Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of permafrost preserved human hair from rescue excavations (2009, 2010) at the precontact site of Nunalleq, Alaska

Rick Knecht,Olaf Nehlich,Kate Britton,Ellen McManus-Fry,Paul M. Ledger,Mike Richards

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.04.015

Abstract

The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral to understanding hunter-gatherer societies in the past, and is particularly of interest in high latitude environments as they can illuminate human-environmental interactions and adaptations. Until recently, very little archaeological research had been undertaken on the Bering Sea coasts of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and relatively little is known about precontact lifeways in this region. Here, we present stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data from non-mortuary human hair excavated from Nunalleq (c. 1300CE–1750CE) – a precontact village site in Western Alaska. Now the focus of a major research project, excavations at Nunalleq began as a rescue excavation, as the site is eroding rapidly into the Bering Sea. Following an initial pilot study on cut strands representing a small number of individuals, a larger body of isotope data has now been generated from the first phase of the investigations of Nunalleq (2009, 2010). These new data, including sulphur isotope values, provide further evidence for the subsistence strategy at the site, including a mixed diet of marine and terrestrial foods (but likely dominated by salmonids). In addition, these new data from Nunalleq highlight some dietary variability amongst the inhabitants of the site. Analyses of additional longer hair strands suggest this variability may not be exclusively due to seasonal variation, and may evidence inter-personal dietary differences. Data from Nunalleq are compared to isotope data from previous studies of Thule-era and earlier Alaskan sites, and to isotope data from Thule sites in Canada and Greenland and the potential of ongoing and future research at the site is discussed, along with the implications for our understanding of Thule subsistence strategies and precontact lifeways on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Highlights

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska (Fig. 1) is the core of the Central Yup'ik culture area, which is well-documented ethnographically but poorly characterised archaeologically
Permafrost and waterlogged soils led to the preservation of tens of thousands of in situ artefacts on house floors, and an extensive assemblage of organic ecofactual and bioarchaeological remains, including cut strands of human hair
The 2009 and 2010 rescue excavations covered an area of 60 m2 at the western extent of the site, an area which has subsequently been eroded away entirely – with the artefactual and ecofactual assemblage, and site records, being all that remain of this portion of the site

Summary

Introduction

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska (Fig. 1) is the core of the Central Yup'ik culture area, which is well-documented ethnographically but poorly characterised archaeologically. This area of coastal Western Alaska, under-researched compared to the more southerly regions of Kodiak (Clark, 1966, 1998; Jordan and Knecht, 1988; Fitzhugh, 2004; West, 2011) or the Aleutian Islands (Laughlin, 1951; Knecht and Davis, 2001, 2008; Balter, 2012), has the potential to reveal important information about the peopling and precontact cultures of Alaska, and past human-environmental relationships along the Bering Sea coast. Following several years of rescue excavations, the site and its landscapes, are the subject of a major research project and field investigation

Methods

Results

Conclusion