"Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve Scenery" by U.S. National Park Service , public domain
Gates of the ArcticUncovering Prehistory at Lake Matcharak |
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National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
NPS photo by Joe Keeney
Uncovering Prehistory at Lake Matcharak
Archaeologists at work on the Matcharak Peninsula Site, August 2013. This photo was taken about a week after
excavations began. The string grid helps to guide the archaeologists on where to excavate and is used to map
the exact location of each artifact that is found.
Human Occupations 7,000
Years Ago
From July 29 to August 17, 2013, NPS archaeologists Joe Keeney, Jillian Richie,
and Caroline Ketron, along with volunteer archaeologists Sam Hutchins and
Ryan Nordstrom, visited Lake Matcharak, a site along the Upper Noatak River in
Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, to expand on subsurface tests from previous years. The Matcharak Peninsula Site (AMR-196) is located on a south-facing
terrace, centered on a small peninsula along the southeast shore of the lake.
Keeney, a graduate student in the University
of Alaska Fairbanks department of anthropology, led the team with the goal to collect data
about the cultural materials buried beneath the
surface and how the overlying sediments were
deposited. The site is the focus of Keeney’s
master’s thesis research, and the data will
hopefully illustrate details about the people
inhabiting the site in prehistory. Radiocarbon
dates that are associated with stone tools
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and well-preserved bone recovered from the
site reflect human occupations to as early as
around 7,000 years ago, making it significant
as the largest collection of well-preserved
faunal remains from this time period and the
associated Northern Archaic technological
tradition. Analysis of the artifacts from this site
should shed light on life ways of these Arctic
hunter-gatherers, how they subsisted at Lake
Matcharak, when, and at what time of year.
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
During fieldwork, the archaeologists carefully
Meticulous Sifting and
Documenting Yields Results and systematically dug through approximately
microblades, and utilized flake tools. All sediments were backfilled upon completion of the
project to leave as little trace of the fieldwork
as possible.
7 m3 of surface sediments. They precisely
mapped over 500 bones, bone fragments,
stone tools, and flakes (the waste material
from manufacturing stone tools) using a total
station, a laser-based surveying instrument.
All dirt was sifted with a fine mesh to locate
artifacts too small to be seen during excavation and each artifact was then carefully
collected for later analysis. The first formal
tools recovered from the site were found this
summer, including the base of a side-notched
point (a tool indicative of Northern Archaic
technology), a microblade core, numerous
Photo courtesy of Brooks Range Aviation
NPS photo by Joe Keeney
The first formal tools
recovered from the site
were found this summer,
including the base of a
side-notched point (a tool
indicative of Northern
Archaic technology), a
microblade core, numerous
microblades, and utilized
flake tools.
The Matcharak Peninsula Site (AMR-196) was
originally identified in 2009 when NPS archaeologists discovered a 5,000 year-old caribou
bone and evidence of stone tools. The site was
then revisited in 2010 and 2011 for extended
testing, resulting in over 600 bones, bone
fragments, and stone tool flakes being recovered from approximately 6 m3 of excavated
sediments.
A conical microblade core discovered during
excavations at the Matcharak Peninsula Site in 2013.
The 2013 archaeology crew at Lake Matcharak.
From left are Ryan Nordstrom, Caroline Ketron, Sam
Hutchins, Jillian Richie, and Joe Keeney.
Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve
For more information about the work being done at
the Matcharak Peninsula Site, contact Archaeologist
Joe Keeney at (907) 455-0634, or email him at
Joseph_Keeney@nps.gov.
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