In the summer of 2021 the Carcross Tagish First Nation, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the Teslin Tlingit Council worked together to develop a heritage investigation project that would look into the relationships that ancient people have with the alpine. This relationship is interconnected with the seasonal use of the alpine by specific animals. The alpine activities of ancient people leave heritage features such as hunting blinds, artifacts associated with ice patches, travel routes, and spiritual sites. 

Despite high snow levels, the season’s research activities identified three new archaeological sites by the CTFN crew and another seven sites by the TRTFN crew.  These sites support the recorded traditional knowledge and stories that describe the relationship with the alpine.

In this paper I detail the results of archaeological survey of ice patches in the vicinity of the vast obsidian quarries and artifact scatters found near Goat Mountain and Kitsu Plateau. During the course of survey, over 50 perishable artifacts were found including stitched birch bark containers, walking staffs, carved and beveled sticks, an atlatl dart foreshaft and a stitched hide object – likely a leather and fur boot.  Radiocarbon ages on 13 collected perishable artifacts reveal that they span the last 7,000 years.  All of these finds were made against a massive and stunning backdrop of scattered obsidian artifacts: bifaces, cores, flakes and raw material nodules.  The archaeological landscape of the area is extremely significant.  The results reveal that ice patches in the area are shrinking as a result of warming climatic conditions and it is possible that many of these sites will be completely destroyed if these trends continue. 

The application of drones and immersive panoramic imagery allows for the exploration of unique landscape changes. The complex interactions associated with high alpine ice patch hunting and climate change have had a lasting impact on world heritage and using virtual explorative technology the continuing influence can be documented. Archaeological exploration of evidence preserved in ice has allowed for a more thorough understanding of human interactions over thousands of years. By digitally documenting the unique phenomenon of ice melt and exploring human influences at this crucial moment, photogrammetric reconstructions detail minute landscape undulations and can be used as a baseline to monitor ongoing changes. The use of panoramic imagery and virtual reality allow for the integration of datasets to showcase these significant sites for public tourism and as educational tools for protection. This talk is concluded with a suggestion on how virtual reality might aid in re-imagining heritage experiences throughout the Canadian sub-Arctic and will center on a case study in the southern lakes’ region of the Yukon territory.

Bluefish Caves, which were excavated during the 1970s and 1980s under the direction of Jacques Cinq-Mars and yielded faunal remains dating to ca. 30,000-10,000 B.P. and artifacts, may represent the earliest well-documented evidence of humans in North America. However, the stratigraphic context of the artifacts and evidence of anthropogenic bone modification have been challenged. In 2019, the University of Kansas Odyssey Archaeological Research Program conducted limited archaeological testing at Cave III to gain a better understanding of site formation processes. Also, soil/sediment samples were collected at Cave III for ancient DNA (sedaDNA) analysis to determine the feasibility of isolating and sequencing ancient genetic material of transitional late Pleistocene/early Holocene flora and fauna from subarctic loess. Although artifacts were not found in Cave III, following initial processing of sedaDNA samples, sequences suggest recovery of sufficient nucleic acids for identification of multiple taxa in these samples. Also, reconnaissance of the area around the caves resulted in the discovery of Cave IV. The entrance and interior of Cave IV are almost completely filled with sediment. Hence, there is potential for intact cultural deposits in that cave, and it will tested by the Odyssey research team in July 2022.

Over 14,000 years of human prehistory has been documented in central Alaska, however, many questions remain regarding terminal Pleistocene land use of areas located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (WRST).  With over 25 percent of WRST being covered in ice, it is hard to imagine that the park would have been hospitable for human habitation during the late Pleistocene.  In addition, the eastern area of the park was inundated by Glacial Lake Atna, a massive terminal Pleistocene proglacial lake.  The lake formed at various levels as a result of ice dams created by glacial advances, further complicating human occupation of the area.  Recognizing that the presence of Glacial Lake Atna would have influenced land use for people living in the region during the late Pleistocene, identification of terminal Lake Atna shorelines and associated geomorphological features was undertaken. As a result, 69 archeological sites have been identified. The majority of these sites are surface lithic scatters located in areas subject to deflation and other natural disturbances; however, one site, situated on an ancient shoreline of Lake Atna, revealed a subsurface hearth feature in a buried and stratified context that produced radiocarbon results dating the site to the late Pleistocene.

The Little John site is located 50 m south of the Alaska Highway, 12 Km east of the Yukon-Alaska border overlooking Cheejil Niik / Mirror Creek, the easternmost tributary of the Tanana River. Archaeological excavations from 2002 to 2018 documented a multi-component site with evidence of cultural occupation from the Allerød c. 14,000 years ago to the present. Forty-six radio-carbon dates on bone, charcoal, and wood can be grouped into six Occupation Periods with cultural materials that can be related to a basal Chindadn Complex overlaid by artefacts of the Denali Complex, Northern Archaic tradition, Late Prehistoric, Contact-Traditional, and Historic occupations of the site. This presentation will provide an account of analysis of data generated by this project to date and present a hypothesis that the Chindadn complex represents the technology of the “Standstill Beringians”.

The Holzman archaeological site, located along Shaw Creek in interior Alaska, contained two mammoth ivory rods dated 13,600-13,300 cal BP. These are the earliest known examples of osseous rod technology in the Americas. Beveled ivory, antler, and bone rods and points share technological similarities between Upper Paleolithic Europe, Asia, eastern Beringia, and the Clovis tradition of North America, and are therefore important tool types in understanding the late Pleistocene dispersal of modern humans. We describe the Holzman ivory tools in the broader context of late Pleistocene osseous technology with implications for acquisition and use of mammoth ivory in eastern Beringia.

Deadman Lake is located in the upper Tanana River basin between Northway and the international border. The lake is within the traditional lands of the Upper Tanana Athabascan people, and the ethnographic place-name translates to “big pike lake.” Multiple cultural sites in vegetated dune field deposits provide a record of the middle to late Holocene cultural occupations along the shores of the lake. Here we present results spanning decades of fieldwork by multiple researchers, including unpublished archival and artifact collections, and focusing on the results of recent field school studies. Surficial deposits suggest active dunes during the early to middle Holocene while underlying late-glacial sand deposits are dated by non-cultural, arctic ground squirrel and gastropod remains. The archaeological record includes a diverse assemblage of lithic material including Wiki Peak, Batza Tena, unassigned groups, and distant Mount Edziza obsidian from northwest British Columbia. Field research over the past decade has been conducted in cooperation with Northway Natives, the landowner and Alaska Native village corporation.

In late September 2021, park employees found a carved wooden hunting bow in the waters of Telaquana Lake, in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The well-crafted bow measures 136 cm from tip to tip and is in a good state of preservation. The bow was transported to the National Park Service’s Alaska Regional Curatorial Center in Anchorage, where it is currently undergoing analysis and conservation treatment. Typology, manufacture, age, and other parameters will be presented.