Debra Corbett

The kelp highway hypothesis: marine ecology, the coastal migration theory, and the peopling of the Americas

ABSTRACT In this article, a collaborative effort between archaeologists and marine ecologists, we discuss the role kelp forest ecosystems may have played in facilitating the movement of maritime peoples from Asia to the Americas near the end of the Pleistocene. Growing in cool nearshore waters along rocky coastlines, kelp forests offer some of the most productive habitats on earth, with high primary productivity, magnified secondary productivity, and three-dimensional habitat supporting a diverse array of marine organisms. Today, extensive kelp forests are found around the North Pacific from Japan to Baja California. After a break in the tropics—where nearshore mangrove forests and coral reefs are highly productive—kelp forests are also found along the Andean Coast of South America. These Pacific Rim kelp forests support or shelter a wealth of shellfish, fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and seaweeds, resources heavily used historically by coastal peoples. By about 16,000 years ago, the North Pacific Coast offered a linear migration route, essentially unobstructed and entirely at sea level, from northeast Asia into the Americas. Recent reconstructions suggest that rising sea levels early in the postglacial created a highly convoluted and island-rich coast along Beringias southern shore, conditions highly favorable to maritime hunter-gatherers. Along with the terrestrial resources available in adjacent landscapes, kelp forests and other nearshore habitats sheltered similar suites of food resources that required minimal adaptive adjustments for migrating coastal peoples. With reduced wave energy, holdfasts for boats, and productive fishing, these linear kelp forest ecosystems may have provided a kind of “kelp highway” for early maritime peoples colonizing the New World.

Identification of parasitoses in a child burial from Adak Island (Central Aleutian Islands, Alaska)

Bothriocephalid (Diphyllobothrium pacificum) and Ascarid (Ascaris lumbricoides) eggs have been identified in a sample taken in the abdominal cavity of a child skeleton found in Zeto Point (ADK-011), an archaeological site on Adak Island in the Central Aleutian Islands (Alaska).

The western Aleutians : Cultural isolation and environmental change

Recent research in the western Aleutians addresses two primary issues: the nature and extent of cultural exchange along the Aleutian chain, and Holocene environmental change and its effects on the development of Aleut culture. Cultural isolation is a major paradigm of researchers working in the Aleutians. Review of the distribution of several cultural traits suggests the Aleuts adopted many cultural elements originating outside the chain, but the distribution of these to the western islands was uneven.

Saĝdaĝ—To Catch Birds

Birds were an important, but little understood, part of the Aleut economy. Birds provided a tiny proportion of the food compared to sea mammals and fish, but their skins, feathers, and bones provided raw materials for clothing, tools, and religious purposes. This paper uses ethnohistorical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence to identify the specialized techniques and describe the tools used for hunting birds. McCartney’s procurement system concept is used to organize the data and place bird hunting into a broader context. Men, women, and children hunted birds on land and sea, in fair weather and foul. Understanding the techniques and weapons used for bird hunting are only the first step to a more complete appreciation of the role of birds in Aleut culture.

Shifting ground: archaeological surveys of upland Adak Island, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska and changing assumptions of Unangan land use patterns

Abstract Archaeological site surveys in the Aleutian archipelago of western Alaska understandably focused along the shoreline, based on an assumption that land resources were a minor contribution to Unangan life. This view was the dominant but not unanimous view from the 1960s through the 1990s. There were occasional reports of upland sites. In 2007 through 2009, a concerted effort was made to survey a portion of the upland areas on Adak Island. In 2007, eight new sites with two to 22 cultural depressions were found between 33 and 115 m above sea level. Radiocarbon dates of 190±50 rcybp and 590±40 rcybp from two sites demonstrate that these are not modern features. The results of the 2007 season nearly doubled, from 12 to 20, the number of upland sites with cultural depressions reported in the Aleutian Islands. Three additional upland sites found in 2008 included an isolated flake, a lithic scatter, and a heavily vegetated site with a cultural stratum. The 2009 survey on the Pacific coast resulted in no new upland sites. These results are used to suggest that the understanding of Unangan land use needs revision.

A burial cave in the western Aleutian Islands, Alaska.

During the 1998 field season, the Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project (WAAPP) team located a cave in the Near Islands, Alaska. Near the entrance of the cave, the team identified work areas and sleeping/sitting areas surrounded by cultural debris and animal bones. Human burials were found in the cave interior. In 2000, with permission from The Aleut Corporation, archaeologists revisited the site. Current research suggests three distinct occupations or uses for this cave. Aleuts buried their dead in shallow graves at the rear of the cave circa 1,200 to 800 years ago. Aleuts used the front of the cave as a temporary hunting camp as early as 390 years ago. Finally, Japanese and American military debris and graffiti reveal that the cave was visited during and after World War II. Russian trappers may have also taken shelter there 150 to 200 years ago. This is the first report of Aleut cave burials west of the Delarof Islands in the central Aleutians.

Zooarchaeological Analysis at ADK-011, Adak Island, Central Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Although William Dall explored the Central Aleutians nearly 140 years ago, surprisingly little archaeological research has occurred in this area since then. During 1999 the Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project excavated archaeological sites on north Adak Island, Alaska. Faunal remains from two excavation pits at ADK-011 are analyzed here. This is the first analysis of faunal remains from this particular island. Our research reveals that late prehistoric Aleuts depended on marine mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrates. Although whale remains were recovered, it is currently impossible to tell if these represent hunted or stranded animals. Birds were hunted for their valuable bones as well as for their meat. Aleuts captured both pelagic and near-shore fish. Invertebrate remains indicate that prehistoric Aleuts depended on nearby high energy reefs as well as the calmer waters of Clam Lagoon for subsistence. Additionally, the marine reservoir effect must be considered when understanding radiocarbon dates from Aleutian archaeological sites.

Two Chiefs' Houses from the Western Aleutian Islands

The earliest Russian explorers of the Aleutians described Near Island chiefs’ houses that were larger than those of ordinary people. The Russians noted that these houses were also functionally different than ordinary dwellings. Chiefs entertained guests, sheltered widows and orphans, and hosted religious ceremonies in their houses. Between 1997 and 2003, Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project (WAAPP) archaeologists excavated two unusual structures on the Near Islands of Buldir and Attu that may have been the houses of chiefs. The structures were larger than ordinary houses, with substantial whalebone structural components. Perhaps of more significance are the substantial caches of artifacts, parts of animals, and burials associated with the structures. The items used in the construction appear to have had spiritual significance, suggesting that people with great power and authority occupied the structures.

Petroglyphs from Gillon Point, Agattu Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

In 2002, biologists with the National Marine Fisheries Service recorded petroglyphs while counting sea lions at the rookery near Gillon Point on Agattu Island, Aleutian Islands. This is the first well-documented rock art in the Aleutian archipelago. The images, individually and in groups, appear to represent female genitalia, rectangles and straight lines, and an anthropomorphic figure. The Agattu petroglyphs either represent art that arose in situ or motifs imported from elsewhere. The engravings do not reveal evidence of contact with human groups living to the west or south.

Anthropology in the Aleutians: Introductory Comments

Anthropological research in the Aleutians tends to be patchy in time and space. An apparent wealth of information becomes, on closer inspection, snippets of datasets separated by gaps. Decades may separate the various ethnohistorical, ethnographic, linguistic, cultural, or physical anthropology studies, and archaeological projects. Hundreds of kilometers stretch between project areas on the islands. Sample sizes are small or localized. No clearly defi ned cultural continuum guides our history building or frames our understanding about archipelagowide Aleut relationships with land- and seascapes, each other, people from other cultures, and nonhumans. All of us who perform research in the region recognize these limitations, and rectifying them is the transcendent goal of the many research endeavors operating in the Aleutians. A near-continuous series of projects focusing on understanding past Aleut lives in the Near Islands, the Rat Islands, the Andreanofs, and the Amaknak Bridge site on Unalaska among other locations began over twenty years ago. Archaeological research forms the core of the projects, but like all anthropological work in the Arctic, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and cooperative interdisciplinary research are critical elements. The mass of knowledge produced by these many projects results in a larger, comparable, and broader information base (cf., Corbett, West, and Lefevre [ed.] 2010; Dumond [ed.] 2001; Funk this volume; Hanson 2010; Rogers this volume; West et al. [ed.]