North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies: The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal Peoples || Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations in the Western and Central Aleutian

Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations in the Western and Central Aleutian Islands, AlaskaAuthor(s): Douglas W. VeltreSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 35, No. 1, North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies:The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal Peoples (1998), pp. 223-233Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316466 .

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PREHISTORIC MARITIME ADAPTATIONS IN THE WESTERN AND CENTRAL ALEUTIAN

ISLANDS, ALASKA

Introduction

DOUGLAS W. VELTRE

Abstract. While spanning the last 125 years, archaeological research in the remote central and western Aleutian Islands has yielded only a broad perspective on precontact Aleut adaptations in this portion of the archipelago. In the last 50 years, surveys on many islands by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and excavations on Atka, Amchitka, Buldir, Agattu, and Shemya islands have provided firm evidence that Aleuts maintained a fairly uniform and stable maritime adaptation for their entire 4 5 00 -year occupation of this region. With significant terrestrial fauna nonexistent and plant foods limited, fish, birds, marine mammals, and marine invertebrates provided the basis for human subsistence. Remains of these resources are well preserved in the typically large and deep Aleutian middens. However, to understand better the nature of this adaptation, including the significance of variable abundance of specific resources over space and time, requires archaeological efforts which are large-scale and regional, rather than site-specific.

Today, no area of the United States is more isolated or more sparsely populated than the western and central Aleutian Islands (Fig. 1). Except for certain research and military purposes, these islands comprise a seldom- visited corner of North America. Occupation of the western and central Aleutians is currently limited to Atka, the last re- maining Aleut1 village in the entire region (population approximately 95), a U.S. Naval facility on Adak (population approximately 300), a U.S. Air Force facility on Shemya (population approximately 60), and a Coast Guard station on Attu (population about 28).

Although isolated in prehistoric times as well, the western and central Aleutians neverthe-

less boasted a large and widely dispersed Native population for several thousand years. It was not until early Russian contact in the late eighteenth century that severe Aleut population decline - from an estimated 4-6000 to several hundred - left only a handful of villages. Russian overex- ploitation of fur resources by the nineteenth century had turned foreign commercial interests farther eastward in the Aleutians and to the Alaska mainland (Veltre 1990). Just over 50 years ago, World War II brought only a brief interruption to this situation.

It is in this context of isolation that both the prehistoric record and the history of archaeological investigations in the central and western Aleu- tians should be viewed. To anticipate some of my concluding remarks, few large-scale projects have

Douglas W. Veltre, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK 99508

ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 223-233, 1998



224 Arctic Anthropology 35:1

Figure 1. Map of the Aleutian Islands showing the location of the western and central groups.

ever been undertaken in the region, and many specific questions regarding Aleut maritime adaptation remain to be answered. I begin with a discus- sion of the rationale for considering the western and central Aleutian Islands as an analytical region and a brief environmental sketch of the area. Next, I review the history of archaeological inquiry in the region and what is known of maritime adaptations. Finally, I provide suggestions for future research concerning prehistoric Aleutian Island adaptations.

Environmental Characteristics and Regional Boundaries

In distribution, the western and central Aleutian Islands make up approximately two -thirds of the 1600 km length of the Aleutian archipelago. From east to west, the central Aleutian Islands comprise, first, the Andreanof Islands group of Seaguam, Amlia, Atka, Adak, Kanaga, and Tanaga. Next is the small Delarof Islands group, the southernmost in the chain; its islands are uniformly small. To the west of the Delarofs is the Rat Islands group, including Semisopochnoi, Amchitka, Rat, and Kiska islands. Tiny Buldir Island is all that sepa- rates the Rat Islands of the central Aleutians from the western Aleutians. This last island group, also called the Near Islands, includes Agattu, Shemya, and Attu islands. In the entire Aleutian Island archipelago, the 120 km of ocean between Buldir and Shemya islands is the greatest inter-island distance. The Near Islands (named for their proximity to the Kamchatkan ports of departure for eighteenth century Russian fur hunters) are separated by approximately 325 km of open ocean from the

Commander Islands farther to the west, which, in turn, are about 175 km from the Kamchatkan mainland. Prior to Russian contact, Aleuts lived throughout the central and western Aleutian Is- lands. Based on current evidence, the Commander Islands were not occupied by anyone before their discovery by Vitus Bering in 1741 and their subsequent occupation in ca. 1819 by Aleuts taken there by the Russians (Black 1984:189).

Although for the most part smaller in size, the islands of the western and central Aleutians share most characteristics of the natural environment with the eastern Aleutians. These include a cool maritime climate, an absence of sea ice, sub- arctic tundra vegetation, an absence of large terrestrial fauna, and frequent seismic activity. Streams are typically short, steep, and swift.

Except for the Near Islands, active volcanic peaks of Quaternary age extend through these islands as a continuation of the Aleutian Range of southwestern mainland Alaska, the Alaska Penin- sula, and the eastern Aleutians. As in the eastern Aleutians, this volcanism, which is largely confined to the northern portions of the islands, tends to produce relatively undifferentiated coastlines. The southernmost islands and island segments consist primarily of older, Tertiary materials and often have more complex and convoluted coastlines. Concomitant with volcanic and seismic activity are such features as hot springs, coal deposits, and occurrences of petrified wood. Coasts are often dominated by steep, rugged headlands.

Also characteristic of the Aleutians as a whole is a rich marine ecosystem supporting very abundant fish, marine mammals, intertidal invertebrates, and birds. It is worth noting that certain animals abundant in the eastern Aleutians are ei-



Veltre: Western and Central Aleutian Islands 225

ther absent or significantly less numerous in the central and western Aleutians. These include various species of large whales, whose annual migra- tions are largely confined to the passes of the eastern Aleutians, and northern fur seals, which breed in the Pribilof Islands, north of the Aleutian Is- lands in the Bering Sea, and migrate almost exclusively through passes of the eastern islands. Rare exceptions to this pattern occur, of course. In 1778, for example, 40,000 fur seals reportedly were obtained by Russian fur hunters in waters around Atka and Amlia islands, far west from their normal migration route (Berkh 1974:92). On the other hand, Asian bird species are found more frequently in the western Aleutians (Gibson 1981).

Perhaps the most straightforwardly defined region covered in this volume, the western and central Aleutian Islands are entirely within the Aleut culture area, as established on the basis of ethnohistoric cultural and linguistic data. The eastern boundary follows that defined linguisti- cally (Bergsland 1959) as the division between the eastern, or Fox Island, Aleut dialect and the central, or Atkan, dialect. It also corresponds to the boundary reflected in Aleut regional autonyms (Bergsland and Dirks 1990) as well as to the relative geographic boundary formed by a series of smaller islands between the larger Amlia Island and Umnak Island. However, the time depth of these linguistic divisions and both the time depth and the actual social and political significance of the named regional groups are unknown at this time. The northern, southern, and western boundaries of the central and western Aleutians are more clearly established: in all cases from several hundred to several thousand kilometers of open ocean.

Another factor establishing the western and central Aleutians as a region distinct from the eastern Aleutians is that, unlike the eastern Aleutians, they remained insular during the Pleistocene. Dur- ing the Wisconsin period, glaciation occurred in many areas of the central and western Aleutians (Schäfer 1971; Gard 1977; Thorson and Hamilton 1986). Shorelines lowered throughout the Aleu- tians, and some nearby islands coalesced into larger islands. For example, Amchitka, Rat, and Kiska islands formed a single island up to 165 km long and 50 km wide when sea level was 91 m lower than today (Gard 1977:30). In contrast, the many deep inter-island passes throughout this region kept the central and western Aleutians from ever joining the eastern Aleutians (which, during Pleistocene times, were a part of the Alaska Penin- sula) or from forming a land link of their own to Asia. This may have implications regarding the initial peopling of the region.

The Prehistoric Cultural Sequence From the very first archaeological investigations in the western and central Aleutian Islands, the almost entirely coastal adaptation maintained by ancient Aleuts has served as a single common focus, implicit or explicit, of all research. Likewise, at the recent end of the temporal spectrum, the maritime nature of the early contact period Aleut subsistence economy has been well documented ethnographically (e.g., Coxe 1780; Hrdlicka 1945; Jochelson 1925, 1933; Netsvetov 1980; Veniaminov 1984). After a brief review of early archaeological efforts in the region as a whole, this section pre- sents more recent evidence of maritime adaptations from specific islands.

Early Investigations Archaeological research in the region began with the efforts of William Healy Dall (1877, 1880), who was employed by the U.S. Coast Guard Survey to conduct hydrographie and geographical reconnaissance in the Aleutian Islands from 1871-1874. Dall spent some of his spare time excavating archaeological sites throughout the chain, including on Attu, Agattu, Kiska, Little Kiska, Amchitka, Adak, Atka, and Amlia islands.

While Dall and his crew worked quickly to "attack a shell-heap" (1877:47), he was nevertheless aware of the significance of stratigraphie relationships. DalPs (1877:50) observation that "in most . . . excavations, especially in Attu, Am- chitka, and Adakh [Adak]" the lowermost cultural layer consisted of nothing but sea urchin remains led him, using assumptions of the rate at which Aleuts ate sea urchins, to estimate the length of time it would have taken to form one particular Amchitka Island deposit at some 2200 years (Dall 1877:52). Although methodologically flawed, Dall's effort coincidentally yielded a date probably reasonably close to the actual age of the deposits.

Dall's stratigraphie observations also led him to conclusions regarding the development of human coastal adaptations in the Aleutians. His well-known scheme of Aleut cultural development led through three periods of decreasing primitive- ness and increasing reliance on marine resources. The first, the Littoral Period, was characterized by a subsistence economy exclusively devoted to marine invertebrates. The second, the Fishing Period, saw an expansion into the use of fish resources. The final Hunting Period culminated in the full- scale use of marine mammals and birds. Along with changes in subsistence adaptation, Dall pos- tulated concomitant developments in the social and ideological realms of culture.

In 1909-1910, Waldemar Jochelson led the anthropological division of the Aleut-Kamchatka Expedition, sent out under the auspices of the Im-




perial Russian Geographical Society. In addition to excavating on Attu and Atka islands, Jochelson conducted a broad range of anthropological in- quiries. He took measurements and models of Aleut faces, made wax cylinder recordings, and recorded Aleut texts (Bergsland and Dirks 1990; Jochelson 1912, 1925, 1933).

While Jochelson's field methods were crude and his analyses quite limited, he nevertheless realized that Dall's earlier three-stage sequence was in error, concluding instead that (Jochelson 1925:110) "the Aleut came to the islands with a comparatively high primitive culture, not far re- moved from that found by the Russian invaders. Of course, . . . [cultural] changes . . . did occur . . . but these changes were trivial." Almost unmodi- fied since Jochelson's time, an overall view of cultural homogeneity over space and time has pre- vailed among subsequent researchers.

From 1936-1938, Ales Hrdlicka (1941, 1945) directed three seasons of field research for the Smithsonian Institution. Several sites on the western and central Aleutian Islands of Attu, Agattu, Kiska, Amchitka, Ilak, Tanaga, Kanaga, Adak, Atka, and Amlia were investigated. Although little of significance came of this work in terms of our understanding of the nature of Aleut adaptations, it is important to note that Hrdlicka's search for prehistoric sites on the Commander Islands was in vain. I will return to this subject later in the paper.

Recent Research and Maritime Adaptation Since World War II, a number of generally small- scale archaeological projects have been undertaken in the central and western Aleutians, including on Amchitka (Guggenheim 1945; Lobdell 1990), Atka and elsewhere (Bank n.d., 1952, 1953a, 1953b), Kanaga (Nelson and Barnett 1955), and Adak and Attu (Fr0hlich and Kopjanski 1975). While many of these efforts have provided valuable information regarding site locations and artifact type distributions, they have not added appre- ciably to our understanding of Aleut history and adaptation.

Larger archaeological efforts with greater potential for insights concerning maritime adaptations in the region are, unfortunately, few in number. The most far-ranging of these is the multi-year program of archaeological site survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA 1989; Pratt 1992). These surveys were mandated by Sec- tion 14(h)(l) of the Alaska Native Claims Settle- ment Act (ANCSA) of 1971, which provided for the transfer to regional Native corporations - in this case the Aleut Corporation - of lands, including archaeological sites, having historical and cultural importance. Most of the BIA's Aleutian surveys, which began in 1983, were conducted in the

western and central islands, since in the eastern Aleutians most archaeological sites were on lands owned by Aleut village corporations and, hence, were ineligible for selection under Section 14(h)(l).

BIA ANCSA fieldwork focused primarily on verifying reported site locations and on mapping the sizes, shapes, and distributions of surface features and the areal limits of sites. Only very limited subsurface testing was done. In all, archaeological crews investigated nearly 300 sites on at least 16 islands in the western and central Aleu- tians, establishing a valuable base of information on Aleut settlement.

Other large-scale efforts in the region include work on Atka, Amchitka, Buldir, Agattu, and Shemya islands. These are examined below.

Atka Island From 1974 to 1979, 1 undertook archaeological research on eastern Atka Island (Veltre 1979), including large scale excavations at the pre- and postcontact site of Korovinski. Korovinski lies at the base of a spit separating Korovin Bay from Ko- rovin Lagoon on the Bering Sea side of Atka Is- land. While my primary goal in the Korovinski project was to investigate Aleut culture change during the early Russian period, excavations at the site also extended to the dense and deep precontact midden deposit, which began at approximately 1900 BP and ended when a 20 cm layer of volcanic ash was deposited several hundred years before Russian contact. In addition to the midden, some 33 oval and subrectangular surface depres- sions on the bluff overlooking the spit appear stratigraphically to date to approximately 1000 to 500 BP. The artifacts from the precontact component at Korovinski exhibit a full spectrum of typical Aleutian functional types (fishing, hunting, collecting, manufacturing, household), thereby indicating a base village rather than a specialized satellite camp. Overall, specific types are most similar to the late prehistoric materials of equiva- lent age from the Chaluka site, 350 km to the east on Umnak Island, although similarities are also evident with the collections from Amchitka Island, 500 km to the west (see below).

The Korovinski artifacts directly associated with maritime food procurement include (a) a wide range of unilaterally and bilaterally barbed bone harpoon points for sea mammal hunting; (b) barbed bird spear points; (c) single-piece and compound bone and ivory fish hooks; (d) bone harpoon socket pieces; (e) bone harpoon fore- shafts; (f ) stone line sinkers; (g) stone projectile tips for bone harpoons; and (h) ground stone knives probably used in fish processing. Several other artifact types, such as digging sticks, bowls,




and splitting wedges, were manufactured from marine mammal products and thus are indirect indi- cators of maritime subsistence procurement. All of these artifacts are found throughout the precontact midden at Korovinski, where bone, shell, and ivory preservation is excellent. Faunal remains from this component are also indicative of reliance on ocean resources: bones of sea mammals (including harbor seals, sea lions, and sea otters) and shells of marine invertebrates (especially cockles, mussels, and sea urchins) are present in the entire sequence.

The overall picture offered by the Korovinski site, therefore, is one of an Aleut village, occupied from 1900 to 550 years ago for at least much of each year and serving as the central locus from which Aleuts engaged in a broad range of coastal and maritime subsistence pursuits. Little significant change over time is evident in the artifacts and faunal remains at the site, indicating a generally stable adaptation to a stable resource base.

Amchitka Island The Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) interest in Amchitka Island as a testing locale for under- ground nuclear devices occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s. As part of its strategy to assess the environmental impacts of those tests, the AEC spon- sored archaeological survey and some excavation on the island (Desautels et al. 1971; Sense and Turner 1970; Cook et al. 1972; McCartney 1977; Turner 1970). Amchitka Island thus became the first island in the Aleutian archipelago to be com- pletely archaeologically surveyed; today, it remains the only large island with that distinction. In addition, the excavation at site RAT-032 on Am- chitka of a subrectangular Aleut house floor approximately 6.0 x 7.5 m in size and radiocarbon dated to approximately 415 BP stands today as the only complete excavation of a house from the central and western Aleutians and one of only two in the Aleutians as a whole (Cook et al. 1972:15).

The oldest archaeologically dated remains from Amchitka Island come from a site designated as AC-68, investigated by BIA ANCSA archaeologists. These materials, however, consist only of lithic manufacturing specimens (cores, hammer- stones, and flakes) and a possible hearth (BIA ANCSA 1989:15, 23), and are therefore largely unsuitable for answering questions about maritime adaptations. Nevertheless, their charcoal dates of 4610 ± 110 BP (Beta 14936) and 4510 ± 230 BP (Beta 29409) (BIA ANCSA 1989:15) are significant for being the earliest for the central and western Aleutians.

The best data regarding the precontact Aleut maritime economy on Amchitka Island come from excavations done for the AEC at six of the 78 sites

identified on the island, RAT-010, -014, -031, -035, -036, and -060. Over 6800 bone and stone artifacts were recovered from these sites (Desautels et al. 1971:75). These artifacts, like those at Korovinski on Atka Island, represent a full range of subsistence tasks focused on the sea. Desautels et al. (1971:348) state that "the tremendous number of stylistically complex artifacts show no major changes within the cultural inventory during the more than 2500 years of Amchitka's human settlement. It seems that the first inhabitants of Am- chitka arrived with a fairly elaborate cultural as- semblage that had changed only in minor respects up to contact times."

The only analyzed faunal remains from Am- chitka came from RAT-031, a site occupied for approximately 1500 to 2000 years (Desautels et al. 1971:38). Although limited in its usefulness by several sampling concerns (Desautels et al. 1971: 315), analysis of this fauna from all strata com- bined yielded the results shown in Table 1 (Desau- tels et al. 1971:316; also see McCartney 1977:84).

Fish from RAT-031 included remains of rock greenling, red Irish lord, Pacific cod, Pacific hal- ibut, and rockfish (Desautels et al. 1971:319). For birds, the six most frequent families (based on weights of excavated samples) were cormorants (37%); swans, ducks, and geese (35%); murres, murrelets, auklets, and puffins (11%); shearwaters and petrels (7%); albatrosses (6%); and gulls and terns (4%) (Desautels et al. 1971:322; McCartney 1977:85).

Like their conclusions based on artifact analyses, Desautels et al. (1971:340) saw no evidence for significant changes in food resources over time at RAT-031. Similarly, the RAT-031 midden appears fundamentally like other Aleutian middens from the same time period, except for differences explicable for obvious reasons. For example, as expected, fur seals are less frequent in the RAT-031 midden (only 2% of the total sea otter and pin- niped bones; Desautels et al. 1971:316) than they

Table 1. Sea mammal remains from RAT-031 on Amchitka (excluding whales).

Source: Desautels et al. 1971; see also McCartney 1977.

No. of % Sea MNI % Sea Bones Mammal Mammal

Bones MNI

Sea otter 744 59% 77 50% Harbor seal 418 33% 52 34% Sea lion 79 6% 17 11% Fur seal 30 2% 8 5%




are at the eastern Aleutian Islands site of Chaluka, which lies much closer to the migratory routes of those animals. As McCartney (1977:83) concludes from his examination of the Amchitka materials, "[w]e find substantiation therefore for the uniformity of faunal exploitation throughout the chain and, by implication, the uniformity of techniques required in procuring these species."

Finally, it may be noted that within this picture of temporal uniformity some faunal changes have been documented, although their significance for human adaptation is not established. Siegel-Causey et al. (1991) noted changes in some cormorant and shag species from Amchitka Island middens, suggesting "that the diversity of the marine coastal avifauna has experienced dynamic change since the late Holocene and that the distributions of shags and cormorants in particular were different than now known" (1991:850, see also Corbett et al. 1997a:469).

Buldir Island In 1991 and 1993, University of Nebraska biologist Douglas Siegel-Causey, assisted by archaeologists Debra Corbett of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Christine Lefèvre of the Museum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, undertook work on Buldir Island, the only island in the long distance between Kiska Island and the Near Islands group. (Corbett et al. 1997b; Lefèvre et al. 1997). The team excavated modest tests from the only site on the island, KIS-008, from which they obtained faunal and artifact samples from a component dated at 530 ± 60 BP to 240 ± 60 BP (Corbett et al. 1997b: 104). The site is known to possess deposits at least as old as 1160 ± 50 BP (Corbett et al. 1997b:106).

Analysis of the artifacts from Buldir Island indicates that the site's occupants had cultural af- filiations with both the west and the east, and probably used the site only intermittently (Corbett et al. 1997b:lll, 115). Faunal analysis of nearly 9000 vertebrate elements revealed that (except for five whale elements) all the mammal remains were sea lion - not surprising since Buldir Island is an historically known sea lion hauling and breeding locale. Bird remains included mostly marine species, especially alcids. Fish remains were com- posed of several species, of which rock greenling was the most abundant (Lefèvre et al. 1997:121).

Although the combination of Buldir Island's geographic position and its single archaeological site make it unique in the archipelago, the excavated samples from KIS-008 are, as the investiga- tors recognize, too small to support firm conclusions concerning seasonality, diet, or cultural (i.e., western or central Aleut) affiliation. Nevertheless, nothing from Buldir appears out of line with our general understanding of Aleut maritime adapta-

tions. Future research at the site may be able to address more reliably questions concerning Buldir's role as the only island between two larger island groups and, presumably, between different social and political entities.

Agattu Island To date, only a single large-scale site excavation has been undertaken and reported for the Near Islands. For some six weeks in 1949, Albert C. Spaulding and a small crew worked at the Krugloi Point site on Agattu Island (Spaulding 1962). The lowest levels were radiocarbon dated to approximately 615 BC (Spaulding 1962:12-13). The Krugloi Point site yielded artifacts of unmistakable Aleutian character, though some forms showed traits not typical elsewhere in the archipelago. Spaulding's opinion (based primarily on the bone artifact inventory) was that this site represented a somewhat "impoverished" cultural period "with an archaic and simple artifact inventory" (Spauld- ing 1962:44), but others (e.g., McCartney 1971; Cooper 1990; Corbett 1991) have argued convinc- ingly that the Near Islands, including the Krugloi Point site, were occupied by fully maritime- adapted Aleuts, whose geographic isolation con- tributed to the distinctiveness of some of the artifact types found.

Shemya Island In 1994, Siegel-Causey and his colleagues conducted work at several sites on Shemya Island (Siegel-Causey et al. 1995), continuing earlier work begun by Corbett (1990, 1991). The group tested four sites, including the oldest found so far in the Near Islands, "Shemya 7," dated to 3540 ± 60 BP (Siegel-Causey et al. 1995:7). Arti- facts and faunal specimens from this research are still being analyzed. As "a major focus of [the] work is analysis of faunal material for environmental reconstruction as well as information on the Aleut economy," (Siegel-Causey 1995:15), it is to be hoped that the results will help elucidate the nature of maritime adaptations in the far western Aleutians.

Maritime Adaptations over Time and Space and Relationships with

the Eastern Aleutian Islands In contrast with the eastern Aleutians, the archaeological record of the western and central Aleu- tians offers little evidence for significant changes over time in subsistence procurement and technology, use of specific food and fabricational resources, or settlement patterns. Arguably due in part to the limited research done in the region as




a whole, the overall picture which nevertheless emerges - and which I believe will remain as more work is done - is one of both temporal and geographic continuity and uniformity. Certainly, there are differences among the various site assemblages from the region and, indeed, among sites on the same island (e.g., Desautels et al. 1971:74), but some variation should be expected from sites spanning over 4000 years in an area where resources are abundant, diverse, not evenly dis- tributed, and often seasonal. Nevertheless, all archaeological materials from this region fit comfortably within both the cultural and temporal limits of the 4000-5000 year old Aleutian tradi- tion of the eastern Aleutian Islands. The most typologically distinct artifactual materials are those from the Near Islands; however, as Mc- Cartney (1971:106) has cogently argued, "the distinctiveness of this phase resulted largely from the geographical isolation found at the tip of the island chain and the stylistic 'drift' which this isolation allowed." It is no contradiction, therefore, for site deposits to reflect at the same time both resource and settlement variability and also overall uniformity in fundamental maritime adaptation.

Within the western and central Aleutian archipelago, there are no differences in artifact types, house types, or settlement patterns that cannot be attributed to temporal variation and/or to relative geographic isolation. Between this region and the eastern Aleutians, the same appears to be true, with the exception of house forms (and possibly settlement patterns generally) of the late precontact and early postcontact periods (see below). It is to be expected that as more archaeology is done throughout the Aleutian Islands - that is, as individual sites are more easily seen in a broader archaeological context - the easier it will be to perceive inter-island and inter-regional ties (see McCartney 1974). At the same time, research interest will likely then shift from understanding the broad commonalities of maritime adaptation to ex- plicating local and regional differences.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Present Archaeological Record

Although archaeological investigations in the western and central Aleutian Islands span nearly 125 years, we really know very little about this large part of the archipelago. Considering the isolation of the region, it is perhaps not remarkable that there have been relatively few large-scale excavations undertaken in these islands. Similarly, few detailed ethnohistoric sources (e.g., Black 1984; Coxe 1780; Netsvetov 1980) deal with the re-

gion; most (e.g., Veniaminov 1984) focus primarily on the eastern Aleutians.

While the overall picture of maritime adaptations in the central and western Aleutian Islands may by apparent, many of the details are not yet known. Having acknowledged that maritime adaptation in this region will vary to the degree that local resources vary in space and time, it is clear that each archaeological site can be considered only one local element in a complex mosaic of subsistence and settlement characteristics that de- fine adaptation on a regional basis. To date, no archaeological field research efforts have been made in the central and western Aleutians to address subsistence and settlement on a regional basis.

Therefore, what is needed are large-scale archaeological efforts to investigate a number of sites within particular well-defined regions, such as large bays. Such projects will necessarily be long- term, costly, and involve specialists in many related fields, such as geology and zoology. Site- specific programs of limited or test excavations - except to delineate vertical and horizontal site boundaries or to check for aspects of preservation - will be efforts unwisely spent, since they cannot yield meaningful samples from the typically complexly stratified Aleutian midden sites. Insufficient excavation at single sites fosters a largely unproductive and unscientific focus on limited data, with the result that sites are poorly understood and stand alone, unconnected to others in a systemic framework true to the complexi- ties of the culture that produced them.

Several specific avenues of research related to the history and development of maritime adaptations in the western and central Aleutian Islands should prove productive in the future. Although establishing the earliest occupation of the region may come in the course of other archaeological investigations, sites predating about 4000-5000 years ago will likely be as difficult to locate as similar sites have been in the eastern Aleutians. There, all known core-and-blade age remains have been revealed essentially by accident of erosion, rather than by any surface indication of buried cultural materials. A key ingredient of successful surveys for such old sites may prove to be the search for ancient coastlines, whether raised or in- land, dating to a mid-Holocene thermal maximum and its concomitant rise in sea level. This is pre- cisely what led geologist Robert Black to suggest archaeological testing at the Sandy Beach Bay site on southwestern Umnak Island in the eastern Aleutians (Aigner et al. 1976; Aigner 1983). Com- plicating this kind of search are local isostatic rebound (though this would probably be less in the western Aleutians than in the more heavily glaciated eastern Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula region), eustatic sea level change, and recent vol-




canic activity (including pyroclastic flows and tephra deposits). Few geologists have devoted much attention to these matters in the Aleutians, focusing instead on questions regarding more ancient Quaternary volcanism and glaciation (cf. Thorson and Hamilton 1986).

Another valuable avenue of future research is the archaeological investigation of Aleut social or- ganization, especially the ways in which house data can be used to explore the question of ranking and stratification throughout the archipelago. The site surveys of the BIA ANCSA program provide useful and largely untapped data pertaining to regional settlement patterns and to the variability and distribution of house forms throughout the Aleutian Islands. Preliminary explorations of these issues incorporating this survey data have been conducted by Clark (1990) for the western and central Aleutians and by Corbett (1991) for the western Aleutians. Incorporating both BIA ANCSA information as well as their own survey data from the eastern Aleutians, Veltre and McCartney (1988) examined the archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence of Aleut house forms. It now seems clear that the largest and most complex Aleut houses are found in the eastern Aleut region, especially on and near Unalaska and Unimak islands and the Alaska Peninsula. As one moves westward in the chain, house forms become both simpler and smaller. Insofar as house forms may reflect social differentiation, this archaeological evidence appears congruent with Joan Townsend's (1980) sug- gestion that shortly before Russian contact the eastern Aleuts were experiencing incipient social stratification. Obviously, more than feature sizes and shapes are needed to address such issues: large-scale site excavations, including complete excavations of a number of Aleut houses, and accurate temporal control are required.

Change of subsistence resources over time and space is another crucial issue for studies of Aleut adaptations. Midden deposits have most frequently been used to establish varying abundances over time of certain resources. However, the same data can also be evidence of changes in resource utilization by Aleuts (i.e., regardless of resource abundance). How these interrelated aspects of the same problem can be sorted out is beyond the scope of this paper, yet it remains essential to understanding marine adaptations.

The issue of possible precontact relationships between the western Aleutian Islands and the Commander Islands, while somewhat tangential to this paper, may eventually prove relevant to the history of maritime adaptations in both island groups. Although some claims of significant Asian ties to the western Aleutians have been made (e.g., Black 1983; Heizer 1943), there is no firm evidence that the Commander Islands were ever in-

habited on a permanent, long-term basis, as were the Near Islands and the rest of the Aleutians, prior to Russian contact. Even the recent reports by Stanyukovich and Chernosvitov (1994) and Len'kov, Silant'ev, and Staniukovich (1992:93-97) of precontact remains on Bering Island are far from convincing. Therefore, while geographically suggesting a "bridge" to Asia, the central and western Aleutians remain a cultural terminus (McCartney 1974).

Relevant to human adaptation in the Com- mander Islands is the issue of the Steller sea cow [Hydrodamalis gigas). Given the ease - it took roughly 20 years - with which Russians extermi- nated the sea cows there (Stejneger 1887), the mere presence of these animals in the Commander Islands in the 1740s argues against prior human occupation. It seems entirely possible that the first humans to arrive in the Aleutian Islands (i.e., from the east) might very well have brought sea cow populations to extinction there, as the Russians did much later in the Commander Islands. This is entirely speculative, for sea cow remains have not yet been found in archaeological sites in the Aleu- tians, though they have been found on Amchitka Island in geological deposits dating to approximately 125,000 years ago (Whitmore and Gard 1977). Because early Russian fur hunters provi- sioned their ships in the Commander Islands with sea cow meat before traveling eastward, archaeologists in the Aleutians will need to be especially careful in evaluating the context of any sea cow bones they might uncover in the future.

Conclusions Since it can comfortably be assumed that the ancient inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands - and especially of the central and western Aleutians - must have possessed a fully maritime adaptation in order to survive, and since we have few outside influences to control for, we can use the archaeological record to yield insights into the archaeological expression and visibility of maritime adaptations elsewhere in the North Pacific-Bering Sea region. The archaeological record of the Aleutian Islands - and possibly thafof the Kurile Islands - is the only one in this broad area to offer this potential. If one is interested in the origins of maritime adaptations, the western and central Aleutian Islands are clearly not the place to look. But if one is interested in investigating the human ecological dynamics, evolution, and maintenance of existing maritime adaptations, then there may be no better place.




End Note 1. The name "Aleut" is of uncertain origin, although it likely was traditionally used by those people living in the Near Islands, at the far western end of the Aleutian archipelago, to refer to themselves. It was only after the arrival of Rus- sians that "Aleut" became widely used, and the term was often broadly - and confusingly - applied to both Aleuts and Native residents of Alutiiq- speaking areas to the east. Today, the tra- ditional name Unangan (in the eastern dialect) or Unangas (in the Atka, or central, dialect) has begun to be used (often in the form Unangax) by some Native residents as a more accurate autonym.

Acknowledgments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the "International Seminar on the Origins, Development, and Spread of Prehistoric North Pacific-Bering Sea Maritime Cultures'* in Honolulu in 1993. My thanks to Allen McCartney and three anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments on a draft of this paper.

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North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies: The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal Peoples || Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations in the Western and Central Aleutian