty previously had been the clustered occurrence of th~ earliest appearing site collections in an area that, according to cursory, earlier geological theory should have been under ice right up until the end of glacial activity in these valleys. ·A good bit of last season's effort was bent t8wards pinning do\vn evidence that this particular stretch cf the uppermost Delta River valley (-.:.·:hich heads in the Tangle Lakes) -.:.vas, in fact, not only probably ice-free in the second Wisconsin advance, but possible also in the earlier as well.

Excavation was completed on the important notched point site, Mt. Hayes 35, and on the stratified Portage site referred to above, MH 177. Charcoal was recovered from three levels of this site which should give most val­uable information on earlier Athabascan occupations. In addition, further v.rork v-.'as accomplish.:::.~:. on the geological

• ',. exposure on Rock Creek thc.t v."e have referred to as the 1tBeaver Dan. n That site was a;;.pa:::-ently an active b'2aver lodae in a cove on the old, hioh lake level sentioned eariier. Faced with a cornplet~ lack of organic remains

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in the Den(ili Comple;; sites here, we h.3.ve been at so:rne pains othendse to try to· derive a Jcir:~e bracket for that early complex. In the paper mentioned above, which first pro­posed the Denali Complex, I suggested that it should date in the vicinity of 10,000 years ago. That estimation was derived before any Denali sites ~·:ere known in the Tangle Lakes. It is a matter of some interest then, that by quite different lines of reason ina, the time bracket that ~ve seem to perceive for these sitesJin the Tangle Lakes is in the 8-10,000 years ago range. Huch of that evidence derives from the Rock Creek Beaver Dam site. The twelve Denali sites in the Tangle Lakes are all situated imnediately above the well-marKed fossil foreshore of this older lake. Moreover, every one occurs in the )i._-B contact of a \vell-preserved buried soil. The overlying soil is lee ssial; that belmv is the primary soil developed.on the glacial tell. There are today no sources of lcess in the vi.cinity. Thus, our reconstruction of these evc~ts envisic~3 the existsnce of a very la.r·ge, poss3_bl~l prc·gl&cia1, l.c~}:::·; c:r1 -L.l:c.~ st~cJ.:·c:s of' \rlhich were tl~e. encar:tf'.rL·~cnts of t;.:.cJs·s lc;~t.e Pa1~~eoli-~h.ic 1.-:.t!nt.­ers i.•7e refer to as Denali Comple:-{. Sc:>:; event tr:Lc(--;·e:red the sudden drainage of that lake. This ma.y have been siraply a matter of a rr.orc,inal dam finnlly being b:reached, or :H: :r.1.ay relate to some more widesprec::.c.l wc..rr;·ing· trend v:hich brought m:elti11g. In a:1:/ eve11t:, it \\-Ot1lc1 c.~~pectr t~l12t~ i.:he l·a~cs c~--~·2ir~c.:(I rapidly, v7ith litt.le eviC.ence of intermediate stands, to e_ point approximating the preser:t lake le\els {averc.s:e 2300 ·). In the course of this 100' drop, a newly-created shoreline "\\1as exposed which must have been, for some period, devoid of vegetation. There seems little reason to doubt that this was the source of the loess that blanketed the area above 3,000' and buried the soil containing the Denali oc­cupation. Except for one additional factor, there woul~ appear to be no goo~ reason for an appeal to catastrophism to account for these environmental changes. These proces-ses may be observed at \•JOrk elsewhere in Alaska today. How­ever, apparently coincident 'ltvith this, the Denali people drop totally out of the picture. These sites are not found below the old lake level and there is not the slightest suggestion of any cultural continuity into later complexes,. as, for example, the notched point sites. It is thus tempt­ing to suggest that the lake's drainage and the Denali people's departure were both the result of some rather drastic oscil- · lation in the climate--vegetation--fauna continuum. (It is recognized that the record may be read to indicate cultural

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change rather than moveme~t of peoples. ~he latter, however, seems to accord better with the picture of total cha~ge.) There are t\-.'O radiocarbon dates from the Bea-.. .,.er Dzrr:-t. At ti1e present time we can only say that these dates pertain to the time of the lake's ex·istence. 'icJhether they will turn out to refer to a time when the level was rising to that 3000' stand (as Matthews believes) or to the time of draining (as the geologist Donald R. Nichols believes) cannot now be known. Nichols' date is 9,720± 320 radiocarbon years; ours is 8,810 ~ 200. Considering the margin of error involved in each assay, these dates are very close to unity and may be rounded off as 9,000 BP. It is my conviction that these non-archae­ological dates, by relating to the high lake stand, also pro­vide an indication of the time those Denali sites were oc­cupied. I must insert here that in the opinion of the two involved investigators, Douglas F~derson at Onion Portage on the Kobuk River, and I, in the 'I'angle Lakes, the Denali Complex is essentially the sar.:e thing as the culture (s) that c-:;cur at the bottom of that deeply· stratified si te--I<:obuk culture (Band 8) and 1\lcrr.c.k (still ect!.""l ie:c) • P.adioc2.rbon dates for th3 very spars~~y rcpress~teJ Kobuk culture are in tl~1e rc.D.se f;--S, GOG :-.:-:) i · ~···:.~·~.::r-.e;.}~ :_;:; --.·:._ .. !_.;.·_:_.~~~ ;~~ .. n.C.~=,r~c~rl t.:J be older by possibly as r:t<Ch as 4,000 ye:o~.J.:'S. ('T>e inte:::--ested reaC.er r·~a:/ l>e rc:feJ~r·2C~ to ..:-=-~r~c1e::::-s·:-·:-:. t s cc:::T:'~E:.:±s i11 r~is recent monograph, "i>Jcnia~c,:: 1-l..cta h:t:ct.ica, rase. XVI, 1970.)

One further discove:::-y of l.::;.~;t se?,son. is worthy of Inention. At the er~tra_:!cs to i.:l-1e n.ar:-_ .. o\-; 1;Jc~.l1.ey,. callec~ .. Lat~C­mark Gap just west of. the Lm·~er Te:..ngle Lar:e--Delta B..:i_ver \~alley, tt~e~e , .. ~as folJ.nCi a la.rg·e c}:.:-~:r.t c~~t~l:c~·~:/ t\:-i.th s~):~~~::·ound­

irig v10rkshop sites. ~·Jith the e~,;:ception of ;,~"hat is probably an exhausted quarry of the same chert (or vlelded tuff) just off the Lower Tangle-Delta River valley, this is.the only chert quarry knmvn in Alaska. It is extensive enough Jchat its presence may have constituted one of the major attrac~ tions of the region. This site promises to be of signal importance in all future analyses of Tangle Lakes components. Since it is untouched, it as well represents a priceless document on primitive technology.

That the earliest migrants into the Hestern hemis­phere entered by way of Bering Strait and Alaska is such a familiar tenet that it scarcely bears discussion. The con­fidence with which one may make that assertion wanes rapidly when the question comes of adducing direct evidence from the general region of that gateway. ·

Thus far in the discussion of sites found, only vague reference has been made to "earlier {than Denali Complex) looking materials." That is because ta this point in time

this is how I have thought of these ~everal assereblages. An eminent stuC.ent of f.=arly l'.r""r,erican prehistory, Eansjurgen ~1 , 1 -, 1 • ~ • l · · · · s · · · i 1 o 1 i the ~u~ er-nec~, nas pro~osea ~1a~ ~n 1~ lnl~-a pe .p __ ng, . Ne·h' ~vorld sa'i'l t1.·:o St\cces~ive early v:aves of culture enter. The earliest of these was of a Middle Palaeolithic charac-ter '\vhich he termed "I'1ousteroid." The latter he called "Aurignacoid" because of its general Upper Palaeolithic aspect. In the latter instance the reference is to core

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and blade industries which dominated human technologies everyvJhere in late fourth glacial times. Along \·Jith others, I find this a most \•JOrthHhile conception and one very cogent­ly presented by Professor 1-1uller-Beck ("Palaeohunters in America: Origins and Diffus-ion," Science, Vol. 152,· No. 3726, 1967)~ This frame of reference is peculiarly fitting for the discussion of these earlier sites ·in the Tangle Lakes because \>!e appear to have sites v;hich fit both categories more closely perhaps than Huller-Beck originally Hould have considered possible. Eis discussion of early A~erican ma­terial centers on the nore fc:_,·,:iliar "early man" sites of the continental United States. P~ur i~(ClC~.coic.1 a.t ·tr iL;t.:~ te s t -'~-~r1d _,co ~;~~ r::-~-:=·:~.~c c,r ~- <:~ s s c.:. c.-cc~:.t1 ::~·::.2c1 .. -­as they should be conside~ing the dist~ncs from their source. I11 this cont:.e;{:c tl~;.2r1, ~eli:::~ 1:·-:;:r~a.I.i Cc::,·~>l·c.:x. i.s ser::n -to J~(~~?reserl-t

the second, or lc.urignacoid, wave. As seoc forth in the original Denali paper, the clearest affinities o~ that culture are in tl-le Old. F,:)rld. '.L'Iles,-:; are Lest seen in a series of late Pleistocs~e age si.tes in the region cf Lake Baikal. Briefly, the Denali Cosplex is specifically Aurig­nacoid. It m~y be interp~etc~ the~cfore as a represc~tative, in more or less pure form,.of one of the basal cultures from \'lhich grew aboriginal P...merica.

The 11 earlier sites 11 are, admittedly, tenuously so-call­ed, since, thus far, age determinations have been largely based upon comparative typology. · However, I will say here that making this last statement represents one of those peculiarly pious acts that is held to befit an archaeologist richly embarrassed with un-radiocarbon-datable collections. Of rourse one must be cautious \\'hen applying this particular yardstick, but to deny or confound the siqnificance of formal resemblance in artifacts (given all .the usual strictures about complexity of form, etc.) is to place oneself into scientific bankiuptcy. Tradition either expresses itself in cultural regularities or culture is unsystematic and thus incapable of treatment by science. I shall continue to regard cultures as systems and the repetitions of forms that we call artifact types as tangible evidences of systems no longer capable of direct observation.

In short, the-several collections included in this conveniently vague category, ~espite their shortconinss of context, etc., in my mind are of i!Tunense importance in the

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i:::terpretatio11 of ea1~liest .P:.rr~erican prel1ist.o~}7 • T1!e col-lection ftom ~t. Ha~es 45, is-small and occurred on a site vli th no soil development whatever. The tool categories include fairly crude, foliated bifaces, one chopper-like flake core, two small cores for the production of bladelets, blades, an end scraper, burins, and one smallish hand axe­like biface. The total morphological pattern is, to bor­row a phrase, Mousteroid.

At the veryend of 1967 there was discovered a site, also of early aspect, which.contained several large ·bifaces resembling the familiar hand-axes of late Acheulean cc"ntexts in Europe. Had this been the on:y such site found, one might have been terq.pted to ignore it or o-t:he:nlise ex:plain it away. However, in the interim more such sites have been found and I have reached the conclusion that these are, i~ fact, what they appear to be and that they thus Must con-s t~~ i t~1J. -te E-c<rr:e c1f t.h. ~-== E: 2 J::·}. 5. est c:. __ -..~·c }.:_.::;_ ec) ~i_o c=y· :.:1 t:.l-.l. ~ ?:-: ·~=·\l ~~!c·:~ .. J. c1 .• 1I ~-i 8 6.<::>ta. i.: S c~ r til.i. ~~ }~~;:~ i_"~ ~~-; -~)J.'l i r.: g C..=~~-~! t.CJ 0 ~- e :~.~--- -~ __ ]: ~/" t:O :. -~ (..,~-~ -:_~(·~· r ~:; (} in to he.:r~e. Suffice it to say thut I c2~ site:_:; ir1~Iicat.i\·c~ c:: I:~o-c:stc:co:..c1 i~;.£:'1:-;.c;-~cc :.; , &I1c1 n~c~~e L"'-_;2C:.l ....

fically of a sort which, had they been found in some rrDre likely quarter of the world might have been clasEified as "Moustsri~n of Acheule&n tradition.n The sites are so si­tuated that they now ap9ear to fit very nicely i~to our developing scheme of late Pleistocene-Holocene environmental succe~sion. A preliminary pap2r on these sjtes and t~eir implications was recently presented at the International Conference on the Prehistory and Palaeoecology of the Western Arctic and Sub-Arctic held at Calgary, Alberta in November, 1972 ("The Significance bf Typologically Early Site Collec­tions from the Tangle Lakes, Central Alaska~).

As asserted earlier, cultural and environmental suc­cessions are intimately associated here. In both realms the events have.been extraordinarily complex and ramifying. Had the character of our investigations not changed, with the advent of the field school, explici~ to include gee­scientific interpretation, it is inconceivable that we would be where we are today. To clarify.this boast, I think we {I include in the "we," my wife, and several other inves-tigators who have been, and will be, associated in the work here) are standing on the threshold of making sense of what went on in the past in the Tangle lakes, and I am more than ever persuaded that the contribution to Pllier­ican prehistory will be considerable. Moreover, we are

. 11

no;,., in a position to concentrate appro;:::-riate amount.s of time and energy to the analysis of these ~aterials. Perhaps vlhat follot..·7S is rationalization; perhaps it springs from th . . h . . . " . 1 • e recognl tlon t. at. tnls accou:.yt ls p:r-eparea ln arge pa:r-t for the Na·tional Science Foundation ~·.cho generously unc"le.nvrote a good deal of the Tangle Lakes research. I will, at any rate, assert my firm conviction that their decision to sup­port this research was well-advised. I well realize that, as compared ~vith many other projects that have been sup­ported by NSF, there may appear to have been a relatively lmv return in the desired, scientific reporting. I v:ill maintain, hm,7ever, that it is only nmv that the facts of this extremely complicated situation of aboriginal settle­ment are beginning to fall into place.

It thus seems appropriate in the evolution of research in the Tangle Lakes that now an intensive effort be made towards placing these da·ta on recc~d. l~ccordingly, I have ~~ught and been awarded relea~e from certain instructional duties at A.M.U. In addition, f~nds h2ve been g:r-anted by the L5 S. Bo Ile.::.!·~:ey Fo1.2n.C"L6_t,:;_cn "\.7:~:.c~:i L-.. r·.C:! ~:~C; t-:a U~32d E:~::c;ltL-si vf:.l:l in t-.;_~· ~~ a: ... 1 L~l s·-~ .:-:; s c ·c t~·: ::· ::--: s -·:;; .:~_:.:: i (~ (:_ :·t-~~--,.-~ :~: J~ i~~::.l s c ~cl-! i i:> ~-lc~s

allov-;ed the eDplc,~~::1eni: ·cf t~-_ .. ,J re~-~>:-.:~~!~:ch c~sf.~~--~~-t? .. ~tts o:f t:,~!.i()ffi on.e j_ s eng a~~;~>:! i11 r:.?~r .. ;; [" c1:· ::. 1_: ·t p ::- :-:; ~~: E~J::- ,:.:_--: i:::-1 .::2l ~~ t:I1e ot:l-~s.'!.:' , :Lll the description oi specirr,ens. he are no1:1 1;1ell into the first of several detailed studies in Ta.ngle L2.kes prehistory

Academic 1971-72 ~-,ras sper:t or: n:=s?arch leave in Europe. The aim was to handle as much Middle and Upper Palaeolithic material as possible with the objective of bcitter understanding our early collections from Alaska. Although my wife and I traveled a good bit to other museums, institutions, and meetings (e.g., the Pan African Congress in Ethiopia) most of our time \\'as spent at the University of Tubingen and the University of Bordeaux. It would be difficult indeed to overstress the value of these studies. As we had with us several key Tangle Lakes collections, we were thus able to compare materials directly. This also allowed for European specialists to render their opinions on the same basis. tve found, by the way, a tremendous amount of interest in these Aiaskan collections-and benefited enormously from the,discussions they.provoked • ...._ __

It is now possible to view these investigations from the peculiar vantage of being able to perceive the form of their conclusion. In that light then, all of the steps, as blundering as they might have seemed at the time, and all of the support, as and when given, seems, retrospectively, to have been needed and logical. Essentially, we began in 1966 armed only h'i th the belief that the region would contain

l i ~

a lot of sites--about 3.5 u:1biased an approach I submit as might be imagined. Six years later, that naive faith has been .;;.;;.rply r."':·,;ZLrc3c-'5 c~:-:d it is clear, to me at least, that the Tangle La~es district contains some of the truly, uni­auely ;mnor~aDt r~ca~c~~ 0~1.. ~rrnriran ~rohistorv

;.L ..J.. ..... i:' . - "- ... c . ~ ... ..._.. - ....-.~-- ~-- ... .f:J-- .... ..1. •

12

Our findings to d2.te indicate that we may have here one of the longest records of human occupation in the New World. I, personally, r1ave not seen any evidence from else­'Vlhere purporting to relate to earliest r.,an, that seems nearly as persuasive as that contained under the rubric "early sites" mentioned above. Exactly \\7hat this will turn out to mean in terrns of time, I cannot presently guess. That the character of the tradition borne was Middle Palaeolithic or J.1ousteroid seems clea.r. ·The dating, however, may turn out to be not significantly earlier than that which P. .. iner­icanists have used for years in estimating the earliest migrations into Jche Ne'.v Forld. ConsideJ:.~:L:-rg· the distance from the center of graviJcy of human activities perhaps that is to be expected. Following that earliest occupation of tl1e 'I·-:,:. !19 1 e LcJ-~ t-?. s tlLe :t""C~ c:l~;r-J::-?.=:i 1~ c1..1 J.. ~.:t1 ;::::· s o::: ~~-l'l t~ppo r Pa.J~ a.e-olitbi.c cl::::::cJ.'t:~:;::c . : ___ :;: t.:.J:: ence is seen in the d:~nsn or so L.::Lali cc,,:,1cox sites, :there a:::-e t\'to otl-ler site.s (I<t(i I-Ia.ye.s 72 z.-:n.(l !,.~--l-I 12.2) ir1 ,_._;-~'13_cll the relat.i..c::~!sf'~ir)· to Ds!";ali :.. s ~~t..: 1-=.::e_:; -::. "t:?·:-c J. E>J.r £~.r;.d, cf '\~:l::Lc::h 1

the general Upper Palaeolithic n .. crphology is, if anything, more e·~lident. Onr~ of t}·~-:~se sit.e::;, r·-]::: 72 1 is {!.isti:lct:l:l diffcre~t and happens alsc to tave besn the ~ost productive single .site in tl~~:'! dist.r:ic-':. J:,~/ a fEt.ct.~):·: c<E c~-~~oL:t fi~;.:(~ .. 'V'-7€: are presently sub~itting fer assay 2nother charcoal sa~ple from this site. One pr:eviously assayE-d apparently dat.es a root burn on the A horizon of the buried soil at the base of \<lhich soil is the culture-bearing zone. The previous run, coming to slightly over 5,000BP, may at least provide a stop-date for the site. Exactly what will be the temporal relation of MH 72~ the Denali series remains to be determined. Also it is hoped that something more defini·te may be said of the duration of the Denali Complex here. By 4,500 BP the purely l':u'11erican notched point tradition dominated the cultural scene.· Two productive notched point sites (MH 35 and ~lli~6) have yielded dates in this range. Some unknown time prior to their advent the Denali people disappeared leaving, apparently, no vestige of -their core and blade technology with there later peoples.

Presently, what happens between the advent of the notched pointers and the appearance of the protohistoric Ahtena (presumably) is not too clear. Ne have one small house with a radiocarbon date of 730 AD. It also contained

l~i'i~i~~1;;~l;i ------ ~--- -------- .. --------- ------ -- ----------

i.

r '

~.~ ·.'Y

13

on,:; notched }?Oint. T_Gus here, as elsewhere, there is sorr.e s~ggestion of considerable longevity for notched points and it is evident that once this problem is well broached, we shall probably terminate discussions of "notched poin~s" and instead refer t.o• particuls.r £or:ras of that class \·71-~ich will be recognized as index fossils.

We presently have three sites belonging to the pro­tohistoric period. But for one circw'T'.stance we would be faced with a vexing hiatus between the 8th century AD occupa­tion and this horizon. Fortunately, the small, stratified Portaae site {!tt! 177) will lead us back in time some dis­tance~from the protohistoric period. As yet, this situation is unstudied but radiocarbon samples are about to be. sub­mitted for analysis. The site is restricted in size but even so produced enough e0idence to suggest that a considerable degree of culture change took place late in time here. (This is based upon the ass1.1.Tcption that the strata immediaJcely belm\' what \·;as surely an l>...t~tena hurrting car:tp, turn out to be reasonably close to it in time.)

It is yet a little e2~ly i~ tt2 c~~~ to state this unsquivocally, but it do~s not now apvcar that t~ere ~ill L!:; c..n.~· major brea}·:s in 1.:l1e SE;:~:··:_:~.:::rlcc; tJf lrun:~"=;.n. occupa~t.ic11 o~

the region's greatest popularity was in the early periods. 1~:e d.o not J~nc'"\·; \Vl:er1 tl:e lJ~ecursors of tl1e P~l1·t:er1a, for e~~­

et.\~)le, ca1rLe to de"l:"JCnCl so 1122'\lil~/ ur,on scl1r~~~rt fishing, J::ut it is clear that on the ethnoargphic time lsvel, the ~angle Lakes were considered almost ~o ~pproximate Ulti~a Th~le for those people--and tLere seem to have .teen11'o-O"ti1sr--users. Whether the Tangle Lakes turns out to be able to claim the New l'7orld' s longest unbroken sequence of human occupation or not remains to be determined. In the meantime, it seems clear that it contains so1:-,e of the very earliest evidence of man in the New ~'Vorld.

Primarily for reasons of my leave status, the A.H.U. field school was not held in 1972. In fact, my wife and I \vere able to make only a couple of flying trips to the area in late surr~er. One of these trips ~as set up to introduce a group of National Park Service archaeologists to the region as part of their mission to assess areas of archaeological prominence which may come to occupy specialized status under the federal goven;,ment. Otherwise, perhaps the Major accom­plisf1...,'Ttent of the past sununer has been that of getting re­established after the prolonged absence, and thereby setting up the present program of analysis.

~.

' -.. .

14

Plans a:r--2 l;>"ell advanced for next surru:·ter' s field course. In addition to the writer, the irtstructors will be Charles E. Sch, .. reger aDcl P_r:)}:}~~:ct Pc~r:r1icl1sen, bot.:: of tlte Uni·\~·srsity

of Alberta. Professor Son~ichsen is an exceedingly atle flintk·nupfl--8r ar1d stu'C1e:l.t of lit.hic tecl~.~oloc:r:y·. Prc,·.fessor Sch-v;reger, K'ho ser,.red in the sam.e capaci t::c· in 1971, and is a specialist in palynology, is also eminently able in vir­tually all areas of paleoecology. Our thrust will be thus tt·lOfold: on lithic technology, utilizing Bonnichsen' s unique talents and instructional abilities in conjunction with the presence of \vhat is undoubtedly one of North .l<..meri­ca's few remaining pristine flint quarries; and under Pro­fessor Scht•leger our focus will be upon environmental recon­struction via pollen analysis, geomorphology, stratigraphy, glaciology, etc. As al\.,7ays, the present provides the key to the past, and the rather unusual kinds of tundra which today characterize the region will be studied. My own role, as presently envisioned, will be pri:r:>arily that of enthusiastic supernumerary. There are a few critical areas which have not been surveyed and this will be one of my tasks. It will be facilitated ~y reason of ouy s~ti~g in cur cam? close by tJ·::e ch.f.:.:c-t: ~u.2::c-:2:·:·~ .-.... s ·t .. ~~;~ r.: .. !.~L:::-~:;:·y_~~:- :: .. ~.; 2.(··::_::···~: .. ··.:·:~ C'~1 tt1e l::-:..:::·2: .. ·:~--~~,::-~:r of the are& o:: E:or::.t int.c~:J.Si\r·.:~ .5.n."'.r~~~;;t~~-cra·:-:j_cn so far 3 In I~:_y ..

~~~n!~~l ~~~2~~~d~~~~t~l: ~,~~~~~~~:~~~·~1;.~~~~L~~l~~.c~ 2 e~~~~ls~~~~ s~r~-assuredly i·lill not consist of the u:ma.l instruction in arch­c:~-'3ologic.al fiel cJ tecl1ni~11e s c.tl :--.h.c!lJ.c:,-11 tJ-:[~~~re V?ill be sc'!t~e C·f that. It should not be needful b::re to belabor the point of the places or merits of environmsnt2l reconstruction and lithic technolO\?.J.' i11 rr:C)(}-:~~:-:-n, scie~1ti[ic; c:.rct2J?oloqy~.. I 1:>~::­lieve, too,. that \·:e rem::tin tJ~e only field school operating in the l~rnerican sub-arctic and, \•Ti thal, in what is acknm·:­ledged one of the most scenic parts of this F.ost scenic state. To conclude this editorializing before i.t gets out of hand: I just hope we can assemble a small cadre of students who 'Vvill be intellectually and academically equipped to profit fully from the experience. I cannot recall v.rhen I have looked· forward to a sui!'.E'ler ·of field work with such keen anticipa­tion. As al\.;ays, travel costs to Alaska, \AJhich \\'e are unable to defray, play a large part in a student's decision to go to Alaska for six \veeks. ·

I should like to summarize some of the accomplishments of this program in the Tangle Lakes. For those who have provided support in their several -vmys, I hope this summary vlill serve to justify the faith they have displayed, and that. it will encourage a continuance of support for other programs which, for perhaps similar reasons, are slow to come to fruition.

;:~~~!.~-:~~~~i:futf~l -- -~---~------- -~- ~ -------~---------- -- ~----

~-

' . . ~ . i' .

(1)

(2)

(3)

•• 15

J\pproxima_tely 155 archaeological sites have been alscovered. This may represent as much as 20-to 40% of all sites known in interior Alaska. The Tangle Lakes, as well, exhibit t~e densest concentration of archaeological sites in the Jl .... rrrer ican sub-arctic.

The prehistoric record, as it now unravels, pro­mises to be one of the longest in th~ New World. Nowhere can the often discussed but seldom dem­onstrated Mousteroid affinities of the earliest /l.mericans be so clearly read. Follm~ed as this is by even more clear Upper Palaeolithic, or J..urignacoid, traditions, it seems apparent--and appropriate--that early Tangle Lakes prehistory is, in a strict sense, an Old World continuity.

The environmental record teina worked out here also is of major scientific i~terest. Professor Schweger maintains that the pollen and rnacro-f 0 S S i l ~~erne:.~ i11. S f ."CCIT~ t.!~·:·.~:; f·c; C~"f..)'CY r),:.;~:;n S i. t.e 1 ':·-~ i t.l!. it. S C~.;·~ ·!v·: C~ C<;:· <.1.~:: C·'.J. -::. ':~; ,- C ·<-} 1 ;~:: ~'--~ ,_ .. · .. ::·.~~-c1c~ E:: ;·~lE:. ~-~ . S

earliest record for the r8-adv~~ce of spruce {aJ.boit S?arincly) in post~lac1al times. A sec­tion of log, prcbably Fo~c]us, is presently under study at UCL/1_ byiSr-: l'Jlllard Libby c.md Dr. Leona M. Libby as part of their isotopic ratio studies. Jl ... <'1othGr specir·.::'n, v;hich may be ?_:"l.cea., found in 1972 is being sent on to them.

(4) The glacial history which, of necessity, figures so heavily in our interpretations will, when complete, add significantly to the knmvledge of l•Jisconsinan events in the central Alaska P.ange. Already some important modifications of accepted notions are indicated.

(5) Had there been discovered here only the Landmark Gap Chert Quarry, the locality would acquire a signal importance. This do~ument, which is un­touched, is unique and should prove to be of major interest to all concerned with primitive technology. If appropriate agencies can be per­suaded to provide protection, it is our plan to leave all these materials in place as an open­air museum.

~-(6) The Tangle Lakes Archaeological District became, in 1971, the first Alaskan archaeological locality

;~~~- >::fi\\t~.~'~ - -~--~~~--~--- ---~-~------- ----- -~-- -- ----- -

16

accepted into the National P.egister of Hisi.:oric Places. The consider2.tions presented v.-!'-ich .led to its successful nomination were, of course, some of those discussed here . .

(7) Over the past eight ye2.rs, and more intensively since 1968, a fair number of students have re­ceived a significant piece of their e~ucation in, and by means of, the peculiarly pertinent records that exist in the Tangle Lakes. While only a small number of these have been students COilli'tl.i tted to anthropology as a career, it \•7ould be unwise to underrate the importance of the experience for that reason.. Noreover, some of the students trained here have been career­oriented, and are presently at work on graduate degrees. Others will be shortly. It is my con­viction too, that bv reason of beina based in an institution that co~centrates on undergrad~ate education, our field course has had the singular \T:L:ctt~~s of }?::."""0\l ic.:.: ~ ~g . t.:·: is J~ :Lr-ic~ oJ: E:.;dLtc 2 t ior~. c:.l e:··:r)c.;:c J_erLc.:,J _c:.·c a de::) i:.: ,:· __ i:; ~- ~- c;t~.:: ~i. 2~ !,)Oili t in. t:.·:v:; student's career.

(8} Finally, over the nex-'c several months it is planned to publish several separate accounts of bur work in the T6ngle Lakes. These include the following titles or descriptions.

F~ Comp·arative St"L;.c1:zr of Der1a.li Cor:rplex Sites

A Statistical Study of Donnelly Bur ins

The Significance of Typologically Early Site Collections From the Tangle Lakes

A Compendium of Archaeological Sites in the Tangle Lakes, Central Alaska

It is anticipated that all of the above will be of monograph length. To them may be added another on which work is presently underway: "The Netsi­Kutchin: An Ecological Study." This last is obviously not archaeology but rather represents a rev:sion and updating of my doctoral thesis. The material contained therein, together with its biases about the nature of the Northern hunting adaptation, has formed and continues to

J

17

form, a f'J!1dclic~ental metr:c·dological b2sis for my interpretations of the archaeological record.

Several shorter papers are soinni~q off f ·on ~Lhp~p nrn~0r~~ ~~~~L a1c1i170~Pd.- *C-ala~ry .1. 'L. -·.-·· ·-· J:--- ~ J '--~ ..... ~ • •>'·· ~---, , __ ~ -~~ __.__ :;~-

will be published there in slightly altered form and represents a trial run on the problem of the earliest materia_ls. I c,m also cor:rrnitted to preparing a paper tentatively entitled nLate Palaeolithic Cultures in Alaska" for the IXth Congress of the Int.ernational Union of Anthropo­logical and Ethnological Sciences being held in Chicago next surm:1er. In the interim, there will be other meetings, as for example one on the Bering Land Bridge being held at Khaborovsk, U.S.S.R., which I hope to be able to attend.

The next several months thus should see placed on public record the whole of the pnst slx years' research in tl1e '1\:3.1"!('' 1 e I.; a>:· c.: s ~ It- is J~.C:?_~:::: d t l1 cl t i t..s 7:.(-;_~._; .. ::: :.1.t. \·Jill rc. :JY.'e sc-:n t a. s j_ c: ;~. :~ 1~ i c ;-: ·:~ t :~. ~ .. ;.~ =~-- :J:,f~ :-1 \... t. CJ l~:-: CJ ~ ~. '~- ~~··_ 0 ~:.:: o :~ r~ o ?.~ i~ 1~~<~- J."tl ~~ <...J :-r.."i-:.1: ~~ ~.:rt~0 .:.~·--ica11 l)J.:-C'.l1if:~t:.-c;::-}7 ~

\'!i.thoct at. this ti.rne n<:~ming, a.nd thu.s, incrirrj r:a.ting, indivieuals, I should like to express deepest gratitude to the a~):::.:1cic:s \.:l::to ta:ve, over t.llc~ }'E~crs, aicc;,_:;_ ·this pros~~am. These r~.rc li.st.:::c1 c~lpltal:~e.tically 2.11c1 c-:orranerrt. is ~t?it.ri.hE?~L(j e:-:­cept to say to all, sincerest thanks: Alaska Methodist University, Buree:~u of Land E::!nageE1c-mt (both State and Anch­orage District Offices), Division of Parks, State of Alaska, L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, National Park Service, National Science Foundation, U. s. Geological Survey, University of Alaska, University of Wisconsin.