Ecology and Subsistence Technology Along the Noatak and Kobuk Rivers during the Late Prehistoric Time Period

The delicate relationship between environment and resource availability and the impact it had on cultural development during the late prehistoric time period (1200 A.D. to 1800 A.D.) in interior northwest Alaska is poorly understood. A radiocarbon chronology for this region and time period must first be developed in order to explore this topic fully. This research project addresses this chronological data gap with new radiocarbon dates from four late prehistoric sites within the Kobuk and Noatak River valleys. Radiocarbon dates for individual houses from each site will be reported on and then the subsistence related artifact assemblage from each house will be considered. Taking these data into account, I explore the roles that ecology and human behavior played in the development of technological variations between these subsistence related artifact assemblages. Results from this research project will be presented at the 2009 Alaska Anthropological Association meetings to take place in Juneau , Alaska .

Subsistence-related artifacts from the Maiyumerak Creek Site (XBM-131) in northwest Alaska (Illustration by Maureen Howard)