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Placenames History of Afognak Archaeology Afognak Residency Data Collection |
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DIG AFOGNAK ARCHAEOLOGY IN 2004 AND THE QUESTION OF OCEAN BAY-KACHEMAK SUCCESSION Donald W Clark Prepared for the Native Village of Afognak
In 2004 the Native Village of Afognak made a small-scale archaeological investigation of a site located at the mouth of the Afognak River. The unnamed site, referred to by its code designation Afg-088, is one in a series very ancient encampments located on both sides of the river. After subsidence in 1964, the edges of the densely forested site were washed out and the shore became littered with stone artifacts. From several hundred items collected at various times it appeared that the site could shed light on the elusive period when technological ways on Kodiak changed from the late Ocean Bay tradition that emphasized use of slate lance blades to the Early Kachemak tradition that emphasized grooved cobble fishing weights and notched pebble net sinkers. This occurred about 1800 BC. In 1994 and 1995, Clark returned to Afg-088 to obtain charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating. The dates indicated occupation of Afg-088 from about 1800 BC to 800 BC. It appeared that the site represented a transition occupation form late Ocean Bay to Early Kachemak. There remained, though, some uncertainty about the identity of the earliest culture found there. Eight small test excavations made in 2004 show that the first occupation at the site apparently was by late Ocean Bay people. Charcoal from one of their fires has been dated to between 3020 BC and BC 3500. (Beta-195048, age before calibration is 4540+70 BP or 2590 BC). Then there was a zone of occupational deposit that yielded few definitive artifacts but which probably is from an Ocean Bay-Kachemak transition. This was followed in the upper layers of the site by an apparent Early Kachemak occupation that was characterized by the presence of numerous notched net sinkers made on beach shingles. This is largely the zone dated between 1800 BC and 800 BC. DIG AFOGNAK ARCHAEOLOGY IN 2004 AND THE QUESTION OF OCEAN BAY-KACHEMAK TRADITION SUCCESSION Introduction In 2004 the Native Village of Afognak made a small-scale archaeological investigation of a site located at Litnik at the mouth of the Afognak River. The unnamed site, known by its code designation Afg-088, is situated on the southwest bank of the tidal estuary about 100 meters upriver from Winter Island. Afg-088 is one in a series of old encampment sites located on both sides of the river. After the subsidence and tidal waves of 1964 the edges of the densly forested site were washed out and the shore became littered with stone artifacts. Site deposits are thin and today only slumped banks and angular cobbles and boulders are visible along the shore bank. Several hundred items strongly represented by notched stone sinkers were collected there in 1971 (Workman and Clark 1979). From that collection it appeared that the site could shed light on the enigmatic if not elusive period when technological ways on Kodiak changed from the late Ocean Bay tradition that emphasized use of slate lance blades to the Early Kachemak tradition that emphasized grooved cobble fishing weights and notched pebble net sinkers. This occurred about 1800 BC. Later, in 1994 and 1995, Clark was at the Dig Afognak camp at Katanee and returned to Afg-088, the first year in a small Zodiac-type boat. Ha dug two small test bits and obtained charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating. The dates indicated occupation of Afg-088 was from about 1800 BC to 800 BC. An earlier date for an underlying occupation layer was obtained in 2004. These dates, coupled with consideration of the styles of artifacts collected from the shore reinforced interpretation of Afg-088 as both a very early Kachemak site (Kachemak was succeeded by Koniag about 1150 AD) and one technologically linked to the antecedent Ocean Bay technological tradition. In some respects it appears to document the development of the former out of Ocean Bay. It was necessary, though, to have better data than a handful of artifacts from two or three pits and a collection of undetermined age picked off the shore. The objective of work in 2004 was to obtain a controlled collection from a number of excavation plots illustrating especially the initial occupation of the site and any changes through time. The Afognak Bay and Litnik area has been described in previous reports to the Afognak Native Corporation and Native Village of Afognak and this will not be repeated here. Operations Donald W. Clark was in charge of the excavation. He was assisted by Jimmy Charliaga and received comprehensive logistical support, including transportation to and from the site, through the Dig Afognak camp. Youth and adults participating in Dig Afognak sessions were given the opportunity to assist. Several young persons and adults joined half-day shifts of excavation. But most children found the work tedious, uninteresting, dirty, wet and tiring. We were taken to the site by Bob May in his charter boat, transferred the last two hundred yards by skiff. At noon the crew returned to camp for lunch and the guest excavators were retired, sometimes to be replaced by a different afternoon crew. Excavation was by trowel after the thick “Katmai” ash top layer had been shoveled off. Water screening was not an option because of ecological reasons, and dry screening was not practical because of insufficient labor. The site has the unusual feature of two volcanic ash layers at the surface, one being the Katmai-Novarupta ash of 1912, above that mixed ash, silt and sand picked up from the head of the bay and deposited ty tidal waves in 1964. Depth of artifacts was recorded by 20 centimeter zones or according to position relative to key layers (for instance: “above red-brown soil” or “stony layer of basal tephra). Their depth below the Katmai ash was recorded in many instances (A tephra is a volcanic ash deposit, often an old buried ash layer).. Eight units of differing size where placed at varying distances form the shore and situated at variable spacing along a 50 meter transect. Spacing of units was determined largely the necessity to avoid large spruce trees and their roots. There were four additional small test pits along the extension the transect farther up the river These pits encountered slight cultural deposits even thought the beach nearby had been littered with artifacts or were aborted because of unreasonable obstruction by roots. Information on the test pits is provided in Table 1.
No. Size Depth below Katmai
Stratigraphy The total layering of a site deposit is of interest not only for clues it provides to the history of occupation but for a view of the locality prior to human occupation and information on the era after the site had been abandoned. Layering of deposits at Afg-088 was reasonably clear for major features and was consistent from pit to pit. Following it is sediment of light gray color consisting mainly of “Katmai” ash deposited in 1964 by tidal waves. It usually is between 9 and 16 cm thick. It appeared to be absent at the highest pit. A thin dark band, again little more than 1 cm thick, comprised the soil that developed between 1912 and 1964 (a period of 52 years, the period from 1964 to the present is of comparable magnitude. Three zoned shades of Katmai (Novarupta) ash are recognized. This is the usual case on northern Kodiak. They usually are 14 to 17 cm thick as a set. Next, but not distinct in every section, is a layer of chocolate-brown soil. It was formed after the site was abandoned. It has not determined to what extent this soil formed after the appearance of the spruce forest no more than 700 years ago and during the interval when only other vegetation grew at the site, probably about 2600 to 700 years ago. Below the chocolate-brown soil is an undisturbed layer of fine gray sand. It too is sterile. No grains of black sand, as make up local slate-greywacke beach deposits nor particles of shell were seen under the microscope. It appears that this layer is volcanic ash. Locally it is up to 11 cm thick but usually it is only half that. It appears to be missing from the soil sequence of some pits and possibly was formed while the site was still occupied. Disturbance from occupation would have made it unrecognizable in places. The first layer definitely of cultural origin, or containing occupational refuse such as charcoal and burned rock, was a dark gray or very dark brown soily layer that in places is as much as 30 cm thick Charcoal from this layer is dated to between BC 3020 and BC 3500 calibrated or true age. A red-brown soil that formed the next layer is sterile. It is persistent and was found in nearly every excavation though locally it is broken, patchy or missing and evidently was disturbed by the site occupation. It appears to be an old volcanic ash of relatively considerable thickness, though no analysis has been done. For most sections the 9-cm-thick (more or less) signaled the bottom of a numerous distribution of notched stones and the beginning of deposits that contained very few artifacts. This is the 6-cm-thick volcanic ash noted in the 1995 Test Pit 2 which lay under occupation dated at 3490 BP or somewhere between 1540 and 2025 BC in calibrated radiocarbon years (Clark 1996). In two places in TP5 short portions of a gray soil lay under this red-brown soil. Exami-nation under a microscope revealed a minor component of black platelets, probably sand derived from slate, in a very fine light gray matrix. This appears to be sediment from the bay, probably emplaced by a tidal wave. There followed a dark gray to very dark brown soily gravel. Then there was a thick dark soil some places streaked various shades of brown. In 1995 these layers were thought to be sterile (predating occupation) but in 2004 they were found to contain the occasional There were two principal substrate tephra zones. The upper one contained large pieces of charcoal or charcoal streaks in a light brown soil matrix, or in other cases rocks of various sizes. Frequently this layer had the appearance of being secondary—redeposited from elsewhere. Occasionally artifacts are present. Then the brown tephra soil became clear of stones, though it still contained the occasional artifact. Disturbed or secondary patches occasionally were encountered, as when redeposited glacial till and in two cases deposits of charcoal (hearths) were found. Where the tephra was thick and undisturbed color zonation had developed: bright orange or yellow brown. It was in the tephra soils, including the upper rocky or charcoal-flecked facies, that most of the scraped and sawn slate and slate lances were found as well as two maul heads and a probable ochre grinder. But there were no red ochre streaks or ochre-stained areas in any portion of the excavated deposits. Some pits were forced down to large angular blocks of stone and patches of brown gravelly till or gray clayey till representing a time, probably 11000 years ago, when the area was being freed from Ice Age glaciers.
Catalogue numbers At the Alutiiq Museum for Afg-088 run to 928, but 497 of these had been used for earlier collections. Too, many are for chert flakes which are not for implements. The implements and other items from the latest excavation are classified and enumerated in Table 2.
No. Description
One of the objectives of analysis is to determine if there had been changes through time, i.e., if upper levels artifacts are different from those from the lower levels. Notched stones. A changed distribution is seen very strongly for notched shingle sinkers. They occurred primarily in the top 20 cm of deposits or above the red-brown layer noted earlier. Of 138 such items only 6 are from contexts below the red-brown layer. Chert.. The distribution of chert was examined with some interest given the predominance of chert over slate in Ocean Bay I and the sometimes absence or near absence of chert from Ocean Bay II occupations (the latter is in fact characterized by ground slate). Otherwise, chert occurs in Early and later Kachemak but at a modest level. A sampling of the catalogue found 26 flakes and 10 core chunks, implements and fragments in the upper levels compared with15 and 6 (2 are just giant flakes) respectively for the lower levels. This excludes 7 intermediate items. One “slate mode” Ocean Bay II occupation occurs just across the river from Afog-088 and it appears that the same mode (in relation to chert) is present in the lower levels. If there was a vigorous flaked stone industry there one would expect to recover hundreds, if not thousands of flakes. Few formalized implements are recognized among the chert pieces and flaked stone. There is one leafshaped spear head (tip missing) and an ovoid biface knife from the lower levels. Some thick objects (illustrated) definitely were shaped but do not fit into convenient descriptive categories. One large flake (not chert) is nicely sharpened (retouched) along the edge, probably to prepare it for use as a knife. Two very long blade-like flakes (not chert, illustrated) almost are unique but they have not been modified into implements. Ulu blades. Blades for ulu-type knives are one of the most telling of artifacts. Through time they passed from an enigmatic absence during most of the Ocean Bay tradition, to a low frequency of occurrence in Early Kachemak times to great abundance during Koniag tradition times (after 1150 or 1200 AD).. Use of drilled holes and notches to assist in hafting the blade appeared in middle to late Kachemak time. In the Koniag tradition ulu blades sometimes were of enormous size, earlier ones tended not to be so large. The sample from Afg-088 has only a few ulu blades but there also are a number of edged ground slate fragments which bust the total probable ulu blades to near 20 examples. None have hafting attributes of Koniag blades (pecked, sawn, gouged holes). Moreover, none have drilled perforations or notches and thus it is unlikely that any are from a Late Kachemak occupation. (Drilled holes of Late Kachemak age also can occur in late Kachemak double-edged flensing blades, of which only a plain example was recovered). The ulus thus appear to date to middle to Early Kachemak times. Specific provenience records document their occurrence in Level 1 (7 examples), Level 1-2 combined (2 examples), Level 3 (1 example), Level 5-6 (flensing knife), Level 8 (unmodified slate sheet with naturally sharp edge), about the same-top of basal tephra (very well formed ulu, very small). The distribution of ulus overwhelmingly favors the top levels. This fits our previous understanding of their absence in Ocean Bay and rarity in Early Kachemak. One of the Level 1 ulus has a strongly concave cutting edge, which may have been an adaptation for cutting grass for thatching shelters. Slate Sawing and Scraping Technology. Sawing of slate sheets, usually to make slate strip blanks for spear heads, is a prominent aspect of Ocean Bay II (Late Ocean Bay). The technique later was little used on slate but continued in use for the production of bone tools. There is some question regarding its persistence into Early Kachemak times. Many examples were found at Afg-088. These include sawn strip blanks, sometimes still joined, artifacts made on such blanks that retain traces of saw cuts along the edges, and cut-off scrap. The next stage of preparing a slate artifact was to scrape it, especially to taper the cutting edges which were finished with whetstones and hones. In some cases squares of fine-grained stone to be used for hones also we cut out by sawing. The records show the following distribution of unfinished artifacts In addition there are a large number of semi-finished implements, mostly lances, where finishing has not removed some of the traces of sawing. Inasmuch as this technology occurs prominently in early times, in Ocean Bay II, it was expected mainly from the lower levels. That is exactly what we found, with the exception of a Level 3 hone. Further statistical details for acraped and sawn scraps (those enumerated above) will not be given here. Instead we shift consideration to lances which in form and workmanships find exact counterparts in Ocean Bay II. Slate Lances. Elongate slate points or blades, often of considerable size and length, are a distinctive feature of Late Ocean Bay weaponry. Then they disappear, though it is not certain that they did not persist into earliest Kachemak times. When elongate blades occur in the Koniag tradition, they usually are heavy double-edged blades of a knife or dagger format or signed tips for whaling darts. Those of Ocean Bay II usually have straight nearly parallel sides indicating manufacture from sawn slate strips. Often traces of saw cuts remain along the edges. These lances, usually just fragments, are one of the more common implements at Afg-088. There are two shallow examples from Level 2 and Level 1-4 combined, an intermediate example from Level 4, and 13 examples in various ways, usually an actual depth measurement or basal tephra context, identified as deep. The case for deep provenience is so strong that it appears to be exclusive and the three shallower specimens might have been brought up from disturbed context or might be cases of misidentification. Unlike the case at most investigated Ocean Bay sites, there is only one possible example of extra barbs along the edge and no decorative lines on the lances. This does not change when the sample is increased by 26 specimens reported previously (Clark 1996 Table 14).We do not know if that has any temporal significance though the one example is shallow. Cobble Spalls. Cobble spalls (boulder flakes) usually are exceedingly common at Kachemak sites where they served the purposes of a variety of tools ranging from concave edge scrapers to adze bits. In late Ocean Bay times they were used to saw slate and to scrape slate. Cobble spalls showing wear from such use were common across the river at the “Slate Site.” Relatively few of these objects – 8 specimens – were found at Afg-088 in 2004 and one in the three earlier test pits, and only one of them has the ideal shape of a spall that would be selected for a tool. However, a number were found on the shore, especially during earlier years. For this we offer no interpretations. Other implements. Adze bits figure prominently (11 specimens) in earlier collections from the shore at the upriver end of the site but none was found in the test pit collections. This distribution may indicate that there are (or were) areas of the site that differ notably from the area upon which excavation was focused. The bits are not in the bifacially prepared style of some Ocean Bay adzes but are more like Kachemak and especially Koniag adze bits which elsewhere also is the case for some Ocean Bay adze bits). Microblade core. During a geological examination in 1999 Gary Carver, in the presence of the author, found a microblade core in the shore bank immediately adjacent to the 1994 test pit and in the same general area as Test Pit 1 and 2 of 2004. The core appeared to come from lower soil layers or tephra not reached by the 1994 test pit and thus safely can be assumed to be from an older component. This type of artifact is associated with Ocean Bay I, but no other artifacts from the site appear to be that old stylistically. A slate lance blank suggestive of Ocean Bay II was found in the context of the microblade core. Conclusions Afg-088 was first occupied about 5400 years ago by Ocean Bay II (Late Ocean Bay) people. This estimate is confirmed by radiocarbon dating.. This was a time of intensive volcanic activity, not on Kodiak but on the adjacent Alaska Peninsula whence volcanic ash drifted to Kodiak. Later eruptions also are document4ed by volcanic ash layers sandwiched within the layers from human occupation. Most artifacts of the earliest occupation are imbedded in volcanic ash or tephra deposits. The attraction of the area undoubtedly was salmon from the Afognak River. At that time the site may have been near the high tide inland limit of Afognak Bay, instead of near the low tide limit as it is today. The succeeding period of occupation is represented by a thick layer of black and brown gravelly soil which shows the effects of camping on the site, but the campers left very few artifacts. This intermediate zone is identified as below the red-brown tephra and above the basal tan and brown tephras. It is unfortunate that so few artifacts were recovered inasmuch as at this time the Ocean Bay technological tradition came to an end and the Kachemak tradition began. We would like to be able to demonstrate that the one developed out of the other but presently have little more than a few artifacts (below) and circumstantial reasoning to support this proposition. There was a small ulu blade and some flaked slate blanks for spear heads. Although the evidence documenting Ocean Bay-Kachemak transition is not rigorous and seems to exclude the earliest layer of Afg-088 which is pure Late Ocean Bay, support for this proposition is drawn from the Kachemak-Ocean Bay superposition of occupation layers found at many sites. Sometimes the Ocean Bay-Kachemak succession appears to have been rapid. These sites include the Afognak site under discussion, two sites on Uganik Island (one excavated by Nowak in the 1970s, the other the Horseshoe Lagoon site investigated by the Alutiiq Museum in 2004), the Bliskii site on Near Island at the City of Kodiak (Saltonstall et al 1996), the Zaimka Mound site at the entrance to Womens Bay where work by the Alutiiq Museum was concluded in 2004 (Saltonstall communications to Clark 2002, 2003 and 2004), the mouth of Buskin Lake, and probably also Crag Point at the entrance to Anton Larsen Bay (Jordan 1992). Another case of succession and possible transition for which there are few details is at Malina Creek on Afognak Island (collection at Alutiiq Museum). At some of these sites the lure of the salmon fishery would have resulted in successive possibly unrelated occupations; but elsewhere that explanation does not hold and a direct historical relationship seems likely. Regardless of the strength of any interpretation placed on the presence of a few Ocean Bay attributes, the site evidently was being used intensively by sometime between 2000 BC and 1600 BC (the difference between these dates is a statistical function of the radiocarbon dating method). This dating corresponds to the very earliest dating of the Kachemak tradition found elsewhere, as at Old Kiavak and Crag Point (Clark 1996) and Zaimka mound, and Horseshoe Cove on Uganik Island (Saltonstall personal communications to Clark June 2004 and earlier). Large notched pebble net sinkers (averaging about 10 cm long but up to 15 cm) are found at only a few other sites where they are associated with the very earliest Kachemak occupations. The early Kachemak tool inventory at Afg-088 is limited, or even impoverished though notched weights are abundant as also are natural cobble mauls used for driving trap or weir piling, various but relatively uncommon slate points, uncommon chert points, handy tool cobble spalls, and a single stone lamp found on the beach. We expected to find clay-lined pits and aprons around hearths (usually in dwellings), a distinctive plummet-style grooved stone, other grooved cobbles, extensive cobble roasting stone or boiling stone clusters. And stemmed double-edged knives (see Clark 1996). There should have been numerous cobble spalls shaped into implements. None of these were found. An additional radiocarbon date brings occupation of the site up to about 1000 BC. (Clark 1996:73). The area probably ceased to be used soon thereafter as no artifacts of Late Kachemak style were recovered, the relatively large size of the collection notwithstanding. However, within the early centuries of the next millennium small Late Kachemak settlements had been established a few hundred yards farther up the river, on both sides, at the Tsunami and the Salmon bend sites which were excavated by Dig Afognak in 2001 and 2002. Reports on that work have been distributed to members of the Afognak Native Corporation.. Late Kachemak occupation was succeeded by prehistoric Alutiiq of the Koniag Tradition who lived around the lagoon in large multi-compartment houses. Koniag culture was an n expression of ongoing technological and social development. Fishing techniques probably changed too as the Koniag houses are located farther up the river than the Kachemak sites. It was there too just upstream from the reach of high tide that a weir and salmon trap were built during the 19th century during the Russian and early
Clark, Donald W. 1996 The Early Kachemak Tradition on Kodiak Island at Old Kiavak. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper 155. 2000 Afognak Before Russians (slightly revised from 1999 version). Document prepared for Afognak Native Corporation., Kodiak, Alaska 78+16 pp. 2001 Litnik Archaeology at the Tsunami Site—2001 Distributed by Afognak Native Corporation. 345 pp typescript and plates. 2002 Litnik Archaeology at the Salmon Bend Site -- 2002. Distributed by Afognak Native Corporation. 39 pp typescript and plates. Jordan, Richard H. Nowak, Michael Workman William B. and D. W. Clark
2004 Catalogue
Afognak Data Recovery Project © 2005 Native Village of Afognak 204 E. Rezanof, Ste. 100, Kodiak, Alaska 99615 907-486-6357 • www.afognak.org |
Archaeology ~ 1999 Archaeology ~ 1999/2000 Aleut Town ~ 2001 Litnik Site ~ 2002 Litnik ~ 2003 Tsunami Site ~ 2004 Dig Afognak ~ Selected Biography |
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