Initial Artifact Analysis

Today I finished checking the catalogue from the summer's excavation.  I looked at every artifact that we found and checked it against what we had called it in the catalogue.  There were lots of artifacts that I never saw in the field and it was very insightful to look over everything at once.  I put the same types of artifacts all together in their own boxes and it was very interesting to see them all together - to begin to see patterns and gather impressions.

Overall the collection looks a lot like last year's, and the types of artifacts still support our hypothesis that the site was a hunting camp.  But there were a few new types of tools and trends that I did not see in last year's collection.

First of all, I was surprised at how many 'piece esquilles' we found (also a lot of scrapers and utilized flakes).  I had not even noticed them during excavation and most of them were listed in the catalogue as 'flakes'.  Piece esquilles are basically stone wedges used to break open bone - presumably to get at the marrow and create bone slivers for tools.  They are distinguished by bi polar battering, and are quite distinctive once you get an eye for what they look like.  They indicate that people were probably breaking open bone at the site - an activity that fits right in with a sea mammal hunting camp.

Another interesting find was the number of 'non-functional' bayonets that we found.  These are bayonets that are too small, bent, or made of such poor quality slate that they could never have been intended to be functional (see fourth photo down).  I interpret them as toys.  Boys would have had to learn how to made bayonets for themselves and I imagine that they were probably doing just that while their elders were probably re-fashioning their own, totally functional bayonets at the same time.

Another new discovery and one that I believe is mostly associated with the smoke processing feature is the number of split cobble scrapers we found this year.  Last year we only found one or two but this year we found a great many more.  I think they might have needed the coarse edge of the greywacke cobbles to split seal skin during butchering.  Slate knives are very poor at doing this sort of thing.

I could not wait to get all the artifacts in bins because I was really looking forward to trying to re fit bayonet parts with each other.  Below is a tray with all the bayonets and flensing knife parts we found last year (on left) and all the ones we found this year on the right (and picture below that).  Last year we found 31 bayonets and this year we found 35.  But what's surprising is that I could not find many matches.  I'd say we excavated fully half of the main site area - so one would expect a lot more re matches than I found (exactly 2 and 3 if we count last year).  So what is going on?  Are the broken pieces getting left off site? Patrick

Last year's (on left) and this year's (on right) bayonets.

A really poor quality picture of all the bayonets and flensing knife parts that we found this year.

Toy bayonets?

Floating the Yellowstone

 Another gorgeous day in Montana and 5 of us went to the Yellowstone river to raft and paddle board. This was my first time paddle boarding and I loved it. And I love the Yellowstone River. It is so clear, warm and peaceful. We passed very few people in the 3 hours we were afloat. There are no motorboats and there is no perfect place than on a river on a hot day like today.

 My nephew Bryan and cousin Cami were along and they had fun trying to occasionally push each other off the boards. I commented, "this is what Nora and Stuey will be like in 10 years when they are old enough to go!"

Cami did a backbend on the board, as well as an inverted type yoga pose. We all decided it was extremely hard to stand on one foot on the board. 

 There was 1 rapid that we went through and the rest of the river was very mild rapids. The 11 miles took 3 hours to float.

 I'm giving paddle boarding 2 thumbs up. I would love to try it in Kodiak. Need to find someone with a board to try the ocean out on a calm day.
And Yellowstone River is fabulous.  I loved the warm clean water splashing over my feet....and watching the rocks on the bottom of the river as we floated over them.

Zoya

Cousin Camp and Yellowstone Park

 Nora and Stuey and myself are in Montana for 6 days for a family reunion. We call it cousin camp, because all of the cousins are able to get together while us older family members get time together as well. We last got together 2 years ago in Traverse City Michigan and decided to try to do it every other year.

Below, my niece Cami holds up the quilt I made for her 16th birthday. She is a gem of a gal, always so positive and awesome. And so great with the little ones!

On the first morning at Peggy's house in Bozeman, Ella prepared a wonderful breakfast for everyone. Waffles, fruit and breakfast casserole. 

 Here at the Cousin camp house in Paradise Valley, the kids blew up a huge ball, with which they could climb inside and roll around in. It had so many different bubbles to blow up, that 1/2 the fun was all the time it took to inflate it! The kids took turns blowing up the various compartments.

 And they could roll around on the lawn in it AND Bryan could stand in it and look like a clump of blue cells! The trampoline is a BIG hit here at cousin camp. It is built into the ground with bushes all around the perimeter. The kids spend hours bouncing.

 The ball was hollow inside, so the kids could crawl inside and roll around the yard in it.

Ella and Anne with the evening sun behind them...

I'm amazed by how appealing the hot tub is to the kids ALL times of day...even when its 80 degrees outside! We've had to work to keep all the little guys hydrated this trip. The sun, the elevation, the excitement...

 Today we drove to Yellowstone Park and went to a hot springs which flowed right into Yellowstone River. It was wonderful...the waterfall below was very warm water which cascaded into the cool river. It was a short walk to get to, but by the time we arrived, it felt fabulous to just soak in the cold water.

 The hike to the springs. I am in love with Yellowstone River. Tomorrow we are going to adventure out on it on paddle boards and kayaks. Can't wait!

Zoya

Pea Soup

On Saturday while Zoya and the kids were trying to beat the fog and leave Kodiak the kids asked about the meaning of 'pea soup fog'.  Zoya explained that 'pea soup' is very thick and hard to see into - so 'pea soup fog' means thick fog.  Planes landing need to see - so pea soup fog is bad for flying.  Zoya's explanation got me thinking - why not 'clam chowder' or minestrone fog?  If it's clear out should we call it consomme?  Zoya and I laughed about the 'clam chowder fog' and then when it started to rain we told the kids that it was raining clams.

Anyway, they beat the fog and eventually made it out of Kodiak, and off to 'cousin camp' in Montana.  In the picture below taken by our friend Betty O we are killing time at the airport.

After they left I took Joe - a visiting friend - hunting.  Needless to say, we did not beat the fog and get a deer.  We spent our time in the tent by the woodstove waiting for the weather to clear (top photo).  Eventually we did go out and whack about in the pea soup fog, and we actually did sneak up on a doe.  But we saw nothing with horns legal to shoot.  But as I explained to Joe I'd rather be camping in the rain than halibut fishing.  I think he sort of agreed - but he also likes to fish for halibut.  Patrick

All Done

Yesterday the Community Archaeology dig ended.  On Thursday we completely backfilled the site and then yesterday we did some final clean up and then used the transit to determine the site's height above current sea level.  Amazingly enough we found that we could see someone standing on the road out by the ocean and we were able to shoot the elevation very accurately.  Ryan C had a graph of the current daily tide levels in Womens Bay and we simply shot the water level and then checked the time.  We then subtracted the amount that the tide was out at that moment and did some other math and basically determined that the top of the site is 9 meters above mean high tide.  That means the flat plain in front of the site is currently 4 meters above mean high tide.  The site is also 1.3 kilometers from the ocean.  Now we just need to figure out where the beach was located when people were hunting seals at the site.

The dig is all over but the lab work and analysis is FAR from over.  I can't wait to see how many bayonets we can get to refit.  We also have some more features to radiocarbon date.  Lots more to do. .. .. .Patrick

Ancient Alutiiq Smoke Processing

Our 5500 year old structure as viewed from the back looking out towards what I believe was an open front and where they dumped rock and charcoal (and which can be seen in the profiles).

Today we backfilled the site - we are pretty much all done.  But the day before yesterday we finished uncovering what I believe is a 5500 year-old smoke-processing structure.  It was just over 5 meters in diameter and was dug about 2 feet into the slope.  The pit was dug down to glacial till which was a lot of work for people without shovels. I believe it had an open front and probably some sort of roof extending out from the back wall onto some posts in the front.  Today I noted in the notes from the first part of the dig that we found a lot of big rocks in the upper layers just behind what would have been the back wall.  Perhaps these rocks held down a hide cover that stretched out over the pit on poles and formed a roof.

Inside the structure were numerous hearths and pits filled with rocks.  I believe they were heating rocks to retain heat while they dried seal meat inside the structure. No evidence for fishing at the site - only hunting - so what else could they have been smoke processing?  On top of the 'dump' pile out front we found an inordinate amount of broken bayonets.  Perhaps they sat out front and refurbished their tools while they waited for the seal meat to dry?

What's cool is that the structure strongly resembles later Alutiiq smoke processing structures used to dry fish.  I went back through my photo files and pulled a few examples from previous Community Archaeology digs at the Outlet and Zaimka Mound sites  (see below).  All of them are round semi-subteranean features, lacking built up walls, with rock filled pits, and with numerous hearths inside.

This sort of feature becomes REALLY popular around 4000 years ago.  So popular that dirt in sites from this period is invariably stained black with charcoal from all the smoke processing. The nickname for sites from this time period is the 'Black' Kachemak because the soil is always stained so black.  But it is not like the Alutiiq did not know about smoke processing earlier or that they did not store food etc.  It's just that for some reason around 4000 years ago they started to fish a whole lot more and smoke process and store a WHOLE LOT MORE.  Perhaps the climate deteriorated, the sea mammal populations crashed, or maybe the population got too big to support with sea mammal hunting alone.

Our 5500 year old smoke processing structure highlights that at 4000 years ago smoke processing was not a new technology.  People knew about it, but they did not need to rely on it until around 4000 years ago when something changed.  It's also cool that at 5500 years ago the technology seems to have been used for smoking meat and not fish.  I'd kinda like to try smoked seal.

Patrick

Another view of the structure and the flat area beyond was probably a tidal lagoon where they hunted mammals with slate bayonets - presumably seals.  Below is a crude drawing from my notes showing how I interpret what we found.

Below is a 1200 year old smoke processing feature from the Outlet site at the Outlet to Buskin Lake.  It had the same rock filled pits inside and an open front.

Below is a picture of a 3500 year old smoke processing feature at the Outlet site with numerous pits inside - the 1200 year old pit pictured above is visible on the right.

Another 1200 year old smoke processing feature from the outlet site with the rocks still in the pits.  Note that all these features seem to have burned down and charred their roof sods orange.

Amy Steffian in a 3800 year old smoke processing feature from Zaimka Mound on the coast.  The pits inside this feature were filled with gravel.

Below is an analagous structure from the around AD 1900 in the Aleutians.  V. Jochelson took this picture of a structure created to help dry fish.  Put a few smudge pits filled with heated rocks inside and you basically got what we've been finding on Kodiak (of course Kodiak's features are also round and probably had a totally different superstructure).

Cliffside Bear Sighting!!

Woke up at 6:45 this morning with the dogs barking. My typical thought of "Crud. The dogs are going to wake the kids up. " Patrick said "there is probably a deer in the yard." He took off to go shower and when I looked out the window, I saw Mr. (or Mrs.) Bear trotting by! In the 13 years I've lived here, this is the first bear sighting.

The poor bear was "stuck" on the cliff between the fence and the water. It probably took some serious navigating to find his way out amongst the houses, cliff and beach.  Eventually he climbed down the cliff in front of the house.

Zoya

Anchorage & Adventure Flying Home

FRIENDS
Yesterday I flew to Anchorage for a quick trip  to visit my friends Karen (center) and Julie (right). Karen was in the state visiting from St. Lucia and its been over a year since I saw her.  I was in the city for just about 24 hours before heading back this afternoon.


ABORTED LANDINGS. AND THEN RE-TRYING.
Flying into Kodiak can be brutal. The island often holds clouds and weather systems right around it, which can lead to fog, poor visibility etc. The scene I describe below is an example of something that happens so often to people in Kodiak.  

2:50 PM- we leave sunny, 70 degree Anchorage. No mention from pilot about bad weather in Kodiak. Approximately 1 hour later, we approach our "Island Terrific in the North Pacific". The landing Gear comes down out of plane. The flight attendant takes her seat in the front.

I look out my window and see clouds, fog and a few small islands in the ocean RIGHT BELOW US. I think, 'there is no way we are landing'. Within a few seconds, the engines are thrust into high gear and we feel the plane take a sharp angle up. Up. Up. A pit forms in the bottom of my stomach.  The landing attempt was aborted.

Everyone aboard waits on word  from the pilot. My heart races and pounds. I don't want to have to fly back to Anchorage.  After a few minutes the pilot announces, "Well, folks, the visibility there in Kodiak is pretty low. We're going to circle here for a bit to see if it clears and give it a go in a few more minutes." We ascend way above the clouds once again where it is bright and we can see blue sky.

5 minutes pass. Then 10. Then 15.  Then 20. I try to internally analyze every increase/decrease in elevation. Is he going back to Anchorage? Is he going to try to land again?

Once again, we begin to descend into the clouds. The landing gears comes down again. The pilot announces a second chance. My heart is going to pound out of my chest. I take a few deep breaths to try to slow it down.   I grasp my hands together and make a prayer-1st to land (so we don't have to fly back to Anchorage), and 2nd that we don't die and I can see my kids again.

This time we come from under the clouds and I can see town.  It is obvious now that in the time we circled, the clouds lifted enough for us to land. I can see the airport in the distance.

"Yes. Thank you. Thank you."I whisper under my breath. I don't think the mass of tourists on board realize how close we came to not landing. The gal next to me with a young baby is estatic, as she had been trying for a day to get back to Kodiak.

The plane makes some sharp angles in the air before landing on the airstrip. A round of applause is initiated throughout the cabin and smiles are on everyones face.

As we depart  the plane I give the pilot a smile and a big "Thanks!" as I step off the plane. A job well done. He seems pleased with his work.

Just another day of air travel flying into Kodiak.

One last feature appearing. .. .

The mostly female crew flexes their muscles - and that's 2 Mollys flexing and carrying buckets.

We are getting down near to the bottom of the site on the Community Archaeology dig.  And it looks like we are finding a pretty cool feature.  If you look closely at the bottom photo you can see a round orange rim around a dark/grey area.  The orange represents an old 'in situ' volcanic ash while the dark area in the middle is where the prehistoric inhabitants removed all of the ash down to glacial till and created a large depression over 5 meters in diameter.

Last friday we started to clean up the feature and found 3 different hearths dug into the till at the bottom.  It looks like the depression was used repeatedly as a large outdoor hearth, and it was full of layers of fire-cracked rock, burned sods, red ochre and calcined bone, and charcoal.  We radiocarbon dated the feature last year and it dated to 5500 years old.  The bottom floor is not flat and we have found only one posthole - so it does not appear to have been a house.  And since we have found no evidence for fishing at the site, we think it is some sort of meat (as opposed to fish) processing feature.  We are puzzled as to why they had to remove all the dirt to make a depression first for the hearths.

A 5500 year old meat processing feature is pretty significant because Alutiiq people at that time are supposed to be highly mobile hunter gatherers moving from camp to camp.  They are not supposed to be processing and storing a lot of food.  Anyway, more to come as we process what it all means. We should also have a good photo of the feature by the end of the day.  Patrick

Tatiana shows off a ground slate bayonet that she found.  Bayonets are probably the most common artifact that we find.

Below Leslie shows off a bayonet that broke and then was re-worked ands used as a knife.

The 5500 year-old feature starts to appear. .. .

Deer before the storm

Kodiak's deer season opened on Wednesday, but because of the dig I had to wait until the weekend to go.  On Thursday and Friday the weather was perfect for hunting in the alpine, and many of my friends reported that they had got their deer.  So directly after work Friday evening Gregg and I hiked up into the alpine to go deer hunting.  The weather was supposed to deteriorate and we thought about trying to get a deer before bed.  We opted not to and miraculously the weather held until dawn.

At dawn we found a 'bachelor' group of 5 bucks, but the only problem was that between us and them there was a HUGE boar bear grazing on greens - no way around him.  So we waited and the bear grazed slowly towards the deer.  And then we noticed that the deer were walking around the bear and towards us!  We immediately beelined for an advantageous small hill where we could wait for the deer to arrive.  We sat and waited and the bear wandered off and the deer came to us!

We checked on the bear after we shot the deer and he could have cared less.  He continued to graze and wandered off into the far distance.  Time to take care of our deer.  And then it started to RAIN.

For the pack home we opted to take a 'short cut' rather than climb up 500 feet and to start down on the trail we climbed up on.  Our short cut started out great but ended up as a 1000 foot pitch of head high salmonberry, devils club and alders with the occasional cliff thrown in to keep us on our toes.  And at the bottom it got worse - really thick alder and devils club. We busted our way through clambering over fallen logs and falling into holes until at last we joined up with our original trail.  Phew!

But now there is meat in the freezer and liver and onions for dinner.  Hunting season has begun!  Patrick

Dig Week 3

Yes those are headnets, and yes it has been a bit buggy this week.  We spent most of 2 days in the lab due to rain, and I think the extra moisture brought out the bugs.  But we've all seen worse, and spirits are high.  Actually the bugs only seem bad in the mornings before the site dries out and the afternoon breeze picks up.

In the main block we have already hit the glacial till at the bottom of the site in places.  Our supposed 'house' from last year appears to be a huge hearth type feature that was used repeatedly.  There are lenses of red ochre, sods charred an 'electric orange' color, bits of calcined bone, and lots and lots of fire cracked rock.

Molly and I are wondering if the repeated sod quarrying has to do with making temporary structures, and perhaps it is all such a mess because they did it so often?

We also opened up a block (block C) on the west 'Amak'.  It is a different area of the site, and we want to see if they were doing the same sorts of things over there.

Leslie found a HUGE pit dug deeply down into the glacial till.  Nice feature but we have not found any artifacts or distinctive soils associated with it.  After this picture was taken she did find a hearth feature under about where her bucket is in the photo.  Patrick

Neglected Garden

It's been a busy summer, and what with the archaeological surveys, digs, and travel I have barely been able to keep up with the garden.  It has been very neglected.  And yet it has exploded nonetheless.  Weeds everywhere.  But as you can see the carrots, lettuce and brocoli/kale seem to be doing great above.  Below is my beet patch with potatoes in the back.  I also grew radishes and mesclin on either side of the beets but they are all past now.

Below is more of my potato patch with some more kale/brocoli and garlic in front.  Most of my garlic froze during the winter and I think I will just use the 3 that survived for seed stock for next year.

My peas are starting to get unruly and soon they will be too tall for the lines I have to keep them upright.  I fear they will soon fall over.  And note - no peas yet just flowers.  But I expect all the peas and pea pods I can eat soon.  Patrick

PS - Is that a Notre Dame shirt on my kid?  I got to get him wearing Badger red.

A Warm July Night

Last Friday at 4:30, the afternoon was warm and we had no concrete evening plans. The evening just called for an outdoor BBQ fire pit.

Several visiting scientists to the museum came over, as well as Nick L. and other local friends. Nick brought some black cod cheeks, which we marinated quickly in soy sauce, garlic and ginger. After they were grilled on the firepit, it might have been the best fish I have ever tasted in my whole life. The pieces evaporated as soon as they touched the plate!  There was also homemade guacamole, salad and sausages.

(We toasted several times to Nick L, who is a paleontologist  and recently got an article published in Nature journal last week. Click here for the link to his article!)

At about 9:00, the party from next door joined in. The banya was fired up, and 7 of us ladies took a VERY hot banya. It ranged from 180-200 degrees. When we got out at 11pm, it was just starting to get dark. The remaining people sat by the fire and it was still quite warm outside. We sat by the fire, listened to music, danced on the grass  and looked out at the still ocean. The combination of fire, banya, warm weather, incredible fish,  dancing (and the fact that the gathering was a last minute occasion)  made it  a special Kodiak summer gathering.

Zoya