Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations of Prince William Sound and the Pacific Coast of the Kenai Peninsula

Prince William Sound and the outer Kenai Peninsula coast were the homeland of the Chugach and the Unegkurmiut, two related groups of Pacific Eskimo with a Modified Maritime subsistence and settlement pattern. Despite a wealth of climatic, tectonic, biological, and ethnohistorical data for the region...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Arctic anthropology Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 132 - 145
Main Authors:	Yarborough, Michael R., Yarborough, Linda Finn
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	University of Wisconsin Press 01-01-1998
Subjects:	Archaeological surveys Coasts Earthquakes Fjords Mammals National parks Natural resources Paleoanthropology Paleoclimatology Salmon
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Prince William Sound and the outer Kenai Peninsula coast were the homeland of the Chugach and the Unegkurmiut, two related groups of Pacific Eskimo with a Modified Maritime subsistence and settlement pattern. Despite a wealth of climatic, tectonic, biological, and ethnohistorical data for the region, knowledge of the area's archaeology is still rather meager. The oldest radiocarbon date from the Kenai coast is only 1710 ± 120 BP. Out of necessity, this discussion focuses primarily on Prince William Sound, where the earliest known occupation dates to about 4400 BP. However, even for the sound, there are more questions than answers. Despite these weaknesses, this region may be ideal for viewing the interaction between people and their subsistence base, and exploring the relationship between maritime resources and cultural change. Holocene climatic fluctuations may have affected faunal habitat sufficiently to require adjustments in not only patterns of resource use, but also settlement patterns, social organization, and inter-group relationships. Such adjustments might be most noticeable in areas where earthquake activity could have compounded the effects of environmental change and the prehistoric residents may have had to struggle to adapt their maritime-oriented culture to variations in resource availability.
ISSN:	0066-6939 1933-8139