Abstract
The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral to understanding hunter-gatherer societies in the past, and is particularly of interest in high latitude environments as they can illuminate human-environmental interactions and adaptations. Until recently, very little archaeological research had been undertaken on the Bering Sea coasts of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and relatively little is known about precontact lifeways in this region. Here, we present stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data from non-mortuary human hair excavated from Nunalleq (c. 1300 CE–1750 CE) – a precontact village site in Western Alaska. Now the focus of a major research project, excavations at Nunalleq began as a rescue excavation, as the site is eroding rapidly into the Bering Sea. Following an initial pilot study on cut strands representing a small number of individuals, a larger body of isotope data has now been generated from the first phase of the investigations of Nunalleq (2009, 2010). These new data, including sulphur isotope values, provide further evidence for the subsistence strategy at the site, including a mixed diet of marine and terrestrial foods (but likely dominated by salmonids). In addition, these new data from Nunalleq highlight some dietary variability amongst the inhabitants of the site. Analyses of additional longer hair strands suggest this variability may not be exclusively due to seasonal variation, and may evidence inter-personal dietary differences. Data from Nunalleq are compared to isotope data from previous studies of Thule-era and earlier Alaskan sites, and to isotope data from Thule sites in Canada and Greenland and the potential of ongoing and future research at the site is discussed, along with the implications for our understanding of Thule subsistence strategies and precontact lifeways on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 950-963 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |
| Volume | 17 |
| Early online date | 10 Jun 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2018 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentsThis work was funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K006029/1) grant awarded to Rick Knecht, Kate Britton and Charlotta Hillerdal (Aberdeen); an AHRC-LabEx award (AH/N504543/1) to KB, RK, Keith Dobney (Liverpool) and Isabelle Sidéra (Nanterre); the Carnegie Trust to the Universities of Scotland (travel grant to KB); and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The onsite collection of samples was carried out by staff and students from the University of Aberdeen, volunteer excavators and the residents of Quinhagak. We had logistical and planning support for fieldwork by the Qanirtuuq Incorporated, Quinhagak, Alaska, and the people of Quinhagak, who we also thank for sampling permissions. Special thanks to Warren Jones and Qanirtuuq Incorporated (especially Michael Smith and Lynn Church), and to all Nunalleq project team members, in Aberdeen and at other institutions, particularly Charlotta Hillerdal and Edouard Masson-Maclean (Aberdeen) for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, and also to Véronique Forbes, Ana Jorge, Carly Ameen and Ciara Mannion (Aberdeen) for their inputs. Thanks also to Michelle Alexander (York). Finally, thank you to Ian Scharlotta (Alberta) for inviting us to contribute to this special issue, to the Editor, and to three anonymous reviewers, whose suggestions and recommended changes to an earlier version of this manuscript greatly improved the paper.
Keywords
- palaeodiet
- keratin
- Alaska
- hunter-gatherer-fisher
- marine foragers
- Thule
- Precontact Yup'ik
Access to Document
- Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of permafrost preserved human hair from rescue excavations (2009, 2010) at the precontact site of Nunalleq, Alaska
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
