Bering Strait Socio-economic Organization, ca.2000-200 BP: A View from Port Clarence

这是一项急切的提议，旨在支持对阿拉斯加州斯宾塞角(Point Spencer)古遗址的考古挖掘和分析，该古迹位于前美国海岸警卫队(USCG)站附近。这项研究适合用于紧急资助，因为它应用了新技术，并有可能发现新的信息。此外，该项目具有紧迫性，因为在USCG离开后，现场地点的生计/非法挖掘活动有所增加。50多年前，Helge Larsen认识到位于阿拉斯加北部白令海海岸的Point Spencer矿址Ipiutak和Neoeskimo分层矿藏的重要性。20世纪40年代末，拉森和查尔斯·卢西尔调查了这片广阔的村庄遗址，作为解释阿拉斯加西部史前的更大努力的一部分。凭借Ipiutak-Neoeskimo过渡时期的完整分层沉积和良好的有机保存，Larsen和Lucier认识到Point Spencer在解决过去2000年社会经济变化的关键问题方面的潜力。尽管有这种潜力，但在其间的几年里，该遗址还没有进行过任何研究。这里提出的研究涉及在斯宾塞角挖掘，以解决在这一重大文化变革时期的社会经济组织问题。考古学家指出，改变饮食、生存习惯、环境变化以及与地区社会和经济系统的接触是解释新埃斯基莫传统在北美北极地区发展和传播的因素。然而，这些想法在很大程度上仍未得到新的考古数据的检验。本研究将通过在阿拉斯加州北部克拉伦斯港地区的数据恢复和调查来解决这些问题。斯宾塞点的非法挖掘给拟议的项目带来了紧迫性和风险。2010年，据估计，该遗址约有40英亩土地受到干扰，其中70多个坑或受干扰区域是由非法挖掘造成的。这些挖掘大部分发生在2010年，当时USCG从现场附近的空间站撤退。航空勘测表明，克拉伦斯港地区周围的其他考古遗址也在进行类似的非法挖掘活动。研究目标包括：1)建立当地年表，2)调查当地和地区的流动和定居模式，3)研究生计活动和饮食，4)重建当地景观历史，5)评估遗址非法挖掘活动的范围，并制定与土地管理局(BLM)和当地社区合作解决这一问题的框架。方法包括挖掘、放射性碳测年、空间数据分析、陶瓷来源、文物分析、土壤和陶瓷残留物分析、动物群分析、烹饪/加工特征研究和地质考古学。

This is an EAGER proposal to support archaeological excavation and analysis of an ancient site at Point Spencer, Alaska, near the former US Coast Guard (USCG) station. This research is appropriate for EAGER funding because of its application of new techniques and the potential for discovery of new information. In addition, the project has an element of urgency to it because of subsistence/illegal digging that has increased at the site location following the departure of the USCG. More than 50 years ago Helge Larsen recognized the importance of the stratified Ipiutak and Neoeskimo deposits at the Point Spencer site, located on the Bering Sea coast of northern Alaska. In the late 1940s, Larsen and Charles Lucier investigated this extensive village site as part of a larger effort to explain western Alaskan prehistory. With intact stratified deposits dated across the Ipiutak-Neoeskimo transition and good organic preservation, Larsen and Lucier recognized the potential of Point Spencer to address key questions about socio-economic change over the last 2000 years. Despite this potential, no research has taken place at the site in the intervening years. The research proposed here involves excavation at Point Spencer to address questions about socio-economic organization during this period of significant cultural change. Changing diet, subsistence practices, environmental change, and engagement with regional social and economic systems are factors archaeologists point to in explaining the development and spread of the Neoeskimo tradition across the North American Arctic. Yet these ideas remain largely untested with new archaeological data. This research will address these questions through data recovery and survey in the Port Clarence region of northern Alaska. Illegal digging at Point Spencer brings both urgency and risk to the proposed project. In 2010, it was estimated that approximately 40 acres of the site were disturbed, with more than 70 pits or disturbed areas created by illegal digging. Much of this digging took place in 2010 when the USCG withdrew from their station near the site. Aerial surveys indicate that similar illegal digging activities are taking place at other archaeological sites around the Port Clarence region. Research goals include: 1) establishing the local chronology, 2) investigating mobility and settlement patterns both locally and regionally, 3) studying subsistence activities and diet, 4) reconstructing local landscape history, and 5) evaluating the scope of illegal digging activities at the site and develop a framework for collaboratively addressing this problem with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and local communities. Methods include excavation, radiocarbon dating, spatial data analysis, ceramic sourcing, artifact analysis, residue analysis of soils and ceramics, faunal analysis, study of cooking/processing features, and geoarchaeology.