Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T08:15:55.251Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Perspectives in the Prehistory of Kodiak Island, Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Donald W. Clark
Donald W. Clark*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological material from Kodiak Island, Alaska, is described in terms of five phases which, from oldest to youngest, are Ocean Bay I, Ocean Bay II, Old Kiavak, Three Saints, and Koniag. Ocean Bay I and II, components of a single site, are characterized by flaked-stone and ground-slate industries, respectively. Old Kiavak and Three Saints appear to be developmental stages within a single tradition, possibly different from the traditions of the antecedent Ocean Bay phases and the succeeding Koniag. In Old Kiavak there is a partial return to flaking of stone artifacts, and two characteristic artifacts are small notched stones and plummet-type grooved stones. In the Three Saints phase, "plummets" went out of use, and by the beginning of the Koniag phase, which continued into the contact period, so did small notched stones. Among the new elements that characterized the Koniag phase are the steam sweat bath, the splitting adz, and, locally, pottery. A pottery-using variant of this phase has been emphasized. When compared with Three Saints material, Koniag archaeological remains usually show style changes or degeneration in workmanship. These units do not outline a complete sequence because the periods between Ocean Bay II and Old Kiavak and, locally, between Three Saints and the pottery-using Koniag variant do not appear to be represented. It is estimated that their time range is 2500 B.C. to shortly after A.D. 1800.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 31 , Issue 3Part1 , January 1966 , pp. 358 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clark, Donald W. 1966 Two Late Prehistoric Pottery-bearing Sites on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 3, No. 2. Madison.Google Scholar
Cressman, L. S. and Dumond, D. E. 1962 Research on Northwest Prehistory: Prehistory in the Naknek Drainage, Southwestern Alaska. Final Report to the National Science Foundation. University of Oregon, Eugene.Google Scholar
Davis, Wilbur A. 1954 Archaeological Investigations of Inland and Coastal Sites of the Katmai National Monument, Alaska. Report to the U.S. National Park Service. University of Oregon, Eugene. Also on microcard, Archives of Archaeology, No. 4.Google Scholar
Drucker, Philip 1955 Sources of Northwest Coast Culture. In “New Interpretations of Aboriginal American Culture History,” 75th Anniversary Volume of the Anthropological Society of Washington, pp. 59–81. Washington.Google Scholar
Giddings, J. L. 1957 Round Houses in the Western Arctic. American Antiquity, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 121-35. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Heizer, Robert F. 1956 Archaeology of the Uyak Site, Kodiak Island, Alaska. University of California Anthropological Records 17: 1. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hrdlička, Ales 1944 The Anthropology of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Laguna, Frederica De 1934 The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Laguna, Frederica De 1956 Review of Archaeology of the Uyak Site, Kodiak Island, Alaska, by Robert F. Heizer. American Antiquity, Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 202. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Laguna, Frederica De 1962 Intemperate Reflections of Arctic and Subarctic Archaeology. In “Prehistoric Cultural Relations between the Arctic and Temperate Zones of North America,” edited by J. M. Campbell, pp. 164-9. Arctic Institute of North America, Technical Paper No. 11. Montreal.Google Scholar
Laughlin, W. S. and Reeder, W. G. 1962 Rationale for the Collaborative Investigation of Aleut-Konyag Prehistory and Ecology. Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 104-08. Madison.Google Scholar
Oswalt, Wendell 1955 Prehistoric Sea Mammal Hunters at Kaflia, Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 23-61. College, Alaska.Google Scholar