Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Late Prehistoric Socio-Economic Organization in Northwest Alaska: a Study of Pottery Production and Distribution in the Arctic

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This research examines the history of emergent complexity in Northwest Alaska over the past 2000 years through a focused study of archaeological pottery from the coast of Kotzebue Sound and the adjacent river corridors into the Alaskan interior. Northwest Alaska witnessed significant social change over the past two millennia with the development of organized whale hunting, aggregated coastal villages, wealthy burials, and warfare. On both sides of the Bering Strait ethnic groups formed strong regional identities during this period that led to marked differences in material culture styles from sub-region to sub-region and eventually the expansion of Thule whale hunters eastward across the Canadian arctic. The relationships, interaction, and evolution of these ethnic populations remain among the most unresolved issues in the archaeology of this region. This research attempts to shed light on these issues and their implications for changing social and political organization in Northwest Alaska through the study of the pottery used by these groups. Pottery composition, manufacture techniques, and stylistic variability from archaeological assemblages around Kotzebue Sound will allow the student P.I. to evaluate several predictions about social development between the first and second millennia A.D. These predictions include the expectation for increased population density, territoriality, and social asymmetry at the corporate group level (within and between settlements) with implications for the production and distribution of pottery from clay source to production, use and discard. Archived and newly acquired pottery collections from Cape Krusenstern, the northern coast of the Seward Peninsula including Cape Espenberg, the shores of Kotzebue Sound, and the Noatak and Kobuk River valleys will be studied to determine chemical composition of clays used in constructing the pots, the nature of pot manufacture (form, wall thickness, tempering, firing regime, etc), and variability in stylistic characteristics (of both decorated and non-decorated pottery). These characteristics will be studied to determine the degree of inter-regional pottery movement and inter- and intra-settlement differences in access to diverse sources, technologies, and/or styles of pots An important component of this research includes the collection of clay samples from geological sources around Kotzebue Sound and the Kobuk and Noatak Rivers for comparison to archaeological pottery samples. This will allow an estimation of the degree of pottery movement from source to deposition locales and a proxy for social interaction and movement. Another component of this research will be precision mapping and dating of archaeological features around this region in order to develop estimates of changes in regional population densities and distributions. Expanded radiocarbon and thermoluminescence chronologies will be built to refine and supplement existing chronological models for the region. This work is conducted in partnership and under permit with the National Park Service. Project results will be shared with Native Alaskans and other local groups in the Northwest Alaska community through public and school presentations, primarily in Kotzebue, Alaska. In addition, large laminated posters and a self-timed PowerPoint presentation describing this research will be created and distributed to communities across the region. These educational products are easily distributed to remote communities and schools and are more effective and cost-efficient than trying to present in person in every village community in the region. Project results will be disseminated more widely through presentation at professional conferences, the creation of a project website, and public and school presentations in the Seattle area. University of Washington undergraduate students will participate in the project, assisting in sample preparation while taking an independent lab course for credit, supervised by the Co-PI.