Abstract

Since the inception of a cave management program on Prince of Wales Island in the 1980s, the number of formally recorded and mapped caves has grown from a handful to over 400. With this growing awareness has come the discovery of significant paleontological and archaeological remains in more than 30 caves. In 1996 ongoing paleontological work in a solution cave designated 49-PET-408 located on the north end of Prince of Wales Island, resulted in discovery of human remains and associated stone and bone tools. By the end of 1997 the assemblage from 49-PET-408 includes faunal material spanning at least 40,000 years punctuated by cultural materials up to 10,000 years old. Cultural deposits extend outside the cave and offer significant potential for future early Holocene research.