Marine Resource Intensification and the Reorganization of Lithic Technologies during the Middle-Late Holocene in Northwest Alaska

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study uses lithic technological organization from two successive Middle–Late Holocene archaeological cultures in northwest Alaska to test hypotheses about marine resource intensification through time. Researchers argue that maritime adaptations in northwest Alaska progressed from supplementary seasonal exploitation towards a highly complex, year-round reliance on marine resources. Robust faunal assemblages and organic technologies necessary to demonstrate this developmental transformation are generally lacking in sites from this time period. Instead, our primary sources of data are site locations, features, and lithic technology. Theorists have shown that technological organization, including lithic components, is greatly influenced by subsistence strategy and residential mobility. In theory, an increased reliance on marine resources should result in increased technological complexity, greater use of local raw materials, and overall less concern with optimizing size and weight of tools. I test these hypotheses using Arctic Small Tool and Norton tradition lithic assemblages from the stratified, multi-component site of Iyatayet, located in northwest Alaska. The results indicate technological organization of the later culture differed in many important ways from the earlier group, supporting interpretations of reduced mobility and a greater reliance on resources from the sea through time.