Joshua D. Reuther

A terminal Pleistocene child cremation and residential structure from eastern Beringia.

Cremated remains and a burial site in central Alaska provide information on early humans in North America. The dearth of human remains and residential sites has constrained inquiry into Beringian lifeways at the transition of the late Pleistocene–early Holocene. We report on human skeletal remains and a residential structure from central Alaska dated to ~11,500 calendar years ago. The remains are from a ~3-year-old child who was cremated in a pit within a semisubterranean house. The burial-cremation and house have exceptional integrity and preservation and exhibit similarities and differences to both Siberian Upper Paleolithic and North American Paleoindian features.

High Resolution Radiocarbon Dating at the Gerstle River Site, Central Alaska

Abstract Early Holocene cultural material at Gerstle River, central Alaska, provides excellent contextual controls for examining variability in radiocarbon dating. Over 4,000 bone and teeth fragments are directly associated with over 7,000 lithic artifacts and 10 discrete charcoal-rich hearths in a thin occupation layer (∼10 cm vertical thickness) within well-stratified loess deposits. Radiocarbon dating of the hearth features indicates overlapping ages at 2σ, suggesting contemporaneity. This study uses the high level of resolution at Gerstle River to evaluate systematic radiocarbon variation due to different materials (collagen and charcoal), different pretreatments of collagen (regular and ultrafiltered), and interlaboratory variation through paired bone and hearth charcoal dates, split samples, and cross-checks. Accurately dating bone collagen is important given the closer association of dated samples with human activities (e.g., butchering) compared with charcoal fragments in certain contexts (e.g., driftwood, paleosols, or alluvial deposits). This study demonstrates the efficacy of bone collagen dating with ultrafiltration to counter potential site-specific contamination. These results also indicate that even in high-resolution situations with little evidence for old-wood effect and contamination, considerable variability can exist among cross-check and even split samples from single pieces of charcoal from short-lived species.

TESTING THE "DICARB PROBLEM": A CASE STUDY FROM NORTH ALASKA

An assumption exists in North Alaskan archaeological literature that radiometric assays produced by the nowdefunct Dicarb Radioisotope Co. (Dicarb) are too young or more recent when compared to those produced by other laboratories. This assumption is statistically tested by comparing radiocarbon assays produced by Dicarb to those produced by Beta Analytic, Inc.; Geochron Laboratories; and the NSF-Arizona AMS Facility. The primary data set consists of radiometric and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) assays produced from materials excavated at the Croxton site, Locality J, Tukuto Lake, northern Alaska. Statistical analyses demonstrate that 14C assays produced by Dicarb tend to be younger than assays produced by other laboratories on crosscheck samples, with differences ranging between 350 and 1440 yr.

Museum Cultural Collections: Pathways to the Preservation of Traditional and Scientific Knowledge

Museums of natural and cultural history in the twenty-first century hold responsibilities that are vastly different from those of the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-centuries, the time of many of their inceptions. No longer conceived of as cabinets of curiosities, institutional priorities are in the process of undergoing dramatic changes. This article reviews the history of the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, from its development in the early 1920s, describing the changing ways staff have worked with Indigenous individuals and communities. Projects like the Modern Alaska Native Material Culture (MANMC) and the Barter Island Project are highlighted as examples of how artifacts and the people who constructed them are no longer viewed as simply examples of material culture and Native informants, but are considered partners in the acquisition, preservation, and perpetuation of traditional and scientific knowledge in Alaska.