Arctic Archaeology || Aleutian Island Prehistory: Living in Insular Extremes

Aleutian Island Prehistory: Living in Insular ExtremesAuthor(s): Allen P. McCartney and Douglas W. VeltreSource: World Archaeology, Vol. 30, No. 3, Arctic Archaeology (Feb., 1999), pp. 503-515Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/124966 .

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Aleutian Island prehistory: living in

insular extremes

Allen PR McCartney and Douglas W. Veltre

Abstract

Peoples of the Aleutian Islands lived under a number of stressful environmental constraints, including extreme isolation, volcanic eruptions, seismic activity (including tsunamis), frequent storms, rough seas, gale-force winds, frequent fog and precipitation, and an exclusive marine diet. Never- theless, the Aleutian Islands supported a large maritime population during late prehistoric times. Cultural adaptations to these conditions included the use of relatively large coastal settlements, semisubterranean houses, tailored warm and waterproof clothing, sophisticated skin boats for hunting, fishing, and traveling, broad species utilization of food and raw materials, food storage, fuel for heating and cooking, and refuge rocks or islets for protection against raids.

Keywords

Aleutian Islands; prehistory; volcanism; tectonics; tsunami; maritime adaptations; subarctic climate.

Introduction

The Aleutian Islands stretch westward for 1,600km beyond the Alaska Peninsula in southwestern Alaska, separating the Bering Sea from the North Pacific Ocean (Fig. 1). Aleuts who occupied this subarctic chain of approximately 100 islands for at least 8,000 years might be perceived as living in a relatively mild climatic zone exhibiting few extreme conditions compared to Eskimos or Inuit of the high or middle Arctic, where sub-zero winter temperatures are some of the coldest in the world. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Aleuts lived under different but extreme physiographic and climatic conditions that are peculiar to that archipelago. In fact, Aleuts lived in the most dangerous, even catastrophic, northern area, although one of high marine productivity and diver- sity. Northern Alaska, the Canadian Archipelago, and northern Greenland are, by comparison, gentle places of predictable seasonal changes even if they have very cold winter temperatures.

This paper summarizes Aleutian prehistory, sets forth the physiographic, locational, biological, and cultural conditions under which Aleuts lived, and shows the compounding

World Archaeology Vol. 30(3): 503-515 Arctic Archaeology (C Routledge 1999 0043-8243



504 Allen P McCartney and Douglas W Veltre

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Figure I The Aleutian Islands.

effects of the sometimes cataclysmic events upon the occupants of this island chain. Throughout, we use the term 'Aleut' (or Unangax, in their own language) to refer simply to occupants of the chain, at whatever period or place. In fact, there probably were always geographic segments within the Aleut population which differed from one another in terms of dialect, gene pool, and cultural patterning, similar to those differences of historic times (Bergsland and Dirks 1990: xviii, 2-5). In addition, historically known Aleuts occupied the lower portion of the Alaska Peninsula (west of approximately 1590W longitude) and the adjacent Shumagin Islands south of the Peninsula. Because the majority of Aleuts lived in the archipelago proper, and because the lower Alaska Peninsula flora and fauna are of a mainland Alaskan type, we concentrate here solely on occupants of the island chain.

Aleutian prehistory

The archipelago has been occupied for most of the Holocene, at least for the past 8,000 years. The earliest well-documented site at c. 8,000-8,500 BP is the Anangula core and blade site, located on a small island off the larger Umnak Island (Aigner 1970; Laughlin and Marsh 1954; Laughlin 1980; McCartney and Turner 1966; McCartney and Veltre 1996). This large site expresses a unifacial toolkit based on Upper Paleolithic-derived core and blade production: large to small cores and blades, platform rejuvenation flakes, trans- verse burins, burin spalls, end and side scrapers made on blades, and other related tools. No organic implements are preserved from the acidic volcanic ash soils. Sites of similar ages have recently been dated at Unalaska Bay on northern Unalaska Island (Knecht and



Aleutian Island prehistory: living in insular extremes 505

Davis 1998). Cultural materials of this early period are referred to as the Anangula tradition (McCartney 1984).

Mid-Holocene period sites of c. 5500 BP are known from Umnak and Unalaska islands in the eastern Aleutians (Aigner et al. 1976; Veltre et al. 1984) but are characterized by bifacially flaked tools and an array of bone tools such as harpoon heads, foreshafts, fishhooks, wedges, adze heads, handles, and other implements.

Beginning about 4,500 years ago, shell midden sites appeared throughout much of the chain, presumably reflecting a greater availability of marine invertebrates such as urchins, chitons, mussels, clams, and limpets. Midden sites are commonly located on coastal terraces, spits, stream mouths, and other low coastal areas (Jochelson 1925). Such sites were occupied until historic Russian contact in the mid-eighteenth century, when wide- spread depopulation came from introduced diseases, massacres, and Russian subjugation (Veltre 1990). Preservation of faunal remains at these sites is often excellent, due to the high concentration of calcium carbonates in the form of shellfish remains. Cultural assem- blages of this later prehistoric period are referred to as the Aleutian tradition.

The Aleut pattern

Long-term site occupations and relative stability in procurement patterns over time suggest that once the basic maritime and insular adaptation was invented, it was the foundation upon which all Aleut occupation was based. People of the Aleutian tradition (c. 2500 BC-AD 1800) developed the basic adaptive pattern that prevailed throughout the chain (excluding the easternmost island, Unimak, and the tip of the Alaska Peninsula). It should be stressed that local expression of this pattern differed from island to island and locale to locale and over time in terms of specific cultural traits and responses to environmental conditions.

Briefly, the Aleut adaptive pattern included the following elements (see Hrdlicka 1945; Jochelson 1925; Lantis 1970, 1984; Laughlin 1980; Liapunova 1996; McCartney 1984; Townsend 1980; Veltre 1994; and Veniaminov 1984 for overviews of prehistoric, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic details). Aleuts lived in shore-edge settlements for proximity to the sea (over which most travel occurred). Such settlements consisted of several small to large barabaras, or semisubterranean houses. Large settlements afforded the oppor- tunity for protection from attack, food sharing in times of need, and overall social and economic support. Seasonal or special task sites were also used for shorter periods. At contact, settlements of the eastern Aleutians were ranked societies containing up to five or more social levels and led by chiefs of a noble rank.

Barabaras (Plate 1), which were entered by notched log ladders through roof openings, were made of whale bones and/or driftwood timbers and covered with turf and grass layers. Some of these houses were very large (in excess of 50m long) and housed well over one hundred related persons. As underground houses, they protected their occupants from wind and rain and maintained a more or less constant temperature due to their thick, insulating walls and roofs.

Fire was used to cook food and to heat houses. Large to small oil lamps are commonly found in Aleutian sites that attest to these uses. Charred griddle stones, also commonly




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ag of driftwood, it was not burned > fj in hrts; instead,. se mama oi was th fue o S<f x.

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Plate g 'Natives of Oonalashka, and their Habitations'. Illustration of the outside of an Ainut barabara (left) and other village activities, drawn by John Webber during Captain James Cooktn 1778 stop at Unalaska Island.

found in prehistoric house ruins, show how food was heated/cooked. Due to the short- age of driftwood it was not burned in hearthst instead, sea mammal oil was the fuel of choice.

Tailored skin clothing in the form of birdskin and sea mammal skin parkas and waterproof gut outer parkas (kalmleikals) provided a combination of warmth and dryness against the cool and wet of the Aleutians. Exquisite sewing made it possible to produce clothing that was well decorated as well as warm and dry.

Aleuts are famous for their skin kayak-style boats, baidalrkas, made of skins sewn around a flexible wooden frame. Aleuts could travel rapidly and for long distances in these durable vessels, which were an integral part of the hunting and offshore fishing apparatus. Hunting and fishing technology was well developed with regard to effective procurement of a wide variety of food and raw material species. Harpoons, darts propelled with throw- ing boards, compound fishhooks, stone sinkers, collection baskets, digging and prying picks, and various ropes are examples of implements used for getting sea mammals, fish, birds, marine invertebrates, and terrestrial and sea plants.

Food storage was a critical aspect of Aleut life. Dried fish, summer roots and berries, and flensed whales and other large sea mammals all required storage in order to level out food supplies over the seasons, particularly over the winter and early spring. Foods of great abundance (in frequency or size) were stored.

Refuge rocks or islets near settlements were used when attacked. Lookouts were posted around villages to sound an alarm if raiders approached, at which time people removed to the refuge rocks where armament was stored for repelling attackers.




Constraints on human occupation

In the following sections, we review the major constraints upon human occupation of the Aleutian archipelago. While these often impacted coastal societies in compound, rather than single, ways, they are separated here into physiographic, tectonic, climatic, and biological categories for the sake of presentation. We must generalize these constraints for all the islands for the sake of brevity, but in fact there are differences throughout the chain with regard to such variables as island size, volcanoes, animal habitats, and weather conditions. Thus, Aleuts of a local area were impacted in distinctive ways, depending upon which of these conditions prevailed. For instance, villages near the bases of volcanic peaks felt the impact of local high velocity down-draft winds, whereas villages on flat islands had no winds of this type. Similarly, villages downwind from frequently erupting volcanoes were likely to receive greater amounts of destructive ash falls than were villages in more protected areas.

Island physiography

The Aleutians are among the most isolated islands in the world. Only the Middle and South Pacific islands are more remote locales for human habitation. The available archaeological evidence points to human migration westward into the chain from the Alaskan mainland, making for an east-west series of contacts between islands rather than contacts from the south or north. Aleuts living in the Near Islands at the western tip were the most isolated of all. Whether seeking protection from neighboring groups or assist- ance in times of need, there were few opportunities to receive help from surrounding societies. This meant that any one village population or society was vulnerable to raiding or to starvation when food supplies failed, especially in the winter when storms prevented sea hunting or movements of people by skin boats.

Although there is wide variation in island size and elevation throughout the archipelago, with eastern islands tending to be both larger and higher (to c. 2,900m) than those in the central or western islands, such variation likely was of little consequence to Aleuts. Of far more significance to them was the immediate coastal environment, an effectively two-dimensional realm which was generally physiographically and biologically uniform from island to island. While narrow, rocky beaches backed by high cliffs or steep volcanic slopes made as much as 95 per cent of the shoreline unsuitable for establishing settlements, Aleuts were still able to obtain subsistence resources from the entire coastal margins of their islands (Plate 2).

Placement in the Bering Sea-North Pacific Ocean domain also necessitated highly developed navigational skills for survival. Historic period Aleuts were famous for traveling many kilometers offshore in their baidarkas, riding out storms by lashing several boats together to form a platform, and navigating by using bird and seaweed sightings, wind direction, and ocean swell patterns when visibility was curtailed by fog and mist (Dyson 1986). While highly accomplished seamen and sea hunters, Aleuts were also vulnerable to accidents or getting lost during stormy weather or hypothermia due to long exposure on the water. Of constant danger to seafarers were the strong currents which ran along the north and south shores of islands as well as between them. Tides running through



508 Allen P McCartney and Douglas W. Veltre

I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __S REN b

Plate 2 The Bering Sea coast on the western side of Adak Island, showing typical Aleutian shoreline. (D. W. Veltre)

narrow island passes can produce large standing waves, whirlpools, and tidal rips that create hazards for even largae, modern vessels.

Tectonic factors

The Aleutian archipelago owes its existence to the dynamics of plate tectonics. Just to the south of the Aleutian Islands, the northward-moving Pacific Plate travels at several centimeters per year beneath the relatively stable North American Plate. This subduction zone produces several effects characteristic of similar plate tectonics elsewhere in the world. These include the extremely deep Aleutian Trench (often in excess of 6,OO0m) just south of the island arc and active volcanism and frequent earthquake activity along the plate boundary. The islands themselves consist both of the above-water tops of volcanoes as well as of portions of the earth's crust which have been tectonically transported and uplifted from more southerly latitudes. At least twenty-six volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands have been active in the last 250 years (Coats 1950; Selkregg 1976: 83; Plate 3). These peaks form part of the Pacific Ocean's well-known 'ring of fire'. Most Aleutian volcanoes are of the explosive type which eject ash into the atmosphere, from where it falls downwind.

The Aleutian Islands region is one of the most seismically active in the world, with earthquake epicenters occurring mostly in the area between the Aleutian Trench and the islands themselves. For precontact Aleuts, earthquakes, per se, posed less of a threat than did other tectonic events. Although actual archaeological and ethnohistoric data regard- ing the effects of earthquakes on Aleuts are severely limited, it can reasonably be assumed




' .& ~ r~ K' -4 '' K '

Plate 3 Mount Vsevidof volcano on Umnak Island with archaeological site in foreground. (D. W. Veltre)



510 Allen E McCartney and Douglas W Veltre

that large temblors could certainly have damaged or destroyed Aleuts' semisubterranean barabaras, with concomitant loss of lives and personal belongings. However, it may also have been the case that the partially underground nature of Aleut houses coupled with their non-rigid manner of construction rendered them capable of withstanding more shaking than, for example, modern high-rise construction elsewhere in the world. Aside from any inherent stability in the design of barabaras, it would have been largely imposs- ible for Aleuts to have constructed or positioned their settlements so as to elude altogether the ground movement of earthquakes. However, it is known from archaeological site surveys that Aleuts specifically did not situate their settlements or camps beneath hills or cliffs, thereby avoiding the real danger of earthquake-induced landslides and winter avalanches.

Far more devastating than earthquakes were volcanism and tsunamis. While volcanic eruptions emanated from known and perhaps avoidable sources, their timing and effects were largely unpredictable. Variables which alone or in combination determined a volcanic event's effects on Aleuts included the basic nature of the event (whether it included lava flows, ash clouds, etc.), its duration, the wind and precipitation patterns at the time of the event, and the time of year. For example, under favorable conditions, an eruption could blow ash out to sea and have little or no effect on a nearby community. Under different wind conditions, however, the same eruption could blanket an entire island or group of islands with ash, producing effects which could last months or more and significantly alter Aleut life. Ash and other ejecta could choke salmon streams, damage skin boats, kill plants, harm other subsistence resources like birds, eggs, and intertidal invertebrates, and perhaps even collapse barabara roofs (Wilcox 1959; Workman 1979; Black 1981). Cataclysmic occurrences are certainly known from the recent historical record in the general region, such as the 1912 caldera-forming eruption of Katmai on the Alaska Peninsula. Similar, if smaller scale, events have been documented archaeologi- cally. The eastern portion of Atka Island was covered with a thick ash fall about 500 years ago, bringing the occupation of at least one settlement, Korovinski, to an end (Veltre 1979). Earlier, the Anangula site was abandoned due to a 30cm layer of ash covering the site 8,000 years ago (McCartney and Turner 1966).

Aleuts had few options to protect themselves from volcanic eruptions. Aside from the obvious strategy of avoiding placing settlements at the foot of volcanic slopes, little could be done to mitigate the vagaries of eruptive size and wind direction.

Associated with both volcanism and earthquake activity is the occurrence of tsunamis, many of which have been reported over recently recorded history in the Aleutian region (Lander 1996). Produced mostly from submarine earthquakes, they range in magnitude from being perceptible only with instrumentation to heights of 35m or more. This was the case in 1946, when a US Coast Guard lighthouse on southwestern Unimak Island was completely washed away by a wave in excess of 30m (Lander 1996: 64-70). In 1957, a tsunami some 25m high came ashore on the Pacific coast of southwestern Umnak Island, and several temporary camps were destroyed (Lander 1996: 71-3). In addition, entire low islands were reported covered by tsunamis during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Lander 1996: 33ff.). Driftwood now found at high elevations and/or far inland mark the maximum run up of past storm waves and tsunamis.

Tsunamis posed a regular, but unpredictable, danger to Aleuts. While the smallest




tsunamis were inconsequential, larger waves could be destructive. Aleuts hunting or fishing in near-shore waters or collecting resources on the beach (both frequent endeav- ors) were certainly vulnerable to tsunamis. Because Aleut settlements were frequently situated only several meters above high tide, barabaras and their occupants, skin boats, cached food, and other possessions were also subject to the effects of tsunamis. Even without loss of life, the loss of a community's boats would certainly have represented a catastrophe of far-reaching proportions.

Aleuts' responses to the threat of tsunamis may have included favoring the Bering Sea side of the islands for locating their larger and more permanent settlements, although this has not been adequately tested with archaeological data. Veniaminov (1984: 258) observed that most earlier settlements as well as those of his time (1824-34) were on the Bering Sea, but he attributed this only to the greater abundance of subsistence resources there. Because tsunamis are generated by only the largest of earthquakes, which themselves occur mostly to the south of the Aleutian archipelago, the Bering Sea shores clearly afforded substantial protection from the main brunt of a tsunami's force. Aleuts could also have built their homes on sufficiently high elevations on the Pacific coast to protect against many tsunamis; again, however, site frequency on the Pacific coast has not been determined.

Climatic factors

Several aspects of the climate of the Aleutian Islands are important for understanding human adaptation to this environment. Unlike interior areas of Alaska and Canada, where continental land masses largely control climate, that of the Aleutian region is governed almost entirely by the sea. This results in cool temperatures, with little annual or diurnal variation. Average summer high temperatures are around 10'C, while average winter lows are around 0C (Armstrong 1977: 54).

Coupled with these temperatures is the occurrence of the Aleutian Storm Track, a generally west-to-east path coincident in latitude to the Aleutian archipelago, along which back-to-back low pressure centers travel with only brief periods of clear weather. These storms bring clouds and wind, both of which are nearly omnipresent in the region. It has been estimated that sky cover allows less solar energy to reach the ground in the Aleu- tians than anywhere else in the world. Winds normally average some 25-35kph, but storms bring much higher winds, sometimes in excess of 160kph (Armstrong 1977: 54-5). Also, mountain peaks and valleys can concentrate air flow to produce 'williwaws' - localized winds of significantly higher speed. Yearly precipitation, which can vary locally to a significant extent, generally amounts to a modest 100-120cm. Nevertheless, more than half of the days during the year experience at least some light mist or rain. Large and persistent fog banks are locally common, especially in July and August.

This weather pattern has a number of significant ramifications for human occupants of the region. First, the combination of year-round cool temperatures, frequent precipitation or fog, and strong winds make hypothermia a nearly constant threat, with no relief from a pronounced summer season. Aleuts, especially those who were traveling or camped some distance from their homes, needed to keep both warm and dry. Their clothing, including warm fur and feather parkas and sea mammal intestine rain garments, was well



512 Allen E McCartney and Douglas W Veltre

suited to this need. Second, storms, with their high winds, precipitation, ocean swells, and poor visibility rendered boating and other subsistence-related activities risky or imposs- ible for many days.

Biogeographic factors

Aleuts were unique among northern hunter-gatherers of North America because of their total dependence upon marine foods (excluding Aleuts living on Unimak Island and on the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula, who utilized some land mammals such as caribou and bear). Islands everywhere only support depauperate terrestrial fauna, and we find no land mammals in the Aleutians other than foxes and lemmings. Lack of terrestrial fauna dictated that human occupants lived on the coast and close to the sea, where they exploited sea mammals, fish (including salmon where spawning streams and lakes were available), seabirds, invertebrates, and seaweeds. Small amounts of summer plants (berries, roots, stalks, and leaves) provided seasonal variety but probably less than 5 per cent of the annual diet (Laughlin 1980: 49).

Food and material procurement centered on both year-round and migratory animals. Important migratory food animals included humpback and other baleen whales, fur seals, salmon, and many bird species. Year-round animals include sea lions, sea otters, harbor seals, cod, halibut, and marine invertebrates. While we do not know with certainty what preservation methods were used prehistorically, in historic times meat, fish, and blubber were preserved by drying, smoking, and salting and then stored for the times of year when resources were scarce. Taking large sea mammals necessitated storage capability to contain large quantities of food. Whereas Aleuts could glean foods from the shore and intertidal zone when open sea hunting and fishing were not possible (Laughlin 1980), historic accounts also tell of starvation when either meat and fish or, more importantly, oil ran out during the later winter-early spring months. As with all northern peoples, game and fish oscillated in availability and quantity not only seasonally, but from year to year as well.

The Aleutians are treeless islands, and therefore timbers used in house superstructures and pieces used for making tools, implements, and boat frames were obtained from driftwood that washed up along gravel beaches or low shores, especially after storms. Trees from North American and Siberian rivers accumulated on Aleutian shores and were considered to be owned materials. On some islands, depending upon the currents and shore forms, driftwood was scarce and therefore valuable. Beaches near villages were scoured for driftwood. Because there were no timbered regions close to the islands (except at the farthest eastern end) at which wood could be collected by Aleuts, wood was always a limited and sought after commodity.

Discussion

The constraints to human occupation operated singly or in clusters to jeopardize indi- viduals or whole societies throughout the chain. Further, many of these constraints were somewhat violent and even cataclysmic in scale. Low pressure cells which brought storms across the chain, williwaws that blew in excess of 100kph, and volcanic eruptions that blan- keted the surrounding islands under many centimeters of air-borne ash are examples.




However, from the perspective of the entire chain, the Aleutian Islands supported a relatively large native population, estimated to be in the order of 12,000-15,000 at Russian contact (Lantis 1984). The Aleutians and Kodiak are reported to have had the densest populations of any Alaskan group (Kroeber 1939). The obvious question to ask is how such an extreme island environment. could support a large human population. There are two central factors to consider.

First, because the Aleutian archipelago is 1,600km long, local or regional changes, whether sudden or gradual, tended to affect one or several villages but not the entire chain. Even the largest volcanic eruptions, such as caldera-forming explosions of entire mountaintops, might have had only local or regional impacts. As suggested above, any one set of villagers might survive cataclysmic changes, if they had sufficient warning, by moving from dangerous areas. But they would easily perish if caught by tsunamis or large- scale volcanic eruptions.

Second, nutrient upwelling from the Aleutian Trench just to the south of the islands provides high marine productivity compared to other parts of Alaska. The food chain is both complex and extensive and was sampled at all levels by Aleuts. Compared to mixed coastal economies north of the Alaska Peninsula where winter sea ice largely separated marine species from hunters and gatherers, that of the Aleuts was rich by comparison. It was based on year-round open oceans and availability of many food species, even if they were only seaweeds and intertidal invertebrates serving as survival foods.

In sum, the Aleutian Islands are characterized by high energy coastlines, violent storms, and periodically cataclysmic tectonic events, with their subsequent effects upon the coastal biota. But they also afford relative abundance through highly specialized maritime adaptations. Thus, hazards were commonplace but, overall, the islands formed one of the richest habitats in all of Alaska for native peoples.

Conclusion

The Aleutian Islands are unique among northern regions in their isolation, volcanic origin, and cultural adaptations to environmental extremes. Occupants of the archipelago have been constrained by climatic, physiographic, tectonic, and biological factors since the first human occupation, which is dated to c. 8000-8500 BP. While temperatures are mild by comparison with the middle to high Arctic and annual sea ice is absent, the Aleutian conditions, especially in combination, may be considered to be extreme in terms of the danger that they presented to prehistoric Aleuts. Highly specialized maritime hunting, fishing, and gathering techniques were developed in order to acquire a wide variety of marine mammals, fish, birds, invertebrates, and plants. While the entire Aleut- ian chain may be characterized as being biologically quite productive and having a relatively large human population, any one village or region could be severely affected by climatic, tectonic, or biological events.

A. P McCartney University of Arkansas, USA

D. W Veltre University of Alaska Anchorage, USA




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Arctic Archaeology || Aleutian Island Prehistory: Living in Insular Extremes