Amak Stratigraphy

The excavation is nearing completion and we have already bottomed out on our main excavation block. Now is when we draw the profiles showing the different layers in the walls of the excavation. This is when we figure out the site's stratigraphy. Stratigraphy tells us what happened at the site - how each layer of soil is related to the others. Understanding the stratigraphy is probably the most important part of the site's story. Each layer is related to a different chapter of the site's history, and figuring out the stratigraphy is putting all the chapters in the correct order. It's the Table of Contents so to speak.

So here are the chapters as I understand them now. If you look at the 2 profile pictures the top white layer is all volcanic ash dumped on the site during the 1912 Mount Katmai eruption (capped by everything that has happened since 1912 including a 1964 tsunami deposit). Below that is a dark layer with a thin lens of grey silt on top. We called this layer Level 1 and it represents the soil surface for the last 3500 years prior to the 1912 eruption. The grey silt is from all the tsunamis that washed mud up the valley and onto the site. We have noticed in Womens Bay that all the landforms up to 25 feet above sea level have tsunami deposits on them.

Level 1 is also associated with the last occupation of the site 3000 or so years ago. The site was still right on the water but it was probably receding away pretty quickly. It was not a very intense occupation and we found just a few smoke pits and a very few tools associated with it.

The next layer down (Level 2) is a weathered volcanic ash deposited on top of the site around 3800 years ago. We know this because at other sites we have dated stuff both above and below this distinctive ash layer and the stuff below it consistently dates to around 4000 years ago while the stuff on top is around 3500 years old or younger. The layer is a bright orangish brown color and very soft. It is a pretty thick layer and appears to have been 'trampled' by people living on the site after it fell.

At the Amak Site, when we excavated through this soft ash we often uncovered a thin gray silty layer on top of another layer of mixed up ashes/pebbles/till etc. After close examination I believe the gray deposit represents another tsunami deposit from circa 4000 years ago or shortly before the site was buried by the subsequent ash fall. You can see the gray tsunami deposit in the middle of the profile in the second picture down in this post. If you look closely you can see that it is draped over the walls and roof of a structure caught in profile. Perhaps people were living at the site when they were forced to evacuate by the tsunami?

In any case, the mixed up layer capped by the 4000 year-old tsunami deposit represents the most intense occupation of the site. We termed this layer Level 2A, and it is all mixed up because the people living at the site in the Late Ocean Bay era 4000 to 5000 years ago, in addition to hunting a lot of seals, moved A LOT of dirt and sod about the site. We still do not understand exactly why because the structures from this level seem to lack the formal built up walls you'd expect if they were using the sods and dirt to build houses. Most of the artifacts we found came from this layer, and most of the artifacts were bayonets or bayonet fragments like the one Christy is holding up in the third photo.

During the Late Ocean Bay era the people at the site often removed all of the soil and sods down to the underlying glacial till left behind by glaciers over 10,000 years ago. The glacial till marked the bottom of the site and is pictured in the top photo - all pocked with old post holes and the holes left behind when rocks set into the till were removed. But in places where the Late Ocean Bay era peoples did not remove all of the soil we did find older soils and even evidence for a far older occupation of the site. We termed these layers Levels 3 and 4.

If you look closely at the right side of the bottom profile picture you can see these layers. They contain bright orange volcanic ashes and are quite distinctive. This particular part of the site was also disturbed by ground squirrel burrowing in the distant past. If you look really closely at the profile you will see a thin black line between 2 thin white ash lenses. The thin black lens is charcoal stained soil and represents the earliest occupation of the site over 7000 years ago. We know this because elsewhere I have dated the upper volcanic ash to around 7100 years old and the lower one is even older - the black lens is sandwiched between the two and hence dates to the time period between the 2 volcanic eruptions.

We found very few artifacts associated with this layer - just a few blades/microblades and a distinctive chipped stone point - and since the layer is so thin and ephemeral it appears that this site occupation was not very intense at all. Since later occupations disturbed the site so much we found very little of this layer and, at this point, we know very little about what happened at the site during this occupation. Hopefully, we'll uncover more of this layer next year and learn a bit more.

But for this year we are done digging - it's time to finish backfilling! Patrick

On the Eve of Kindergarten

Nora starts kindergarten tomorrow and I am feeling giddy with excitement for her.

Yesterday I read the book "Twas the night before kindergarten" to her and I started crying at the end of it. The last part of the story is how the parents drop the kids off on the first day and they are standing in the hallway crying...and the kids are saying, "bye mommy, bye daddy-don't cry". Its a very sweet book that my friend Alexis loaned to me in anticipation of Nora starting school tomorrow.

The past few days Nora frequently says, "mom-I'm scared about kindergarten" yet she couldn't quite articulate why. Tonight I told her I would drive her to safeway for groceries and she could pick out special lunch food. She love this idea and on the way there, she said, "mom-i don't want kids to make fun of me". I re-assured her and said, "Nora, kids won't make fun of you." She said, "My heart is just upside down right now." I was so glad she could articulate that to me, because at times this week, my heart has been upside down as well.

Nora starting kindergarten feels way different than when she started preschool. Preschool has always had a drop-in type of feel to it. Kindergarten is their first step into the world- On their own. With a whole school of teachers to guide them. I'm not sure why I'm emotional about it-maybe because I'm tired. And Nora is tired, but ready. She has been losing sleep on and off for weeks and having dreams about going to St. Mary's. I think I've lost a little sleep as well. We're ready for her to do it. She turns 6 the day after kindergarten and I can confidently say, She is READY!

Zoya

August-Sun and Fun

August has been a beautiful one in Kodiak. Really, the whole summer has been beautiful. Yesterday at an outdoor wedding I attended, I heard someone say, "This is the nicest summer I remember in 20 years" and I believe it. There has been little rain, little wind and lots of sunshine and "warm" weather. The lack of rain isn't good for the fish, however... but the kids sure love it!

This next week is a big one for our family-Nora starts kindergarten and she turns 6. This weekend we tried on her St. Mary's uniform and she likes it. I am getting excited/nervous/excited/nervous about the start of kindergarten for her.

I know it will all go well--she is very ready this fall, and so I feel good about that. And she will be in a class with one of her good friends, so I don't have to worry about her not knowing anyone the first day. The first day of kindergarten is a big milestone---sending them off on their own...to learn, eat lunch, go to recess.... I think I will be more nervous then her.

Can't believe summer is wrapping down. It has gone so fast. But lots of great times at the beaches, parks, and our yard under the sprinkler.

Zoya

People or Activities?

The Community Archaeology excavation is nearing completion. We've almost finished the main block and have made good progress on another 3 by 4 meter block where we are uncovering some sort of smoke processing feature from the most recent use of the site - in the Early Kachemak. We continue to find practically nothing but ground slate bayonets. In fact, we've found so many that we often just put them into the artifact bag and don't stop to take photos anymore! Looks like a hunting camp to me.

A recent email from a colleague got me thinking about what it all means. My colleague commented that what we are finding looks like classic Ocean Bay II Tradition material without the chipped stone. His comment helped me recognize a bias on my part. I tend to assume that the artifacts people leave behind reflect their activities at a particular site. And this is true, but artifacts also reflect cultures - ways of making and using objects. Different societies make certain tools with their own particular style and even use different tools from each other. Archaeologists can sometimes examine the tools from a site and say who lived there in addition to what they were doing there.

Living on Kodiak where practically everything we find has been left behind by Alutiiq peoples I tend to focus on the Alutiiq culture, and forget that there may be multiple groups of people represented in the archaeological record. On the Alaska Peninsula, for example, pulses of settlement from nearby areas - the Alutiiq word to the east, the Aleut world to the southwest, the Yup'ik world to the northwest, and the Athapaskan world to the north brought peoples of different cultures into the same environment - at different times and at the same time. Sorting out the histories of different cultures there is difficult with archaeological data. What does this mean for the Amak site? I don't believe that Womens Bay had a distinct Alutiiq culture, or two groups of different people living on its shores at the same time. However, my friend's comment reminded me that the archaeological record is complicated. Not everything we find can be attributed to site function, though that's the way I often see it. Patrick

A deer for Gregg

Gregg and I braved wasps and salmonberry to climb into the alpine Friday night. For a while there it was raining pretty hard and it did not look good. But come dawn while cloudy and dismal at least it was not raining , nor were we socked in with fog. And best of all the deer were out and about. Not a breath of air and pretty hot out. We think the deer were hanging out on the rocks to stay cool and avoid the bugs. We snuck up this guy and had a deer down by 7 AM. Pretty darn good. I wish it always went that way! Patrick

Practicing for the Sheep Hunt

Gregg and I leave on our Brooks Range sheep hunt in less than 2 weeks - so what better way to get ready than to go hiking in Kodiak's own mountains and hunt deer? On Friday night Gregg and I pretended we were sheep hunting and put everything we plan on taking on the sheep hunt into our packs - all except 10 days of food and the SAT phone - and headed up into the mountains to go hunting. We cooked our dinner on the woodstove and slept in the teepee. We decided that next time we'll turn the stove around and that the back half of the teepee will be my area while Gregg will get the front. We'll put the kitchen on the right side by the stove. This is important stuff to figure out.

What to keep and what to leave behind? We decided we'll only bring one pair of good binoculars but we will also have a spotting scope with a heavy tripod. The machete will stay behind. Do we need a frying pan?

Anyway, the 'shake down' cruise went well and we even shot a deer - a small 2 point. We had planned on shooting a larger deer, and had initially passed on this guy, but the weather was deteriorating and the deer just did not move as we went to walk past it. He would not run away. It was almost as if he was offering himself to us - and when a deer does that you accept the offer. So we shot him and brought back some tasty deer meat.

And I must say the pack with all the extra camping gear AND the deer meat was very heavy on the trip home. But we will not have to fight the tall grass, salmonberry and alder in the Brooks range, right? Patrick

Supporting Evidence

Archaeology is about creating stories and then testing them to see if they are true. And if you have ever been a part of any of the excavations I've lead you will know that I am constantly coming up with various scenarios to account for what we have found so far. I rarely get the story right the first time, and it changes and evolves as we find new stuff that either supports or contradicts it. This is sometimes confusing to people who think I am being 'wishy washy' - they assume that archaeologists always get it right the first time. But archaeology, just like any science, creates a story or explanation that changes and evolves with the evidence - slowly getting closer and closer to the truth as competing explanations are crossed out one by one.

But this year at the Amak Site everything we have found continues to support my original story that I came up with on day one of the dig - a temporary camp where Alutiiq people hunted seals. In the last 2 weeks we have come up with plenty of evidence to support my original story and nothing to contradict it. This never happens, and I am a little worried that it is too good be true. I keep on waiting for the other shoe to drop and for us to find something that totally contradicts my story.

On Friday we found a flensing knife and 5 finished bayonets - including 2 that had not been broken - and practically nothing else. I made a joke with Jill the museum exhibits coordinator that we could create an exhibit of the dig and have the space to include every single artifact that we have found so far. On the one hand would be a small pile of flakes and on the other there would be a bunch of bayonets for spearing seals and a couple of whetstones and abraders for sharpening the blades and straightening the shafts of the spears. It really does look like Alutiiq men brought tools to the site and worked on their gear while they waited for seals to show, and then successful, butchered the seals and took them back to another camp to be processed.

Still, How do we know they were hunting seals, and are we really sure it was men who were doing it? My point being there are still parts of my story that are based on assumptions and are most definitely subject to change. Also, there are 2 major finds that I still cannot fit into my story for the site. What is the HUGE pile of rocks and why have we found that most of the dirt was removed and then piled up on another part of the site?

The pile of rocks is not a structure (there is no living surface associated with it), and a cache still just does not seem right. April (the museum's language coordinator) mentioned that the elders she works with often talk about building rock blinds to hide behind while duck hunting, and I kind of like this new explanation for the rock pile. Only perhaps it was a blind to hide behind while an Alutiiq hunter tried to lure the seals closer to the beach.

The redeposited dirt and sod is more difficult to explain. Without shovels it represents an enormous amount of labor, and it does not appear to be associated with a house or structure. Perhaps it represents Alutiiq punishment and a bunch of teenagers were instructed to make a pile of dirt? (this is a joke). Anyway, I have a feeling we will figure it out, and I am pretty sure that the explanation will add and amend the story we have so far for the site. Patrick

Photos: Molly and Christy mapping the rock pile. The focus of too many pictures while mapping - Christy smiles (Molly Odell photo). Alana with the ground slate point and flensing knife she found. Jill with her bayonet and the same bayonet in situ where she found it. For a different viewpoint and some more photos check out Molly's blog - http://odellcross.blogspot.com/2011/08/artifacts-galore.html

Powerflex training-DONE!

Yesterday 5 A Balanced Approach instructors and myself got a full day training of how to teach Powerflex Classes. Powerflex is a type of group fitness that is a full body weight workout class in 1 hour. Only 1 of us had participated in a Powerflex class prior to the training. We started the day with some light book work, then did a sample class with our trainer, Janet, leading. Then we broke the class down into components such as music, counting, and how to cue the specific moves. And then the fun part. Us teaching to the class.

We called it the "hot seat". You're up in front and count through the moves and guide the class. This was nervous and scary, but really good for all of us. Everyone had their own great strengths with it...counting, form, enthusiasm, etc.

At the end of the day, we were tired, but satisfied. And ready to start teaching this week! I'm sore this morning. And probably will be for a while.

Some cool things I learned (or re-learned since college) about benefits of weight training...
-If you do nothing about it, past the age of 30, you lose 1/2 pound of muscle per year--just due to aging. This translates into a 5 pound body weight gain per year if all other factors stay the same.
-Weight training improves your body's metabolism, because muscle takes energy to feed and grow, and fat doesn't.
-a Pound of fat takes up a LOT more space than a pound of muscle.
-The notion of women BUlKING up from weight training is a myth. Our trainer said women would have to spend hours and hours in the weight room to increase bulk significantly. And she said the only muscles we would see increase in size would be biceps and calfs. Weight training tones, not bulks.

My first class is Monday and I'm going to teach the first half o the class and Brooke is going to teach the second half. I"m EXCITED!!!! Its fun to be bringing Powerflex to Kodiak!

Zoya

One BIG Pile of Rock, Rain, and Bayonets

It is week two of Community Archaeology and all continues to go well. We have not found lots and lots of artifacts, but the ones we have found support our interpretation of the site as a temporary hunting camp. I am very happy that we have found a different 'type' of site. If we had wanted to find lots and lots of cool artifacts we could have always excavated an Alutiiq winter village. But the artifacts we are finding are telling a cool story about a whole different aspect of the Alutiiq seasonal round that had hereto not been known about - the Alutiiq Hunting camp. And if we had excavated another Alutiiq winter village while we would be finding cool artifacts we really would not be learning anything new.

All the artifacts we have found continue to be mostly hunting tools - Very few flakes or tool manufacturing debris and no ulus or netsinkers (tools associated with fishing). It does not look like the people at the site were making tools or fishing much. And this is surprising given the proximity of the site to the mouth of a productive salmon stream at nearby Salonie Creek. My best guess is that they were visiting the site to hunt seals, and that they did not spend a lot of time at the site. Basically I think they brought finished tools to the site, sharpened and refurbished tools while they waited for seals to show up, and then killed seals that they took them back to a base camp - perhaps to the nearby Salonie Mound site that we excavated a few years ago.

One of the big mysteries that we still have not figured out is a HUGE pile of rocks associated with the 5000 year old occupation. It obviously took a lot of work to create, those are some huge rocks, but what is it? My best guess at the moment is a meat cache. I remember when I worked in Baffin Island in the Canadian East Arctic that the local Inuit would create enormous piles of rock over cached walrus meat to keep Polar Bears from stealing the meat (I also remember seeing the polar bears still getting to the meat). Perhaps this is what we have found?

Photos: Tamara with a ground slate bayonet base used for hunting sea mammals that she found on the floor of a temporary structure. Second photo is of Carmin with a red chert flake - her first artifact. Third photo is of Tamara digging in the rain. Finally the last 2 photos are of the mysterious rock pile.

More Anchorage & Homer

Our trip to the Mainland was several weeks ago, and it always takes me several posts to get all the favorite pictures up!

Other highlights was seeing family, (Cathy and Mike in top picture, and my nephew Ben serving food at Bear Tooth and nephew Kellen holding the kids hands), and going to the H2Oasis water park in Anchorage with friends. WHat a great time was had there!! 2.5 hours of splish splash fun.

Zoya

Sheep Hunt Preparations

Pretty soon Gregg and I plan to head off on a Dall Sheep hunt in the Brooks Range in Northern Alaska. We do not know much about Dall Sheep hunting so I doubt we'll bring back a sheep but hopefully we'll learn something and maybe we will bring back a caribou. I'm really looking forward to just hiking and exploring a part of Alaska I have never experienced before. I first came to Alaska in 1985 but I still have never gone hiking in the Interior. The only parts of the state I have ever explored are the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, and Kodiak. So this will be completely new. Heck I've never even been north of the Arctic Circle - even when I worked on Baffin Island in the East Arctic.

Today I checked out the new stove and mosquito netting we'll be using in the small tent we hope to live in. The stove and tent weigh about 4 pounds total combined weight. And I am very happy with how roomy it is inside there. The stove cranked and Stuey and I even boiled a pot of water on top of the stove. Gregg and I plan on saving weight by taking along very little in the way of fossil fuels and relying on the wood stove to cook our meals. I was worried about the mosquito netting but it is quite simple to use and ought to keep us sane if the bugs are really bad.

Anyhow, the kids REALLY liked the tent and want to sleep in it. Stuey like planning out where Gregg and I would sleep and where we would have our 'kitchen'. Patrick

Kids' First Dig

The first week of our Community Archaeology 2011 excavation at the Amak site is complete. And things have been going pretty darn well. We have already moved so much dirt that it is clear we will have to open up another excavation block. I already have another area of the site where there is a depression that might represent an old house pit picked out. We also plan on doing some test pitting in the immediate vicinity to find other sites and get a handle on the local geomorphology (where the beaches were and how all the local land forms were created).

It appears that the site was a temporary camp 3 to 4000 years ago, and we found a simple structure associated with this level. In the older levels around 5000 years old we are uncovering a huge pile of rocks whose function has us all a bit miffed at the moment. Next week we hope to get into the really old stuff at the bottom of the site.

But the highlight of the week for me was when Stuey and Nora visited the site with Jenny F last Thursday. They got to help daddy with the dig, and even do a little bit of their first ever excavation. Now they now exactly what daddy does all day during the summer. Their favorite job was returning everybody's buckets from the screen. Either Molly or I screen all the dirt from the excavation and after each bucket of dirt is screened it needs to be returned to the particular excavator to be filled again.

Photos: The landscape in front of the site is flat with bushes here and there and sort of reminds me of the planes of Africa - so I joked with Molly that the top photo is of her with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background (complete with snow). The second and third photos are of Stuey and Nora experiencing their very first archaeological excavation. The fourth photo is of Leslie W taking notes, and the bottom photo is the excavation in progress late in the day on Friday. Patrick

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.

Renovation nearing completion....

I"m nearing completion on the new birth class location--there was a major renovation in progress (see before and after pics!). About a month ago I showed a picture of a garage which needed some serious love to host birth classes. Its almost totally ready! Tonight I held the second session in it and am loving the space. It is warm, small and seems to be the perfect fit for my classes. The only final touches will be a couch and loveseat to make it complete. 6 moms were in attendance tonight and they were able to make themselves comfy on the mat and floor.
There is an electric heater which looks like a fireplace and kicks out some serious heat. In the winter, it will be quite cozy with the faux burning wood....

Zoya