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Friday, July 29, 2011

How the Amak Site got its name





Back in 2005 when we first found the Amak site I caught all the student interns giggling. 'What's so funny?' I asked. More giggling - and then Tristan K an Alutiiq intern informed me that the 2 mounds on the site looked just like Amak. Amak is the Alutiiq word for breasts. And yes the 2 mounds at the North end of the site do look remarkably like the breasts of a woman sleeping on her back amidst the willow and alder. And when I mapped the site there was no getting around it - the site topography does indeed look like a headless and legless woman lying on her back (bottom photo). And so the name stuck. I don't know of a more aptly named site.

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