Activity Area Analysis in Western Alaska: Combining Soil Chemistry and Ethnoarchaeology at Tununak

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

"Activity Area Analysis in West Alaska: Combining Soil Chemistry and Ethnoarchaeology at Tununak" ABSTRACT Principal Investigators Kelly J. Knudson and Lisa Frink will investigate how subsistence activities are organized and how subsistence behavior has changed over time on Nelson Island. Ethnoarchaeological and archaeological data will be collected and documented from the contemporary and historic occupations of the village of Tununak, located on Nelson Island in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of western Alaska. In addition, they will develop new methods and new data using biogeochemical and genetic analyses of Arctic soils to identify specific activities. This research draws on the uncommon and exciting combination of Indigenous memory, experience, and continuity of place and subsistence activities and will demonstrate the importance of incorporating indigenous elder knowledge and practice into archaeological models and interpretations to yield a much more robust understanding of past and present activities.