A Preliminary Statement on the Pottery from Cape Denbigh, Alaska

Abstract

This Brief Paper will serve as an introduction to an examination of the ceramic material excavated by Giddings at the site of Iyatayet on Cape Denbigh in Norton Sound in northwestern Alaska. Norton Sound is located in the northeastern Bering Sea. The site has become well known because of the Cape Denbigh flint complex which occurred in the lowest level of the site and which was separated from the pottery levels above by a sterile zone of varying thickness, from 2 to 18 inches, made up of laminated, sandy clay (Giddings, 1949, 1951). This sterile zone was contorted and has been tentatively interpreted as indicating a colder climate than the present.The upper sections of the excavated area at Iyatayet give every indication of having been intermittently occupied from relatively recent times back through Eskimo history to approximately 2000 years ago. The top layers of the site contain the same artifacts and ceramic materials as those found on the neighboring Nukleet site which is thought to date roughly around 1500 to 1600 A.D. Other materials from the upper zone are suggestive of Early Punuk.