NSF PR 99-30 - April 26, 1999
This material is available primarily for archival
purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information
may be out of date; please see current contact information
at media
contacts.
Archeologists Find Milder Arctic Climate May Have
Aided Aleutian Settlement
|
Photo Credit: courtesy of John Sease,
the National Marine Fisheries Service
Select image for larger version
(Size: 56KB)
Note
About Images |
|
|
A milder Arctic climate more than 3,000 years ago
may have aided humans to cross the Bering Sea from
Alaska and migrate into the remote Aleutian Island
chain, according to preliminary findings by a three-woman
research team funded by the National Science Foundation.
Dixie L. West, a professor of anthropology at the
University of Kansas, said radiocarbon dating of bones
found in an ancient midden, or refuse pit, on Shemya
Island indicates that the westernmost Aleutians were
settled roughly 3,500 years ago, or 1,000 years earlier
than previously thought. Island soil and plant matter
dated by Russian scientists indicates that the prevailing
climate may have calmed the usually turbulent Bering
Sea during that period, she added.
"This new environmental evidence indicates that the
Northwest Pacific was becoming warmer and drier at
that time. That may have allowed the Aleuts to take
those first long, dangerous sea voyages," she said.
The team will return to the Aleutians in late May to
further investigate evidence uncovered during the
past three years that may help science to better undertand
how and when the most remote and isolated areas of
North America were colonized.
"West and her team have uncovered many 'firsts' that
will become vital pieces in the history and pre-history
of the western Aleutian Islands," said Fae Korsmo,
who oversees Arctic social science research in NSF's
Office of Polar Programs.
The team was the first to identify a bone from a Stellar's
sea cow, a large walrus-like animal, ever be found
in the Aleutians east of the Commander Islands, adjacent
to the Russian coast. The presence of the bone on
Buldir Island may indicate that the animals lived
in the Aleutians as well as the Commanders, and that
humans moving westward from Alaska may have exterminated
them from the eastern islands.
Buldir also is the site of the only whalebone house
ever scientifically excavated in the Aleutians. Christine
LeFevre, a team member with French Museum of Natural
History, made the find while excavating a pit near
the beach. Because of the position of the bones, "we
could tell immediately that this wasn't a whale that
had stranded on the beach and died there," West said.
"In one side of the house, someone had excavated a
pit and lined it with the shoulderblades of sea lions
and they had placed a whale skull nose-down in the
pit."
The whalebone house dates from the 15th century and
it is almost certain that the island was occupied
much earlier than that, though evidence of that occupation
has yet to be found. But West noted that Buldir is
difficult to land on even today and that perhaps Aleuts
temporarily by-passed it and then returned later.
West also has obtained permission from the Aleut Corporation
to remove bones that may be the remains of ancient
Aleuts from a cave on Attu island. If the remains
prove to be the bones of Aleuts, DNA sampling will
allow for comparison with contemporary Aleuts and
perhaps shed light on changes in nutrition and health
as well as additional clues to the puzzle of migration
patterns.
The team also will take a first look this field season
at what it believes are the first petroglyphs -- or
stone carvings - discovered in the Aleutians. Debra
Corbett, an archeologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and a member of the NSF-funded team, said
the carvings, which were found on automobile-sized
rocks on a beach on Agattu Island, are the first evidence
of such artwork on the Aleutian chain. Although some
evidence of cave painting has been documented in the
Aleutians, she said, "petroglyphs are pretty rare
generally in Alaska, and there have never been any
reported in the Aleutians. It's a major puzzle."
|