RAPID: Radiocarbon Dating of Birnirk Levels at Walakpa, North Slope, Alaska

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Walakpa, located south of Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, is the only archaeological site in the U.S. Arctic where the same site was occupied by multiple groups of people over time. This occupational history makes it easier to understand how past residents used the site and how those uses changed through time. The first excavation of Walakpa took place in 1968-69, but much of the site remained unexplored. A few years ago, Walakpa began eroding into the sea due to rapid Arctic change, and urgent work to save the data began, resulting in data from two different excavations that need to be reconciled. This project identifies artifacts and samples from recent excavations for radiocarbon dating and chronological modeling to understand the dates of these archaeological layers with better accuracy and precision, allowing archaeologists to link archaeological layers identified in 1968-69 with the more recent rescue excavations, allowing for a more complete picture of the archaeology of Walakpa. New radiocarbon samples will be taken from well-provenienced samples from known Birnirk (AD 500-1000) cultural levels and will be submitted for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating and isotopic analysis. Bayesian chronological modeling of the Walakpa site radiocarbon data will be applied to produce realistic estimates for the dates of the site's Birnirk presence. This work will help establish a better regional chronology for Birnirk and the transition to the subsequent Thule (AD 1000-1750) period on the North Slope of Alaska. The project will also ensure the proper packaging, shipment, and curation of materials at the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, ensuring the samples are available for future generations of archaeologists. The results will allow researchers to study the artifacts from both excavations together and guide future archaeological research on the North Slope. Information and examples of change documented through this project, from a site that was occupied for such a long time through many changes, when combined with information from other similar sites, will provide a more robust picture of ancient settlement on the North Slope.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.