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A Reported Early-Man Site Adjacent to Southern Alaska's Continental Shelf: A Geologic Solution to an Archeologic Enigma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert M. Thorson ,
David C. Plaskett  and
E.James Dixon Jr.
Robert M. Thorson
Affiliation:
Geology Department, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901
David C. Plaskett
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701
E.James Dixon Jr.
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701
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Abstract

An extensive ancient archeologic site containing lithic artifacts and associated with mammoth remains was reported at Chinitna Bay, southern Alaska in 1943. The presence of such a site adjacent to the continental shelf at the base of the rugged Aleutian Range suggested that humans may have inhabited the inner shelf environment during the late Pleistocene at times of lowered sea level. Because of the site's potential significance, an interdisciplinary research team relocated and reinvestigated the area in 1978, but failed to find evidence of prehistoric human habitation. Geologic studies and radiocarbon dating indicate that the strata reported at the site are intertidal in origin, very late Holocene in age, and have undergone significant tectonic movement in the recent past. These observations indicate that the previously published observations of the Chinitna Bay site are probably invalid.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , March 1980 , pp. 259 - 273
Copyright
University of Washington

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