week 4

Closing the Site - Backfilling & Resodding

 

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Friday, August 13, 2009

Yesterday we finished our excavation and then it started to rain. I did not mind - I was just happy the rain held off until I was done with mapping the house. Today we'll finish with the backfilling.

It might be a long day . . .

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
 

Yesterday at Mikt'sqaq Angayuk we finished uncovering the 180 year-old house. It appears to have had two siderooms - one attached to the main room and the other with an outside entrance. Both had been used for banya and had sod roofs. The unattached sideroom also had had a bench along the wall it shared with the main room. The main room of the house had a roof of thatch and a wooden door to the outside. We found a large posthole in each corner and 3 (of what I suspect were 4) additional postholes forming a square in the middle of the room. The outside posts would have supported a square outer ring from which beams would have sloped up to the inner square. In our photos we marked the old post holes with alder logs for clarity sake.

Mark and I are wondering if the house was a specialized hunting camp used mostly by men. We have found a great deal of hunting related artifacts but very little of what we would associate with women. Yesterday we even found a metal crucible that would have melted the lead poured into molds or water to create bullets and bird shot.

Out in the midden Leslie continues to hit bottom. Yesterday she found the pictured netsinker and ulu right above sterile beach gravels. The ulu has a well-drilled hole that would have been used to help haft on a wooden handle. This style of ulu is not typically found in older Kachemak (3-4000 years old) deposits and I am beginning to suspect that our midden represents the remains of a later Kachemak occupation (circa 2000 years ago). We will eventually know what the date of the prehistoric component at the site when we radiocarbon date charcoal samples found in the midden. Then we'll know the exact age of Leslie's ulu.

 

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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
 

We continue to dig like badgers at the Mikt'sqaq Angayuk site as we race towards the finish. This is our last week of excavation - we plan on backfilling the site on Friday (we'll need help with this - so if you are interested show up at the back door of the museum bright and early at 8:15 on Friday morning).

Lately, we have had spectacular digging weather. A healthy change from the first 2 1/2 weeks of the excavation! We have managed to move a lot of dirt. Leslie, practically single-handedly, bottomed out in the midden. It turned out to be amazingly deep and for a while there I wondered if we would ever find the bottom. At the bottom she found the 3,800 year-old beach.

In the house we have almost removed all of the roof sods from the side rooms. The sideroom attached by a tunnel to the main room had REALLY thick roof sods. In each sideroom we found preserved wood roof beams and it looks like the rooms were still partially upright in 1912 when they were blanketed and partially filled with ash from the Katmai volcanic eruption. As we excavate in the house we continue to point provenience each and every artifact that we find. Exciting discoveries include: old glass bottle tops reworked into hide scrapers, a gunflint, a telescope eye-piece, lots of lead bird shot, buttons, and many pieces of ceramic.

One of the coolest things we found was the preserved front door. Karen found the door handle still attached. It looks like the door fell into the house after it collapsed. The base of the door seems to mark where the inside of the house begins - it looks like the house had a tunnel or room about 6 feet long leading to the outside.

 

Week 3

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

 

Yesterday Karen found a cool harpoon and we moved a whole lot of dirt, but we really did not learn anything new. On the other hand, everything we found fit with what we already knew and there were no nasty surprises. It was business as usual.

There is a lot to be said for 'business as usual' and 'no surprises'. It means we are getting to understand the site. Too often in the early days of an excavation your interpretations of what is going on change on a daily basis. Sometimes it's nice to have a straight forward day when you move a lot of dirt.

 

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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Yesterday we almost finished with the prehistoric midden at Mikt'sqaq Angayuk. I continue to be amazed at how well the bones and shells are preserved. We even found whole sea urchins (see photo of Leslie holding an example). One thing we had been concerned about was whether the midden had been redeposited - for instance, dug out when the house was built and dumped in front. But now I am sure it has not - no sea urchin could withstand such a move intact.

This photo of rotted blue mussel shells, and the small white oval bones are small cod or pollack ear bones. I am convinced that the preservation is such that we would have seen crab shell parts if they had been present. Prehistorically, it appears that the Alutiiq did not eat crabs. I have never seen crab remains in a Kodiak midden.

 

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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Last Friday we thought we had everything figured out at the site, and then on Monday we found stuff that totally changed how our view. Such is archaeology! As an archaeologist you put together all the clues to figure out what happened at a site and build your story as you go. Then occasionally you find stuff that seems not to fit with your thinking at the time - so you have to re-adjust your story to make it fit the facts. Once you've adjusted your story it's a better story because it accounts for more facts. If you dig long enough at a site you stop getting surprised and then you know that your story is pretty close to what actually happened.

 

On Friday we thought we were digging into a 180 year old Alutiiq house that had been built into a 3,000 year old settlement. We assumed that all the midden in front of the site was associated with the 180 year-old house. Then on Monday we found much older artifacts and noticed that we had found nothing historic in the lower midden in front of the house. The lower midden was practically pure shell, and in my last post I discussed how this might reflect a lack of hunters living at the site in the spring. Now I know that it is actually a couple of thousand years older than the upper midden. No wonder it is different from the upper midden!

 

The artifacts pictured here were all found on Monday, and the 2 of bone came from the lower midden. The bi-laterally barded dart was used for sea mammal hunting, and stylistically it is typical of the Kachemak Tradition on Kodiak (4,000 - 1,000 years ago). The other bone artifact is a socket piece that would have fitted onto the end of shaft and given it heft to add energy and help with killing sea mammals - the dart would have fit into the hole at the end of the piece. The slate point is a 'Three Saints Bay' style endblade that would have also been used to kill sea mammals and is stylistically typical of the Kachemak.

After we determined that the midden in front of the site had a lower Kachemak component I had to re-think how the site looked like 3,000 years ago. I went back to our notes from 2002-2004 at the adjacent Zaimka Mound site and examined all the profiles of test pits we  excavated in the surrounding meadow. I noted where the 3,800 volcanic ash was present. If it was not present then I knew that that part of the meadow had been under water when the ash fell. I also noted where 'black kachemak' deposits and old shell midden deposits had been present. From this I created a map of what the area looked like 3,000 years ago.

It looks like as the shoreline migrated away from the older Zaimka Mound site that the Alutiiq moved their site down to the beach in front. They built a new mound from debris deposited as they smoked fish and threw their shell midden off of the sides.

My map is based on what the meadow looks like today with the modern beach and features on the underlying map. You can see all the modern ATV trails and the late prehistoric housepits that are mostly built on land that was not present 3000 years ago. The areas shaded grey are the 2,500 to 3,500 year old 'black kachemak' deposits where Alutiiq people were smoking fish. The areas shaded yellow is where we found old shell midden deposits and the blue represents what was then covered by the sea. The red shaded area is our current excavation - note the 180 year-old house drawn on the original base map.

Well that's our story for now. ... I'm sure that as we continue to dig more at the site that it will change again - especially with all those late prehistoric houses that would have been in the water 3,000 years ago. Right now we know practically nothing about them. But by the time we finish digging at the site, and this may take a few years, we ought to have a pretty good story to tell.

Week 2

Friday, July 31, 2009
 

On Thursday it rained and we spent a day in the lab, but on Friday we had perfect digging weather. This year it seems to rain every other day, but at least the days in between are beautiful!

On Friday we continued the house excavation. In the un-attached sideroom Kunsang found a HUGE pile of fire cracked rock. It looks like this room was used as a banya. The rocks were probably brought in from the main house hearth and then water dumped on them to create a steambath. The room also appears to have a bench along one side, and Kunsang even found well-preserved upright wood planks along the walls. Mark and I don't know why the banya didn't have a tunnel connecting it to the main room. The house inhabitants would have had to go outside and around to the side to get into the banya.

In the main room of the house the floor deposit is extremely thin and we have been excavating very carefully and 'point proveniencing' every artifact that we find. When we point provenience an artifact we map its exact location on the floor and depth below the site datum. Later, we will be able to go back and put all of the artifacts onto the final map of the house. Jill found some lead bird shot and on the final map you will be able to see exactly where an Alutiiq hunter spilled his musket ammo. Also we plan on refitting the pieces of ceramics we've found - to assemble broken objects.  it will be interesting to examine the scatter pattern of individual plates and cups after they were broken and discarded.

Finally, on Friday we reached a lower level in the garbage dump - or midden - outside of the house. While the top layer of the midden is dominated by cod bones the lower layer is practically pure beach-collected invertebrates- chitons, clams and sea urchin with a lot of blue mussel shell at the bottom. We also noted a pocket of herring bones. So it looks like this lower level represents a huge feast in April when the urchins and herring would have been available. Mark and I wonder why so few animal bones are represented in this lower level - where are the fish and sea mammal bones? Could this 'feast' actually represent the end of a hard winter where the occupants could find nothing to eat but what they collected on the beach? Perhaps all the household hunters and fishers were off working at a Russian artel and the shellfish represents all that the occupants could gather? It will be interesting to find out what more experienced archaeofaunal experts have to say on this one!

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

 

Today we started to excavate the Early Russian period house in earnest. It turns out that the house floor is only a centimeter or so thick. Is this because people did not live in the house for very long or did the occupants keep it super clean? Judging by the garbage dump outside, it looks like the former. This garbage layer is relatively thin, and this leads me to believe that the house was not occupied for a long period of time. Mark and I guess people lived there for less than 10 years.

While the housefloor is thin we have found quite a few artifacts. These include: a brass button, a piece of leather, a copper ring, glass beads, bits of ceramics, a 'lead spur' created when the occupants poured lead into a bullet mold. and an abrader and associated metal 'pin'. Lots of stuff and we have only excavated a little bit of the house. But really - relatively little metal or European goods. It looks like the house is early enough that Alutiiqs had not yet been flooded with European items.

Out in the midden in front of the house we also found a gun butt plate and a type of barnacle that only grows on humpback and sperm whales. Cool stuff - the Alutiiq people who lived in the house obviously owned and used firearms and hunted whales. If you read the historic literature Alutiiqs were not supposed to own guns. Lydia Black, a renown Russian America scholar, always told me Alutiiq people were allowed to own firearms and what we've found seems to support her viewpoint.

We've also determined that the siderooms associated with the house had roofs covered with sods while the main room appears to have had a roof of thatched grass. We've even found preserved wooden roof beams. I can't wait to excavate the rest of the house!

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Monday, July 27, 2009

Yesterday we mostly excavated outside of the house. It rained hard overnight and the house was a little mucky for careful excavation. But we had plenty to do and find outside of the house. Our biggest discovery of the day is that the site appears to have multiple components. In other words, we determined that the house was built into an older settlement.

Everywhere outside the house we found tiny beads and bits of ceramic probably associated with the inhabitants of the house. We found these historic artifacts in the top 0-5 cm below the 1912 Katmai ash. Below that the excavators started to hit pebbly dark soil and find REALLY OLD artifacts - 3,000 year-old U-shaped abraders, cobble scrapers, red chert flakes, notched stone netsinkers and even a 6,000 year-old microblade core fragment. 'Uh oh', I thought. 'It looks like the Black Kachemak' - shades of virtually every other Community Archaeology dig for the last 11 years. And, yup, I do believe that is what we've got.

It looks like there is a 3,000 year old site below the 190 year old house. After people abandoned the nearby Zaimka Mound site it looks like they just moved closer to the beach. We know that prior to about 4000 years ago the ocean partially eroded Zaimka Mound, but by 3,000 years ago they were living on the beach in front of the mound where we are digging today. Then 190 years ago it looks like Alutiiq people returned to the site and dug housepits into the much old deposits. I believe that the house we are excavating had the back half of it dug into the older deposits and that the front half was built up directly onto beach gravels with the walls made from the excavated dirt and sods. Pretty complicated scenario, and we will need to dig a bit more to see if I am actually right.

Week 1

Friday, July 24, 2009

 

Today we finally got our first full day of excavation. No more removing grass sods or shoveling off ash. No rain either. Cloudy with just enough breeze to keep the bugs away - perfect for digging. Everybody was happy to settle down and start to find stuff. And we did find stuff.

The artifact of the day is the slate ulu that Miriam is holding in the photo here. What's cool about it is that it shows that the Alutiiq were still making ulus out of slate rather than metal at least 50 years after Russian contact. Did they prefer slate or was metal still too scarce to waste on ulus? We also found lots of European ceramic sherds.

I've been reading what Dan Thompson has to say about the ceramics found at the Castle Hill Russian fort in Sitka. He reported that in Russian America the Alutiiq preferred the painted tea sets and decorated ceramics over the plain utilitarian wares. They appeared to have enjoyed a certain amount of ritual with their daily tea. Dan reports that a certain lead-glazed earthenware made just outside Moscow occurs in Russian American sites dating to between 1815 and 1858. It is rarely decorated and appears to have not been popular with the Alutiiq and other native Alaskans. Archaeologists rarely find that it comprises more than 2 % of a site's ceramic collection. Only at the Russian fort in Sitka (a distribution center) did they find appreciable quantities of the distinctive lead-ware.

However, at Mikt'sqaaq Angayuk we appear to have quite a bit of it. What's going on? Were the Alutiiq who lived in the house poorer than most? On the other hand we have also found a great deal of the gaudily painted 'tea set' sherds (see Alex with painted sherd in the top photo). I have sent photos of the ceramic sherds we've found so far off to Dan Thompson, and will be interesting to hear what he thinks. Perhaps we've mis-identified the lead-ware; perhaps we've got something interesting going on.

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

We finally got all the Katmai ash (from the 1912 volcanic eruption) off of the multiroom house. We have opened up a HUGE area and the ash had blown into the house pit - so we had A LOT of ash to remove. Once the ash was removed the house features are quite clear. The main room never had roof sods so the hearth and sub floor pits are all exposed right on the surface. Note box hearth in the middle of the house, doorway pointing out to the right, and sideroom connected by a tunnel between the crew and the main room. The main room measures around 3 by 4 meters. I took these photos from the top of a nearby tree.

 

Yesterday, after I took these photos, we started to excavate in the midden outside the house and we found excellent faunal preservation. We found out what the Alutiiq people who lived inside the house had eaten and thrown away. We found mostly cod bones, some seal, clams, blue mussel shells, chitons, and lots of sea urchin. I only saw one salmon vertebrae. Sea urchins produce roe in March/April and cod come inshore in the late spring. So what we've found so far looks like the remains of a late winter/spring feast.

Last night Mark and I also re-evaluated our guess as to when the house was occupied. I had previously guessed mid to late 19th century based upon one ceramic sherd of what I call 'gaudy ware' and the fact that the house had completely collapsed prior to the 1912 Katmai volcanic eruption. Last night we referred to a report on the Castle Hill Excavation of the Russian Fort in Sitka put out by the State Historic Preservation Office and noted that the most common ceramic we have been finding peaked in popularity around 1815. We also found one drawn and cut blue bead which is also typical of the early Russian period. I also realized that we have found none of the sponge stamped light green and red ceramics typical of the late Russian and Early American period. So I am tentatively going to say that the house was probably occupied in the early 19th century. However, we've hardly begun our excavation and this conclusion is based on a tiny artifact sample. So take it for what it is - a very preliminary guess!

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

 

This week we started our Community Archaeology excavation out at Cliff Point, and, of course, it started to rain. But as you can see from this photo we've been sticking it out. In fact, things have been going pretty darn well. We have already uncovered an entire multiroom house. I have never seen a house so clearly after just removing the layer of Katmai ash - they are usually far more deeply buried. Judging by the bits of metal and ceramics we've been finding the house appears to date to the mid 19th century. It has a slate box hearth and a sideroom attached by a tunnel so it is clearly an Alutiiq house. I had been a tad bit worried that it would end up as a rancher's barn or something. Prehistoric multiroom houses were occupied by several related families, and it will be interesting to see if this one was a single or multiple family dwelling.

 

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 Monday July 20, 2009

Opening The Site: A Time Lapse Video