Dating an umiak frame from the Birnirk collection, Museum of the North, University of Alaska

这是一个小型项目，旨在资助加速器质谱法（AMS）放射性碳测年和对阿拉斯加大学北伯尼克博物馆收藏的木船框架碎片进行试点研究;伯尼克是阿拉斯加北海岸的早期因纽特文明。2012年春天，PI在Birnirk遗址（阿拉斯加州巴罗）发现了六个umiak碎片，它们是一个单一船只组合的碎片。来自同一和相邻挖掘单元的另外19个船只碎片很有可能属于同一艘船只，本项目将对这些碎片进行测试，以确定它们是来自一个还是几个结构。这些发现的重要性在于，皮船框架组合在环极考古记录中极为罕见;如所描述的那些原位碎片，数量如此之多，而且似乎起源相当早，可能早在公元1300年，使这些碎片可能是北极地区已知最古老的乌米亚克框架组合。该项目将确定这些碎片是否来自同一个umiak，并有可能将该结构置于更大的时间和文化背景中，并最终提供对早期北极船只工程和航海的见解。

This is a small project to fund Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating and a pilot study of wooden boat frame fragments from the University of Alaskas Museum of the North Birnirk collection; Birnirk is an early Inuit civilization of the north coast of Alaska. In the spring of 2012 the PI identified six umiak fragments from the Birnirk site (Barrow, Alaska) as fragments of a single boat assemblage. 19 additional boat fragments originating from the same and adjacent excavation units have a strong probability of belonging to the same boat and this project would test these fragments to determine whether they are from one or several structures. The significance of these findings is that skin boat frame assemblages are extremely rare in the circumpolar archaeological record; in situ fragments such as those described, in such quantity and from what appears to be fairly early origin, possibly as early as 1300AD, makes these fragments potentially the oldest known umiak frame assemblage in the Arctic. The project will determine whether the fragments are from the same umiak and has the potential to place the structure within a larger chronological and cultural context and ultimately provide insight into early Arctic boat engineering and seafaring.